One night, somebody called her by mistake. It was a late hour, and Nina was in bed preparing for sleep relaxing her body and brain by a special technique that she had picked up from some book. The idea was to talk to each of her organs in turn to thank them for the days work and bid them good night. It was her heart that she was talking to when the phone rang. Bewildered, Nina answered. A deep male baritone said, Ninochka, baby, is that you? At last! How are you, pet? Somehow, Nina was slow to realize that it was a mistake, and then it took her some time to make the man realize it. He kept saying, Hey, baby, stop kidding me. Youre mad at me, eh? Dont be mad, sweetie. I love my pet. On hanging up, Nina snorted. Baby, pet How vulgar! What kind of woman allowed a man to call her that? Nina resumed her going-to-sleep routine but it did not work as it should she lay awake for a long time afterwards although she had talked to each of her organs for three times. When it was well after midnight, she admitted to herself that she did not mind being called pet even by someone who did not possess such a velvety baritone.
Then Igor happened in her life. About ten years older than she, he was a section manager in the same company. Nina had never dealt with him work-wise and hardly knew him. The two of them hooked up all of a sudden at a celebration of the companys tenth anniversary. Nina found herself next to Igor at the table. He was attentive to her, entertained her with incessant jokes, and drank a lot. Nina also drank too much by her measure. They danced, took part in some contests and games. Then they drank again. Eventually, Igor wound up in Ninas apartment. Both of them were very drunk, hardly able to move, so sex was out of the question. Nina bedded Igor down on a cot she had put up in the kitchen and collapsed right away onto her bed without even changing into her nightie.
The next morning, she was woken up by a rattling sound coming from the kitchen somebody was using the kettle there. Ninas head was splitting. She remembered that she had a man in her home that she had brought the man herself but she had absolutely no idea as to why she had done that. Suffering from a terrible headache and suspecting herself of insanity, Nina dragged herself to the kitchen. Igor was in a wretched state, too he had drunk about three times as much as she had and was having a severe hangover. The two of them made some super-strong coffee and drank it while chewing aspirin pills.
Nina asked Igor if he wanted to make a call home to tell them not to worry about him but the man waved the suggestion aside. He was married and had a son, but for a few months already he had been separated from his family. What the hell does she want from me? Stupid skirt, Igor said meaning his wife. And theres her dear mother, too You see, theyve totally driven me to the edge with their nagging. Igor was staying in the apartment of some friend who had gone abroad. So nobodys going to miss me, he summed up with a wry grin.
Nina took a close look at him. He was rather well-built, though with a noticeable belly. Not very good-looking at his best, he looked a real fright now that he was having a bad hangover. However, Nina realized why she had brought him to her place as at the party the night before, she felt at ease and relaxed with that man as if they had known each other for a long time.
When they had finished their coffee, Nina saw him out. They did not as much as kiss goodbye, but on Saturday that same week he came to her place again and they became lovers.
Nina asked herself afterwards whether her relationship with Igor could be called love. In fact, she had nothing to compare it with her marriage to Dima did not count, and she did not believe in love as depicted in movies and novels. Every weekend, Igor came over and stayed overnight. Nina got used to his visits and anticipated them. While normally managing with ready meals from the microwave, she did real cooking for Igor. She would serve him and then watch him eat with her head rested on her knuckles. Having made some tea the way he liked it, she filled a large cup which she had bought specially for him. As he was drinking his tea, she listened to his stories. Igor was great at telling stories he remembered lots of funny episodes, and showed admirably their colleagues, the companys bosses, and the clients. Often there was more to his stories than just empty fun Nina learned from them the backstage ways of business, something that one did not read about in books or articles.
In the company, they were hiding their relationship Igor wanted it to be that way, and she did, too. As a rule, things like that get out soon, but it is usually because the woman who is having an affair with a colleague babbles it out to some friend herself. Nina did not share her personal life with anyone neither had she any friends in the company so her intimacy with Igor remained secret.
Igor was an experienced man there was no need to slip him brochures on sex. In bed, he employed a wide range of techniques, and Nina allowed him to do anything, although what she really liked was the prelude their first hugs and caresses, as they were dressed yet and he was her good friend Igor rather than an expert male. Also, she liked going to sleep by his side when, having accomplished all his feats, he became human again. Sleep well, kid, he would say, kissing her. Well, I guess, kid is better than pet, she smiled to herself, breathing in his agreeable and already so familiar smell.
