Platform Begovaya. Book I. Chapter 8

 

Having done his homework, Lyosha quickly cleaned up the flat and fed his grandmother dinner. While she was eating, he was peeling potatoes in the sink, recalling today's training. The way he made a mistake by driving Vienna to the barrier, but he cut the angle, and because of this she grazed the pole with the croup, and it fell. That was his mistake. He always analyzed his training and what he was doing right and what not. In his mind, he was restoring a picture of his movement and now he understood that he should not cut this corner. It was necessary to do a couple of paces, and only then to turn and direct to the barrier...

The doorbell rang. Thinking about the jump, he reflexively reached the door, and quickly wiping his hands on the old T-shirt, worn over the same old training ones, opened the door.

Mobsters came inside the flat, talking noisily and watching him retreat deep into the corridor. There were about five of them, Yefim followed them and then Nazar.

Alexey was standing and looking at them. He was not scared, he was not here at all. He had been riding on Vienna a second ago, and his thoughts were there, on horseback...

“Well, what, will you return the loot or how?” asked one of them.

“What?” Lyosha really did not quite understand what all these people wanted from him.

“Return the dough, a sheared freak. That's what!”

In the corridor, they heard footsteps and, leaning on a stick, grandmother came out of the kitchen at the sound of voices.

“Lyosha, who are they?”

“Grandma, I need to talk, let me bring you to your room,” Alyosha quickly intercepted his grandmother, who had not yet been able to see everyone standing in the hallway since it was dark and she forgot her glasses in the kitchen. He quickly turned her around and led her into the room.

“Did you take the medicine?” he asked.

“I forgot. They are there, on the table, in the kitchen.”

“I'll bring them to you now.”

Alyosha brought the grandmother to the chair in her room and, sitting down, quickly rushed to the kitchen.

There, Nazar and Yefim were already sitting on stools, and two more mobs were standing, propping up the wall and the refrigerator. Apparently, the rest did not go inside and left.

Alexey squeezed between them, poured water from a carafe and chose pills from a basket with tubes and tablet that his grandmother had to take in the evening. He, taking them, just silently went out.

When he returned, they all were sitting silently, waiting for him.

“Sit down,” Yefim kicked another stool in the direction of Alyosha.

He silently sat on it.

“I have no money,” he finally said, “maybe only after the New Year...”

“And where do you spend all the money?” The guy standing by the fridge aggressively twitched his broad shoulders.

Alexey was silent, looking at the floor, realizing that he had nothing to answer.

Yefim reached for the door of the refrigerator, opened it. There was a lonely pot of soup, a faded carrot and that was all. In the freezer, opening it, they saw four cutlets. There was nothing else in the fridge. Half a loaf of black bread lay on the table. Yefim got up and began to open the lockers. He did not find food anywhere else, only in the sink there were potatoes unpeeled by Lyosha.

“And where are the parents?” He asked.

Seeing that the guy was stubbornly silent, like a partisan, Yefim took a pack of recipes and quickly revised them, putting them on the table in front of Nazar, who was carefully watching everything.

“If you do not speak, then we will go and talk with grandmother.”

Alexey ran to the exit from the kitchen and closed the aisle.

“Not! She mustn't worry.”

“Then sit down and answer questions!” Yefim again pushed a standing stool with his foot.

Alex sat down on it and nervously squeezed his fingers.

“My mother divorced my father ... for a long time, I don’t remember him, and she married a Finn four years ago and left.”

“Do you live with your grandmother?”

Alexey nodded, continuing to squeeze the fingers.

“Does your mother help with money?”

“Not. She can’t. She does not work, and Finn does not give her money.”

“Do you live on a pension?”

“Yes. But the grandmother used to work, and then...”

“What happened?” Yefim kept looking at the guy with his piercing gaze, from which goose bumps ran through Lyosha's body.

“Grandma was hit on the head, and all the money was taken away. And now she can’t earn money. But Petrovich began to pay me interest for rent and gave me the other two horses for private work. However, grandmother's medicines are expensive, but for the current month, we’ve sort of bought everything...”

Alexey was silent, not knowing what else to say. Yefim looked at Nazar, who absently went through sheets of recipes on the table.

“Here, take it.”

Yefim pulled out a wad of money from his pocket, the so-called "a roll" (a roll of bills). The money was pulled with a rubber band, and taking out a dozen bills from there, put them on the table.

Alexey jumped up in horror and slammed himself into the cooker standing behind him.

“I will not take! Not! I can never return such money.”

“You can. You will return, you will grow up, you will begin to work, then you will give. Now take it or I will give it to your grandmother.”

“Will you again turn on the meter for this money?”

“Not. It is just debt.”

Yefim got up, Nazar followed him, and they silently left the kitchen. Two mobs followed them. Alexey heard the door slam and there was silence after their departure.

***

Coming out of the doorway, stinking with cat urine, and breathing the frosty air, Yefim lit a cigarette.

“I have two guys growing up. You never know what happens in life. Let them also be helped, if anything,” looking at the lantern and falling snowflakes in the light of it, Yefim once again puffed on a cigarette.

“Forget about this debt,” Nazar glanced in the direction of the mob, “how hasn’t he bitten the dust yet?”

“That’s why he’s so skinny ... Petrovich should be told to give him a side job more often.”

They were not allowed to finish the speech. A ringing phone was brought from the car, and Nazar picked up the phone. After listening, he looked at Yefim.

“They grabbed her. Now we will wait for this snickering party leader to bend under us.”

Discussing this topic, they got into their cars. They did not want to go back to the wenches in the bathhouse. Nazar said to bring him to the house of parents. Today he wanted to spend the night there. Not that he longed to see his father and mother, who now, without understanding his son, became distant and alien to him. Just now he did not want to go to Yefim. After all, he had seen in this flat, he wanted to be alone, in silence, with his thoughts and with that what was inside him.

***

Mom, opening the door and seeing her son, was delighted at first, but then gave her face a sense of indifference. Nazar, having said hello, went to his room. Father on his greeting had not even shifted gaze from the TV screen.

It was good that here, in this three-room apartment, he had his own room, where he could, having shut the door, be cut off from the whole world.

He slowly looked around the room, which remained the room of the teenager, who he was before leaving for the army with still idealistic views on life, plans, and dreams.

Returning from the war a different person, he did not change anything here. Everything in it reminded him of what he was before: a naive kind boy, brought up with faith in a good and bright future.

He lost this belief in a brighter future immediately, as he first saw pieces of the bodies of those who had just recently been human. Not but that it embittered him, no. It was just then that he realized that he should build his bright future by himself, and not sit and wait for it to come. Otherwise, while he was waiting for this, another high-ranker would determine his life. The fact that somebody had the power of his life and death, and he was sent to his doom was a lesson. He remembered it forever, and now no one would ever decide for him how he would live. Now he would decide how others would live.

Nazar, without undressing, lay down on the bed and looked at the ceiling above him.

In his head, to the smallest details, pictures of what he had seen today surfaced. This piercing poverty and at the same time everything is clean, neat and so homely comfortable. These were neat curtains on the kitchen window, well-kept flowers, and neat stacks of dishes in the hanging shelves, a clean stove, and a cozy table with three stools. How terribly this all contrasted with the fact that these people simply had nothing to eat. There was little saucepan of soup and a dozen potatoes in the sink, and also bread so neatly lying in a wicker basket.

Yefim left them money. Nazar understood it was scary to imagine your own sons in the place of this Lyokha that was why Yefim helped.

Again, painfully ache inside, and the conscience, about which he had long forgotten, began to gnaw and eat away at him with strange thoughts. Why did he not give money? Because he was so, he was not accustomed to regretting. He was indifferent to everyone, and even more so to some boy who was nobody to him.

That evening he fell asleep, remembering this flat and him, frightened, but at the same time trying not to show his fear, sitting on a stool in sweatpants with stretched knees and a washed-up T-shirt. Now, with this haircut, he became different ... Nazar remembered his hair, how they glittered with gold in the light of the dim light bulb of that room, and how soft they were to the touch. He felt sorry that now it was no more...

So, unwittingly, he fell into a dream.

***

On the eve of the New Year holidays, everything changed in Moscow, became different, and people also changed. Now on their faces more often it was possible to meet carefree fun and smiles. They were in a hurry for gifts and planned with whom they would meet the upcoming ninety-fourth year.

Petrovich also changed. Probably, the upcoming holidays and, in connection with this, the good earnings, that celebrations gave, changed him. Instead of a sullen mood and eternal immersion in the problems of stable’s life, he became more affable and even joked and laughed during training.

