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Natalia woke to the insistent ringing of the phone. The clock read just before eight on an August Monday. Vitaly beside her grumbled and pulled the pillow over his head. “Hello?” Natalia’s voice was hoarse with sleep. “Natalya dear, it’s Valentina Ivanovna, your mother’s neighbor,” came the anxious voice of an elderly woman. “Sweetheart, be […]

Natalia stood in front of the bedroom mirror, assessing her appearance. The dark-blue dress with an elegant stand-up collar fit her perfectly, accentuating her waist and concealing small imperfections. It hadn’t been cheap—Natalia had spent almost half of her monthly salary as a design engineer on it—but her mother-in-law Raisa Dmitrievna’s jubilee seemed a worthy […]

Larisa wiped the sweat from her forehead and set the bucket of water aside. The August heat made working in the garden especially hard, but the tomatoes needed watering. The house she had inherited from her parents sat on the edge of town, and the plot that came with it let them grow vegetables for […]

Rain drummed against the café windows where Kira was waiting for Pavel. A year of dating is no small thing, and at last the guy had decided to introduce his girlfriend to his mother. Kira was nervous, adjusting the dark blue dress she’d bought especially for the occasion. She wanted to make a good impression. […]

“Igor, forgive me, please, if I’m interrupting,” Tatyana Yevgenyevna’s voice was quiet, almost apologetic, as if she were asking not for a favor but for some great, unthinkable indulgence. She stood in the kitchen doorway, her dry, pigment-spotted hands clasped in front of her. “The door to my room… it creaks terribly. I got up […]

“Kirill, this isn’t funny anymore. It’s not even sad. It’s just humiliating,” Inna said in an even, almost indifferent voice, looking not at her husband but at the cloudy streaks the drizzling November rain left on the glass. They were sitting at a corner table in a faceless chain café where they’d run away to […]

Yana pushed the apartment door open and immediately heard voices from the kitchen. Her husband Igor was talking with his mother—Valentina Stepanovna. The woman had arrived in the morning and settled in the kitchen, as usual. “So what’s going on with the TV?” Igor asked. “It’s gotten really old,” the mother-in-law complained. “The picture is […]

Marina sighed, staring at the computer screen. The numbers in the report blurred before her eyes—it was already eleven at night, and she was still at the office. Being the head of the marketing department at a large IT company demanded total commitment, but the pay matched the effort. At thirty-two, she earned more than […]

“Starting next month, my entire salary will go to my mom. She needs it more.” The words fell into the kitchen silence as casually as crumbs from the table. Stas didn’t even think it necessary to lift his gaze from his phone screen, which cast a cold bluish light across his serene face. He simply […]

“Here. She… looked everything over again.” Kirill’s voice was muffled, guilty, like that of a schoolboy bringing home a report card with a failing grade. He didn’t enter the room—he seeped into it, trying to make as little noise as possible, as if hoping his presence would go unnoticed. In his hand, he held a […]