Pearly woman. Prose in English. Natalia Patratskaya
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at the gate. Ivanovna opened the door. Before her stood Alla, barely alive, in a torn bridesmaid dress.
– They are so joking! Everything was a joke! – Alla shouted with tears.
– Get some sleep. There one already cries, – grumbled Ivanovna.
Alla went into the room. Pasha habitually jumped up from her bed. Alla lay down on the bed and turned away from the wall. She shuddered with sobs with her whole being. Pasha went out and called Yura:
– Yura, come here again problems. Both girls cry.
– I’m already on my way. It was necessary to immediately go with you, but they called me and said that Alla was taken away to register a marriage with Count Pavlin, so I did not go with you.
Pasha returned to the room:
“You girls cannot be left alone.” We can pay for you for a week in a boarding house, you will live next to us, under our supervision.
– Is it possible? – Alla turned her tear-stained face to him.
– For money, everything is possible. It’s all dachshund.
Yura entered the room.
– Girls, in our building, next to our number, a double room was freed. There is a proposal to change your habitat. In the pension all the amenities, it is fed, there is a beach with a bed.
– If no joke, then we agree to move to a boarding house, and here all the amenities in the courtyard, – said Alla, raising tear-stained eyes.
– Alla, you do not understand men! They speak seriously, but they will surely demand payment, “Bella put in her thought, habitually touching the pearls around her neck, as if seeking their protection from forthcoming troubles.
– Bella and I only have money for living in this house, even for the common beach and for tickets to the house. And a little food. That’s all, – Alla said, and she looked at that doomed.
“We don’t ask for money from you,” answered Pasha.
“Alla, they’ll take it in kind,” Bella snapped, she was no longer surprised that there was a pearl butterfly among the pearls.
– I did not get that. What kind? – Alla asked.
– They will take love. Do you understand? – clarified the situation of Bella.
– Why so cynical? – asked Yura.
– In this regard, we have already lost everything, we have nothing more to lose, it is possible with love. Who am I with? With you, Yura? – Alla asked.
– Well, girls, you grow. Alla with me. Bella with Pasha.
– I am not against love with Yura, – Alla put an end to the conversation.
“I don’t know,” Bella said honestly, touching the peacock feathers with one hand and touching the pearls around her neck with one hand, “I don’t want to go into debt.”
– Decide! The car is waiting at the gate. We will take you and your things, – suggested the solution to all the problems of Yura.
Alla got up, took her dress, asked the men to wait in the yard of the house. Bella did not move.
– Alla, I will not go to the boarding house! I almost got killed for the tour.
“Bella, you have nothing more to lose.” Where is the guarantee that Count Peacock won’t get to you? Count Peacock is not a man.
– Alla, but debts… I am afraid of debts.
“Bold, Bella, you won’t become richer without risk!” – Alla said, collecting things.
Bella waved a hand in desperation, took her bag, but sat down again:
– What do you want, but I will not go!
– As you wish, you did not go with me, but they loved me…
– Alla, I can not! I can’t keep up with you!
Alla waved her hand and with the things went out into the yard.
– Where is Bella? – Pasha asked Alla.
“She remains in the house without amenities,” Alla said and went to the car.
Pasha came into the room to Bella.
– Bella, what’s up? Am I so disgusted?
“Not anymore, but I can’t leave like this,” the girl said, and wrapped her hand around her mouth.
– Understand, silly, there I will be with you alone, and here I will not save you from the people of Count Peacock! They went on your trail, now they will not leave you alone. Think: Am I alone or are people of Count Pavlin?! Where are your things? Get up fast! I say – fast!
Bella got up, threw things into her bag, then took the peacock feathers, from which two mother-of-pearl butterflies rolled: a bluish and white. She wrapped them in a clean handkerchief, then put them in the inside pocket of a large bag with things. Pasha took the bag. They went out into the yard.
Here the mistress of the house joined:
“Ladies, I won’t refund your money for the rest of the week!”
“This is for your concern,” said Pasha and led Bella to the car.
A car with two young couples drove up to the fifth building of the boarding house. Everyone was silent. Yura went to pay for a room for girls for a week. Bella and Alla entered our room, where they felt themselves to be an order of magnitude higher, they didn’t want to talk. Soon, clean hair adorned the girls’ heads.
There was a knock at the door. A pleasant female voice asked to open the door. An interesting blonde with a familiar face entered the room.
– Girls, I am a singer Victoria Lvovna. Today I came to the boarding house. My room is near your room. I saw you in the lobby. I really liked you. Girls, could you help me a little?
– How can we help you? – Alla asked, combing her hair.
– Everything is very simple: in three days I have concerts in Abrikosovka and in the neighboring city of Cypress, and one concert will take place in a boarding house. I need two girls for the background. You have the same height. Clothes, I’ll give you. Stand behind me, pretend singing girls. Can you sing?
“Alla and I sang at an art school,” Bella replied.
– Well! Tonight I’m waiting for you after dinner.
– We will come, – naturally, Alla said the last word.
Victoria Lvovna left.
Yura and Pasha came.
– settled? After lunch we go on a boat ride, – said Pasha.
“And we were invited to sing, today is a rehearsal,” Bella told him.
– What other singing? What story have you already got? – he asked.
– In the local history. Singer Victoria L. lives in the next room.
– Have you got a job? Do you go by boat with us? There are no big waves here, – Yura suggested with a slight irritation.
– Do not be angry, Yura, rehearsal after dinner, – Alla gently addressed him.
– Oh, you are already a sweet fox playing!
“Victoria Lvovna just came out, tell her,” Alla said dejectedly.
Pasha carefully examined the clothes on the girls and said:
– We’ll forget for clarity. We came on another occasion. Bella, I will give you money for clothes, they sell her before entering the dining room. We are going to lunch now, and you see something