This change in him was also reflected in the fact that now he either began to give Aleksey the opportunity to earn some extra money from rental or went to the city with Mashka to rent.

Tonight Alyosha and Masha were again standing near the door of the restaurant, waiting for the visitors to come out.

Mashka often smoked, cursed and flirted with all passers-by, offering them a cheap ride on a horse.

Lyosha was hard to overpower himself and offer a ride to people passing by him. Therefore, he stood silently, got cold, shifting from foot to foot, holding the motive of Vernissage, from whose nostrils poured steam.

Alexey did not like to do horse rental in the city, although it was profitable. And despite the fact that he needed money so much, he didn’t like it. It rejected his inner world, all his nature, everything that was in him. He was turned out from the very action. Standing and waiting for a client, he felt as if he was on the corner peddling ass. But the worst thing was that he understood that a horse that obediently obeyed a person should stand like this and wait when someone got into it in a drunken state.

For Alexei, there was a clear line between horse rental, training and city horse riding. He recognized only the training of those who came to really acquire knowledge and learn to ride. And it was unimportant that maybe this person was incapable and soon, realizing that it was hard work, left this venture. It did not matter for Lyosha. He selflessly shared his knowledge with those who wanted to gain it. He was not bothered by the fact that the newcomer had to repeat a hundred times to sit straight, not to fall forward with his shoulders and to hold his knee tighter.

Alyosha was happy when Petrovich gave him the opportunity to practice with such riders, he put his soul into them, sharing with them what he knew and could do himself.

Those who came just to ride, he also trained, but reluctantly and forcing himself to do it, not believing that Petrovich was correct. Alexey did not understand those people who treated the horse like a merry-go-round, used them just for riding and that was all. He was wild. After all, the horse is alive. After all, it has a soul, and it feels everything. So how can you ride on it, like on a mechanical carousel? These questions he could not answer.

But the most unacceptable for him was to go to the city with horses for riding. These city horse riding, as everyone called them, were inwardly so disgusting to him that every time he barely restrained himself when another drunk customer climbed onto his horse to show off on it in front of his lady. All of this looked ridiculous and stupid. But the drunken people did not understand this, considering themselves as dzhigits, since they mounted a horse, and the fact that they couldn’t even sit straight in the saddle didn’t worry them.

All this Alyosha had to watch every time, standing with a horse on the sidewalk and feeling that he was selling himself and his horse and that they shouldn’t be sold for money something that was a priceless gift from above. And people, having lost all values, decided that everything could be sold and bought.

That evening, Yefim gave him a lot of money, so much so that Lyosha had never seen such a sum before. He recounted it all and wrote down the exact amount for himself, knowing that as soon as he started earning enough money, he would immediately save this amount and give it to Yefim. Now the money was simply vital. The main part went on medicines for the next month, another part he allocated for food, having decided that it was necessary to buy something else besides potatoes and buckwheat with bread. He finally allowed himself to buy chicken legs, which for some reason everyone called “Bush’s Legs”, and carefully put them in the fridge. He also bought canned meat and canned fish, as well as cereals.

He hid the rest of the money, realizing that grandmother's illness could bring new spending on drugs. Therefore, even with a little money in reserve, he was very happy with the opportunity to earn extra money. Since he had no choice, he carried out the work that Petrovich gave him, and when he did not allow him to teach, he silently walked with fat Makha to the city.

This evening was very cold. His autumn boots, even when worn with two socks, were frozen; he no longer felt his cheeks and the tip of his nose, his face was partially stiff with frost. In contrast, Mashka felt excellent. Another person who wanted to ride, not only generously paid, he also gave Makha a bottle of brandy, and she sipped it with pleasure. Therefore, her cheeks turned pink, her eyes glittered with crazy lights, and she sang a song about the junior lieutenant, often repeating the verse:

"Junior lieutenant, young boy,

Everyone wants to dance with you,

If you knew female longing

On a strong shoulder ... "*

Especially impressively, she howled the last lines of the verse. Passersby turned to this, some offered to ease her melancholy to which she snapped without any malice. In such a “funny” way they had been spending the second hour already.

At the restaurant the cars stopped, out of them, judging by their appearance, mobsters got out. Yefim came out of the middle car, a little hesitantly, and Nazar followed him.

Makha, who had already been very tipsy, as the bottle of brandy almost came to an end, immediately recognized them and screamed at the full power of her lungs:

“Hey, lads! Is Sanya with you?! I am bored without him!”

And Mashka again loudly trolled the verse of the song.

Nazar turned his head to this singing, examining the riders and the horse standing on the road. A guy wrapped in a scarf with a raised collar seemed familiar to him. But when he heard Makha’s voice, he immediately realized that they were from Petrovich’s stable, and that meant that this frozen snowman was the very Alyosha...

“I'll be right here,” Nazar threw over his shoulder, turning to his lads.

Coming to the horse, which Lyosha was holding for the rein, he stretched out his hand, tucked in a glove, and patted it on the mane. A quick glance took Alexey. Seeing that he was not just cold, but had already chilled, he turned to Mashka.

“Take it,” he handed her several bills, “go back to the stable. Give money to Petrovich. Here is a normal salary for today. Do you understand? And now quickly go from here.”

Masha even sobered up when she saw how much money Nazar had given, they would not have earned so much in a week. She first wanted to answer, but then closed her mouth in time, because of all this company she was terrified of Nazar for his wolfish gaze. She could joke and flirt with other mobs, but noticing him she always fell silent and tried not to get caught sight at all.

Nazar went to the entrance of the restaurant, where people were waiting for him.

“Gave money them to leave?” Yefim asked him coming inside.

“Yes. It’s a pity for a horse, what a long time they keep a horse in the cold.”

Yefim did not continue this topic, switching the conversation to another one. And they had something to talk about. For the third day, the abducted Sarychev’ wife had already been sitting in the basement of an abandoned house. While they did not touch her, but Sarychev was in no hurry to rescue his missus. He fell silent and did not go to negotiate with them.

***

The winter, which had fully entered into its rights in the center of Moscow, was pleasing to the eye with snow-covered streets and colorful pre-holiday windows. But outside the city, winter was perceived differently. There was a serious frost, the breeze climbed under the clothes, and the snow crunched underfoot.

The shoot-out was assigned to the wasteland behind the warehouses. At this time it was deserted. Nazar knew that Sarychev was planning an ambush, and they had already figured out all his people, arranged in points. Nazar had his own plan, and he acted on it. Sarychev's wife was brought in another car. She was the guarantor of their lives.

 

Vladimir Leonidovich, without losing his composure at the sight of a woman, who had fallen into prostration from the whole over a week, handed over the signed papers to Nazar. Nazar’s lawyer long and carefully again rechecked them all, although some of the papers were signed and notarized at his presence, an extra check would not hurt.

There was such heat in the air that you brought a match, and everything would flare up from the tension between those who were standing opposite each other.

All this time, a pistol was attached to the temple of Sarychev's wife, which was the key to the life of everyone here.

When the lawyer, satisfied with the review of the papers, nodded to Nazar, he in a split second, drew his gun, discharged him into Sarychev standing opposite him.

Not letting anyone come to their senses, Nazar spoke loudly, raising one hand.

“Everyone is quiet! Now I own everything that Sarychev had, and all of you,” he showed his hand to the people standing in front of him with machine guns thrown up, “you work for me ... or you get shot in the forehead.”

With these words, pre-prepared searchlights blinded Sarychev’s people.

“And do not rely on those who were in ambush. They are dead,” Nazar said calmly. “So, either you work for me, or...”

After a second pause, they slowly lowered the machine guns.

“Very well,” seeing this, continued Nazar, “and now remember. I will double your salary, but if one of you goes to the cops to report on today ... he will not live to court.”

Seeing that the people in front of him realized the whole picture of what had happened, he continued, “Take the widow home.”

His guys released a woman who rushed to the corpse of her husband, lying in dark red with blood in the snow. Her mind seemed clouded, so mad was her look.

Nazar quietly sat in the jeep, and all their cars moved from this wasteland. He quickly looked through the folder with Sarychev’s signatures, realizing that he now had a controlling stake in his bank and in his club.

“You are desperate, Nazar,” Yefim leaned back in his seat, feeling how the accumulated tension was coming down, “and if they had begun to shoot?”

“They could. But we had been insured. Our guys kept them all on sight.”

“But you stood at gunpoint.”