Nina and her father once arranged to have a meeting after work Yevgeniy Borisovich started to take his daughter seriously as a specialist and meant to ask her advice on some bank loan matter. Having arrived at the office building where she worked, he waited for her in the street. When Nina came out to meet him, Igor happened to be around, too. Embarrassed, Nina introduced the two men to each other, and as they were shaking hands, was struck by their semblance close in height and hair color, they had the same voice quality, the same type of starting baldness and the same manner of smiling.
An educated girl, Nina had read about Freuds teaching. She shuddered at the thought: could it be that, being unconsciously attracted to her father, she had found a substitute for him in Igor? She rejected the thought with indignation but was never able to put it out of her head. One evening, after a hard working day, they were sitting at table in her kitchen, drinking tea. The TV set in the corner was on, in mute mode. It showed a beatnik-looking guy who was singing to his own guitar accompaniment. Turn the sound on, please. I want to listen, Igor asked. You know, in my younger days I did some singing in an amateur way, even wrote songs of my own. If you like, Ill bring a guitar next time and sing a couple for you. No! Nina cried out frightened by the discovery that Igor was like her father in that, too. Igor was surprised and clearly hurt.
Those freudist fears made it more difficult for her to make love to Igor. The inward clenching that had possessed her in her marriage to Dima was back again as she got in bed with Igor, she involuntarily thought of her father, and her trying to drive those thoughts away only made it worse. Apparently feeling something, Igor reduced his male program gave up his attempts to inflame her with his skill. They would sit in the kitchen chatting until late at night and then, after a brief sex, go to sleep. Nina liked it that way.
Chapter 4
A year passed. They never discussed their relationship or made any plans for the future, but gradually, Nina came to believe that Igor had always been there and always would be how could it be otherwise? Besides weekends, Igor started coming over on weekdays. He was clearly in need of a home, and she liked having him about washing and ironing his shirts, giving him massage for his beginning osteochondrosis, treating his colds. Gradually, his stuff accumulated in her apartment: toothbrush, razor, slippers, bathrobe, books. Then Igor brought a pair of trainers and a tracksuit trying to lose weight, he was running every morning and would not break his routine when he stayed overnight at her place.
Those freudist fears made it more difficult for her to make love to Igor. The inward clenching that had possessed her in her marriage to Dima was back again as she got in bed with Igor, she involuntarily thought of her father, and her trying to drive those thoughts away only made it worse. Apparently feeling something, Igor reduced his male program gave up his attempts to inflame her with his skill. They would sit in the kitchen chatting until late at night and then, after a brief sex, go to sleep. Nina liked it that way.
Chapter 4
A year passed. They never discussed their relationship or made any plans for the future, but gradually, Nina came to believe that Igor had always been there and always would be how could it be otherwise? Besides weekends, Igor started coming over on weekdays. He was clearly in need of a home, and she liked having him about washing and ironing his shirts, giving him massage for his beginning osteochondrosis, treating his colds. Gradually, his stuff accumulated in her apartment: toothbrush, razor, slippers, bathrobe, books. Then Igor brought a pair of trainers and a tracksuit trying to lose weight, he was running every morning and would not break his routine when he stayed overnight at her place.
Imagining her future life with Igor, Nina tried to listen to the woman inside her. The woman kept silent, but rather in an approving way she did not seem to mind.
It all ended on the very day of their anniversary. Preparing to celebrate, Nina made a special dinner and laid the table nicely for the occasion. She had a plan for that night she was going to make Igor a proposal. Her idea was to sell her apartment so that then they could buy jointly a new one that was larger and located closer to work a place for them to settle down together. She was sure that Igor would agree she did not imagine what objections he could have against such a sensible scheme. Nina did not insist on getting married. According to Igor, he was not seeing his wife the woman would not let him cross her threshold, not even in order to see his son, but they were not formally divorced, and Nina did not mean to rush things. She was sure that everything was going to sort out with time.
On hearing her out, Igor remained silent for a while, and then spoke in a thick voice, with his head down. Well, its just as well Its for the better, I guess. You see, Ive been meaning to talk to you, too.
Nina listened to him unable to grasp the meaning of what he was saying. It took her some time to realize that Igor with whom she had grown so close was going to leave her and was telling her so. But why? she cried out. From his confused explanations, it appeared that actually he had been seeing his wife all that time. According to Igor, it was all for the sake of his son. The boy was to go to school that year, and Igor wanted to be there for him wanted his son to have a father.
