Fall of Matilda. Evgeny Russ
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can. But when – I do not know.”
“Don’t worry. We have money with my old man. We wait for you in this evening, come to sleep here. Wait, I’ll bring a shawl now.”
“Why should I have a shawl?” Matilda asked, but Zina went out to the room again.
Returning, she brought a thin woolen beige scarf. He was with a fringe. Then Zina tied a scarf around Matilda’s waist. “So, the blood on dress will not be visible,” she said.
Matilda once again thanked, said goodbye and left. She ran down the stairs, came out from the entrance, and, trying not to meet with neighbors, headed towards the street.
After several hours of walking around the city and looking for work, she stopped at the building with the inscription “Business Center Lingua.” The lesson of English at school was Matilda’s favorite lesson. Her teacher – Fonarina Darya Antonovna, was delighted with Matilda’s successes and always gave her extra assignments and books in English. Matilda’s pronunciation was perfect. Sometimes after the lessons, Matilda stayed at school and came to the English class room. There she could talk with Darya Antonovna in English. They discussed Matilda’s books, sometimes Matilda retold them. Matilda felt confident in English and entered the building. In the front entrance hall towards Matilda came a guard. He was wearing a black suit and tie. An antique chair with bent legs stood behind him.
“Do you want something?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m translator and come to ask about job.”
The guard examined Matilda. She wore a cheap dress and a tied scarf around her waist. The dress did not hide the wide hips and her feminine figure. Proper facial features and too white skin gave out her aristocratic origin and young age. The guard noticed cheap shoes with low heels, and a cheap school backpack behind her back. Matilda looked around for some reason and looked up. The video surveillance camera was staring at her.
“Well, wait here, I’ll find out right now,” the guard said and left. After a while he returned and invited her to go into the office. Passing Matilda into the office of chief, the guard returned to the front entrance hall. A middle-aged man was sitting at the table. “35—40,” thought Matilda. At Matilda’s entrance, he stood up and greeted her in pure English, “hello! How do you do?”
“Fine, thanks!” answered Matilda, and smiled.
Then they acquaintance, and all their conversation continued in English. The head of the company was Arthur Khananovich. Convinced that Matilda speaks English fluently and competently, Arthur Khananovich suggested that she translate into Russian the text the contract that lies on his table. Matilda read the English text with ease and translated it into Russian aloud. Arthur Khananovich liked it very much.
“Now let’s try the synchronous translation,” he said, and turned on the television set in his office. On TV screen from the rostrum spoke Vladimir Wolfowicz, well-known for many, and he scolded the Communists.
“Begin please, we need a synchronous translation,” said Arthur Khananovich to Matilda.
Five minutes later Arthur Khananovich turned off the TV. He was amazed at the ease with which Matilda synchronously translated what she heard and with accuracy passed all the expressions of the speaker’s not normative vocabulary. Matilda’s thin voice did not drown out of speech Vladimir Wolfowicz. It was easy to listen to her and listen to the speaker’s speech at the same time.
“Well. We will formalize you to work. Do you have a passport?”
“Yes, certainly,” said Matilda, took off her backpack and handed the passport to Arthur Khananovich.
“But you’re not eighteen yet!” exclaimed Arthur Khananovich.
“Yes, but it will be soon.”
“You know what… I can take you to work, but not officially. Do you agree?”
“I think yes,” Matilda answered.
“Will it suit you $ 700 a month?”
Matilda thought about it. She had counting this sum in her mind for rubles.
“Perhaps,” she answered.
“Well, that’s just for starters,” said Arthur Khananovich, looking at Matilda’s registration. She was registered in a prestigious area in the center of the city.
“It’s strange, why she dresses so simply, as if from a poor family! Probably, this is such a newfangled enthusiasm for children of wealthy parents,” Arthur Khananovich thought.
“I think, soon you will raise your salary to a thousand, and a thousand and a half is not the limit too. Everything will depend on you,” added Arthur Khananovich.
“Well, do we wait you tomorrow at work?” he asked.
“What time I need to come?”
“It is desirable by nine in the morning, but not later than ten. Usually our customers do not arrive until ten. We have a special hall for negotiations. Here meets businessmen from different countries, including our directors of factories and large enterprises with their foreign colleagues. We provide them with simultaneous interpretation during the negotiations, and also we help to draft contracts in accordance with our laws. We also have the lawyers for this in our staff.”
“It is interesting! Such work, I hope, I like it,” said Matilda, not hiding her joy.
“All right, I’ll see you at nine tomorrow.”
“I forgot to say, my parents left, they rest in Cuba now. They will not arrive soon. I stayed at home alone. In general, it so happened that I needed money. I do not want to talk about this, how it all happened. So I decided to look for a job. Prepayment now would not prevent for me.”
“Ah, of course,” Arthur Khananovich suddenly remembered, and reached with his hand into his pocket for the purse, but then decided that paying an advance from a purse would be highly indecent. “So, where’s the key?” he said.
Then Arthur Khananovich opened the drawer of the table, took the key and went to the safe. He was ready to pay Matilda two and three thousand dollars a month, but was afraid that she might not go to work. It was impossible to miss such luck as Matilda, but also to give a large sum at once Arthur Khananovich could not by virtue of his worldview. He opened the safe, took out three banknotes of one hundred dollars each and handed them to Matilda.
“I think this is enough to begin with, because you have not started working yet,” he said.
“Yes, thank you, you helped me out.”
“Now, do not forget your passport.”
“Yes thank you. Can I go?”
“Yes, of course,” said Arthur Khananovich and smiled goodbye. It was a kind smile of a man who looks at a cute baby.
Severe labor weekdays
On the same day Matilda went shopping, she chose a black business suit and a white blouse. The long narrowed skirt to the ankles with a slit and a short jacket well emphasized the figure and hid its white legs from unnecessary looks. Matilda’s stockings were also black. To go with such a skirt Matilda could only take small steps. Selected her high-heeled shoes and brooch Matilda left her bloody dress in the store. Before leaving the store, she still for a while turned around the big mirror, and tried to walk in small steps with the gait of the model. She liked it. The costume was sewed by the factory “Bolshevichka’ and Matilda still had a lot of money. She had already chosen a handbag for her dress, but then changed her mind and bought a briefcase of black leather. But most importantly, she decided to go to the hairdresser.
“Make me the same hairstyle as has Mireille Mathieu,” Matilda told the hairdresser and pointed to the photo of her favorite singer, who was hanging on the wall.
Toward evening Matilda already settled