“And you were standing,” Nazar’s eyes flashed with yellow sparks in the dark.

Yefim just waved his hand, realizing once again that it was only thanks to the pressure of Nazar their affairs so rapidly were on the upswing.

***

Coming home from school, Lyosha, at the porch, saw an ambulance standing there. His heart sank anxiously, and he quickened his pace and ran up the stairs.

In their flat, there were two people in lab coats, over which they were wearing winter jackets, and on the threshold, a neighbor stood. Seeing Alexey, she quickly spoke.

“Varvara called today, said it was bad to her. I was just at home. I came to her, and she was lying, all white. I called the ambulance.”

Having listened to this, Alyosha quickly squeezed into the flat and rushed to the bed where the grandmother was lying. Although she was pale, she apparently felt much better now and, seeing her grandson, even smiled at him.

Lyosha bloomed at that smile, feeling that the horror that had shackled him from within was receding. He sat on the bed, and his grandmother began to tell him about what had happened and what the doctors had said.

Her head shake, plus age, weak blood vessels and the weather gave such attacks here. Nothing wrong now she was not found. Most likely, it was a reaction to changes in atmospheric pressure. But the doctors did not want to leave her at home but offered to take her to the hospital so as not to take risks and re-take the cardiogram of the heart and undergo an examination at the hospital in the hospital.

Alexey was confused by this, he didn’t know what was better. Of course, he did not want to let his grandmother go to the hospital, but at home, she could become worse... Seeing his lost look, the seemingly sullen doctor relented and having learned that they only live together, calmly explained to him again that grandmother would be better in the hospital, than here. Since this crisis could happen again, she was alone at home.

Lyosha did not argue, having believed this doctor and, having quickly collected the things necessary for her grandmother in the hospital, he went with her to the ambulance. Arriving at the hospital, he was with her all the time while the hospital formalities were completing. Then, putting on shoe covers, he went to her ward and helped her to stay there. Alyosha carefully laid out his grandmother's clothes in the bedside table and, after sitting a little with her, sadly left the ward.

Now he understood that he was alone again. No matter how hard it was, he returned home to this empty apartment and forced himself to sit down for lessons.

One thing pleased Lyosha that the next day he had the most long-awaited competitions for which he had been preparing for so long. He had to jump on Vienna and Badminton. These thoughts gave the power to live and cope with what was happening in his life.

Notes:

* "Junior lieutenant"

Irina Allegrova

 

Platform Begovaya. Book I. Chapter 7

            Having swept the stable, Alexey quickly changed clothes and hurried home. It was good that Makha came to the stable, and she took Ampere upon herself and looked after it. Alyosha needed to go home urgently, to check his grandmother, because she had been alone all night and he was worried about her very much. And then it was necessary not to be late for school because on the eve of the upcoming New Year holidays and winter holidays they were heavily busy with educational material.

All this distracted him from what had happened, he just physically did not have time to think about what had happened that night.

After school, he came home, had lunch with his grandmother, and again rushed to the stable. That's how it all went round and round.

But only all the same, though he didn’t want to think about it so much, he thought. But the worst thing was not even the thoughts that devoured him from the inside, but his body, which seemed to come to life and became beyond his control. Now he constantly had wet dreams with sheets and a blanket stained with involuntary ejaculation in the morning. In the dream, he saw “him”, felt his hands on himself, his lips, his tongue, and his breath. All this was so real that every time he woke up with a groan, realizing that this had happened to him again.

Lyosha did not know how to stop this madness.

***

In mid-December, his grandmother's health deteriorated. She could no longer knit, but only sat in her chair, and if she moved about the house, then slowly, sticking to the furniture and walls. After another examination, the doctor prescribed new medicines, for which almost all of their money was spent again.

It was good that Petrovich now paid him a little for the work with two private horses and also gave the interest from the rental when he was engaged with novice horsemen. These were mere pennies, but even they pleased Alyosha.

In addition to training with a rental, when he was given a weak rider, whom he taught the basics of horse riding, Petrovich allowed him with Makha to take horses for riding in the city. So it was called, when in the evening they saddled one of the training horses and went with it outside the hippodrome, getting up close to a night restaurant or casino. They waited for the rich, drunken visitors, who paid to climb a horse and walk on it. Usually, Alexey always walked alongside, leading the horse for the rein and making sure the client not to fall. From this work, he and Mashka received their interest, bringing the main money to Petrovich. Such a side job was mainly at the end of the week when people more often visited hot spots.

Today, having returned with a horse to the stable and froze to death literally to the bone, even though they were outside for only two hours, he and Masha quickly spruced the horse up, having unsaddled and put it in the loose box, and Lyosha changed clothes and went home. Makha knew that he had a sick grandmother at home, and therefore he could not linger for a long time. She said that she would finish everything with ammunition and would give out hay to the horses, and he could go.

Alyosha nodded in gratitude for this and quickly left the stable. Not having had time to go a few meters away from the building, he saw three cars approaching him.

Lyosha, like a rabbit blinded by the headlights, froze and did not move. The window of the first car opened slightly.

"Oh, athlete!" he heard a voice. ""Well, stop!"

Alexey had already stood and did not move. From the first car, an old Lincoln, three people came out and surrounded Alexey.

"Well, show your hairstyle, we want to see and make sure that you are a man," one of the old mobsters pulled his hand to him.

Alex abruptly jumped back and felt two others grab him. He violently began to fight in their hands.

"Hold him! Hold!"

"Take off his hat."

"Shit, he bites!"

Alexey heard voices and felt how they pulled a knitted hat from his head, which he always pulled almost to his eyes. His blond hair, gleaming in the headlights, scattered in different directions and covered his face. He evilly shook them out of his eyes and looked at everyone with a hunted look.

"Fag, didn’t you understand? Must we explain in Russian? We told you to have a haircut."

"Nazar, what will we do with the shaggy one?"

The window in the jeep standing nearby opened slightly, and Alexey heard Nazar's voice.

"Put him into the car. We should drive away from here. And then decide."

Before Lyosha could utter a sound he was pushed into the back seat of the Lincoln, at the feet of the mobsters sitting there, and was roughly pressed to the floor.

They drove a short time, and when he was pulled out of the car, he saw the train tracks and a platform nearby. It meant that they were near the hippodrome.

Pulling out of the car, they dragged him through the snow and tried to put him on his knees. He began to resist violently. That moment he opened some kind of internal forces, the presence of which he did not even suspect. Aleksey fought back, tried to strike, scratched, kicked, and bit.

"You see, what a lad!" the possy standing next to Nazar and Yefim exclaimed in surprise, watching this picture from the side.

"Only he doesn’t know how to fight," Nazar immediately saw that the guy, although desperately resisted, didn’t know how to fight.

"But he’s desperate," Yefim added, also contemplating everything that was happening.

Finally, the mobsters holding him were tired of this resistance, and the blows they received from the kicker guy were rough, and this led to the fact that Alexey received several hard blows to the stomach, then to the face. And when he fell, they began to kick him, and he could only cover his face with his hands. It was good that he was wearing a demi-season padding polyester jacket and two sweaters. All these softened blows.

"Enough!" Yefim said hoarsely, seeing that Nazar continued to observe silently this picture. "What are you; you will completely put the guy to death."

"Well, he looked for trouble."

"Enough, I said."

"What are you, Yefim. Do you want us to forgive him? For that, it is necessary to give him a good lesson to understand for the future."

"That's right, to give a good lesson is not to cripple. There are scissors in the trunk, bring."

When they brought the scissors, from the look of Yefim, the guys immediately understood that he had decided. Alexey was quickly lifted from the ground and kneeled,  they grabbed his hair. He tried to twitch, but got a few more blows to the stomach and subsided, and then he only heard the creak of scissors at his head and saw how his hair was falling down on the snow. The scissors were blunt, Lyosha sometimes felt that he was not being cut, and his hair was torn out along with the scalp.

Constant cries and comments were heard around him, but he did not hear that. Everything in his ears was noisy, blood was dripping from the nose, and a picture of what was happening was blurring before eyes.

Then he felt dragged under his arms forward and painfully lifted his head.

"Look, Nazar, admire. He became like a man."

Nazar, who was fascinated looking at what was happening all the time, now saw the face of a lad with a broken nose, bloody lips and tufts of remaining hair on his head. He casually glanced over his eyes and quickly looked away, realizing that he could not now look at the boy's eyes.

"Leave him. Let's go," Yefim spoke. "Petrovich is waiting for us. We have already lost much time on this one."

