Читать книгу Ruby Chef. Prose in English - Natalia Patratskaya - Страница 3

On the screen next to the presenter a television diva was spinning with a quads haircut that many have already done. Without thinking twice, Rimma went to the salon – a hairdresser to make her haircut. The girl, looking at her hair, offered to make a square on the leg. She diligently began cutting hair, but something lingered on the occipital region for about fifteen minutes, giving the side strands no more than a minute. The result haircut exceeded all expectations. Remember the hanging mustaches, so in their role were the side strands of hair, and between them the grotto was cut instead of the mouth.

One way or the other.

Regardless of age, Rimma always went to workouts, so this time she went to a regular workout at a sports club, but after a workout for some reason, she swayed with exhaustion. She saw a birch tree and clasped a white silky tree trunk.

However, the birch itself clasped the girl with its branches and pressed it into the trunk. Rimma was in the trunk of a tree. She slowly sat down on something resembling a seat, which under her weight began to move. The seat, along with Rimma, slowly began to sink under the ground, while increasing the diameter of the room. Rima felt the braking, the seat stopped. It was surrounded by a cylindrical marble hall.

At some point in time, marble slabs parted in front of her eyes, she saw glass behind which there was a tunnel. There were horses in the tunnel. The glass slowly moved to the side along with the image of horses. She was really in the tunnel, where a mini – train was waiting for her. She got into an empty car, the train picked up speed and rushed into the unknown.

Rimma did not have time to come up with options for their destination. The train stopped without her intervention. She got out of the car, in which there were no more than ten seats. There was no driver in the small cabin, but the train drove on, as if it did not notice the absence of a passenger. Rimma was on a small underground station with no signs of life.

Desolation reigned around, which was many decades old. She shrank from fear and despair, seeing no way out. Rusty metal is not pleased, from the ceiling oozing water and went deep into the earth. There were puddles under her feet, like in the market where she was this morning. She looked up again and saw a towel, but not one, there were many of them, they were connected one to one.

Rima climbed up the nodes from the towels. The last obstacle she overcame through the metal stairs and found herself in the marble hall of the bath. The well from which she came out closed.

– You can not be beautiful like that! – A male voice sounded under the vaults of the bath and added: – And so poor.

– Who are you? Rimma whispered, emitting light from her huge eyes.

– The owner of the market, where you buy things and give. I bought the things you donated. By the way, they are no longer sold in my market, “said an arrogantly certain owner in the voice of Sidor Sidorovich.

– Well, I will not buy things in the market entrusted to you! – Rimma said, quite familiar with the situation.

– Today bought a jacket and to whom? Do you need her? Not! Thank you said? Not! What are you giving away? – thundered a male voice under the marble vaults.

– I always do that. I buy things and give to those who need them. “My classmate has a lot of children, I gave her a jacket,” Rimma said without feeling guilty.

– Do not look a gift horse in the mouth – is this your favorite saying? – asked a male voice.

“I saw the tails of two horses today,” Rimma remarked, looking around the room where she could not find any talking and watching objects.

– Do not look, Rimma, you will not find me. Horse tails are exactly what you deserve.

Rimma heard a click, as if she had turned off the talking device. She sat on a marble bench, which was several hundred years old, judging by its smooth forms, but soon got up in search of ordinary doors. She recalled the cylindrical chamber into which she had fallen from birch, and decided that the walls in the room should move.

She sat down again on the marble bench and carefully examined the walls, but found nothing on them. She felt sad in a room without windows and doors, but she remembered that she was being watched, without this she would not have heard the voice of the master of the trap. Such a state for her was more than painful.

In order to distract herself, she began to do the exercises one by one, not thinking about where she was and what happened to her. After she was completely tired, she felt a stream of fresh air. One wall slowly moved away. Rimma quickly left the marble room and found herself in a wooden house, in which stood a wooden table and two shops.

On the table was a jug of water. Lay a pack of chocolate. She drank almost all the water, after eating a few squares of chocolate, looked around her, not hoping to find a door among the identical boards that surrounded it on all sides. The girl put the jug on the seat, put the remains of delicacy next to her and lay down on the long table, folding her palms under her cheek. Rimma fell asleep.

The observer, glancing at the monitor, went about his business. This lady amazed him with her every action and appearance. He did not want to harm her, but he was unfamiliar with good, soon he returned and pressed the button that opened the door.

