Smiling slyly, Rusya jumped up from the sofa and headed straight towards her: “Maybe you could repeat what you said?”
Lately, Zinaida had been very thoughtful. Everyone noticed it: fellow villagers, colleagues, passengers on the bus.
“Girl, are you going out?” the young guy with a backpack in his hands asked her for the second time.
“Yes. I mean, no. I’m taking the next one,” she answered haltingly, pressing herself against the seats to let him through to the exit.
At work she “came to her senses”, and when she returned home, she again sank into oblivion. No, she had no problems in life. On the contrary, very often Zina caught herself thinking that life was a success.
She inherited a large, spacious house in the village from her parents, where she now lived. She had a favorite job (she taught at a music school) and a good salary, which she was not at all ashamed to tell her friends about. And also…
…she had cats.
Lots of cats. All sorts of different ones: grey, red, black. Solid-coloured, striped and spotted.
In total, seven beloved fluffies.
Six beautiful girls and one very purring (though a bit cowardly) guy.
Well, or almost a guy.
When she took the cat to the vet, it turned out that he had once been a domestic cat, and his owners had taken care in time to ensure that he did not sing love songs to the cats crowding under the windows in early spring.
However, apparently it didn’t help, so they threw him out on the street… It’s a pity. Such a good cat.
“Wow!”, “Wow!”, “You’re something, Mother Teresa…” her friends and acquaintances would say to her when they found out how many cats she had.
Zinaida just smiled.
What? The house is big, and the yard is even bigger. And there was a lot of free space in her heart. She could afford such a noisy company.
Moreover, Zina was not just “collecting” them, as some neighbors thought, but saving them from certain death.
She gave them food and shelter, gave them love and affection. Zina did a good deed, although some did not understand why she needed it.
“And if you want to move, where will you put them?” the “dim-witted” asked sarcastically.
Zina only smiled at them in response. She had no plans to move anywhere, and if she ever did, she certainly wouldn’t leave her favorites alone.
She’s not that kind of person…
Zinaida brought most of the cats, including the cowardly Saveliy, from the city, where she visited almost every day, and the rest…
…I found the rest in the village when I went outside on a cool autumn day to admire the gloomy sky.
She loved autumn. And she loved reading Pushkin:
“A sad time! The charm of the eyes!
Your farewell beauty is pleasant to me…”
In general, Zina did not feel unhappy. On the contrary, she was happy with each new day.
But for complete happiness she lacked something very important. Family… A beloved and loving husband and little mischievous children who constantly tug at her kitchen apron and plaintively ask for something tasty.
She didn’t consider herself a beauty worthy of the title of “Miss Universe,” but she didn’t feel like Baba Yaga either.
The most ordinary girl, of which there are millions in this world, and one of the few who have not yet had the chance to try on a beautiful white dress, exchange gold rings with a loved one and throw a bouquet to her friends for good luck.
– Zinochka, my daughter, what are you waiting for? When will you get married and make me, a compassionate one, happy? – the director of the music school, with whom Zina often locked herself in the office during the long break, where they “chased” tea, snacking on chocolates with nut filling, told her.
“Well, I’m not going to throw myself on the neck of the first person I meet…” the girl answered thoughtfully.
– You don’t need the first person you meet. Meet one, two, three… Maybe you’ll like someone. You can’t be alone. The years will fly by – you won’t even notice…
– Where am I supposed to meet them, Tatyana Olegovna? Early in the morning to work, straight home in the evening, because the last bus. Weekends – in the garden. Unless I accidentally find them in the cabbage…
The woman smiled. And then she remembered something:
— My daughter found a good guy on a dating site, and soon she’ll be filing an application with the registry office. Why don’t you try it? Yes, there are plenty of inadequate guys there, but there are also normal ones.
It was after this that Zina began to think. Indeed, why not try. What does she have to lose? Nothing.
In the evenings, she spent long hours at the computer, turning the mouse wheel and putting likes.
On the very first day, eight men wrote to her.
True, none of them passed the “selection” because their profiles clearly stated: “Looking for a girl/woman for one night.” No, she did not consider herself “one-time”, so she immediately forgot about these men.
They wrote to her every day: young and old, polite and rude, with tattoos and without. But her soul was not drawn to any of them.
After a couple of weeks of active searching, Zinaida realized that finding a normal guy or man here was a one in a million chance. And, apparently, this chance went to Tatyana Olegovna’s daughter, if she is not lying, of course.
Zina began to appear “online” less and less often, since she saw no point in reading the same type of messages:
– Hi! You’re cool! Come hike with me!
– Hi, baby. Maybe you’ll spend the night at my place tonight? My parents just left for the dacha!
– What size are you? It’s hard to see in the photo.
No, it would be better to live with your cats. They will warm you up, and listen, and don’t ask stupid questions. They are real…
However, a miracle happened. And it happened exactly when she went to the site to delete her profile. It turns out that a certain Ruslan wrote to her the night before, and wrote very nicely:
“Hi, Zina! My name is Ruslan. I’d like to meet you. Would you mind chatting?”