"Listen, we did give him the money for a haircut," one of the mobsters said, admiring Lyosha’s haircut, "somehow it didn’t work out well. Clearly, he spent money from a common cash fund, and who will return it? No, you understand us correctly," - he painfully lifted up Lyosha’s chin, - "if you had your hair cut, it would be all right. And in this case, it isn’t cool…"

"We'll turn on the meter. Tomorrow we’ll come for the money. You’ll return what we gave you, and if you don’t return, then the day after tomorrow the meter starts running, and by the end of the week, you’ll add a zero to that amount. Do you understand?"

Alexey was silent. Yefim spoke again.

"Let’s go. Tomorrow we will come and find out whether he understood or not."

Lyoshka felt that he was freed up, and he sat down in the snow. He saw the three cars turn around and drive out of the wasteland. He continued to sit, hearing the noise of an approaching train and the hum in his ears from the beat of his heart after all he had experienced.

Now he was scared. It had probably never been so scary in his life. He raised his eyes to the sky and burst into tears, biting broken lips and choking on tears.

When he felt that he was completely cold, Alyosha rubbed his face with snow, although it was difficult for him, as his fingers froze so that he could hardly obey him. He tried to get up but did not succeed the first time. He looked around, looking for his hat. It lay where they cut him. Limping, he slowly reached it. The lanterns from the railway were illuminating well enough a deserted wasteland, so he very clearly saw drops of blood on the snow and strands of hair gleaming with dim gold.

Alyosha was standing and looking at them, probably, they stand so over those who are buried, saying goodbye in their souls with something that cannot be returned. And he stood and forever buried his ended childhood, where there was a belief in goodness, justice, dreams of happiness and future in the illusory world created by him.

For the first time in his life, he faced real life in all its ugliness and disgust. He was hurt that the tale was over, and he realized that all this time he was deceiving himself. Here it was, real life, the one in which he would now have to live.

***

A pulled deeply cap and a scarf hid his tear-stained eyes and broken face from prying eyes on the train.

At home, he also managed to avoid attracting the attention of his grandmother with such a view. It was dark in the flat, he tried not to turn on the light and kept himself in the shadows all the time, his grandmother did not see well without glasses, and she felt bad again. Therefore, after feeding her dinner, he helped her go to bed, being glad that she did not notice anything.

That day, it was necessary to prepare food for his grandmother for the next day and there were also lessons, but he understood that he didn’t have enough energy for them. It was good that he had Genka, who, naturally, had never done his homework himself, but always found the opportunity to write it off from girls in their class. He could always sweet-talk anyone, it was his gift, and the girls listened to him and were led to his flattering speeches. Therefore, hoping for a friend to solve the problem of homework, Alyosha went to the kitchen.

From the scarce food supply for lunch, he decided to boil the stew soup by adding there peeled potatoes, carrots, and onions. And for the second course, it was necessary to fry the cutlets and cook buckwheat. All this distracted from what had happened and made it possible to hold on, but when, having finished cooking, he went into the bathroom and put off the cap from his head, which he put on as soon as he went home so that his grandmother did not suspect anything, here his last strength left him.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror and wept, rubbing tears over the sunken cheeks. From there, from the depths of the mirror, the frightened look of his reddened and swollen with tears eyes looked at him. He saw a thin face with an unnaturally large swollen nose, with a blue-red cheekbone and a sore gore on the lips. But not even that finally knocked him out of a delicate emotional balance. He saw his hair, what was left of it. Uneven shrubs of light hair stuck out on the head, somewhere with dried blood from cuts with scissors. Lyosha did not recognize himself, he had never cut his hair short, but now it was almost a zero haircut, only sloppy, and therefore he looked pathetic and miserable. He found the strength and, taking a pair of scissors, he cut those uneven bushes of hair that rose above the overall picture. After smoothing it all over, he undressed, got into the bath and turned on the shower. The shower tap was old and rusted. Hanging over the bath, it constantly dripped, and therefore, on no longer white enamel bath, there forever remained traces of red-brown rust smudges.

It was cold to stand, he sat into the bath and, clasping his knees with his hands, buried himself in them, feeling the tears mingle with the trickles of water. In order not to freeze completely, he forced himself to wash and slipped into his room. There, getting into bed, he curled up, quickly fell asleep. For the first time after that incident, he did not have this dream, where there were such gentle hands and it was so good. That day, he did not dream, he just fell into the void and woke up, emerging from it at the sound of the alarm clock.

***

The evening at Petrovich went wrong. Nazar tried to drink, but it was all in vain. For the first time here, at the stable, he felt uncomfortable as if he was ill at ease. Naturally, no one spoke to Petrovich about what they had done to Lyosha because everyone had forgotten about it and switched to rest. But Nazar felt as if he was hiding a bad deed, and therefore he felt disgusting. Vodka had a bad go, conversations were unnerving, and he could not go to look into the horse eyes. Although it was nonsense. Why couldn't he? What did he do wrong? That was all right. They warned the boy, gave money and time. He didn’t fulfill their order and received. It’s nothing, he would only become stronger, but he even didn’t know how to fight, although he was desperate, fearless. Another one would beg, would whine. In front of his guys, grown-up men on their knees crawled more than once, shitted their pants in fear, but this one only looked like a beast, did not even ask for mercy. Then what was wrong? Why was this disgusting feeling inside, as if he had committed meanness? And in general, why did he think about this?

- Why aren't you drinking? - Nazar flinched from Yefim’s voice.

- I want into the bathhouse.

- To celebrate freedom? After all, having parted with Natashka, you are now a free person.

-I was free before, but this case should be well celebrated, - Nazar abruptly rose from the table. -Lads! Let's go to the bathhouse.

The guys happily supported this idea. Walking down the aisle, Nazar called up one of them:

- We'll go to that bathhouse, where we were last time. Call, warn to wait and prepare everything on the highest level. And the best wenches are sent; the last time they brought such terrible ones, that even after vodka the dick did not get up.

The possy nodded and began to carry out the order.

In this bathhouse, Nazar decided to score a full ride. At first, they drank, and he watched half-naked tarts dance on the table, and then how his mobsters had them in a circle. Then he, having reached the stage of animal lust, took three of them and went to the steam room, where they served him for a long time with their mouth. Having relaxed there, they moved to the pool, and only then to the room, which was completely occupied only by the bed, and here he fucked these three with some kind of mad frenzy. So, in the morning, after waking up from vomiting spasms, he saw a sheet in the blood and semen.

Having barfed out here, on these sheets, all the contents of the stomach, he reached the toilet, where he continued to vomit and where he was found by Yefim, who brought his clothes there.

- Do you know how the girls who were with me are? There is blood on the sheet... - Nazar tried to get dressed, although his hands were shaking and he was shivering from a hangover.

- I settled everything. I paid the penalty, - seeing the question in Nazar’s eyes, Yefim explained, - you fucked one into the asshole yesterday, tore a little. She will live, do not worry.

***

All the way to the Yefim’s house Nazar silently looked out the window, realizing that, having vomited everything out of himself, he could not get rid of this feeling of nausea that was in him. He could not understand what he had done wrong, that now everything was not his joy, and the worst thing was that he was constantly haunted by the feeling of guilt, although there was nothing for that ... He looked up to the sky, it was bright, blue ... it became disgusting in his soul again.

In the evening, when he, having slept off, was sitting in Yefim’s kitchen and was drinking strong tea, recovering from yesterday's spree, the guys drove to Yefim. After talking about business, one, already leaving, remembered:

- We, by the way, drove to the hippodrome. To this trimmed athlete. He did not give away dough. So we turn on the meter.

Nazar nodded glumly. Lads, shaking hands with him, left, leaving Nazar with his thoughts one-on-one.

***

In school Lyoshka’s hairstyle was taken by everyone with a bang. Of course, the teachers scolded him because of a broken face, saying that it was not good to fight, but they were very glad that now he became like everyone.

The guys from his class even began to respect him, seeing Alyoshka’s beatings, and they took the buzz cut as a gangster style. It did not fit at all with his thin hands, thin neck and bony figure of a skinny teenager, but still look like a gangster, now it was considered cool. The girls also began to show more interest in him, rather, even they finally noticed him, because before he was invisible to them, and now he had a broken face and the buzz cut. Probably, this image for them, too, was associated with the image of a cool lad.

Alexey humbly listened to all in his address and, after the end of the lessons, as always, he first ran into the house to check and feed his grandmother, and then rushed off to the stable.

