Читать книгу Ruby Chef. Prose in English - Natalia Patratskaya - Страница 2

The summer was excellent – warm and sunny until mid-September. Autumn came gradually to a golden border on the trees. The islands of red foliage on maples appeared ingratiatingly and beautifully. Birch leaves were slowly spinning in the air. It was nice and while it was neat on the street. The rain had passed with thunder, but there was no thunderstorm. It’s cold. But the sun appeared and could not believe that it is not particularly warm.

Rimma longingly thought that she had to put on warm clothes to go outside. In the spring, extra clothes have to be removed, and in the fall you need to add something warm to the wardrobe every day. Do not want. Sunday. You can just look at the fall from the balcony and not go out. It turns out a kind of self-deception to extend the summer. In the evening there could be dances in the white tent, but last week they were not there, so she strongly doubted that they would be.

Now they dance some pair dances, which happen on weekdays, but she does not participate in pair dances. Something in her broke, and she did not want to tie her nerves for the sake of a random dance partner. But in her life there was a partner who strongly penetrated her essence, but she never danced with him. Strange? There was no reason. Not dancing man Shchepkin was friendly with a friend of Rimma named Olga. Whether there was anything more than friendship between Shchepkin and Olga, Rimma could only guess.

Rimma once called Olga to her, and she answered:

– Why should I go to you? I have grapes at home!

Rimma remembered this answer for the rest of her life. And now she was buying and eating grapes for three weeks, and even now the grapes were lying in the fridge. Autumn. Schepkin did not like to dance, he loved speed, cars. He loved to show off in front of women, possessing inexplicable charm. He always wore ruby cufflinks on his shirts, a ring with a ruby, and sometimes he inserted a tie into a clip with a ruby. The lilac hue of the stones clearly adorned it and gave it a certain masculine charm. If he was an actor, he would be loved by millions of women, and so only tens.

Rimma decided to invite Schepkin to her, and he answered:

– I’ll come for tea.

But the tea did not work out, right after his answer, her mother arrived without a call. Rima was not going to introduce mom to Shchepkin. And a coincidence is necessary, mother brought with her exactly grapes, as if someone had suggested to her. Although, my mother lived in the same area with Olga. It turns out that Olga heard the conversation of Rimma and Schepkina? So Olga was with him? Stupidity. Not before the investigation, Schepkin already went to Rimma. She left her mother at home, and she ran out into the street to meet Schepkin. And in time. He had already arrived at the curb at the entrance. She got a car to him.

– Rimma, and where are the gulls?

– It does not work seagulls, my mother arrived.

– Get to know mom!

– Not! She will take you seriously, then tortures you with questions.

– I’m a serious man!

– And smart, and beautiful, and charming! Not! Everybody likes you, even Olga!

– Are you jealous? Olga is my friend. We work with her, I work out the schemes, and she does the drawings on the boards.

– Friend or circle? There are so many vias on its boards! I saw your new book on new product development.

– Shut up. I buy a new apartment. Do you want to look at her?

– Go.

– And you can not guess in which area I buy an apartment?

– I guess in the new. There the houses are beautiful on the outside, but inside they are black.

– No, inside the apartment are white: the walls are white and the floor is white and there are no plumbing.

They drove through the old town, then turned onto a new bridge, and drove towards the new building. New houses near were brighter and more beautiful than from afar. The ground in front of the entrances was completely put in order. Green field for the game, colored playgrounds for kids.

Rimma and Schepkin entered the porch, approached the metal doors of the elevators. We took the elevator to the desired floor. In Shchepkin’s apartment, two workers fussed, they replaced windows. One tried so hard that the glass broke. The apartment was really white, and the house was built on new technologies from insulators and beautiful panels.

She got acquainted with these heaters at work, she had to make street blocks for large equipment.

Schepkin showed the apartment to Rimma, and then said:

– Note, I showed you the first apartment, but do not roll your lips! The apartment is only mine. It’s not worth talking about her at work, and do not say anything to Olga.

Rima after these words went out to the balcony and looked at the construction site on the other side of the house. At this time, the diligent worker broke another glass bag. Plastic windows began to do like a lock in the door: the larva and the sash. Rimma’s mood dropped. Gulls turned into bride.

Mom called and asked:

– Rimma, where are you?

– In the new building.

– Wait. I saw from the balcony with whom you left. I’ll pick you up. Get out in ten minutes.

