Pearly woman. Prose in English. Natalia Patratskaya
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girls and two guys walked slowly along the beach. The guys had flippers in their hands, and the girls carried beach bags with portraits of strangers.
– Girls, where are you staying? Where are you going? – Yura asked and quickly continued to speak, without waiting for an answer. – And we came to the central beach with flippers, and there is no place to dive here at all. We walked, walked on the water, and everything was shallow. This is a children’s beach. We always go to another beach, there is deep.
– Yura, Pasha, we live in the private sector. We have a house for two, – Alla answered in unison to him. – We walk on shallow water on this beach and we sunbathe.
– Well! – exclaimed Pasha. – So, we have the same conditions of life with you. We live in a boarding house together in the same room and cannot swim in the sand of a shallow beach.
– Wow! – Alla exclaimed. – And they say: the conditions are the same! Yes, in our house there are only two tiny rooms: in the one we eat, and in the other we sleep. The windows are tiny and do not open. The window is one and that tiny!
– Girls, we will throw things in a boarding house and will be at your feet today! – Pasha said, not listening to Alla’s indignation about her harsh life.
– Gentlemen, we will bring our rugs and go out. Where will we meet? – rattled Alla, quite smiling at such nice young people.
– See you at the fountain! She still asks, – Yura dismissively remarked and pointed to a fountain at the end of the beach, from which a trickle of water slowly rose and fell.
– Well, – Alla answered.
The girls quickly went to the house, standing in the shade of the trees. They smiled and talked about the beach wind, about wonderful butterflies and about young people. They entered a small room, fell on old metal beds with feather beds and huge white pillows. Bella lay down on the bed under the window. On a small window were three peacock feathers, leaning against the glass, they reminded of the sunny road to the sea.
The grass rang in the sun and turned into hay at the root. It was unbearably hot. Bella and Alla drove in a large cabin of a passing car along with the driver. They drove the steppe reserve. After some time, the car drove into the peninsula, drove past the storks. Their huge nests were located on power transmission poles.
The car quickly drove the village, surrounded on three sides by the sea. On the one side of the village there were two beaches: one wild, with steep shores, and the other ordinary.
“The central beach is distinguished by fine sand and shallow water, you can walk along the shallows for a long, long time, and the water does not rise above the chest,” said the driver, taking the fare.
The girls came to the sea, rented a house with facilities in the yard. Opposite their house stood the house in which an elderly couple lived. Older people used to meet every summer at a local beach, then they got married and bought a small house, later they built their house according to a fashionable project at the time.
Two houses were connected by an arch with branches of grapes, which wrapped around a wooden lattice in artistic disorder. In the yard grew apple and plum trees. Outside the site was surrounded by quince trees. The amenities in the courtyard included cold water from a pipe that ran idly to the dishes or the kettle. Next to the crane was a table and two shops, they were eaten in the summer.
The owner of these two houses most often worked in the workshop, attached to a large house. In the yard hosted Ivanovna. She gave visitors a small house and grew tomatoes for sale. Tomatoes covered the entire floor of the veranda, leaving a small walkway. The hostess constantly told how difficult it was for her to sell tomatoes…
Bella stopped remembering the day of arrival and said:
– Alla, let’s not go on a date at the fountain. I do not want adventure with these young people! I’m afraid of them! I don’t understand them and don’t know, “the girl whined, touching the peacock’s greenish feathers.
– Bella, and I am too lazy to go, but I really want adventure. I’m tired of boredom! What do we do? And laziness, and fear, and really want adventure? For once, young people appeared on our horizon, but we are too lazy to make out. You know, I’ll go, and you lie on your side and be afraid! I’ll go alone to them, “Alla said ominously, looking at the clothes in the closet.
– Go alone. And I will not go! “I want to sleep,” Bella said in a sleepy voice.
– Agree. I’ll go alone to the fountain with drinking water, and you cook dinner! We will not go to the cafe today, “Alla instructively said and looked at Bella. She saw on her pearl beads a white pearly butterfly. “Where did the butterfly appear on the beads?” – She thought, it seemed to her that the butterfly was shaking her little head in time with Bella’s breathing.
Alla waved her friend a hand and ran out of the house. She was a slim girl of medium height, with brown hair below her shoulders. Pretty quickly she went to the fountain. On the other hand, Yura, a young man of medium height with blond hair, approached the fountain. Both of them looked at each other with undisguised interest in the steel eyes.
“My name is Alla,” she said and smiled friendly.
– And my name is Yura, – smiling young girl, a young man introduced himself, – and I personally like you, and even more.
– I am pleased that it was you who came. I immediately noticed you, – Alla answered, smiling with a white-toothed, open smile.
“And I am pleased that you are pleased and that it was you who came here,” said Yura, continuing to smile, showing wonderful white teeth.
– What do we do? Where to go? – asked the girl.
– Alla, are you not afraid of heights? I’d like to climb the tower. Height beckons me! I want to see the lighthouse. With him watching the sea.
– Well, let’s go to the tower. I do not mind. The lighthouse here is called the tower…
Alla and Yura went towards the tower two steps away from each other, but with each step they approached each other, and at some point their fingers joined. Both stopped and looked into each other’s eyes. I didn’t want to go.
– Yura, are we not going to the tower? Looking at each other?
“Let’s go to the park, here any group of trees is called a park, if they are not fruit trees,” said the young man and squeezed the girl’s hand more tightly.
Park it or not, but they sat on the nearest bench under a chestnut tree.
– Yura, who do you work? If it ‘s not a secret? – Alla asked, playfully glaring at the eyes of a young man.
– We. No one. Nothing. Not married. Did not participate. Were not.
– But seriously? I really want to know who I am talking to, who I liked! To continue the acquaintance, – and she smiled her best smile.
– We are from special forces. We are great and terrible marzipans with butterflies!
– Joke? You’re all kidding! And I get offended for myself that I’m talking to someone unknown to anyone, “Alla pouted her lips.
– No, you are, – Yura objected, – how could I dare to joke with a girl! I’m a serious person! I will answer directly: we are from special forces!
– Yes, you are strong guys, but your hair is long-haired.
– Yes, we are nimble guys. And who are you?
– We? To know who we are? We are two girls from the beach.
– Alla, yes, your answer is even steeper, and I do not like it!
– We are two artists. We paint