On this day he had two pieces of news: good and bad. The bad one was the arrival of these people who had cut him yesterday. But today they only clarified whether he brought the money or not. When they saw that he shook his head negatively, they just left in silence. Alyosha did not know how to return the money to them. The worst thing was that he did not even know how much money there was at all, although what difference it made. He had a list of drugs for his grandmother in his pocket, and today, once again making some money from the rental, he would go to the pharmacy to buy something that he hadn’t bought yet.

The good news was that next weekend he was going to the competition. There he had to jump on Badminton and Vienna. This news at once erased all the adversities from his consciousness. He didn’t want more happiness in his life. He had some time to prepare. Competitions were to be held in Bitz, on the arena. Of course, when you trained on a parade ground on the snow and then performed indoors on the sand, it was difficult. But what to do if there was no arena here, so you had to train as opportunities allowed.

In connection with the upcoming starts, Petrovich actively took on Alexey, knowing that he would not let him down and win. Now Petrovich stood with him on the parade ground every day and trained him on one or the other horse. The stress was serious, but Lyosha was happy. So happy that he even forgot about everything. Everything except the grandmother and everything else disappeared and dissolved. And when by the end of the week these guys arrived and asked about the money once again, which he should return, Alyosha remembered for a long time what they said, because he had just sprung clean all the training. Petrovich praised him and went to the stable, and happy Lyosha walked his horse and dreamed of upcoming competitions. The mobsters looked at him unkindly and left without saying anything.

***

Sarychev Bank was located in one of the lanes, not far from Tverskaya Street. It was not the first time that the lads had visited it. It was not surprising that Sarychev behaved self-confidently and defiantly. It was impossible to approach him within gunshot because of the number of guards around him and in his bank. Nevertheless, Nazar got into his office, and quite officially, under the guise of a very wealthy client.

When bank employees could not competently answer Nazar’s questions about transferring his considerable foreign capital to the accounts of this bank, then Nazar was appointed by the manager himself that was Sarychev. Nazar was good at banking matters, he had a solid top five in Mathematics at school, and the whole banking business was interesting and understandable to him. Therefore, he was fluent in all banking terminology and was well versed in this area. They believed his conversations,  swallowed them. He intelligently played possum with all the deputies of Sarychev and, after going through all the steps of the bureaucracy, got his audience.

Vladimir Leonidovich was sitting in a chair at the table. He quickly ran an eye over Nazar, who had dressed up in an expensive suit, shirt, and tie, with a very expensive Rolex watch on his hand. Sarychev pointed to a chair opposite him. He spoke first.

- I imagined you much older. My son is your peer. His name is Havre, he said thoughtfully, then, discarding the memories, he continued. - I am pleasantly surprised at your knowledge in the banking sector, and now I have to dismiss some of the employees who were so incompetent that they could not answer the questions of a bank client.

- You will also have to dismiss your guard that is so incompetent lets into the office of someone who will never be your client.

Nazar's eyes flashed with yellow sparks, Sarychev had already understood who was in front of him. He did not call the guard, knowing that this young man, tall with the correct manly features, did not come to kill him. He came to him with an offer. Then he should listen to him.

He should listen to deny him.

Sarychev supposed to hear insults, threats, warnings from a gangster sitting in front of him in the form of a businessman. But, apparently, he was mistaken in him. Sangfroid of this young man was remarkable; he behaved as if he was really moving in the banking circle, and not in the world of crime. Nothing violated his image; he played his role to the end.

Saying goodbye to Sarychev, he went out.

Vladimir Leonidovich loosened the tie knot, now all the tension that he kept in himself broke out. The one who left his office was scary, really scary. This man would stop at nothing in his goal, he was prudent, talented and soulless...

Sarychev pressed the console, inviting the security chief to his office, knowing that from that moment he was declared war since he did not accept the offer to rewrite the controlling stake and put their manager in his club. Vladimir Leonidovich knew that he had already signed the death sentence. He understood perfectly well that in this scheme he was already superfluous. And now he did not know how to save his wife and son.

“It is necessary today to call my son and tell him not to come back under any events. Only time, perhaps, will solve everything. We need to wait. Such gangsters, like this one, do not live forever either.”

Therefore, he would tell his son to wait, and for at least five years not to return here. There would be hell. Those like this gangster were many and many more people would be finished off in this war ... But his son must live and return here when many would kill each other, and then it would be possible to take their places and take what had belonged to them.

Sarychev poured himself a glass of whiskey and drank in one gulp.

“But it’s still too early to write me off. We’ll fight. What did you say your name? Nazar ... an interesting name, it seems to mean an intent look. "

He remembered Nazar's wolfish gaze with yellow sparks and realized that he could not defeat Nazar.

***

Coming out of Sarychev, Nazar got into the jeep, the door of which was opened to him by one of the mobsters, also dressed in a suit. Yefim was sitting inside, he was silent, waiting Nazar to tell.

- He will not agree to our terms, as I expected, - Nazar loosened the tie knot and lit a cigarette.

- Why do you think so? He realizes that he has no choice. You’ve given him time to think it over and answer. Maybe he decides to give up.

- This man is not accustomed to giving in. All his life he was in power and never bowed before anyone, he always bent others. Therefore, we will not wait. Let him think that he has the time that I’ve given him to answer. But I changed my mind, and we will be ahead of him, - Nazar turned to Yefim, - has everything worked out with his wife?

- Yes. Guys are pursuing her; there are weaknesses in their security. As soon as you give the command, we’ll take her.

- Call. Let them take her and drive to the appointed place. Let's not waste time.

Nazar drew on his cigarette and, turning away from the window, let out a trickle of smoke, watching how it was melting in the air.

Yefim took the Motorola phone next to him and, extending the antenna, dialed the number.

***

That evening, Nazar again offered everyone to go to the bathhouse, where he immediately took two prostitutes, went with them to a separate room, and again furiously fucked them. Another way it could not be called.

The last time something inexplicable was going on with him. It seemed everything was as before, even better than before. Their business went well, the money arrived. Even the situation with the intractable Sarychev did not strain him, and with all this supposed prosperity he was not himself. And yet he was constantly irritated by the reminder of this Lyosha, as the mobsters, having visited him and asking about money, reported to Nazar that the guy did not return the money.

And today, after Nazar left the wenches, again one of his men raised the topic about the debt of a trimmed, which he was not going to return.

- Nazar, let's go to his hut. Scare. He is impudent. Remember, when he was cut, how he behaved. And now. We come, like, to pick up the dough, but he is as cool as a cucumber; without turning an eyelash as if he did not care.

The guys indignantly made a noise, supporting the decision to teach the one who did not respect them. All were already quite tipsy, and therefore the desire to fling an insult on someone did not disappear but only intensified.

-Ok. Let's go. Do you know where he lives? – Perhaps, Nazar hoped to stop this topic for today by this question.

- Yes. I have learned his address from Petrovich a long time ago. In Kuntsevo, he lives, not far from the platform of the Workers' Settlement.

- Go.

Nazar angrily got up and began to dress quickly. He was infuriated by this Lyosha and that because of him now he could not live in peace. Perhaps if the guys shook off money from him, everything would calm down and they would forget about him.

Nazar smoked all the way in the car and, without finishing a cigarette, threw it into the open window of the jeep. Yefim was silent and only looked at him strangely.

Platform Begovaya. Book I. Chapter 6

           The stable life was always rich and diverse, and today, in the evening, when Alexey already wanted to go to change clothes to go home, he heard that someone from the horses was digging. It is the very first sign of horse colic when, with cramps in the stomach from indigestion, the horse begins to dig the bedding beneath itself, trying to relieve the pain. A colic is a regular event at any stable. They can have come from rotting hay, loose oats, or it is just a reaction of the body to the change of weather in old horses.

Alexey knew what to do if this happened. During the time he spent at the stable, he had seen enough of such colic, and even with fatal outcomes, since it was not always possible to save the horse from an obstruction in the intestines.

Alexey, quickly coming into Ampere’s stall and seeing that it was covered with sweat over the sides, put a halter and led it into the aisle to walk. Having reached the storeroom, he called Petrovich, who, seeing the horse, shouted to Makha and instructed her to rush to the infirmary for the doctor on duty.

Lyosha continued to walk his horse down the stable aisle, the horse intestines relaxed slightly at a walk, and this reduced pain and spasms. Gradually, such a step could even normalize the horse bowel work, but this did not always help, it all depended on the specific case.