Rimma involuntarily submitted to her mother and waved to Shchepkina, who was sorting out relations with the workers about the broken double-glazed windows.

Mother took Rimma through the store, she bought some groceries, drove Rimma to her house and went to her house, saying a few words:

– Rimma, I understand that you are passionate about Mr. Shchepkin. Olga told me that you are not indifferent to him. Not for you, he. Not for you!

Rimma got out of the mother’s car, and slowly went home to her, eating grapes with stones.

While Rimma was going home, she met a neighbor. Rimma had no children yet, but her classmate and part-time neighbor, Christina, at the age of 26, will soon give birth to a fourth. Who about what. Rimma attended college, studied at the institute and worked all the time. A classmate was older than her for a year and all the while giving birth. She gave birth to the first girl before the age of 18, then she had a real man and she would soon have a third child, and only her fourth. A man lived in their three-room apartment. 10. Christina’s family – 5 people plus another child who will be born soon. Yes, even the family of her mother, who gave birth to six children. Some of the children grew up and lived separately, the mother’s youngest son was the same age as his daughter’s son. In short, ten people lived in a three-room apartment.

Rimma lived alone. Her mother lived alone. Olga’s friend lived alone, she would have no children, she helps her brother’s children. And Rimma was so guarded by her mother that the case did not reach the men.

Rimma liked Shchepkin, but he was somehow elusive. And he lived alone, but he had a hobby: he loved apartments in different areas. You will not come to visit him, you never know where he is. In theory, he gets a little, but he knows how to make money besides work, he knows how to be friends with big people.

Exhale It is necessary to exhale. Rimme was the only one left. She realized that Schepkina must be forgotten. Let Olga stay with him.

Olga, as if she heard Rimma’s thoughts, called:

– Rimma, did you like Shchepkin’s new apartment?

– Normal.

– You feel sad? This is normal. Did you decide to leave it to me?

– I did not take it. How do you know about the apartment? He told me not to tell you about her.

– Naive, I know everything. He is my man, and you look at the truth of our relationship through the blinders.

“Sorry, I didn’t notice you with him.”

“You don’t see anyone but yourself.” You work and work, – said Olga and disconnected the phone.

Rimma thought that at work it was too late to look for a man. Everyone is busy. She remembered fellow students at the institute and college. But they have already got families. Where was she? Now, if mom didn’t come around with grapes today, maybe something would have happened. Yes, even on holidays all men are lonely, but lately the holidays at work have mostly been abolished.

Where does Rimma’s apartment come from? She is a late child. Mother was with the apartment, she married a man with a room. From the room they made an apartment and rented out. When her father died, Rimma moved into this apartment, and her mother bought herself a new car. It’s simple, for love and by calculation. Calculation with Mr. Shchepkin in love did not go.

Indian summer. Beautiful and sad.

I called Shchepkin:

– Rimma, I suggest to go on a picnic tomorrow. Your mother won’t be there.

– Tomorrow is a workday.

– In time for lunch.

– And Olga? Will she go?

– Olga has only nephews on her mind. Let them grow. I want my children from you.

– I have a few apartments, I’m not a couple. Will children appear at the picnic? Is there a lot of load on lunch?

– It won’t reach diapers. Dress like cabbage. The weather will be from the Indian summer series.

At lunch Shchepkin was waiting for Rimma, the motor was on. She sat in the front seat, and they immediately drove away from the city. Turning off the road, they stopped in a meadow among the golden foliage against the background of still green leaves. The sun was shining, the clouds avoided the glade. Shchepkin took out a folding table and two chairs from the trunk. There was food in the box. Schepkin behaved correctly, they ate and talked. Rima was pleasantly surprised by a date among the autumn nature and weather, and without witnesses. A little piece of happiness.

Rimma looked out the window: bright golden curls of maple branches reigned in the courtyard. Indescribable beauty stretched above the ground, reaching the sixth floor. In some places in the yellow bouquets of maples rose majestic birch trees with green leaves. Rowan somewhere somewhere leaned against the maple with red berries.

These are bouquets! It remains to tie a ribbon with a bouquet of trees and pack it in gift paper. But where is that huge hand that can lift a luxurious bouquet of autumn? Where is that sinewy hand that could bring a few leaves of maple to its beloved, a small yellow – copper bouquet? Rimma would love to go to this beloved.

