An obstetrician nurse examined her lying in the armchair and shook her head:
– The amniotic fluid has gone. So you’ll bear drily.
To bear normally, without a Cesarean section was impossible for Dasha. 13 hours later Dasha exhausted by birth pangs and nearly unconscious was shown to the surgery. A medical brigade was sent for. Tatyana, a reanimation nurse who used to be Dasha’s classmate came up to her, tortured by numerous injections, and whispered tenderly:
– A good doctor will operate you! I told him: «Don’t cut our beauty too much!
Tatyana smiled and stepped aside.
– Well, where is your little vein? Do make a fist! – the anaesthesiologist said to Dasha flirting with one of the nurses. Almost all in the surgery knew they were lovers. Dasha also knew that. So it was nice for her to fall asleep surrounded with the fluids of secret love floating over her. She closed her eyes. The anaesthesiologist’s last words: «Dasha, count up to 10!» – sounded as if in the microphone, then dissolved like an echo in the mountains. She was smiling full of trust towards the doctor.The she fell asleep…
Though Cadet Sviridenko was preparing himself to the forthcoming change in his life, the telegram about it was all of a sudden for him. It came like a bolt from the blue. He was shocked. What to do? Where to go? What to speak and to whom? «Son born.» His son was born. HE… HAS …A SON!!! No! – can it be? Maybe it’s just a mistake. Is it real? Maybe, it’s merely a dream. Perhaps, some other man became a father. SON! He is a father now, isn’t he? What does it mean – father? What does it mean – son? It happens time and again. But could it happen with him. At that moment he was eager to be a free poet, to die young like Pushkin? And now he has a son! It’s time to write a cradle song – that’s what he must do! He went to the company commander. An hour later Cadet Sviridenko got a leave warrant for a day.
Arriving in Rostov, he headed for the local maternity hospital. But he wasn’t allowed to his wife. He wrote her a message and went to his mother-in-law. She cried nervously at him: «You’d better buy flowers! Daddy!».
Then he was silent – Dasha’s mother was calling the shots around:
– Wash your hands! Change!
He was exhausted by her commands completely. Why doesn’t she realize? His son was born! He became a father! Not she!
When she was ironing diapers hurriedly to carry them to the maternity hospital as soon as possible and asked him to do something again he threw on his jacket and was off. Cadet Sviridenko spent a night under the hospital windows. The words of a cradle song occurred to him. He wrote them down on a sheet of paper.
In the morning he returned to his military school. «I have a son!».
Chapter 8
Malcovich met Major Smirnov during the Afghan war. But he wasn’t sure if he could rely on him. Nevertheless, Malcovich couldn’t invent anything better. So Andrei phoned his old chum and told him what had happened. Asked him to appear in court in Mozdok as a witness.
After that Smirnov grew very gloomy, as black as thunder. Well, a pretty kettle of fish! Malcovich lived easier. Neither wife nor children! Free as a bird. But Smirnov couldn’t afford risking. Malcovich was in the soup now, Smirnov could be as well. Smirnov has a whale of problems himself. Everybody is stealing arms now, concealing and transporting illegally! But it was absolutely idiotic of Malcovich to be caught in such a way. «Well, Malcovich, Malcovich, a smart man! But sometimes a silly ass!».
Garov noticed at once Smirnov get grim.
– What’s wrong?
– Of course, all is wrong! That bloody Malcovich, damn it! «Carrying arms to the commandant’s office!» – He dared say so in the militia! Couldn’t invent anything better? «Smirnov, do come and help me, please! I beg you! Save me! I’ll remember it forever! If we sell the arms we’ll share the money fifty-fifty». Fico to him! And if I don’t go what’s then?!
– Don’t worry, Major! Is it impossible to say in court Malcovich was really transporting the arms to us?!
– So you’ll tell it, won’t you?! Right? Bloody genius you are! The cleverest man I’ve ever seen! Don’t be silly! – Smirnov was walking to and fro, took things and put them back. He couldn’t concentrate. At last he sat by Garov with his hands upon his knees. – OK. Perhaps you are right. You will go to Mozdoc. Tomorrow.
It was a turning point in Garov’s life. MALCOVICH NEVER FORGOT THOSE WHO ONCE HELPED HIM…
Malcovich and Garov came back from Mozdok to the Northern airport together. Malcovich’s joy was exuberant. Garov was happy too that their affair came off.
Their optimism was quite contagious. A bottle of Stolichnaya appeared by itself on the table in the commandant’s office. Then came red caviar, balyk (salted fish) and lard. Svetlana laid the table with great energy. She cut the bread, then found wineglasses somewhere – perhaps, asked the hostel lodgers.
So the whole company sat at a festive table. Of course, one of the toasts was in honour of the deceased soldiers and officers. Then kept silent in respect. Then talked a bit.
Two officers’ wives, or the dekabrists’ wives as they were called here, came on the sly from the hostel and joined the company.
Malcovich was eloquent and fascinated everybody. Another bottle of vodka came, then a third one. And at 3 – «the dekabrists» themselves…
Then it turned out one of the officer’s wives was absent. And Malcovich vanished too. So her husband – company lieutenant Puzanov – went to his room in the hostel so that to tell his beloved wife – a blonde with the looks of Monroe – that he’d arrived. But He didn’t find her in bed sleeping sweetly. Puzanov decided to rejoin the company.
On his way he wanted to piss. At first he was about to do it outdoors but then changed his mind and turned right in the long corridor…
Then he wished he had left the hostel!
But the devil or so made him enter the john with the letter «M» on the door. Opening that damned door he saw a broad man’s back that enclosed the window. Two naked legs embraced the back. The broad-backed man was breathing frequently. His trousers fell lower and lower for he was moving in rhythm.
Puzanov got interested in all this. He wasn’t modest or tactful at all. He didn’t leave the john., but entered the cabin and made a piss. Then he heard the woman’s orgastic moan. Puzanov was amused with it. He went out of the cabin in high spirits. Puzanov was going to tell those at the festive table about the picant scene.
The door slammed behind his back… And Puzanov stood petrified.
A handbag! A handbag lay on the floor! No woman in the hostel had it but his wife! He had bought it for her in a boutique in St.Petersburg! Oh, shit! So it was she – there, in the john, on the dirty window-sill, with naked legs around the broad back!
Puzanov was struck by cruel truth. «Bloody bitch!» – he thought. «Bitch!» – he said aloud. «Bitch!» – he cried at the top of his voice. Puzanov opened the john door, came up to his wife who was dressing. And not seeing Malcovich Puzanov said to her face: «You bitch!» Then he turned on his heels and rushed to the commandant’s office.
The next morning everybody knew about the night event. Puzanov complained his friend Nikishov. Then Nikishov was discussing with Ryzhov with great gusto what Puzanov had to do, then told carelessly to his wife about the whole affair, but ordered her strictly not to divulge the secret. She swore on her honour but to be friends with Verka is much more important.
So it began. The rumours spread around. Verka told Tan’ka, Tan’ka told her husband… The Puzanovs were quite encircled with gossips. But Puzanov didn’t put up with the role of a cuckolded. Once he gave a lift