After two hours, during which they all: the veterinarian, Petrovich, Lyosha, and Masha rescued the horse by giving it an enema, pouring a weak solution with vodka into his mouth and stepping, and then putting the catheter with the solution and again walking along the aisle, they came to a more or less stable result.

The veterinarian left the saline and said that in two hours it was necessary to drip the horse three more liters, then walk a little and by the morning, depending on its condition, to drip the saline again. She strictly warned that they would not leave the horse unattended, but check it constantly, as the repeated symptoms of colic could recur at any time. Having said all this, Maria Sergeevna left.

Petrovich absently looked around, realizing that he was not ready to do this himself all night long.

"Lyosh, can you stay to help?" he asked.

"I am now running into the main building, I'll call home. If everything is fine with my grandmother, then I will stay."

"Come on, run."

And Alyosha ran through the racetrack of the hippodrome already dark in the night to the main building, knowing that the person on duty had a landline telephone and he would allow him to call.

His grandmother's cheerful voice pleased him that meant today she felt fine, and he could be with the sick horse all night. This was not the first time that he was on duty. Grandmother, of course, scolded him but allowed to stay at the stable.

Lyoshka rushed back on the jump.

Masha and the rest of the girls, wishing him good luck, went home. Of course, they could have stayed too, but after all, Ampere was his horse, he was responsible for it, and that meant that he had to heal it. These are the unspoken rules on any stable.

***

Ampere stood in the loose box, tied for the lead rope, which was attached to the halter and then to the lattice, all this did not allow it to lie down. With colic, it was impossible to allow the horse to lie in order to avoid a twisted gut. Lyosha knew all this and therefore checked the knot again on the lead rope so that it would not be untied. But Ampere came to terms with his fate and calmly stood with his eyes closed dozing while saline was poured into his neck vein through a tube. Alexey stood next to him and controlled the whole process.

 

The time was approaching midnight when he heard the noise of a driving car, and then the pops of doors. He walked around the horse and stood up so that he was not visible. At the stable, carrying bags in two hands, Nazar passed, he was very shaky, and apparently, he was already drunk.

Lyosha sat in the stall, waiting for the other mobsters, but no one else passed. He was surprised that today Nazar arrived alone.

Five minutes later Petrovich came out of the storeroom and looked into the loose box with Ampere and Alexey.

"Nazar has arrived ... something happened to him ... you sit quietly here, do not roam much in the stable, he will still have a drink in the storeroom."

Seeing that Alexey nodded, Petrovich retired to the room.

Not but that Lyosha was afraid of Nazar's arrival, just now, when the horse life was threatened, he didn’t want to be kicked again. He had to be with a horse. This was important now. If it were not for the horse, he would generally proudly walk out into the aisle, removing his hat from his head and showing his hairstyle, which these scumbags did not like. But not now...

***

Nazar got to his Natashka not soon. There was a lot to do with Arkhipovsky and the business of Sarychev. During this time, they several times got involved in showdowns with shootouts, there were even some spectacular chases on the Moscow Ring Road with shooting and throwing Arkhipovsky’s cars off the road. For all these events, he did not have time to get to her, but as soon as a slight lull formed, Nazar, having bought a huge bouquet of pink roses, two packages of food and drink and an expensive engagement ring with a diamond, rushed to her.

Natasha met him strangely cold and, accepting a bouquet, said that they needed to talk. Nazar stiffened but walked into the kitchen, where he sat on a stool and lit up. Natasha remained standing in the doorway of the kitchen, putting the flowers on the table, and leaving the packages on the floor untouched.

"Has anything happened to you?"  Nazar decided that something could happen to a person during this time, and he was not even interested in her life.

 

"I'm alright…"

 

"Then first let me say... Here it is."

 

Nazar opened the box with the ring and set it on the table.

 

"Let's get married."

 

Natasha took a box with a ring, her eyes flashed with delight because of the size of this diamond and beauty of the ring; it was gold with white gold, intertwined with a scattering of small diamonds, and this stone in the center. A very large diamond glittered with fascinating magic lights in its depth. But then she forced herself to put the box back on the table.

 

"I will not marry you."

 

"Is something wrong?"her answer hurt Nazar, but he did not show it.

 

"Everything is all right!" This conversation had already begun to annoy Natasha, besides in half an hour Andrey was to come to her. "I do not love you. I do not love! Is it enough?"

 

"Yes."

 

Nazar slowly got up and walked to the exit. At the doorstep, Natasha caught him up and shoved up a box with a ring into his clenched palms.

 

"Take it."

 

Nazar walked out of her apartment door and heard the slam of the door being closed behind his back, it echoed deeply in the soul with pain. Right now, standing on the landing area and holding a box with a ring in his hand, he understood the whole essence of the expression: “To crap a soul up”. Yes, that's how he now felt himself and his soul, which was crapped.

 

Of course, in their relationship, he also was not completely honest with her. And during this time, he with the guys several times participated in boozes with prostitutes in the bathhouse. But it was a part of his life. He could not help being there, he was the leader, the leader of the pack, he had to be with everyone and share their way of life. Although in general, this year he really tried to improve and was preparing for family life, where there should be no place for adultery, so he spent all his free time with her. Well, he could not be blamed for stinginess. Everything that she wanted, he bought, even without delving into the value of these things and in general, why she needed them in such quantity. He liked to provide Natasha, and he was ready to gradually change his life, to settle down to married life: to get a wife and then kids. He wanted to have children, necessarily a son, and a daughter. Probably, in dreams, he already imagined everything, how he would continue to live and build his life. But for some reason, his dreams were trampled in the mud. He only could not understand why? What did he do wrong? Why didn’t she love him for all this time? Why did she reject him?

 

Nazar felt disgusting.

 

At first, he thought to go to the lads and organize a bathhouse visit with them to call the best prostitutes of Moscow. But then he realized that he did not want anything, much less want to see anyone and talk to someone. He needed to be alone with himself, with his thoughts, with his pain. He needed a place where he could relieve feelings.

So he came to the stables. Petrovich already wanted to leave, but, naturally, he stayed longer, agreeing to have a drink with him. So they drank. In the intervals between the plentiful libations, Nazar left the storeroom and went to Amethyst's loose box, where he sat down on the hay and watched Mitya chewing it and talked to the horse, sharing his pain. Amethyst understood him, it moved its ears, squinted at him with its bright eye, and with appetite, it took rusks and pieces of sugar from his hands. And Nazar spoke and spoke and it became easier for him because he did not keep this pain in himself.

Then he got up, pressed against the horse warm neck, inhaling its scent, stroked its soft fur and went back to the storeroom to continue to drink.

***

The night at the stable for Nazar was strange. He either fell into a half-drunk oblivion and fell asleep in the loose box in the hay next to the calmly standing Amethyst, or returned to the storeroom, where, unable to withstand such libations, drunk Petrovich had already been out of his mind and lay on the couch, covered with one of the horse rugs.

Once again, Nazar regained consciousness from the fact that the horse had shifted from one foot to the other and noisily breathed the air. Amethyst squinted at him with his eye, probably still understanding his heartache, because horses feel everything, but they cannot say anything.

He got up, ran his hand over the warm neck of the horse and left the loose box. A shadow flashed at the end of the stable. Nazar saw that the fair-haired little girl quickly disappeared into the tack room. He was certain that at that time they were alone at the stable, but no, obviously, one of the helping girls again stayed to spend the night. Such a phenomenon was often if someone did not have time to go home on the last train or underground, then they stayed overnight in the tack room. There were chests in which horse equipment was kept. Here they spent the night, spreading out a few blankets and having covered by them. The chests stood under brackets attached to the wall, on which the saddles were hung. Hooks were fastened along the other wall, bridles and cords hung on them, lashes and whips stood in the corner.

Nazar wondered who was that fair-haired lass, he didn’t seem to have seen her here before; she was probably a new girl. Deciding to find out who was she and how long she was here, he moved toward the closed door down the aisle.

***

All this time, Alyosha listened to Nazar's emotional outpourings, standing through three loose boxes from him next to Ampere. He felt extremely uncomfortable, like a man who overheard, but he did not know what to do in this situation. He could not leave a horse into whose neck vein a needle was stuck and saline poured through a tube. And he couldn’t tell Nazar that he was here, either, what would he do and who would stay with a sick horse then. Alyosha knew the fact that Petrovich was already asleep and nobody would wake him up. Now it was not necessary for Petrovich to drink a lot, as before, he only had a small amount of alcohol and it knocked him unconscious until the morning.

