belt, loaded, but not cocked, for the time being. Tom opened the door without knocking, stormed into the Manager's office as if it were his home or a shared toilet in a restaurant, and looked around the room. Whitewashed walls, a Desk, stacks of maps, a couch, and a new midwife's chair, the sight of which caused the Jew a slight revulsion. Finally, when he saw his classmate sitting at the table, Shulman smiled haughtily.
«I'll sit right here, okay?» He was wheezing, leaning back in his chair, rubbing his leg.
«Thomas?!» A thirty-six-year-old man with small blue eyes and straight jet-black hair exclaimed, holding out his hand. «Thomas Shulman! How many years?»
«Zachariah Shmael-grew up, got stronger, and finally lost his virginity by marrying his second cousin?» Thomas joked about a childhood friend with whom he often played in the yard, got into a fight for the first time, and accidentally stole a girlfriend at the prom.
«With my cousin, Thomas, my cousin. Calm down.»
Shulman looked at the wedding ring on his friend's ring finger without envy.
«What about you? Added to the Jewish family?»
«Does my happy face show that this is not the case?» Tom muttered wanting to get down to business.
Zachariah listened intently, crossing his arms over his chest.
«My girlfriend is looking for a job. Well, you know what's in your industry, okay?»
Schmael nodded, demanding more and more details.
«This girl is the goddess of Ilithyia in the flesh. She killed the «midwife's hand» I have a desire to have promiscuous relationships and eat cottage cheese. The girl is an excellent student, but not in life, but in her profession. She'll help you give birth blindfolded, sitting upside down on the toilet, you know? She fixed a woman's uterus during a fucking delivery with a sandwich in her mouth, didn't she?»
Zachariah laughed heartily, rubbing his left eye and showing his white teeth.
«I know what you're getting at, Tom, but it doesn't depend directly on me.»
«Yes, stop lying, she has a talent,» Shulman said, leaning back in his chair and picking up the midwife's mirror.
«Well, let him come with his diploma and papers tomorrow, about ten o'clock. Let's look at your excellent student!»
Thomas slipped down the hall to the phone, dialled a familiar number, and waited for the soft ring. Finally a girl's voice came on the line.
«So, honey, as they say-get your legs ready, right? I'm on my way, right? And I found you a prestigious job.»
Lily laughed, shining bright and clear as the sun.
«Did you find me a job? Where?» Lily asked, interrupting him with questions, « I'm already working.»
«You mean that whore hole with syphilis? You deserve something better, don't you?» He finished and hung up.
Could he let her work in a hole? Never! She is beautiful and gifted, and she has to collect on her fingers the secretions of dirty whores in the form of «cottage cheese» from a neglected thrush. And not only in women, but also in the mouths of their offspring. He knew all this from her stories, terrible stories that made Thomas sick. And what then to work in such conditions? Tom was afraid to even think about it.But since he is her boyfriend, Beau, companion, and admirer, he must help her settle into this life. Although she only calls him her boyfriend.It was a joke, but they had been Dating for almost four months, and she was no longer a stranger to him, even her own. He was used to feeling her cool hands on his chest when he stopped shivering from the cold; to feeling her fingers buried in his hair; to hearing her laugh or just her voice going crazy with moans after passionate kisses; to thinking about how she got home and whether they gave her lunch during the break; to worrying about her older brothers hurting her when she spent the weekend at home, wanting to be alone. She accepted his faith almost without scandals and quarrels, without stupid ultimatums and threats. Lily let Thomas let her see the world through his eyes. She showed interest, showed a desire to follow the same path as he did, so everything he did, Shulman did only for her. He began to live for her.But all this is childish and snotty lyrics. What's left in the bottom line? That Thomas is a gangster, sells drugs, runs rackets, and kills people? Lily and Thomas are two opposites that can't attract, but still.An hour and a half later, Thomas stood in the doorway, waiting for Lily's footsteps .
«What the hell is she doing there?»
At last the door creaked open, and Thomas staggered back to see Lily's pale face, with tiny beads of sweat on her nose and forehead, blue lips, and sharp features. Her brown eyes were full of tears. Her silk robe was stained with scarlet, and her left leg was wrapped in a rag, which had a dark bloodstain that blurred before her eyes. When she saw him, she whimpered helplessly, her lower lip sticking out like a child whose candy has been taken away.
«Well, well, well,» said Tom, pulling the weak little body to him, which was trembling slightly and sobbing, «You cut yourself, didn't you? Am I not right?»
The next second, he grabbed her and carried her to the bathroom.
«Horror, it's like a pig was slaughtered here!» he said as he sat her down on the edge of the tub.
There was blood on the floor, on the sink, in the tub, and on the razor blade that now lay next to the drain. The bathroom smelled of iron and damp, which made the Jew feel slightly sick. The rag was soaking wet, and Thomas crouched down and bandaged her leg, remembering all the methods he had been taught during the war.
«Why did you take such a sharp blade, huh?» he asked, examining the shallow but successful cut, knowing that Lily would have to be taken to the hospital.
«I … I wanted to shave.»
His hands wrapped the cloth tighter so that the wound could be cleaned.
«Why, sun? For what?»
Her brown eyes lifted.
«I was getting ready,» she whispered.
«Preparing for what?»
«You said …» Lily would have blushed even more if it hadn't been for the blood loss. But the confusion in her eyes made up for it.
«Holy simplicity! You have so many brothers, have you never heard such expressions?» The girl shook her head.
Tom sighed and ran a hand over his good leg.
«Listen… my people, or rather, our people, Yes? Respects the commandments, you know? Rules that apply to bedding, «he assured her, still looking at the fabric that turned red as he tightened it,» You can't have sex with a man after taking gyur. This is necessary for the formation of the spirit, right?» Lily shook her head, making an unreadable, questioning face as she collected her new question, as if Thomas were a walking Jewish encyclopaedia.
«Isn't' this important to you?»
The Jew sighed again.
«This is important, but let's not equate love and passion, right? It's kind of a trap, isn't it? Love is the desire to support, hug, or tie the same leg, and passion is just the desire to possess, use, take, right?»
She nodded, and Tom lowered his hands, looking again into her brown eyes, the pupils of which reflected dark shadows.
«Let's wait out these stupid remaining two months and then we'll see, okay?»
Lily smiled, then hissed, and fresh blood spurted from the wound again.
«Let's go to the hospital and have a sweet tea on the way!» Tom picked her up and led her to the car, leaving his driver there to clean up and disappear.
Thomas looked at the pale face, the closed lids, and the long lashes. The red liquid was still soaking into the fabric like a sponge.
«For God's sake, has she decided to shave?» He asked himself, realizing how serious and scary she was about sex. A truly sensitive girl who will weigh the pros and cons a hundred times before leaving her childhood. Her disappointed face showed that she wanted to wait, couldn't wait any longer, and that infuriated her more than anything else in the world. Or was it just his