But where to get it? She looked at the flat screen of the TV, where the player in bright clothes was hiding from the bull, bouncing in the air after the rope. So she wanted to photograph the center of the bouquet of autumn, but did not want to go down. Below is a beautiful autumn, and above it is a magnificent one. She began to photograph the autumn from the window, then printed out the photos on a color printer, and the yellow paint quickly ended – she printed out the autumn pictures.

I had to go to the electronics store. Buying ink for the printer, Rimma saw the name of the seller on the chest – Alex. It is clear that he did not drive calves to other planets. And a mischievous thought occurred to her. For some time now she worked in the firm “Mystical Circumstances” in a laboratory of heightened secrecy, where they were engaged in the production of serial fairy tales acting on the psychological mood of the population. Naturally, a golden elm leaf shone on the company’s emblem.

Everything is more than simple: by order from a television company, the staff created aliens, flying objects and petty devilry. For example, if a thunderstorm was expected in a certain region, then an additional lightning thrower was sent there.

The inconspicuous aircraft had the ability to scatter the semblance of lightning in a certain direction. A well-known person with a solid reputation was chosen and intimidated by lightning so that it was expensive to take it to TV reporters, and then show it to the people and sentence that random surveys were obtained from the scene by eyewitnesses.

It was good to intimidate the pilots of small airfields. It was possible to do without a thunderstorm. A flying object, covered by a special hoop emitting streams of multi-colored light, in which there was always a golden hue, continually appeared over the airfield. The pilots were scared, and it remained only to remove the results of the company’s creativity.

The most favorite entertainment companies – aliens. They were created as modern pictures for the World Wide Web. Aliens were sent to the kebab glades by the end of the feast. A flesh-colored helmet was worn on a person; in the area of the eyes, triangular eyes were inserted into the mask. People for jokes were chosen elegant, with them worked out a specific gait, put on their hands something like a membrane. In aggregate, such an alien struck the creators themselves.

Rimma always shuddered at the sight of another alien – alien. There are people whose elbows are bent in the other direction, she saw such people herself, and in the guise of an alien, the twisted elbows are surprising. Where to find unique aliens born on Earth? Best at competition.

Therefore, the television company announced a contest for people with alien features in the body. We selected a group of the right people, signed a contract with them and prepared them for the role of aliens.

In such cases, the interstellar spacecraft did not interfere. If we take Buran and add to it additional geometry from the supporting structures, then it would be quite possible to surprise the faint-hearted people, and at the same time deliver the aliens to the right place, say, to the conference of clever doctors of science.

The television company of interstellar subjects never suffered from a lack of audience, so Rimma had a great job.

Working as a sales manager for electronic equipment, Alex, a young man of glorious appearance, confronted an alien from head to head. The light in the hall at this moment decreased slightly, and a creature of average height appeared in front of him. It looked huge triangular eyes, restricting his will. It seemed that in the hall there was no one but two of them. The creature took the laptop and handed it to the next same geezer, which was highlighted in the space of the trading hall.

Soon a whole chain was lined up of aliens, along which laptops disappeared from the sales area. Alex was numb. He did not even press the alarm button. All the spectacle on the trading floor was filmed on a security camera. The footage went on television in the evening. Alex has become the most popular sucker of the day. It was about aliens – intruders. He would know who owned the development of the appearance of aliens! All would be angry at that brought down! The management of the television company had a contract for the purchase of laptops for this group of people, and the show paid for the costs.

Alex was painfully embarrassed for the alien robbery of his department, for the laptops handed down in front of his eyes, and he decided to go far away, where there are no aliens. And he went to the east through the iron ring of the country. In the compartment next to him sat a pumped man, tormented by knowledge of the Tunguska meteorite. He was all worried about the question: why did the trees lie around the perimeter of the magic circle, and in the center they turned green.

“Very interesting,” said Alex, and added: “It was a flying saucer, with rotating screws around the perimeter, and an observatory in the center.”

– Great, young man, I myself had such an idea. If we go further and assume that an interstellar ship was landed on the airbag located around the perimeter of the ship?

– Almost the same thing.

– Do not tell me, young man! Flying saucer is too small, but an interstellar aircraft would be more appropriate.

– And what do we get from this? – asked without interest Alex.

– Like what? Yes, it’s aliens flew to us! Another civilization.

– These aliens in my department were robbed, and I am ashamed to go where my eyes are not looking.

– Similarly, I remembered your face! You are the sucker whom geeks with triangular eyes have robbed! – exclaimed joyfully companion.

“Why should I cut through the country’s iron ring to the east, if they already know this story there?”