It seemed like a simple message, not pretending to be original. But there was something about it…
Oh yeah! He was the only one who called her by her name and didn’t send dozens of messages without waiting for a response, like: “Hey, where have you been?”, “What are you playing for? Don’t you like me or something? Have you seen yourself in the mirror?” and all that stuff.
That’s probably why Zina decided to answer. To answer out of politeness to the person. She didn’t see anything wrong with that.
Correspondence began. And it was so easy for her to communicate with Ruslan. She waited for each of his messages…
She felt with all her heart that this was her man. “Oh, how long she waited for her prince.”
After a month of correspondence, they decided to meet. More precisely, it was Zina who insisted on it, because she was afraid that if she hesitated, Ruslan might switch to another girl. And she had already made plans for the future…
It is customary to meet for the first time on neutral territory, but she invited him to her home.
And he happily agreed.
“Now we will have a master in the house!” Zina shared her joy with her pets, and they rejoiced with her. It’s high time…
When the table was already set, the house was cleaned, and the new dress was put on, there was a knock at the door. Ruslan was standing on the threshold with a bouquet of lilacs in his hand.
“I like lilacs, and you?” he asked, smiling.
—————————————————
“M-me too,” Zinaida smiled in response, accepting the bouquet from him. “Come into the house, please.”
Just a minute ago her eyes were shining, but now they suddenly went out.
No, she wasn’t upset at all because of the lilac that the guy picked near her gate. It’s just that Ruslan looked a little different in real life than in the photo.
In the photograph she saw a slim guy of about twenty-five, and in front of her stood a man with a “beer belly” and about forty years old. Although, perhaps he just looked older than he actually was.
“If that’s what you’re asking about,” Ruslan grinned and patted himself on the belly, “then there’s a simple explanation.”
– I wonder which one?
Zina was really interested in what he would say in his defense. After all, in essence, he had deceived her.
— I registered on a dating site ten years ago, but I haven’t changed my photo since. Why? It’s not the appearance that matters, but what’s inside. It seemed to me that you liked talking to me…
— I liked it…
– Well then, let’s have lunch? – Ruslan grabbed a spoon and began to put mashed potatoes on his plate, then unceremoniously tore off a chicken leg and bit into it with his yellowed teeth.
Zinaida looked at him and didn’t know whether to be happy or to shed bitter and salty tears…
“Maybe this is always the case at the first meeting?” Zina thought, looking at Ruslan. “The man is nervous, that’s why he behaves strangely.”
“Just don’t lie to me anymore,” she asked. “It’s wrong to start a relationship with deception.”
– Okay. I won’t do it again.
They talked until the evening. More about her than about him. For some reason, Ruslan didn’t want to talk about himself. He answered questions in monosyllables and quickly changed the subject. But he himself wasn’t shy about asking about anything.
For example, does she have close relatives in the village and, in general, is she the only one registered in the house or is there someone else?
But overall, Zina liked talking to him and nothing bad happened. Except that the cats for some reason flatly refused to go into the kitchen while Ruslan was there. But even this strange behavior Zinaida found a reasonable explanation: they just weren’t used to the strange smell yet.
In the evening he left in his car, and the next day he came again and refused to leave:
“I want to live with you! Do you mind?”
Is he rushing things? Is it too early?
Probably, a month ago Zina would have been against it. But now she agreed to let him live in her house.
In the end, why drag it out? He seems like a good person, although strange in places, so why not try living together? After all, she dreamed of a full-fledged family, and fate gave her a chance. It would be stupid to refuse.
And in general, it will help them get to know each other better. From different sides, so to speak.
The first week passed, then the second, then the third…
And Zina really got to know Ruslan from a different side. And not the best one.
He spent whole days at home, lying on the couch, and didn’t lift a finger to help her with the housework.
She came home from work, cooked dinner, cleaned the house, washed clothes, and worked in the garden on weekends. And he lay there. Sometimes, of course, he went somewhere, but he quickly returned.
– Ruslan, why aren’t you working? – One day Zina plucked up her courage and asked him this question.
– Zin, well, I asked you to call me Rusya. I don’t work because the facility was frozen, so I have to sit around and do nothing. But it’s temporary. And there are also problems with registration. My ex-wife wants to deregister me, but I have nowhere to register. Maybe you could register me with you for now? We’re not strangers to each other…
They seemed not to be strangers, although they slept in different beds and in different rooms. Not even because Zina was afraid of something…
It’s just that her parents taught her that you shouldn’t give yourself completely before marriage. Only a legal husband has the right to expect something more. And she was used to listening to her parents. That’s what they are parents for.
That’s why Zina didn’t let Ruslan into her room, and to her surprise, he didn’t insist.
But he started talking about registration very often. Almost every day.