So, tormented by conscience, Alexey stood and listened to Nazar's heartfelt story about some Natashka, from whom he wanted children and was ready to do everything for her, but everything turned out bad. Now Lyosha understood why Nazar got drunk, it probably hurts when the one you love so much rejects your feelings.

Lyosha was sorry for Nazar, really sorry. He believed that no one deserved this, even Nazar. The boy did not harbor bad feelings for Nazar’s fault-finding to his hair.

After thinking about the hairstyle, he once again scratched his head under the cap; his hair slandered and reacted painfully to touching them.

"I need to wash my hair later."

Alexey decided that as soon as this package with saline ended and he blocked the catheter, then the horse could be left unattended for half an hour.

Having finished with a drip, Alyosha went to the toilet. It’s good that it was warm since there was a large cast-iron battery in it. Passing his eyes through the shelves, he found a shampoo. The girls brought shampoos to the stables, as they often washed their heads here and allowed Lyosha to take their shampoos. In a jar, the shampoo was at the bottom, but that was enough for him. He bent over the sink and put his head under the faucet, then shampooed wet hair, there appeared the smell of orange in the toilet. The shampoo spread a pleasant orange smell around. Having washed the hair under the faucet, he rubbed it with a public towel hanging on a rope and decided that while he had time for hair to dry out, he would go to the tack room and smear the bridles.

Like a mouse, he slipped there, closed the door behind him and took the bridle, unbuttoning the straps on it and preparing it for smearing with a special cream.

A door creaked behind him, he turned sharply at the sound and saw Nazar.

Nazar, entering the tack room, closed the door behind him. The girl, standing with his back turned sharply. Her blond, golden hair soared into the air and then fell, framing her face and gleaming in the dim light of a light bulb. It seemed to Nazar that he had already seen her somewhere, or he had seen that hair color. He tried to focus and remember, but before the eyes, the picture was a little twofold, and his thoughts were confused.

Frozen, apparently, from surprise, the lass quickly rushed to the exit. Nazar as a predator instantly reacted to this movement, intercepting her palm and holding it in front of him.

Her hand was warm and smooth and from her the stupefying smells of orange spread. Nazar sniffed the air and met her eyes. The eyes, sky-blue, even in such dim lighting, as clear as dawn ... why he remembered them ... somewhere he had already seen them. But even this did not bother him now. Suddenly, within himself, he felt the joy that he had found them, those eyes, and the one he had been searching for so long. And here she was standing so close, and there was an orange scent, and her breath lost. Evidently, he scared her.

He looked at her lips, watching like she was trying to say something, but it was clear from the excitement that she could not utter words. He saw those lips, no, they were not plump, they were beautiful as if their contour was circled a little brighter, and that made them look so seductive...

She twitched, but weakly or Nazar held her so tightly ... and again it would have been like a signal to the predator when in a moment all the brakes holding him went off and with all his weight he pressed her into the wall, where the bridles were hanging, and dug into her lips. These lips, at first they shrank so tightly, but Nazar began to passionately caress them with his tongue, penetrating between them and asking to open them and let him in, and suddenly they opened, and then a hot wave spread all over his body, tearing everything down. He dug into her mouth, penetrating his tongue as best he could into its most sweet depth, intertwining with her tongue and reveling in her taste. His hands were holding her first, and then he wanted to touch that hair, which drove him crazy with golden shimmer, and he ran his fingers through that hair, caressing and feeling their silk. Gradually, his hands began to descend to her shoulders, and then he grabbed her slender waist and pulled her closer to him. He wanted to break through all these sweaters and jerseys put on her in order to feel her body, which suddenly began to tremble from his kisses.

At first, Alyosha froze from everything that had happened, pressed into the wall, and only as if from the side he realized that his mouth was covered with Nazar’s mouth and what was happening could not be understood. After all, trying to slip out of the room, he was ready for Nazar to strike him or even beat him, but instead, he felt how his persistent language penetrated his mouth, and it was so nice...

And here Alyosha realized it was that very kiss, a real kiss, about which he had read so much in school literature, he had seen in the movies and even had seen live a couple of times, like high-school students had been kissing in dark corners during a school disco. He had never kissed, and now what Nazar was doing with his mouth was a kiss. But this was Nazar...

Lyosha tried to twitch, it was useless. Nazar's hands were everywhere, first in his hair, then on his clothes, and then under it. He tensed again, thinking that Nazar wanted to penetrate under his clothes in order to hit him. But for some reason, the hands that were touching his body were so affectionate and gentle.

They did not beat him and did not do anything that would bring pain. They just stroked, slightly clenching and then again unclenching his skin, which began to burn from this and his whole body literally began to burn. And he felt the heat, which began to fill him.

The kiss stopped only for brief seconds to breathe air, and then again Alyosha's lips found themselves in some kind of sweet captivity. His thoughts began to dissolve in the strange pleasant heat of bliss and unearthly kaif, which he had never felt before. He heard a groan, but he was moaning at Nazar’s lips. But why? After all, it didn’t hurt him, he felt surprisingly good.

-How frail you are, - in his ears he heard distant words through the noise from the pulsation of blood and did not understand their meaning. His legs became wadded, and he, in order not to fall, clutched his weakening fingers into these shoulders. And in order not to lose Nazar’s lips, he stood on his tiptoes. After all, he was a whole head taller than him, although Alyosha was already under meter seventy, still, he had to reach out, clinging hands to his shoulders. And when those tender lips left him for a second, he touched them and clumsily covered them with his own.

"You’re silly ... you don't even know how to kiss..."

These words did not embarrass Alyosha, he again dug into those lips, but Nazar quickly took the initiative and Lyosha completely relaxed, feeling how ecstatic it was when you were kissed like that.

This was the first time with Nazar. He did not even understand what happened to him. In an instant, he was just as covered up by the tsunami, and he turned into a flaming fire of such a desire that everything in the pants swelled so much that it hurt. But it was a sweet pain; he reveled in what he felt now. And when the one that he kissed so enthusiastically and could not get enough, suddenly clung to his shoulders and answered him, his mind finally overshadowed by passion. He felt her trembling at his hands; he felt her body began to burn from his caresses. He heard her moans and her desire, which she expressed in such an inept but so passionate kiss.

He could no longer tolerate, and she had already all melted in his hands. Out of habit, Nazar put his hand between the legs of the girl and realized that she was in trousers. Although what was surprising here, all the girls at the stable always go in their trousers, he squeezed not a prostitute in a miniskirt... Without breaking the kiss and not letting her go, he began to penetrate with his hand into her trousers, and finally, he succeeded. She groaned so sweetly in his lips that this moan was reflected in his desire, and he felt her trembling, but in his hand, Nazar felt something solid and lubricating...

Hop flew off instantly from Nazar. He pushed her away from him a little, looking at her eyes, which had been loosened by passion, swollen lips, and burning cheeks, and slowly took his hand out of her trousers.

"Alyosha ..." Nazar squeezed out of himself hoarsely and froze in front of him.

Hearing his name, Lyosha, who was almost at the peak of orgasm and one more movement there with Nazar’s hand by his swollen and pulsating member would lead him to an awesome relaxation, slowly opened his eyes and saw the changed look of his eyes with yellow animal lights. All his excitement instantly fell, and complete emptiness had come. There was an emptiness inside and around him. He simply was standing and looking into those cold eyes of a wolf with yellow sparks.

Nazar swallowed saliva, breathed out the air from the lung and silently left the tack room. Lyosha staggered and felt behind him the wall, leaned against it, and then slid down it to the floor. His legs did not hold him, his hands shook, and there were tears in his eyes. Now he realized the horror of everything that had happened. He kissed a guy ... He kissed Nazar...

Alyosha nestled against his knees and wept bitterly. His tantrum probably would have lasted a long time, but he remembered Ampere, whom he needed to go check out, and it was time to put on another drip. And then, having gathered all his courage, he got up, looked around for a hat lying on the chest, pulled it almost on his eyes and quietly went out into the passage of the stable.

Nazar, going into the storeroom, began to look for the keys to his jeep to leave immediately. He could not find the keys. Giving up on them, he decided to catch the car, but he was taken to the side. Probably, a sharp sobering-up from the shock of what happened had already passed, and now all the drunken alcohol had covered him with a new force. Nazar grabbed the chair and flopped into it, deciding to sit for a while and then walk. In this chair, he was knocked out. How he fell asleep, he did not even remember.

