The Birthday

“Are you happy? In this particular moment, are you doing what you would like to do most in the world?”
by Richard Bach)

This story happened to my old friend Alice. He is a television producer of the middle hand and for two decades has not come out of long and boring journeys, filled with wet socks, ice hotel batteries and the gastricity of high-end restaurants.
The case was in February 2008 (Alik remembers this clearly, because while he was on that trip, his wife in Moscow gave him a younger daughter).
City of Intercity.
Some kind of encapsulated ointment plant for the production of copot, ointment and metal scissors of different lengths and diameters.

In general, in such factories, I personally have a vague suspicion that workers do not come there for wages, but simply - their life is so incredibly boring and long, that until a few deaths, they need at least something to do.

In search of the ignitioner looked into the cottage, where a young cottage cottage skillfully shouted the sovkova spade.
Alic smoked a ball from the closed door and shouted to the cockerel, who turned out to be Valera (due to the satanic war they had to scream, not talk):
You have a hard job, I’m watching. I’t have enough for a day!
And nothing! Three years later, I got used to it. is normal!
and Valeria! What is it that holds you by that ball? I am just interested! Why don’t you leave here, you’re young? Worse, it will not be anywhere.
It holds nothing! The salary holds! I am a child, I have no parents. I would have gathered today and gone somewhere, but I was not even taken to the army for health! After a childhood home, they have been here since then!
A big salary!? to
On the contrary! Absolutely small! A thousand eight hundred a month. How will you leave like that? I tried to save - it doesn't work out, food is barely enough! Well, even the factory clothes!
and Valeria! I did not hear! What a salary!? to
A thousand eight hundred rubles in M-E-S-Jac!! to
I don’t understand it, but write it with your finger.
And Valera brought on the wall – “1800 r. in mes.”
Aliq re-read the inscription on the aspis saddle several times and after a long reflection for some reason cried out:
You have a girl!? to
No, from where? There are no girls! Why do I need her if I can’t even get a bottle of beer? Now, you know, such girls have gone, they are not interested in stars from the sky, they only spin where they spend money!

Here, Alica finally found the operator and they left the fiery hell together.
Three days later, Alick looked into the cottage again, although the shooting at that plant had long since ended.
Hi Valer!
Oh hello to you!
I have a small birthday present for you!
My birthday is not yet in September.
It is not important! Today I have a girl born in Moscow, and in honor of this – to you a gift. Here are six thousand rubles with pennies. Don’t waste it, but leave if you can.
Are you serious? Why is this for me? thank you! I never held such money! Give me a pen and paper, I’ll write down your phone number and if I can, I’ll give it.
Why the paper? Get on the phone right away!
I do not have a phone!

...Before leaving Inter-Rechensk, Alick again looked into the cottage to say goodbye, but some strange man said that Valera disappeared, for a week to work does not go, call, say, to the community, maybe they know?

And then Alick sadly realized that Valer's cowboy simply went into drunkenness from the unexpected wealth that fell on him. Well, and fuck him, let it be, but a man will remember at least something in his old age, he will never get his salary so fast...

...A year and a half passed, and one day Ali’s phone account suddenly increased by as much as 7,000 rubles, and then a call came:
and hello! Good night! This is Valera from Interrechensk. Do you remember when we met in the cottage?
Good morning, my lost soul! Are you alive?
I am fine, thank you. The next day I got on the train and left. Now I live in Kiev, I married, I work, soon I will become a daddy, I want to call you for a long time, but I did not decide until the debt returned...

P.S

Since then, Valera, like a stick, regularly calls Alice twice a year: on the thirty-first of December and on the seventh of February - on the birthday of her daughter.