“Here, please, my documents.”
“Very well. Your immediate chief of the workshop, Alexander Dmitrievich Torobov,” the personnel officer dialed the phone number, but it was busy, replaced the receiver, took another minute and invited his colleague to his office. “Now he’s busy with college graduates, wait. Torobov will talk about the main points of work and conduct safety briefings.”
A handsome man of about thirty-six appeared on the threshold.
“Meet – Lyudmila Nikolaevna Uvarova – a replacement master. Please love and respect.”
“Very nice. Now I will tell you about the need to observe safety procedures and specifically in your work.”
Lucy followed him into the shop. He instructed, and then added:
“You’ll work in the sixth shop. First you’ll have to learn. Six months later, you’ll understand everything yourself. Our workshop is very clean. We are fighting for the cleanliness of the workplace. By your specialty – electronics – there will be a wide field of activity. If you get down to business thoroughly, you can achieve success. We have all the conditions for trouble-free work in the shop.”
Lucy listened attentively to the instructions of the commander. He immediately liked her, spoke calmly and clearly, it was hard not to get confidence in him. “It will be easy to work under the guidance of this person,” she thought.
By lunchtime the conversation with Torobov was ended. Uvarova was a little tired. It was necessary once again to go to the head of the personnel department for a pass, but at lunch time all the rooms were empty. Lucy did not want to go home and also decided to have dinner at the nearest cafe. When she walked from the checkpoint with the employees, she felt herself a full member of the production team.
It was an August day. Hot. The weather was dry and sunny. At her heart it was easy and peaceful. Singing a fashionable tune, somewhere accidentally heard, Lucy drew attention to the age of the staff. There were mostly young people.
Lucy ran across the street and walked two blocks in the hope of seeing a cafe. She paid attention to the peasant’s house “Hut” in the Russian style and went inside.
A spacious room with walls painted with bright colors, wooden tables and chairs, where on the windows hung embroidered curtains with cockerels, carved saltcellars in the form of barrels. All the staff was in national clothes. The people were few.
Lucy ordered Russian borscht, cutlets and compote. After substantial lunch, she turned on the music in the phone, inserted a small button-transmitter in her ears, and a melody sounded that resonated with the mood. She turned off the melody and pressed Alexey’s number. He hurriedly responded to hear his beloved voice:
“What if I study a foreign language and then try to enter graduate school,” she sang in a thin voice, waiting for an answer.
“You will begin professional growth; eventually become the chief of the shop, and possibly the chief of production. Dare…”
“If my mother were alive, she certainly approved my plans. You know, I did not meet a more caring and sympathetic person, my dear.”
Lucy sat for a while in the cafe and, it seems, completely relaxed and forgot that she should go to the factory. Then she got up and went to the door.
She received the pass the same day, and from the next day she was to attend the workshop. She wanted to call Alex, but decided to ring Olga:
“How are you? Do you work with Alexey?” asked an eternally busy friend.
“That’s when everything will go back to normal at work, and then I’ll call him,” Lucy categorically answered, “if he himself does not think of calling me.”
“I’m beginning to get used to the fact that your relationship has become cool, as before,” Olga lazily sympathized. “Come in, we’ll chat…”
Suddenly Alexey called, but his voice was sad and tired.
“Tanya started a private investigation and hopes to find the killer of my aunt, oddly enough, next week for a thousand bucks,” he explained.
“That’s great!” Lucy approved and wanted to ask what was on his soul, knowing that Alex would be pleased. “I hope the mood has improved?”
“A wood grouse is a winter bird… See you, for now,” he turned off the iPhone.
The next day Lucy went to work. The first thing Torobov conducted in the shop and showed where the workplace was – a table with a computer in the room with a view from the window to the factory yard.
“The room is clean and bright. There are flowers on the windowsills, a shelf with books at the wall,” Lucy praised the chief. “Very cozy!”
“Do not think that you’ll be sitting here. Now you go everywhere with me first, until you know all the work, and then I trust you to lead the shop on your own. You’ll only turn to me for some insoluble questions,” Torobov said smiling.
She liked this state of affairs. “There will be time for professional growth,” she thought.
The working week passed unnoticed. At the end she called Izmailov:
“The feeling comes, we are an integral part of the debugged mechanism of the plant,” she said. “The industry is progressive and important. The main difficulty: to find contact with people. I kiss and look forward to meeting with you.”