– Listen, since you are a sucker, go with me to the site of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite or to the landing site of an interstellar ship, which has melted down and turned into a material incomprehensible to earthmen. That is, the interstellar spacecraft self-destructed.

– If the ship is melted, what will we look for there?

– Mail! The most real mail of an alien civilization.

– A letter in a paper envelope?

– Humor is appropriate. You and I need to become psychics, tune in and go look in the direction where our sixth sense will point us.

– To walk on windbreaks, on snags, among mosquitoes?

– Listen, mosquitoes have not seen your fiasco in the store. Could you agree with that?

“Sure,” Alex answered seriously.

Rimma entered the compartment while the train was moving.

– Good afternoon, lovers of exotic! My name is Rimma. I arrived by helicopter, which landed me on the roof of your car, and through a special hatch I descended into the car.

“My name is Alex,” the young man smiled incredulously.

“Ah, I know you,” said Rimma with a smile.

He said nothing.

The fellow traveler introduced himself:

– Sidor Sidorovich Fen! Everyone knows me because of addiction…

– No need to continue, I read your version of the Tunguska meteorite in a magazine.

– And where are your wings now, Rimma, on which you flew to us? – seriously asked Alex.

“They lie in a suitcase,” she answered seriously.

– Rimma, we want to offer you a tour in search of the mail or black box of the Tungus interstellar ship.

“So you say it was a ship, not a meteorite?” – asked Rimma very interested.

– Rock Paper Scissors. We need the black box of the interstellar spacecraft, “said Sidor Sidorovich without emotion and thought that Rimma was a young and very nice girl.

– And in the box waiting for us information? – interested asked Rimma. – Oh, and the space pilots ejected from the ship?

– Baby, you’re a miracle! – exclaimed Sidor Sidorovich, pulling out of his pocket amber rosary. – Can you fly?

– Yes, I attach the wings and fly.

– Our person! Where are you going?

– I have a holiday. I’m going there – I do not know where, look at that – I do not know what.

– Great answer. Wait, did you win the next worldwide psychics contest?

– I.

– Rimma, look at the pictures of the place of the fall of unknown.

– This is the place of the fall of the Tunguska…

– Do not hurry! Think, baby! Think! Are those creatures alive in this ship alive?

“There were seven crew members,” Rimma said seriously. – Two were caked in the ship upon landing, five ejected from a height of twenty kilometers. They are carried by the wind. We need to know where the wind blew that day.

“They were carried twenty kilometers away from the place of the fall,” repeated Alex.

“The word coconut flashed through my head,” Rimma said.

“Well, they landed in a ball that opens up in two halves,” Alex finished.

Rima once again looked at the snapshot of the fall of the alien body.

“They have multiplied,” Rimma said. – Similarly, there are now at least a hundred of them on Earth. They have some unknown functions to people.

– Hooray! – Alex cried. “I found where the aliens came from in my department!”

Rimma was puzzled by completely different problems: a message came about the transformation of alien aliens. Among those who figured this out was Alex! Sidor Sidorovich did not cause doubts, this specialist was always close to the most unreal truth. He was believed by representatives of the company “Mystical circumstances”, he was followed and made unhurried conclusions. So she was next to them.

Meanwhile, the travelers left the train, took a helicopter, and flew away from the fall of the space object. Twenty kilometers from the crater with the whirlwinds of lying trees, they descended into a tiny clearing thanks to a cool helicopter pilot. They had to find a capsule: if the aliens are not circus performers and did not sit in it in three deaths, then the shell should be of decent size. Even if they had increased flexibility, the size of the capsule could have been very small inside, but large outside to protect aliens during the passage of atmospheric layers.

The travelers were lucky; they met a hunter and asked him about a big shell. Surprisingly, the hunter did not laugh, but said that he knows the bear’s den, which is used by many generations of bears and to which people are not allowed. The den has a coconut shell form inside. A group of four came close to the unique den and heard the awesome roar of bears. The bears drove the travelers from the museum exhibit so that they forgot to think about the Tungus area.

Rimma knew that the great masses of the population would not get such messages, people would not notice them, and they would do it right, and no one set such tasks. But to invent mystical circumstances is her direct official duties.

There are three spheres of life: water, earth, space. Cosmos made itself felt through Sidor Sidorovich, but she knew that it was necessary to work on the opposite, which means that human views should be lowered to the bottom! So what?