The morning began unkindly for him. He woke up from emetic urges, and when he tried to get up, he felt pain in all muscles. His whole body was numb from the fact that he was sitting up all night in an armchair. Having straightened up, he went to the toilet. Having vomited everything that was in the stomach into the lavatory pan, he washed for a long time, and when he looked up, he collided with the eyes of his reflection in the mirror. And here the last night caught him unawares. He remembered everything that was yesterday, clearly, to the smallest details...

Nazar groaned and bent over the sink. Then he sniffed up the air, trying to regain his breath. A faint orange scent hit his nostrils. He looked for its source and saw a jar of shampoo on the shelf. Taking it and opening the lid, he felt the scent of his hair...

He threw the shampoo away from and straightened up, internally gathered, left the toilet. Picking up his jacket and the keys to the jeep, which lay on the table all this time, Nazar left the room.

Alexey, giving hay to the horses early in the morning, swept the passage of the stable. On the steps echoing along the aisle, he lifted his head and froze, unable even to move. Nazar went to meet him. Alyosha squeezed the stalk of a broom so that his fingers turned white but he did not even feel it. He just stood and watched him approach. Without delaying the step, and passing by Alexey, who was standing with a broom, Nazar threw on the move, "Forget it," and walked on, and then walked out of the stable, closing the door behind him.

He got into the jeep, lit a cigarette, started the car and drove slowly to the exit from the hippodrome. No matter how he wanted to think about what had happened, his mind did not obey him and his thoughts kept returning to what happened.

He remembered him, his body responded to his caress, his sweet lips, his quiet moans, his inept kisses...

Never had a girl melted like that in his hands. All those whores, who he fucked for his money, just portrayed passion. He saw it, but indeed he didn’t care, he simply had them, satisfying his physiology. There he loved Natashka, but only she didn’t tremble like that from his caresses, there was no such sincerity and feeling in her moans and return kisses...

“He, probably, did not kiss anyone ...” it flashed through Nazar’s head, recalling the inept Lyoshka’s kiss.

But then other thoughts began to eclipse it all. The realization that he had kissed a guy and how it was called and who he was after that.

“No! I was drunk. I'm not like that. And I will never be a fagot. I need to forget all this and live on, to forget everything and this petty little fag. All has happened because of him ... with his lochs, hairstyle, like a girl's, so he mixed up”.

Having understood what had happened, Nazar calmed down. He drove the car through the still free Moscow streets at this early hour in the direction of Yefim’s house.

***

Nazar was rarely in his apartment. He lived with his parents, who, having understood who their son had become, tried to sensitize him and bring him back from a slippery slope. His mother worked all her life as a primary school teacher, and his father as a mechanic at the plant. But they considered themselves to be the Moscow intelligentsia, which was alien to the current ideology of striving for power and money. They were very upset that their son changed so much after returning from the army. They, having educated him and instilling culture and upbringing from childhood, were shocked that he did not follow in his father’s footsteps and did not work at the plant, but decided to move into new-fangled trends. They did not even take money from him from the principles, believing that they were in the blood of those from whom he had taken it. At first, such rejection of parents greatly hurt Nazar, but then he humbled himself and usually came to them occasionally to spend the night in his room and quickly left for his business. Since he had no place to live, Yefim sheltered him in his two-room flat. Yefim got a whole flat after the death of his wife, and all the relatives of the wife who claimed it, somehow abruptly abandoned their claims. Since Yefim lived alone, he let Nazar live with him. Although before, Nazar often stayed with Natashka, now, apparently, he had to constrain Yefim with his constant presence, as he did not want to go to the parents.

They got along well with Yefim, who, after two wives, no longer wanted to start a family, and only in the mood sometimes brought one-time girlfriends to his flat. When this happened, Nazar went to his lads, not to interfere with the rest of a friend.

Now he was driving to him because after everything that had happened, he had to rest in bed and he was still sick of yesterday’s alcohol.

***

Opening the door for him, Yefim did not ask questions, silently let inside. Only later, when Nazar came out of the bathroom, where he stood under the shower for half an hour, recovering from everything, Yefim said that breakfast was ready.

Having eaten silently, they lit a cigarette. Yefim again remained silent. Then Nazar spoke himself, "I was at Natashka yesterday ... we broke up. She doesn't want to marry me," he said detachedly.

"Do you love her much?"

"I don’t know ... but it’s dreary after all..."

"I understand ... I was married twice ... and nothing good came of it ... " Yefim got up and opened the window so that the tobacco smoke would dissipate faster from the kitchen.

"But you have two sons growing up ..."

Yefim understood what Nazar kept back about, about his desire to have children.

"What do you care about this, you're still young. You will find another, and to do children is simple."

Nazar silently smoked. Yefim got up, having heard the whistle of the boiling kettle, and silently poured boiling water into two prepared cups, then poured into them from the teapot for the tea leaves.

"Sugar is on the table," he pointed to the sugar bowl, "ou boozed up somewhere after that ...”

"I went to the stable, drank with Petrovich there."

"I see." Yefim sat back on his stool and, holding a cup of tea to his lips, continued to examine Nazar’s face.

Strange reminiscences of this nocturnal event came to Nazar’s mind, and he became angry with himself for this and said viciously, "There this one with the goofs was ... well, that athlete of Petrovich hasn’t cut his hair ..."

"What are you stuck to him, don’t you have other affairs?"

Nazar was silent for a long time, coping with the inner storm, then said, "Then let's talk about business, what's up with Sarychev?"

"Sarychev Vladimir Leonidovich, he is now fifty-five. A Muscovite, a former party worker, a notable bigwig, has always been with the public trough in power, that is why he has money and connections. Married, has a son - Gavriil Vladimirovich. By the way, he sent his son to England to study as a small child; he studies at Oxford there, now he continues to study for a bachelor. In Russia he does not come. Sarychev and his wife fly there to visit the son. Now Sarychev has a bank and a large club, has a casino in Moscow. Here," Yefim showed Nazar a business card with the name of the bank and casino since he could not read French.

Nazar turned in his hands the leaves of cardboard with ornate, but very stylish inscriptions. On one was written “Grand la banque européenne”, on the second “Or le paradis”.

"And what does it mean?" asked Yefim.

“The Big European Bank” and “the Golden Paradise”, as he called his club,"  Nazar studied French at school, so he calmly read these names.

Nazar very carefully looked through the sheets of numbers. These were the balances of one and the second enterprises of Sarychev obtained for him. The amounts of profits were impressive. Moreover, Nazar understood that most of the profit was hidden from taxes. His eyes sparkled with yellow sparks.

"I need this business," he looked at Yefim, "we need Sarychev’s business. It must be ours. This is our chance."

"Do you want to make him pay us for protection?"

"I want to take everything from him completely. It is necessary for him to rewrite a controlling stake in me, and in the casino, we will put our manager to control the money. Meanwhile, nominally his wife will remain the owner of all this, respectively, and receive a small part of the profit."

"I understand, there is no place for Sarychev in this plan..."

"You correctly understand everything. Sarychev is a great bigwig, he has connections “in high places”, serious connections. If he continues to live ... he will destroy us. The only one will win this war, the second must die."

"Why do you leave his wife alive then?"

"She is the owner of all this and will even receive from this part of the profits. If we kill her, we’ll be liquidated by those who will decide to avenge Sarychev but no one will touch the business of the unfortunate widow."

"And the son? He is the direct heir. He will return from England and enter into his rights."

Yefim went to the window and, looking at the lights of the windows of the neighboring house, said thoughtfully, "Gavriil ... Havre... When he comes back, then we’ll decide what to do with him. If he is accommodating, he will live, and if not, he’ll follow his father."

Yefim was silent, realizing that he was not mistaken in Nazar, this one would go over the corpses to his goal without doubt and regret.

"How are we going to act?" he asked Nazar still standing at the window.

"I need to talk to Sarychev, calmly explain everything to him. For this, I will go to his office."

"Nazar, it is too risky."

"You know, who does not risk, he does not drink champagne."

"You are crazy ..." Yefim paused, then asked, "well, and then what?"

"Further ... He will know what I want from him. And naturally, he won’t do it. That's when we kidnap his little wife and wait for him to crock. And then it is a matter of technology. We’ll make a meeting. He will hand over all the papers signed and verified by our lawyer, and we’ll return his wife. Well, and then ... I don't need him anymore."

Yefim understood what Nazar was talking about. After talking about the case for half an hour and discussing an exact plan of action, Nazar finished his tea and went to the room that had already become his own. He wanted to fall on the bed and fall into slumber, and the most important was no longer to think about what had happened last night.