“Encourage trust and understanding, and then respect for your work,” he shared his experience. “Tomorrow I’ll see you, my love!”
“Our collective of the workshop is all youth,” she admired with emotion.
“The most fascinating thing for me is communication with people,” she told Alexey when she met him. “I understood that the formation of the working man was taking place here.”
“Not a single dynasty has brought up and raised a factory within its walls.” Alex took Lucy by the arm and casually hugged her around the waist. “Previously, they came here after a vocational school with professional skills. I love your scent.”
“I understand, let’s have coffee,” she said and felt a hot breath on her shoulder as they sat down at a coffee table.
“The foundation of the working profession is laid, and, most importantly, the consciousness is being brought up that the work is needed not only for everyone individually, but for the whole country as a whole,” he added.
“Me without sugar,” she protested
When Lucy walked through the territory of the company, she repeatedly drew attention to the Board of Honor – photos of people who had devoted more than one year to work at the plant – assemblers of grinders, programmers and computer engineers, crane and electronics operators, doctors, painters and builders, electricians and technologists.
“The working dynasties in the factory were treated in a special way. They are the backbone of the team, they were set as an example, and they were equal to the foremost producers,” Alexey answered when he put two cups of coffee and a pie with dried apricots on a table.
“It is interesting to work at the plant. I’m used to rhythm. You helped me, suggested. Appealed for advice to the chief of the shop, he invariably said: “Get used to, learn, and everything will go back to normal. You will understand how to work. Not all at once is obtained by newcomers,” Lucy has shared painfully, understanding that to study it is necessary to work, to be the person.
“Did not you think about going to postgraduate studies?” Alexey asked simply.
“No, but I am doing my English on my own. I read fiction. By the way, gradually I was loved in the team. I’m sociable and I’m not afraid to help beginners,” her eyes were shining, looking at a friend. “Remember, at first time I worked exclusively during the day, but after two months they instructed the workshop and the second shift…”
“The second shift is more difficult and at the same time easier. More responsibility, since you are for the boss,” said Alexey, reaching out to his girlfriend, kissing her cheek, looking with reverence, and she herself wanted to be better, worthy of respect. “Do not forget to work on yourself, take from the library books on electronics, electrical engineering and physics. The plant continues to grow. A new building is being built, a hostel for singles and from rural areas.”
“I remember earlier they said: “We will fulfill the five-year plan for 4 years,” she answered with enthusiasm and passion. “We are beautiful even at night!”
The sixth assembly workshop, where Lucy worked, was in the yard of the plant and occupied the entire first floor of one of the buildings. Large windows illuminated the room, but despite this, each place has its own electric, energy-saving light bulb so that the worker can turn on the light.
In the evening, in addition, the upper lighting was switched on – “daylight”. The workshop – long and spacious – resembled an operating room, but many times larger. Everywhere cleanliness, the walls are lined with white tiles, the ceiling, the lathes are also white, rather not even the lathes, but, as was customary called, the workplace. The windows here and there are flowers. But it was impossible to set many plants, so as not to block daylight.
There were special relaxation rooms where employees could come and discuss their problems, read the press, relax, and distract themselves. The shop buzzed electric motors, smelled of acetone and rubber. Workers, whose work was associated with harmful colorants, received milk in half a liter a day. When Lucy first got into her shop, she thought that she was in the hall of the palace. Wardrobes for clothes stood separately. At the end of the shift, they were required to wash themselves in the showers. For those wishing someone did a manicure. Before starting work, employees wore white robes and scarves or caps.
“There are twelve brigades in the workshop. Everyone is fighting for the title of the best. Two already wear the honorary title of the foremost percussionist,” Lucy said, stroking the guy’s hand. “I learned all this long ago, after a week of work. Let’s get back together, darling.”
“Who will be against? Have agreed!” Alexey smiled generously.
They met during the break to discuss the progress of the investigation into the murder of his aunt and current affairs, since they worked in one shift.