Similarly, a certain businessman decided to play Captain Nemo! He bought himself not a yacht, but a submarine. The submarine of a businessman was different from a military submarine, like a palace from a barrack. You can surprise a businessman in the underwater world, but he is greedy and can not let the surface out. And this is not a thought.

Think! Take a couple of Tungus aliens, put them in a light submarine or deep-seated trigger vehicle, veil it under a space floating object, make the image of alien inhabitants go pulses on a businessman’s submarine. His receivers will catch these intrusive images. The shock is secured, and from the secured client the corporation will receive its share of payments. But Rimma did not start wide-scale implementation in the life of her regular nonsense.

The newly minted friends went in the direction of the village of Sidor, where he had his own mansion, in which he allocated guest rooms for Alex and Rimma. Sidor Sidorovich himself went to rest, and the young people drove around the village in a golden car, which he gave them.

“The distant future, like the distant past, has five differences, naturally when compared with the present,” Rimma said, considering the yoke lying next to a person or the likeness of a person.

“And what will you say about this human-like creature?” – Alex asked with tension in his voice.

They bent over a man lying as if he was repeating the line of the rocker. Nearby were two empty buckets. Alex, dressed in a silver jumpsuit, tried to swing the man lying: apparently, he was still alive, but completely insane. Rimma was in a golden jumpsuit

– Rimma, the man drank two buckets of water, and therefore so difficult to lift?

“Alex, he drank heavy water,” the girl replied mockingly, “most likely, the man was hit with a rocker on the head.

“It’s a detective in you that woke up.” But you and I are a completely different matter. “We shouldn’t be bothered by empty buckets,” Alex said quickly, trying to lead Rimma away from the rocker arm. – Understand, the man is alive. He will wake up, and we need nothing to be recognized.

Rimma involuntarily obeyed Alex and quickly got into the car. The golden-colored car tore off, leaving behind a cloud of dust.

The man lying next to the yoke looked after the dusty cloud:

– Oh, woke up! Sleep was not allowed.

And he again curled up next to the yoke.

A woman in a chintz dress with flowers approached the beam. She picked up two buckets and a rocker, not paying attention to the man lying on the grass, slowly went to the well. She calmly pulled a bucket to her, fixed on a crane, and recoiled with horror from him: in the bucket there was a poisonous yellow liquid. She tried to pour the yellow mixture onto the ground, but the mixture curled into a ball, like a man at the rocker, and hung at the bottom of the bucket. The woman decided to remove the bucket from the crane, but she did not succeed. The public bucket was well secured by the barbarians. Then she returned to the lying man and began to wake him:

– Get up!

– Unhook it! I am sleeping!

The woman sighed sadly and went home. And at home she did not have water even in the sink, which should be pressed from below, and the notorious wooden green comfort was hidden among the bushes of green gooseberries.

At this time, the golden car slowed down next to the mansion, painted in sunny color and covered with a copper roof. The house stood in the village like a dandelion on the lawn. Rimma first left the car. While on the move, taking off her yellow jumpsuit and smiling with a firm smile, she entered the bathroom, touched the faucet, and water poured into her hands. She turned the faucet again, and water filled in from the different ends of the bluish bath, filling the container. She closed the door closer behind her.

While Rimma was in the bathroom, Alex in the hall turned on a screen the size of a wall and saw a report from Saturn’s satellite. This satellite was called Earth by the inhabitants of the Earth – 2. All life of earthlings seemed to be reflected on a new planet. In the transmission from the Earth – 2 showed convenience in new homes, but instead of transparent water, a yellow compound consisting of incomprehensible substances flowed from a tap.

Alex shuddered, remembering that today they were trying to wash themselves with this rare substance that he had brought from Earth – 2, but only they had smeared the local well. He felt ashamed that he had left a yellowish-copper tangle of mucus in the bucket of a well, even though it cost a lot of money.

People with buckets began to approach the well. It was the only well with a crane and a tub in a small village; the inhabitants lost the habit of taking water from the river. The men tried to remove the bucket attached by a chain to the crane, but they did not succeed, and they did not want to lower the yellow slimy clot into the well. Suddenly, men dressed in country-style clothes began to be pushed away from the tub by a strong young man in silver overalls. He deftly grabbed the yellow clot with his hands in strange gloves, and soon disappeared into the car.

Rimma came out of the bathroom and saw Alex entering the house, carrying a yellow lump of cosmic mucus in her hands.

– Rimma, you and I forgot a sample of the detergent from the Earth – 2, I returned it…

Soon they returned home, away from alien problems.