Rima woke up from the sound of the opening door and quickly ran into the next room, which turned out to be a long corridor. She walked along the corridor and involuntarily entered through the open doors, which immediately closed behind her. The lady was on the site, which spun under her and stopped when she lost the landmark from which she entered. Rimma looked around the room with a single door, she pushed the door, behind her was a bathroom.

“Though so,” – she thought, not thinking about leaving this room. A hatch opened at the top of the room, peonies spilled out of it. Luke closed. A small window in the wall opened, a table with food came out of it. The window has closed. Blinds appeared in the wall, followed by an open window. Rimma went to the window, but it was a mirage, but the table with food turned out to be real.

Rita had no choice but to remember this day. It came to my mind as the seller eagerly tore off the label from the jacket sold, distracting customers from delivery. Buyers really went about their business, stepping over puddles. Rima knew her financial capabilities and was glad that she could buy and donate.

Then she went and bought more things, and also as a gift. Just yesterday, she tried to find some things at home and sadly realized that this was impossible, she bought a lot of them this year, but donated everything. And she had those that gave her. Riddle. Then she went and bought an anti-appetite pill, but they fought off every desire, except for the desire to eat and eat.

Rima picked up a portable phone and realized that she did not want to call anyone. She plunged into a state with the complete absence of all desires, and came to the silent horror of her amorphousness. By an effort of will, she lifted herself up, turned on the laptop, but it hung. She looked out the window, the curtains carried the wind aside, at such moments in her television the sound was changing by someone’s will and the laptop was cut down. As if someone had torn off the label from her.

At home, she decided to take a reading of the water meter, but the hot water meter bathed in water drops and did not show the numbers. I had to use the phone to build bridges with people competent in this matter, who told her that they had to take a hairdryer and dry it. She looked at her hair and decided not to dry it any longer with a hair dryer, since it is intended for drying hot water meters.

Rimma looked at the laptop, he independently digested the new updates. Everything worked without her intervention. She spun around the mirror, looking for flaws in her figure, tortured by food restrictions and hard workouts, and did not find any surplus. The figure was normal. She could fly to other planets instead of visiting the market. Outside the window I heard the clatter of the hoofs of horses, she looked out of the window, but she was left to contemplate one tails, the horses themselves disappeared into the foliage.

“Enough,” thought Rima and quickly put on short pants, a t-shirt, and a light jacket. She jumped out of the house, trying to throw off the amorphous state. She understood perfectly well that she did not want to talk to anyone.

The wind caressed her coolness. The birds sang in three voices. The crow’s voice against the nightingale sounded somewhat creaky. Birds – titmouse brought something melodic. Rimma went outside, walked a hundred meters and saw a strange pair consisting of a woodpecker and a squirrel. They stood on the ground and seemed to be talking. At the sight of the lady, the squirrel jumped on a spruce, and the woodpecker immediately took off closer to her.

Rimma walked another five meters and stumbled upon fallen birch trees with still green leaves. She wanted to run, in this place of the road she always became anxious, and she, picking up speed, ran, knowing full well that in about a hundred meters she would go on a step. Further the road passed next to the houses. She went to the gym.

At first, she worked with one trainer, who forced her to bend and unbend at infinitely slow speed, freezing in strange poses for a minute. Then she went to the pool, where the other coach made the run with a ski step, swimming in the water with a light rod in his hand. After such interesting trainings, she went home without noticing the birds singing, and unwittingly stopped at a birch that she had never seen in this place…

A hair dryer at this time was sitting alone at home and watching TV. A film about pirates who once lived on asteroids, that is, on ships, flashed on the screen. He presented himself as a boatswain on a wooden leg. Why not?! This lovely Rima – Venus did not invite him to visit, but she really wanted to get it. But how? To portray squeaky boatswain? Why not?

Sidor Fen decided to become a lame boatswain, he put on shoes of different heights. One shoe pounded. The second shoe creaked. On the face he put on the mask of an elderly man. He was ready to make his visit to Rimma – Venus. Mini – camera secured on the lapel of his jacket.

Rimma drove up to her porch. The youthful man looked at Rimma with a heavy, wild look. He turned his bold gaze on the closed door of the house as she dialed the code for entering the staircase. He kept his eyes on her hands. She felt this terrible look, therefore she was mistaken. She dropped the code and dialed again, covering the lock code number of her porch.