“The private police officer reported that all suspicions fall on people living in the area where the murder occurred. But the main suspect could be a person who knows her well and who had motives for committing this atrocity. This could be anyone who needed money or gold jewelry. Most importantly, the aunt had a set of emeralds in a ring and earrings of antique value, a chain with a diamond slash of a half carat, which she inherited from her sister. These ornaments in the amount of half a million rubles disappeared from the apartment, and the search for them on the body of the victim gave no results. They examined the scene of the incident, found the scattered things from the bag: a broken case for glasses with fingerprints of the victim, a pack of cigarettes, a notebook with notes and phone numbers of employees, a pen, a pencil for eyebrows and a lipstick of a well-known manufacturer, bought at the Ile de Beaute branch. In the database, fingerprints are of a formal nature. Belonged to any mortal, except for the murderer,” Alexey told, and the detective-Tanya was sent with him sms for more details.
“How is the investigation progressing,” Lucy asked in the foyer when he went out to smoke. “Or should I not ask about this?”
“There are many problems with the evidences, there is not a single witness, and even blood stains are barely perceptible on the victim. Detective Tanya is studying forensic expertise. Her character is too energetic and lively, she all leads with her emotional nature,” Alexis’s face expressed the most tragic mask among all the representatives of the human race. “She wants to make a search herself.”
“Were there any other relatives besides aunt Kate?”
“My parents died when I went to school, I cried for them. I was sent to a boarding school in the sixth grade. And my aunt Kate had come and visited me. She brought gifts: sweets, cookies to children. She had a daughter, Natasha, but she disappeared when she worked on the same post. I already told investigators…” Alexey plunged into a dejected silence.
“I remember such a thing. Natasha disappeared about three years ago. They said they went abroad to be treated. Somewhere in Germany or Switzerland,” Lucy confessed sadly. “Come on, quit smoking, they’ll be looking for us. Come to me today after work, we’ll sit and read the poetry of my old friend Izmailov Alexey.”
“You’re joking, I do not write poetry, but I’ll try to get back what I took to read last time. I liked it very much. Tell your friend, well done! Let her write further.”
“You will return with agreement that you will find for me a private publisher to print this book of poems in a separate volume. Next we will develop the ideal murder of your cousin in the logic of poem-sized iambic or horei, we do not care. But Ivanova will calculate thoroughly every step of the criminal and force him to begin the investigation against himself.”
“I am sure that she will be right, as she hinted at the former roommate – Skripal, when she was looking for Natasha’s remains in his yard. And she found a soil soaked in blood, of the same group as that of my aunt Kate. Probably someone buried the corpse of Natasha. The investigation resumed. It is believed that the owner of the house himself was hacked and buried in the hope of obtaining a hidden amount of money, and then disappears. But his plans failed because of the smallest detail: the headmistress’s child climbed under the table to look for his toy and found a bag of money,” Alexey ascertained and in return took Lucy’s hand and stroked it.
“It can not be,” Lucy continued to sort out her notes in the phone, stunned. “And is here your aunt Kate?”
“They were very interesting women and similar in psychology. However, Tanya-detective said that it is too early to draw any conclusions. You know, there are also interesting circles, own club, where you can watch a movie in your spare time. At the club there was a children’s dance group ‘Kalinka’ for the children of the workers of the enterprise,” he was distracted from the topic. “I was fascinated by the idea of leisure.”
“No less than studying at the university?” Lucy asked impetuously.
“The plant works around the clock in the same rhythm. In the assembly shop, there is night duty for the brigades. The number of products produced by the plant at night is not less than the number of products produced in the day. For work at night they receive an additional surcharge to the salary.”
“Engineering workers on night shift do not work. Our work is connected with research, sometimes creative work and requires special tension. According to the doctors, the creative brain should work during the day,” Lucy was offended.
“The medical commission will help you get a ticket to a sanatorium or a dispensary. Soon it will be the annual medical examination. Vouchers to holiday houses and camp sites are given through the trade-union. Local committee helps large families and lonely ones. To everyone who was on treatment,” Alexey distributed compliments to the right and to the left. “Are you not accidentally pregnant?”
“No, calm down. We’ll meet at the checkpoint at the end of the day. I’m running away.”
They went to workplaces, he – to his computer, she rose a floor above, sat down at the table and opened a laptop, brought from the warehouse.
The plant – the most common, like many hundreds of other plants, became for Lucy Uvarova a second home. She realized that to find out all the work should be worked out not one year and, perhaps, not one decade. She, as a young specialist, was impatient to be at the forefront. But she did not know much and, as a young specialist, and did not understand.