The store "Galanteria" is small, located in an old residential house on the first floor. It seemed that the God-forgotten store had long been eaten by mega-markets and other shark trade, no! Give a good revenue. From nearby houses, the housewives were pulled here for shampoos in powder, young people for inexpensive cosmetics, women - to buy t-shirts for themselves and their children, grandmothers - to babble their grandchildren with a toy. Such a family shop.
Saleswoman Hope, a curly, short-cut girl, walked around the store with a phone, from where an eastern melody persistently sounded, calling for a conversation.
The head of Petrovna with a predatory eye touched the girl, saying, only dare to trample at work, shame!
The store was empty, but not for long. Here are the first laurels, husband and wife, tenants from the third floor. They are under eighty, but who would believe it? Strong, smooth and fun. In winter and summer, the couple go for a walk every morning. In the hands are convenient sticks, on the ski smash, behind the back of the backpack (there is drinking water in the strawberry) and forward, in the wool, which is not far away. The Scandinavian walk is called.
These sticks, by the way, are expensive. The elderly spent a couple of months saving money, even the tenants were allowed into one of the rooms, they lived not long and left. The grandfather said that no more apartment owners wanted, said, very embarrassing this case.
But now they have sticks and backpacks. Old lady, former teacher, careful, thin, in curls. The sellers love her. They force hair paint to buy and even run in the lunch break to paint Anna Pavlovna, who is very pleased when the gray curls acquire the color of a yellow dwarf. Her grandfather Anna Pavlovna shaves herself, not the face, but the baldness. To be careful and sexually... tired. It is in the eighth decade!
The vendors picked up their hats, sports costumes, cheap, comfortable. The old people from two pensions in payment of debt paid. They don’t have any extra money, what a teacher’s pension is, everyone knows. But the old man has an asshole, this is a fact. Ten years ago, the old mansion was sold, and the money was hidden – for a funeral, they say.
This morning, the husband and wife argued, coming to the shelf with home shoes. Anna Pavlovna persuaded her wife:
The grey shoes don’t matter to you, Andrew. The color of the rat, and even without the ass.
Why my ass? Am I going to walk in those shoes?
“Sorry, dear, but your pants are black, and they are not grey.
But there are no others here! My husband was upset.
What are we talking about, Andrey Ivanovich? Hope rushed to them, smiling to a lovely couple.
I would have nice shoes...
- Example these, - got from the box imported, Bordeaux colors.
– Oh! Amused by Anna Pavlovna. This is my favorite color! My husband has a tie one-on-one. I have a Bordeaux dress. Take it, Andrew
And they are, God, dear ones. Do we bet? Andrei was doubtful.
My wife looked at the price. Full of! Take the cheque out!
Nadya broke the check, took the money. And did not resist:
- Anna Pavlovna, apologize, do you buy home clothes under a tie? Is it accepted by you? The girl was sincerely confused.
What are you, baby! In our closet, Andrew's shoes were hidden, new, untouched. The neighbors left the puppy for a day. We came from a morning walk, and the scarf of the shoe grabbed. What to do now? Here we get out of the situation, we buy towels.
Instead of shoes? he cried.
Baby, it’s not barefoot to lie in the grave, right? An angry man.
In what tomb? The seller was confused.
The old men looked at each other. They smiled. In the crystal! And went away.
The shop owner, a young woman, looked after them with envy.
Hope captured her gaze. What was that, Petrovna?
It was the song.
You joke, right?
I am jealous. They are neither afraid of poverty nor of death while they are there. They live in love. There was no greater happiness, Petrovna breathed hard. Go to work, girl.
Nadusa walked to the bench, shrugged her shoulders... but what?
Two months later the old man died. He was buried by his wife and a small collective of the Galanthea store. The owner of the store, a former musician, was a responsive person: he helped with the funeral, and standing in front of the tomb of the deceased, he played a sad song on the saxophone. Everyone was crying, hugging the widow. She stood quiet, thoughtful, with dry eyes. After the cemetery came to Anna Pavlovna to remember Andrey Ivanovich. They sat. To say goodbye to her mother, she said:
Girls, here is my “added.” When I leave, take the last route. There is money for funeral needs. Take care, my dear ones.
He speaks quietly, affectionately, his eyes are still alive.
- She is not a tenant, - thoughtfully said Petrovna, leaving Anna Pavlovna's apartment, - from six months, maybe, and will last.
The co-workers were silent.
Anna Pavlovna was gone in a week. She lay down on the couch and quietly went to sleep.
In the package with the clothes intended for the last trip, there was a board dress with a silver brochure and women's boots in the color of Bordeaux.
On a heavenly date to her husband Anushka went in his favorite dress, which he gave her forty years ago. It cost a lot of money, the quality was great. She would have more shoes, but she only had enough money for shoes. The Bordeaux. My husband left the same way.
He waited for his Anushka, because she was in a hurry, in a hurry.
And the deeds! Someone with life desperately says goodbye and dies with longing, and someone is looking forward to heavenly date.
As if in his youth, jumping out of the window into the garden, runs barefoot to his beloved.
They say that you cannot live without love.
Can you love without life?
I do not know.
Until...