The man followed Rimma into the light hall, he did not go to the elevator. Strongly lame, he began to climb the stairs. Rimma looked after the lame with inner fear. It seemed to her that in his leg there was something else besides the leg itself. But what? Or it seemed…

The elevator stopped, opening the doors. She reached the required floor without any problems. Lame on her floor was not, and he could not physically overcome so many floors before her. Fear in the soul of Rimma appeared from his terrible look. She opened her front door, hurriedly slid the bolt, and calmed down a bit.

Soon the neighbor of Rimma rang the door on the marsh house, Olga. They agreed to meet in order to discuss their personal problems and just to take the soul out of the conversation.

Olga flew with round eyes:

– Rimma, there is no light in your elevator! There is no light in the hall!

– Olga, I recently arrived, the light was everywhere.

– And now! Imagine the entrance, when there is no light in it! I do not like these your towers to hell. Scary in the towers! Twenty floors put pressure on the psyche, each floor is like a trap! It is better to live in a swamp, less floors.

– We are living.

– Rimma, you go with the key to the door between the elevator and the platform at your apartment. And I come out of the elevator and I see two doors locked to the lock, and four elevator doors. Imagine: the light is off. It’s a trap! Unique trap.

– You’re right, Olga. The staircase is between the first and second floor, above it is blocked on each floor. Today I saw a lame man, he was walking upstairs to the second floor. He could not get up to our floor, in the side entrance all the doors to the platforms with apartments are closed.

– Therefore, I do not like these towers.

– You know, we have not done repairs on the site for 18 years, we have lived here for so many years.

– The very beauty of the wall in the entrance on your floor.

– What else, the landing is huge, there are four large apartments. In two apartments, no one lives. There are two of us in our apartment, and one person lives in the same place.

“And the five-story houses are being demolished, at least they kept fire safety requirements and there was a staircase!” And you turn off the light in the towers – and everyone is stuck in their apartments forever.

– Yes, the tower is huge and half empty. And in your house in the swamp people are not at all, some ghouls, she said.

– That’s for sure. People love safety, not huge areas.

– Do not tell me there are different towers.

“We’re talking about your tower, Rimma.”

There was a strange sound behind the door. The girls looked at each other. The light went out in the apartment. The entrance door opened. They pulled themselves into huge armchairs in which they sat. There was an uneven creaking shoe.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

Girlfriends froze. The light flashed. Before them stood a youthful man with a piercing gaze of black eyes.

“Girls, you have one wish for two.” I have only one desire. We have one wish for the three, “said the man in an icy voice, as if he were a robot.

– What do you want from us? – Rima said in a trembling voice.

– you.

– What are you, cannibal? – Olga asked in a hoarse voice.

“Your solitaire doesn’t work. I want you together and on this rookery, – and he pointed to the sofa, which was from one set of upholstered furniture with giant armchairs. So the sofa was huge.

– Without wine, to dry? – Rimma asked.

– You can with liquor.

“I have no liquor,” Rimma replied.

– What are you asking? Get undressed! – Suddenly a man shouted loudly.

– We are not lesbians! – Olga objected.

“And I’m not a Yankee,” he said with her intonation in her voice.

“If the Yankees were there, they would not have been a gift to the girls,” Olga replied. – I would find women on a dachshund from a hundred and above.

– And I need you above the knees. Talkers in the ranks! – the man flared up, his eyes turned evil.

The girls to the wandering striptease were not ready. They began to pull off their clothes.

– Stop it! The man growled, shaking his long hair.

– What to stop? – Chorused girlfriends.

– Stop taking off your clothes!

“My arm is broken in my wrist,” Rimma sighed.

– Great, I need you! My leg is broken. Your arm is broken. We will be a great couple.

– I can leave? – Olga squeaked in a strange voice.

– And you will break if you leave! Said the lame instructively. – Both quickly sat down! I said both!

“I can’t sit down,” Olga said. – I have narrow pants. I got stout.

– Take off your pants, squat without them.

Olga pulled off her pants. There was a triangle with ribbon in the girl. She crouched down.

“Ugh, naked girl,” said the man reproachfully. – You’re all out! Okay, crouch. Squat, I told you! – screamed lame, sitting down in a chair.

– What is this, warm up? – asked Rimma.

– I did not say anything about love.

– And who wanted us on the couch? – Olga asked wearily, squatting for the twentieth time. – Better on the couch…

– Lie down on the sofa. Both lie on the sofa!

The girls lay down next to the sofa: one in shorts, the second in shorts.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

The man left the room. The girls got up. Olga began to pull on her pants.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

– Why don’t you press the press? The lame man asked.

