When his sister got down to business, he sat down on the only dry chair to rest a little and recover. Taking the phone, he began to call the master:

      _ Hello.. When will you be? Can you come now? Yeah… okay..

      The foreman asked for 60 thousand for his work and promised to come tomorrow, because today he had a job for one client and he could not quit it.

      Ariston, who was standing in the kitchen (already the second in a row, the first burned down because it was dripping on him from the ceiling, last year) was shut down. The light too… the lamps were off… But the current in the bathroom was beating so that it jumped right up to the ceiling, as if stung. The bathroom of the ball is right behind the wall, near the kitchen. So I don’t want to fill it underneath it right away. Shock even from the switched off taps and the battery. Impossible to wash your hands. nor just stand at all. so as not to be stung by this cybernetic snake from science fiction films. Remember how there a robotic snake, twisting itself out, stings ordinary mortals and sucks their blood? Here it is, the same thing. Now it is clear where these films come from! Not otherwise as a screenwriter, too, flooded under I do not want, and even on brand new wallpapers and ceilings!

      In such a state, coming from the bathhouse, steamed and contented, the unsuspecting mother of the family found her cozy, lovingly made nest. Plus, all this plus the fact that a piece of a collapsed ceiling fell right on her head. Barely managing to wriggle out of the unexpected blow, she stepped on something and almost flew across the apartment at her butt.

      Angry, despicable, leaving everything, she ran to the fifth floor, but the neighbor was not at home. There was only her already frightened teenage son. Gritting her teeth like a beaten dog, she went downstairs with a firm decision that tomorrow she would remember everything and make her pay for the renovation of the apartment.

      The next day, Marat met with the master. The master demanded money in advance. Such a large sum of sixty thousand was not lying on the road, no matter how father and son wanted it. In the bank, such amounts at once, right now, are unlikely to give, because Marat did not have work, and besides, he was limping on one leg. Local traders give at interest, but the percentage is high, and even then not to everyone, their own, verified. Somehow collecting money, begging from friends, taking something at a frantic interest and withdrawing from the account that was saved for the wedding, he somehow, with grief across the floor, scraped up these long-suffering sixty thousand and took it to the master, glad that tomorrow everything will be as before and a master of gold will correct everything.

      Tomorrow he didn’t want to step on, turning from side to side, he had already changed his mind about everything, counted all the fat sheep jumping over the wolf, reviewed all the films for that hour, but still could not sleep. Barely waiting for morning, he dressed and went out into the yard to meet the master. He was waiting for him like children are waiting for Santa Claus! Smiling, anticipating a miracle.

      But…

      The master with the face of a know-it-all walked throughout the apartment, looked into all corners and affirmingly stated that he would certainly come on Thursday, left without doing anything. Nothing at all. Just when he was leaving he threw Marat’s mother that their kitchen did not smell at all of tangerines, but of dampness.

      – I wonder what should smell like if there is such a flood in the house? – a thought slipped through Marat’s head, as he felt a cold, scalding wind on his back. It was my mother who opened all the windows and doors, fearing to disobey the great master. A joyful, free, victorious wind with a roar rushed to blow all the secret corners of the apartment, covering everything with snow. It became cold, like outside, like in a refrigerator. During the whole day and the following days, neither the doors nor the windows of this apartment were closed. Marat felt. that his mother is a big polar bear from Antarctica. He had suspected it before, but now there was no doubt. Precisely, my mother is Polar Bear! He even posted a photo of a polar bear on his website with love, only to sign that it was his mother who did not. They will not understand yet…

      It was three whole days until Thursday! How long, long days and endless nights! The whole family hasn’t washed since Monday, the dishes were piled up in the corridor, almost near the toilet, because in the apartments of the Soviet era, the rooms are tiny, and the corridors are even smaller and there is nowhere to turn around, but it is convenient: woke up – and you were already in the toilet, turned – in the bathroom, another step and in the kitchen, you don’t have to go anywhere, everything is close by!

      All these days they ate exclusively on horns, because they had neither the mood to cook something, nor the time, nor the place where to cook they had.

      Those who still worked tried to stay up late in order to come and go to bed right away and not behold the peeling walls, torn, soaked wallpaper, the ceiling that fell to the floor, not to see these basins with water pouring on them, but immediately go into the world of dreams, where everything is still clean and bright as before.

      “Probably, the New Year will never come…” – a thought lurked deep in my heart and did not climb out in any way, how do you not persuade her to do this, no matter what arguments in favor of “everything will be fine and like people” do not feed. Nobody slept. The nights were too long. And mom too. She spent the whole night scrolling in her head with the idea that she would finally find the culprit of the flood at home and how she would put everything in her eyes and demand payment for repairs. I had to wait all day, because as soon as at night, she was able to still