Life can be completely unpredictable and throws up plots – sit down and write, at least a story, at least a novel. The uninvented story of our heroine is about the fact that behind the next twist of fate there may be something that she has long ceased to look for.
Anya’s first husband was a real handsome man. And a pathological liar. Both drove her crazy. But at 20, “they always fall in love with the wrong people,” my mother thought sadly. It was already at the wedding.
Mom, who raised Anya alone, was lost in the background of the noisy crowd. These were relatives and friends of the groom. Vodka, champagne, shouting, showdowns – my mother quietly stood aside. The bride did not see her tears. She was embarrassed, straightening the frills of a magnificent dress. She also vomited constantly. It was the first trimester of pregnancy.
In the seventh month, Anya discovered that all the money given to them for the wedding had disappeared from the house. The husband shrugged his shoulders, muttered something about debts, patted his wife on the tummy and left for the “festival”. He returned, as always, in the morning, drunk, and collapsed to sleep.
Anya looked at his beautiful face and thought – when the baby is born, and everything will work out. Then the beloved will become not only a husband, but also a father. And understand what they need.
***
He did not come to pick up his wife and daughter from the hospital. At home, Anya missed some jewelry. He didn’t have any clothes either. He seemed to be looking at her with a mockery from the wedding photo on the shelf. And also this charming smile of his … Anya tore up the photograph and soon put another in the same place – on it herself, her daughter and mother.
Marinka grew up, Anya worked and solved all the same problems as all her parents. Kindergarten, school, fives, first threes, first absenteeism. Educational conversations. Sometimes men appeared in her life, but somehow quickly disappeared. “You’re a RSP,” as one of the short-lived gentlemen said, that is, “a divorcee with a trailer,” as the helpful Internet suggested. This person was clearly not interested in such, except for one night. But “for one night” did not interest Anya.
***
“He is eight years younger than me,” Anya told her mother about a new colleague. “That can’t be serious!” But the guy stubbornly accompanied Anya every evening to the house. Met from the airport when she flew on business trips. Everyone at home is somehow used to the fact that Sasha is nearby. He began to come on weekends to walk with Anya and Marinka on the hill. And in the evening, the two of them went out to sit somewhere, “to crackle”.
He accompanied her home. A small kitten was sitting in the entrance of the Khrushchev. Completely black, with a white tassel on a skinny tail. Sasha and Anya looked at each other, and the man took the baby in his arms. That one is quiet. Then they washed it from fleas, dried it, soothed it, fed it and made a nest for the cat.
And then Anino’s heart finally thawed. That evening Sasha stayed with Anya. And Monstro – that’s how the kitten was christened – found a home.
***
“Young and hot,” Anya’s mother thought with a smile at their wedding. “God bless, God bless!” And life went on as normal. They quarreled and reconciled, learned to adapt to each other – and were engaged in raising their daughter.
The first deuces, the first love, the first cigarette… Sashok had “male conversations” with Marinka’s boyfriends and taught Marinka to defend himself. Anya, tired of endless exams, was waiting for her daughter to finish school and go to university.
“Let’s live then for each other,” she said to her Sasha. And fell asleep on his shoulder.
In that year, when Marinka finally “entered” the university through joint efforts, Anya turned 40, and Sasha – 32. He became mature, rounded. Outwardly, they seemed to be equal in age. In November, Anin’s anniversary was modestly, at home. The next morning she complained to her husband about being unwell. Even two glasses of wine gives her a hangover. “Age,” she joked. But she was wrong.
And in July, the happy Sasha took his Anya and her second daughter from the hospital.
***
In the cradle, a little girl was snoring softly. Monstro guarded her sleep, squinting his green eye. Now everything was right.