– There was no order, Mr. Colonel! – Olga said smartly.

– I’m not a colonel. I am a retired boatswain.

– What, and no one to order? – Olga asked pitifully.

– Be silent!

– What a voice…

– Speakers in the ranks…

– Why are we needed? – asked Rimma. – Let me lay the table, feed you.

– Cover! – shouted lame.

Rimma quickly went to the kitchen.

Olga could not fasten the pants, they were too narrow.

“What an awkward girl you are,” the man said warmly.

– Insult, Mr. boatswain.

– Believe it, no…

– I believe, Mr. Admiral!

– Where have enough! And it sounds beautiful, they have not called me that yet.

– And how many girls do you have per month?

– None.

– More in detail! You invade the apartment to the girl, do not rob her, do not rape her. Why is it for you? – Olga was surprised.

– I see which girls are different. Here are two of you, and how different you are!

– I’m better.

– You’re miserable.

– And why is that?

– The second girl went to cook, and you danced for five minutes, trying to fasten all the pants.

– You didn’t like me?

“I don’t need you.”

– Excuse me, but what about your foot?

– So, a stray bullet.

– Why is the foot not bending? Isn’t she there? Do you have a denture?

– What is stuck? I will not say.

– Show me, I’m a doctor. An orthopedist, by the way.

– It would have said so. So you didn’t want to treat me? Can’t you remember me?

– I do not remember you, I have a lot of patients.

“I tracked you for a long time.” When I saw you, I decided that you could help me with my leg.

“They would have come to the hospital or to my house, or they would have dragged themselves to a friend.”

– You’re like a doctor. I saw you before, I wanted to take a fright.

– You succeeded. Not ashamed?

– Do not be ashamed of me, look at your leg.

Lame looked at Olga and began to unbutton his pants. Olga tensed, she saw a lot of legs on the beach, but this man caused her mixed feelings. Pants fell to the floor. One leg was normal, hairy. The second leg ended in a mechanical prosthesis. Olga fainted.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

He hobbled lame in the kitchen.

Rimma looked at a man without pants and fell along with a plate, in her eyes swam.

They woke up the girls. We looked at each other. Men were not around. The creaking was not heard. They got up and tiptoed around the apartment. Is empty. The door to the apartment is closed. In the kitchen everything was clean, the dishes were washed, the pots were empty. Rimma decided to check the wallet in the bag. The wallet was empty. Rimma went to the safe in the closet. The fashionable safe gaped with the emptiness of its opened mouth.

“Here is a knock – a creak,” Rimma said in the hearts.

– Gaining. Alive and good. Rimma, I will not go from one of your doorsteps, walk to the road.

– Persuaded, I spend.

The girlfriends went outside, they inhaled the cool evening air.

Olga raised her hand.

The third car drove up, stopped. A man was looking at them, his piercing black eyes piercing the eyes of the girls.

– Both sit down! The lame man shouted loudly.

The girls sat in the back seat of the car. Between the driver and the girlfriends, the glass slowly crawled upward. The girls shook hands, beginning to vibrate nervously from elementary fear. On the side windows dark windows slowly rose, not transmitting light.

Girlfriends were in a moving car in total darkness. The rear window was tightly closed with a dark cloth. Easy friends felt that they have nothing to inhale. Suddenly, a roof opened above them. Big stars looked into the car. The car stopped abruptly. A heavy face appeared in the roof hatch.

– How do you feel, girlfriends? He asked, sarcastically lame.

“Well, Mr. Admiral,” Olga replied.

– We came to the red fortress.

The doors of the car opened. The girls were in the woods in front of a red brick wall. The door slid aside.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

Next to them was walking lame. There was a large round table in the courtyard. Ten women sat around the table.

– Women, your regiment has arrived! There are two more girls. Now you are twelve people. Live together. Invite us to the table.

The man sat on a chair like a throne decorated with a trident, in front of him twelve women sat in a circle. Thirteen plates were on the table. Two women served food on the table. Revitalization at the table was not observed. I felt the general lady’s fear.

– Stand up! Sit down! Get up! Sit down! The man shouted imperiously and began to eat.

The girls carried out his command, took the spoons in their hands. There were no sharp forks and knives on the table. All dishes were made of pure aluminum.

Rimma involuntarily looked at the red brick buildings. She was both sad and curious.