Nina kept silent. Logically, she admitted that everything was fair that she had no claim on Igor, and so she should accept his leaving with good grace but she was paralyzed. Nobody had dumped her like that before, and she had not known how hurtful it was. When Igor had collected his things and was already standing in the doorway, he said something else. Excuse me, but I dont think its so very important to you. You dont feel anything in bed, do you? I can see it, Im not an idiot. Im not saying youre frigid maybe, you just need another man, I dont know. Nina thrust the door open furiously: Go away! And he did.
That night, Nina did not have a wink of sleep, agonizing over Igors treason and her own humiliation. For some time, her logical mind tried to reason with her, arguing that Igor had not made any promises to her and thus, had not betrayed her that there was nothing especially humiliating to her in that whole story but soon her logical mind had to shut up overridden by the wounded, indignant woman. Together with billions of other women on this planet, Nina delivered the verdict that all men were swine and cursed the stupid skirt whom she had never met and who had managed to get her husband back in spite of all her flaws. To be sure, that skirt was not frigid, oh no. She was probably doing all sorts of dirty tricks in bed everything that males, those lewd apes, were so crazy about. Nina, who had never uttered a bad word in her life, cursed the woman in the meanest possible expressions.
The next day Nina phoned in sick and then even wangled a two weeks leave. She could not imagine running into Igor at work.
It was her first proper leave since she had come to work in the company. For a young employee, she was drawing a good salary while spending very little, so she had some savings. Now she decided to treat herself to a grand vacation. Since she had never been abroad before, she went to the country that was visited by all those of her compatriots who managed to earn some spare cash Turkey.
On her first day in Turkey, she got a terrible sunburn.
The trouble of making reservations and buying tickets had done her good she had got distracted from her agonies of a rejected woman and by the time she arrived at the seaside, she was open to new impressions. She stayed in a large hotel allegedly, a four-star one. One half of the guests were holiday-makers from Russia while the other half were Europeans, mostly Germans. Having dumped her bag in the hotel room, Nina ran off to the beach at once. The beach was occupied by the Russians, while the Germans disdained Nature and spent their time in a civilized way, by the swimming-pool. Nina was not impressed by the water it struck her as too salty and not as clear as that in the Black Sea. Nevertheless, she enjoyed a good swim and then stretched herself on a chaise-longue. She felt free and independent.
All around her, there was the bustle of beach life going on naked bodies, joyous screams and laughter, the tumbling of volley-ball players, and the romping of children. Nina made acquaintance with a married couple from Novokuznetsk. The husband had a business of his own a small shop manufacturing cast-iron fences for private residencies. It was the couples second visit to Turkey, and they were planning to do Italy the next year. Apparently, the fences were in demand. Seeing Nina roast in the sun, her new acquaintances offered her sunblock lotion but she waved it away laughingly. Not to worry! Its nothing, Ill be all right. The sunshine did not seem very strong, the sky being overcast with a light haze and a cool breeze blowing from the sea.
Nina went to swim another couple of times, lolled about on her chaise-longue, and when she came back to her room, she was surprised to discover that she had spent a good four hours on the beach. Then nightmare began. Her skin turned tomato-red from head to toe, blisters sprang up, and it all hurt unbearably. She recalled that cologne was supposed to help, and that she had a bottle of it in her bag. She got the bottle out and poured the contents onto herself. It did not help any, but now she was stinking of a cheap hair-dressers. Sensitive to smells, Nina was suffering doubly.
She thought of another folk remedy urine. It took her some time to pluck up her courage, but finally she dragged herself to the bathroom. The folk remedy did not help much but now the stench of cologne was mixing with that of piss. That was too much for her. Nina jumped into the shower and washed it all away. Then, without wiping, she wrapped up in a bed-sheet and lowered herself onto the bed with a groan.
She was shivering with fever. Late at night she managed to doze off for a while, but then she woke up again. It was dark outside. Nina heard some noise coming from the bar on the same floor as the last customers were dispersing for their rooms. Everyone was going to sleep while she was in for a sleepless night. Idiot, she scolded herself. Serves you right. Such idiots wind up in hell where the devil casts them into fire. Ah-a-a Damn, how it hurts. She recalled a summer when she had been taken to the Black Sea by her parents. A little girl, unaccustomed to the southern sun, she had got a little sunburned at first. What was it that her mother had used to treat her? Her memory gave her a prompt it was sour cream, the Russian smetana. The idea of cool, dense smetana which she could spread all over herself, was beautiful. But where was she to find smetana in the middle of the night, in a Turkish hotel? Desperate and hopeless, Nina went out of her room to search of it.