Zina almost agreed. But Tatyana Olegovna stopped her from this rash step.
“Don’t rush, my daughter! This Rusya of yours is very strange, isn’t he a swindler? Live as you live, and then we’ll see…”.
Zinaida listened. She did not rush. And at some point Ruslan began not to ask, but to demand:
– Register me here, otherwise I’ll leave.
Then he started begging her for money for gas and cigarettes. Zina gave it to him because she thought that sooner or later Ruslan would finally start working and everything would get better.
In fact, she has already justified him in her own eyes:
“The man doesn’t work, so he’s nervous. And he has problems with registration. We just need to give him time…”
She wanted to believe that he was good. After all, Ruslan had communicated with her so kindly on the Internet and on the phone.
But the cats didn’t agree with her.
At night, when a stranger snored loudly in the next room, they tried to warn their owner of the danger with their barely audible meowing and purring…
But she didn’t hear them.
And in the morning, when Zinaida left for work, Ruslan unceremoniously chased the cats out of the house, throwing everything he could get his hands on at them, and did not feed them at all, although Zina asked him to look after them.
On Saturday morning she asked Ruslan to help her in the garden, but after a telephone conversation with someone he was nervous and gloomy, and immediately changed the subject:
– Zina, is it so hard for you to register me? How long can I wait? Or do you want me to leave you? I thought we had a serious relationship, but it turns out to be some kind of kindergarten.
The more he pressed her, the further she moved away from him. It is understandable: this is not at all how Zina imagined her life with him. She wanted to find a loving man, but she found an indifferent egoist. And also a lazy person.
– Ruslan, tell me honestly, did you meet me for the sake of registration? Why don’t you help me around the house at all?
– Zin, I’m telling you one thing, you’re telling me another… No, I met you because I really liked you. And I just need a residence permit now so I don’t get fired from my job. Do you really not care?
– So you don’t work… You lie on the couch all day and watch TV. You started drinking beer… And you don’t feed my cats. You haven’t even touched the food… I only realized this today. Why, Ruslan?
– Because your cats are getting on my nerves! I don’t like animals. Who is more important to you: them or me?
Ruslan started shouting, and for the first time Zina felt scared. She had never seen him like this.
The rose-colored glasses suddenly disappeared and Zina saw the true face of the “beast” she had sheltered in her home.
“No, she definitely doesn’t want to live with such a person! She won’t start a family with him and dream about the future! No!”
– Ruslan, I don’t want… I don’t want you to live in my house! You and I are very different people and we won’t have, can’t have, any future. Please leave, – Zina finally told him what she should have said a long time ago.
Ruslan grinned.
– And you try to kick me out. Do you have enough strength? In short: either you register me, or I will not be responsible for myself… You will beg me for mercy! I am tired of you already.
The cats outside were nervous, they felt that something bad was about to happen, but they were afraid to enter the house. This Ruslan is a bad man. Bad and scary.
Saveliy was so scared of him that he sat in the grass behind the fence and only listened to what was happening in the house.
The girls were a little braver, so they circled around the porch, meowing anxiously.
– No, Ruslan! I will never register you! Get out of here and forget the way back here! – Zina started shouting, unable to cope with the emotions that had washed over her.
Ruslan’s eyes became very angry.
He looked at her in such a way that Zinaida felt goosebumps all over her body, and her soul sank into her heels.
Then his fingers cracked loudly as he clenched his fists. Such big fists, each the size of half her face.
Zina turned pale, took a step back and pressed her back against the closet. “Don’t you dare!” she said quietly in a trembling voice, hoping that Ruslan was just joking. But he wasn’t joking.
Smiling slyly, Rusya jumped up from the sofa and headed straight towards her: “Maybe you could repeat what you said?”
Zina vaguely remembered what happened next, because she covered her face with her hands and screamed in fear.
She only saw how Ruslan swung at her, how cats ran into the house and attacked him from different sides, she heard how he suddenly began to scream in an inhuman voice, how the front door slammed loudly, how the car started and how Ruslan, who was completely smashed, shouted goodbye:
– I’ll be back!
Fortunately, he did not return and Zinaida never saw him again. She did not immediately come to her senses, but her beloved cats helped her return to life. They are her protectors, saviors, real guardian angels.
“Oh, my daughter, my daughter… Forgive me for recommending these dating sites to you,” Tatyana Olegovna cried along with her.
Of course, Zina forgave her.
She wasn’t guilty of anything before her. She just wanted the best. But it turned out as always.
When Zinaida was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus, she suddenly heard someone calling her…
The girl turned around and saw a small, pitifully meowing kitten, who was lost in this big world.
The whole way she held him in her arms, stroked him, said something to him. And he slept peacefully and purred quietly, feeling that now everything would be fine for him.
One more unnecessary thing became less… And once again the invisible guardian angel, standing next to the girl, wiped away a tear. A good person, this Zina. She will be rewarded for everything…