– In my department there are thirteen rooms, one by one. The dining room is on the street, the kitchen is in front of you. Products purchased for thirteen days, thirteen days the doors of the fortress will not open. You will not be fired at your job, you are all on vacation for two weeks. You are twelve – I’m alone. Walls under current. Break up!

On the table in front of each girl lay a memo, on which stood the room number, the daily routine was written, but the duties of the girls were not written. The girls came from the table. Two girls began to collect dirty dishes. One of them was Rimma. She did not understand that this is all a reality, and not a joke. Rimma made the only wise decision: to be closer to the kitchen, to cook, to clean, to wash dishes, to be silent and to listen.

“Begin ear to all, voice only to few,” she remembered the words of Shakespeare.

On the first morning, one place was left empty.

Rimma was cooking for thirteen people. The aluminum device remained empty, one girl did not come for lunch and dinner. What was this girl, Rimma did not have time to remember. Now she tried to remember everyone.

The second day was rainy. The man did not come out. Two seats at the table were free. Ten girls ate in the rain. Someone sneezed, their clothes were the one in which they were brought here.

Olga whispered Rimma to a riot in a whisper, she called to see those rooms from which no one had left. Rimma decided to survive and did not agree to revolt. In her free time, she swept the yard. Olga found a friend, and they vigorously discussed the situation.

The third day was blinding by sunshine. Warmly enveloped girls from head to toe. They thought where they would wash.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

Rimme came up lame, looked into her eyes and left.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

So five days passed.

On the sixth day, Olga did not appear at the table. Rimma’s heart sank. Asking a man was pointless. The table was quiet. He did not even command. The food was getting smaller, the food was disappearing before our eyes. Rimma decided to cook more economically, taking into account the girls leaving every day.

On the eighth evening, steps were heard in her room.

Creak. Knock. Creak. Knock.

Rimma fell silent. There was nowhere to hide, next to the room was a combined bathroom, but without windows and a bath. There was a bed in the room and nothing else. He went lame, he quietly went to Rimma. The creaking was no longer audible. Rimma lay and looked at the man…

His heavy gaze was unexpectedly kinder.

– Rimma… Do you want to live? Are you not afraid of my leg?

– I did not see her, I saw one, not the second.

– You do not ask where seven women?

– Are they alive?

– They are at home.

“Are the others in awe or know they’ll let them go?”

– No, the rest do not know anything.

– I have a choice?

“You can go home or you can stay with me.”

– The girls went home?

– Do you want to pass them dear?

– I do not know, they did not pass across the street.

– And you will not leave this yard anymore, a broom will not help you anymore, you held on to it.

– Yes you are right. What should I do?

– Two options: love me or go home.

– What did they choose? Did they sleep with you?

– Not. All went home. I did not feel them. Through them, the current did not go, the current goes through the wires, and they were not in love with me even on pain of death. I feel you.

– And where is Olga?

– Doctor, or what? I thought I could do it, but I didn’t want her. She left.

– Olga gone from life or home?

– For me, this is the same thing.

“They will bring the police here!”

– No, no one will.

Suddenly the room plunged into total darkness. The hand of Rimma was reached by a light, quivering touch. She involuntarily pulled herself up to that hand. Flashed light. Nearby lay a gray mouse. Rimma looked around the room, she did not find a single door. Four flat walls. She shouted, but the sound drowned in the soft fabric of the walls. The bed jerked sharply. Rimma fell into another darkness. She abruptly jumped to her feet, felt in one leg a strong pain and palm at the elbow.

– Rimma…

– Is it still you?! – Gritting her teeth in pain, Rimma said, looking into the eerie eyes of a man.

– I’m unfit.

– What do you allow yourself?! Why are you kidding girls? Did you have women?

– I do not know what to do with them, so I collected a harem, looked at everyone and let him go.

They stood in the basement with red brick walls. Dim light burned in one corner. The man sat on a black leather sofa. Rimma, limping, followed him.

– All the girls tried to do something with me. I did not understand what they wanted from me. I let everyone out at that door, – and he pointed to the door in front of the sofa.

– Are you a normal person?

– I’m trying to remember why a man needs a woman, and I can not.

“Where did you get this red fortress?”

– This is my dacha.

– I can leave?

– The door is open.

Fen killed twelve birds with one stone, it was his method, so he re-educated twelve girls. Taming obstinate girls was his fad. He already felt that Rima – Venus – the strongest of the girls in the moral and ethical terms.