Magical Dubai. Liya Shadat
office where she spent her working days carefree, making coffee for the chef and his guests. She accepted gifts, flirted with younger employees and dreamed that when she retired, she and her husband would buy a small house in the village and grow pomegranates.
But as you know, sometimes our dreams remain dreams, and the realities are real. Life is such that today you are on a horse, and tomorrow you can be under a horse. For Nazakat, the bed with its «king size» seemed like such a horse now.
The neighbor showed how it is more convenient to climb under the bed, what to lie on.
«It’s only about 20 or 30 minutes,» she explained. – After that, you can climb out, go down, rest. You and I will walk the streets together. If you see me filming with someone, quickly give me a sign and go inside. Get ready and wait. And I warn you, sometimes customers can burp, fart, sniff, hiccup. Don’t you dare laugh. I had one of them, from Uzbekistan – she was born. The Iraqi disfigured her so much, her memory remained for the rest of her life. A huge scar on his forehead and a dislocated jaw. So she left for her native Bukhara. I had to change my house. Sometimes I change them so that they don’t guess.
– And how much did you earn from this? Nazakyat asked quietly.
– At first everything went like clockwork. But then I stopped. My Ali has become a good help. But this year he got married. Lafa is over. He doesn’t have enough himself.
– Listen, and when they find the loss, they won’t come back, they won’t raise a scandal, – the incredulous Nazakat asked.
– The trick is that when he came to me, I was alone. I don’t have cupboards. I’m not going out. You can’t hide it in the toilet. So they think that they either dropped it somewhere along the way, or lost it while in a hurry. Fuck them. The main thing is that you don’t get caught.
Nazakyat sat with her head down and listened in silence. The prospect of spending the remaining short years of her life as a mole, only not blind, but deaf, depressed her. But the trouble started. A person, as you know, gets used to a lot. Yes, and the all-powerful female curiosity took up…
To her credit, she quickly mastered the techniques of diving under the bed. Helped, slim build and skills developed while still working as a secretary, patience. And I had to work in this way only 2—3 days a week. The rest of the time she cleaned the store. She didn’t particularly like to remember, but some episodes brought her to tears with laughter.
As a rule, many people settled with Leila, that was the name of a neighbor, and now a business partner, right away, having agreed on the street. The amounts were often very meager.
Some even offered to just eat and fruit in addition. For example, watermelon or melon. So, Leila bargained with an old man from Kuwait. Small, puny, looking like an old man Hottabych, he waved his hands furiously when Leila asked him for 500 dirhams ($ 140).
– La, la, la (no, no, no Arabic.)
She slightly lowered the price to 450 dirhams. In response, again violent waving. Neither 300 nor 200 dirhams suited him. He turned out to be extremely stingy. Enraged, Leila walked away from him, wagging her hips and swaying her lush breasts as she walked. Old Hottabych hobbled after her, muttering something to himself. On the way, he bought 2 melons. And when Layla was about to turn the corner, he called out to her. We agreed on 100 dirhams, and for dessert – melons. After explaining in Arabic to the miser (Deila spoke several dialects tolerably well) where to go up, she quickly entered the room, kicked the bed with her foot (signal). Nazakat, who had almost fallen asleep, tensed up and began to wait. At the same time, she prayed tirelessly and read surahs from the Koran in a low voice.
.All she remembered was some kind of grunting and muttering. The «massage» lasted quite a long time. Little by little, Nazakat began to fall asleep. She woke up when banknotes flew into her face – Kuwaiti dinars. She quickly began to fold them. The groaning old man Hottabych, slowly crawled out of bed, she could see his skinny ankles, also grumbling, dressed his gondura and hobbled out of their dwelling. But after a few minutes, she and Leila heard his senile screeching. Apparently, on the street, he discovered the loss of 20,000 Kuwaiti dinars.
«Serves him right,» Leila responded calmly, looking down from the window. – A miser pays twice. I wanted to get off with a melon. Shoe cover (stingy) wood.
Nazakat had already crawled out from under her shelter and, looking at Leila counting bills, was silent. She felt sorry for the hapless old man Hottabych.
«Probably the same as me – a pensioner; children, grandchildren, wife at home»…
Leila somehow read her thoughts.
– Feel sorry for yourself. The Emir of Kuwait gives him money from birth until his death. And our Aliev shows you big and fat. It’s not a horseradish to climb around Dubai and stare at women, it’s your own fault.
Nazakyat sighed and then laughed. It is visible not only to her alone in her old age, Shaitan got into her brains, but also to old Hottabych, gray in his beard, a demon in his rib.
«I wonder what he was doing in Dubai?» she asked Leila.
_ I don’t know. Probably came to the shopping festival, to collect gifts for children and grandchildren.
She counted the bills – there were 20 pieces of thousands of dinars. Half was given to Nazakyat.
– Here you go. 10,000 is yours. This is 100,000 dirhams. 27,000 dollars.
– How much?, – Nazakyat couldn’t believe her ears.
– Yes, yes, as much as I’ve heard. Cool money, cool country, cool emir,» Leila summed up with satisfaction. – Eh, there would always be such grandfathers. I would have bought a pink villa in Baku a long time ago.
But it was very rare for combinators to be so «lucky». In other cases, the «catch» was very insignificant. Sometimes there were customers with bank cards. Then Leila quickly withdrew sums from their account. Also small.
And surprisingly, she was right. Almost no one returned after discovering the loss. «Sleight of hand and no cheating,» Leila joked.
But one day there was a misfire. On one of the usual evenings, Nazakyat, as usual, settled down at her «workplace» and was just getting ready to say a prayer when the door to the hallway slammed and someone hurriedly entered the room. He stopped, lay low. Leila was in the toilet at the time. The alien plopped down heavily on the bed and waited for the hostess. Apparently, he weighed decently. The bunk sagged a little under him. Thinking that he was alone, without hesitation, he began to emit miasma and fart loudly. Nazakat plugged her nose. So about 10 minutes passed.
Leila came in in a short silk robe and sat down on the edge of the bed. Nazakyat heard some scuffling, and then, quite unexpectedly, a round head overgrown with hair and beard hung down. Simultaneously, both the Nazakat and the head uttered an exclamation of surprise. But if she knew about the presence of the owner of the head in the room, then the latter was completely at a loss.
– Astafyrla, shaitan, – the head instantly shouted. Quickly jumping off the bed, pulling on his pants and outerwear, the owner of the head disappeared, slamming the door. Crawling out from under the bed, Nazakat found Leila sitting cross-legged on the bed. She looked at Nazakyat and was silent.
«Oh, what’s wrong with him,» she asked Leila uncertainly.
– Fuck knows. He began to crawl on the bed like a fat worm. Did he see you or something?
– Yes, in my opinion. What if he brings the police?, – Nazakyat was scared.
– Hardly. To be afraid. It will also be closed. And what will he tell them. You’re leaving now. Me too. We’ll close the door. Let’s sleep better,» Layla yawned and turned off the light.
And the terrified Nazakyat could not sleep until the morning. I was still afraid of the shaggy head with bulging eyes.
…Time