Chipped blockheads. Fedor Laburchenko
So why are you asking me, you fool? Go, otherwise by the time you limp across to get home, she will sell your mother’s house. You’ll be a hobo, dearie!
Grandma Shura laughed. However, Nikolai didn’t find it funny. KOLYA (completely sobered up): Wait a minute, Grandma Shura. Are you sure? Is Mashka really here? She hasn’t come since we… well… since our mother was buried…
GRANDMA SHURA (with sympathy): Well, I know. Grandma Shura knows everything. I’m telling you, she has just arrived. I bet.
KOLYA: I don’t care a damn about your bets! Why did Masha come? Kolya seemed to ask this question not to Grandma Shura but to himself.
GRANDMA SHURA (pretending not to know about the bad relations between brother and sister): What’s wrong? Has she arrived or not – who cares?
KOLYA: Well, she and I, let’s say, don’t get along. Cos she slinked out to the city and left me with my sick mother. Alone. I can’t forgive her for this, Grandma Shura, I can’t!
GRANDMA SHURA (taking Nikolai’s palm into her hands): Why are you telling me this, Kolenka? I remember everything. The name of the disease is… foreign… pattypan, or what?
KOLYA (corrected her): Parkinson’s.
GRANDMA SHURA (didn’t catch): Parkisyan! Exactly. You went through much, sonny, one wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy. And what about Masha? Did she say anything in exuse?
KOLYA (smirking): She said it! “I wanted to find a cure for this parkinsonism,” said she. All the scientists in the world can’t come up with this, but she left to get it. A genius from the village!
The guy waved his hand expressively.
KOLYA: Grandma Shura, by heaven, I don’t even remember her. I don’t wanna see her. I won’t go home. I’ll sleep in the thicklets, if needed.
GRANDMA SHURA: Bad idea. You should go and have a look. She’s a city girl now, your Masha. Hell knows what they have in their heads, these city girls. She will sell the house and drain you dry. Go, Kolya, go.
KOLYA (nervously): The hell with you, Grandma Shura, I’ll go. Grandma SHURA: So go now.
And Kolya headed for his house. Grandma Shura continued her way, carefully looking around in order not to miss any significant events that could happen in the village that day.
Scene 5
Maria entered the empty house of her parents. The fact that the doors were wide open did not surprise the girl: her brother Kolya had not closed them for a long time. He wasn’t afraid of thieves because he had nothing valuable there for a long time. Perhaps except for the books in the closet that Masha and Kolya read from cover to cover in their troublefree childhood; and a CD collection with chess training sessions, which helped young Nikolai rise from a beginner to a regional champion in this sport. Masha looked at the old things and slowly plunged into memories of her childhood. Fragments of her life came to her.
She sees herself and Kolya sitting at the kitchen table. She is ten, he is even younger. While the mother stands with her back to them and finishes baking the pancakes, a serious battle breaks out between the children. Masha holds a large tablespoon in her hand; next to her is a bowl of apricot jam. Nikolay is armed with a teaspoon, his task is to reach for the bowl and get at least a spoonful of jam. But Masha carefully guards her wealth, so Kolya can do nothing. In despair, her brother produces a growing roar. The mother turns around, looks at what is happening, slaps Maria on the head, takes the jam from her and gives it to Kolya. Having completed the rescue mission, the mother continues frying pancakes. Masha gives Kolya a menacing gaze and intimidates him with a gesture: she runs the thumb of her right hand across her throat. After that, Kolya’s appetite disappears completely, and he silently moves the bowl of jam towards his senior sister.
In the next memory, Masha is a teenager. First, she sees herself in her room where a poster featuring Angelina Jolie hangs on the wall. It’s about the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Masha packs her clothes, placing them tightly in a hiking backpack.
Her mother and Kolya see her off at the bus station.
MOTHER: Maybe you’ll take your brother with you?
MASHA (speaks in her mother’s ear for Kolya not to hear): Great-grandfather told me to come alone. “I don’t have anything to talk about with this slobbering chess player,” said he.
Masha nods her head in her brother’s direction. Mother looks sadly at Kolya and sighs heavily.
An old bus arrived. Masha got into it, sat comfortably by the window and waved her hand to her mother and brother, smiling happily. They waved back, and, when the bus moved towards the city, slowly walked home.
In the next shot Masha saw the adult Kolya rushing around the house, kicking things on the floor and sweeping everything off the tables. She sat in a chair and silently watched her brother’s nervous breakdown. Maria broke the silence only when Nikolay noisily threw on the floor a rack of cups, diplomas and medals he had received during his career as a chess player.
MASHA: Stop it! What are you doing?! What do your cups have in common with it?
KOLYA: The fact that only they were dear to her! A fat lot you cared whether I succeeded or not, and my great-grandfather always made fun of me. Do you want to hear the truth? I hate chess! I played it only because my mother’s eyes shone with happiness when I brought home another piece of paper or medal. I was ready to do anything for her! And now she’s gone! I have nothing! And I have nobody beside me now!
Nikoly continued to destroy everything around him.
Masha returned to reality. She brushed away tears that gathered at the corners of her eyes and slowly flowed down her cheeks.
Blinking energetically to remove the liquid accumulated in her eyes, Maria began cleaning. She started by sorting the things lying in the middle of the hall. Among them, the girl discovered a heap of empty vodka bottles. After that, Maria found a broom, wrapped a rag around it and began to remove the cobwebs that enveloped every corner and chandelier in the house. Having finished this stage of cleaning, Maria sat down to rest. She still had a lot of work ahead, so the girl decided to save her strength.
Scene 6
Shifting feet near his house door, Kolya didn’t dare enter it. He decided to gain time in the hope that Maria would not wait for him and leave for the city. So Nikolai left the village borders and found himself in a private plot that belonged to eighty-nine-year-old Stepan Fyodorovich, where his pretty granddaughter Alina lived with him.
Stopping at the gate, Kolya felt exhausted. Leaning on one of the pillars, he attracted the owner’s attention.
GRANDFATHER STEPAN (quite severely): Good day to you, Nikolai! As far as I remember, during our previous meeting, someone promised to quit this whole matter. Or maybe there was nothing like that?
KOLYA: Yes it was, it was, Stepan Fyodorovich. I remember everything. But doctors say you can’t quit quickly: your body will suffer an enormous shock.
GRANDFATHER STEPAN (with a grin): I see! Well, since the doctors said this, don’t hurry. You can quit like that for fifty years! That’s fine: you quit and drink. It’s a dream, not a cure!
KOLYA (massaging his temples with his fingers): Stop kidding, old man!
GRANDFATHER STEPAN (seriously): I’m not making fun of you, Nikolai. You’re a good guy, but drinking will ruin you.
Kolya treated Stepan Fyodorovich with respect, so his words and stern tone made the guy come to his senses and feel a little better.
KOLYA: I know, Stepan Fyodorovich. Yes, I’ll quit… I’ll definitely quit!… Only let me come to my senses. You know how my mother died… Well, you know.
Kolya fell silent