Alexandra Kryuchkova

Tales of Ghosts. Playing Another Reality. Edgar Allan Poe award


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time for you to go!” I said. “My daughter will never need anything! I promise, remember these words! And… thank you!”

      I remember Nastya walking away from me along a long, long corridor…

      ***

      The guests had already left, thank God! Tanya behaved ugly!

      She called a ‘fat swine’ one of the oligarchs, on whom at that moment my financial stability depended as well as, in fact, Tanya’s future, and the future of her children and grandchildren! And it would have been okay, being pronounced jokingly or childlike, but no! – the intonation showed out her evident anger and hatred, not even hinted before!

      With all her might, Tanya kicked the son of a famous politician with a book on his head, when he said laughing that ghosts didn’t exist!

      And then, during a casual conversation by the fireplace, I don’t even remember what exactly we were talking about, since we all had already drunk pretty much, Tanya suddenly changed her face and, turning to me, stated loudly and distinctly,

      “You’ve never loved my mother!”

      My wife, who entered the room at that moment, heard the phrase. In order to somehow justify us to the guests for such tactless behavior of Tanya, she shook her head, squeezed out a smile and spread her hands,

      “Awkward age.”

      ***

      That evening, the phone rang in Nastya’s flat.

      “Good evening, Mister…” said a steely voice on the receiver. “I have to inform you… I don’t even know how to say this. Your wife died on the operating table.”

      “And the baby?”

      “We did our best, but… the baby turned out to be stillborn.”

      ***

      We lived in an elite penthouse of an expensive skyscraper. After the guests left, my wife went to the kitchen, and I came up to Tanya’s room on the second floor. The door to the balcony, or rather, ‘to the roof’, as Tanya used to say, was ajar. It was pouring rain outside. She was standing in the far corner.

      “Tanya!” I called out to her.

      She turned and stopped me with a gesture.

      “Stay away from me, dad! I’ve dreamed about her today again!”

      “Who?” I asked, still not understanding anything.

      “Mom… MY mother. She told me the truth! How much did you pay your friend, the doctor, to kill her and declare me ‘dead’? And who was killed and buried then instead of me? You didn’t even show up for the funeral, daddy, while her husband, every year on my birthday, orders a prayer for the repose of my soul in Heaven as for the dead! If she had known what you would do, she would have jump out of the window. I will do it instead of her!”

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      Примечания

      1

      https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Рейн,_Евгений_Борисович

      2

      https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ерофеев,_Виктор_Владимирович

      3

      https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Карпенко,_Александр_Николаевич

      4

      The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No. 11—12 (197—198), 2021, “The results of the literary awards 2021” by the press-secretary of Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia http://www.litiz.ru/arch.html https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30044

      5

      The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 1 (397), 2022 “The results of the Open Literary Club 2021” by L. Koroleva. https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30303 http://www.poetograd.ru/arch.html

      6

      https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Карпенко,_Александр_Николаевич

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