Chipped blockheads. Fedor Laburchenko
Alas, I have a rough time too, Nikolai. The bourgeoisie are putting pressure on me. They are putting pressure!
KOLYA (fussy, clenching his fists): Who is putting pressure on you? Why are they putting pressure?
GRANDFATHER STEPAN (upset): Well, you know why, I told you.
KOLYA: Sorry, grandfather, I don’t remember.
GRANDFATHER STEPAN (in a mocking tone): Of course you don’t remember! You need to drink more, you see, and you won’t even remember yourself.
KOLYA: That’s enough, grandfather. I said, I’ll quit! Let me know everything, maybe I can help you a little bit.
GRANDFATHER STEPAN: It’s highly unlikely. There is a spring on my land, you might have heard about it?
KOLYA (with a grin): Of course, I heard. Who in our village hasn’t heard about it?
GRANDFATHER STEPAN: The village is a trifle, but they in the capital found out about it, and now they are putting pressure on me through our chairman. They told me: “Sell the land”. How can I sell it? It’s the most precious thing I have… Well, after my granddaughter, of course…
KOLYA: tell them to go to hell!
GRANDFATHER STEPAN: I’ve told them!
KOLYA: So what?
GRANDFATHER STEPAN: “You’ll end up in a bad way”, old guy, they said.
KOLYA: Do you think they won’t get off your back?
GRANDFATHER STEPAN: These sort of guys won’t. The deal smells like money, and these phizes love money, it shows.
KOLYA (patting the old man on the shoulder): Don’t be down. If hack and slash begin, my guys and I will stand up for you as one. You know it!
GRANDFATHER STEPAN: I know, but how can you compete with these bulls? They have money, they will buy everything and everyone with it. What’s behind you?
KOLYA (hitting his palm with his fist): The truth is behind us, grandfather. Do you remember what the guy in the movie said: Truth is strength? It’s about us!
GRANDFATHER STEPAN: Thank you, Kolya. You’re a good guy. But I’ll probably do it myself. I don’t want to put you in trouble.
At that moment Alina appeared on the porch. She was a slender, pretty girl about twenty-five with long curly light brown hair. She was wearing a light summer dress, showing the girl’s figure and making her bright appearance even more impressive.
Alina greeted Kolya with a nod. Nikolai didn’t nod back. He was struck by the girl’s beauty and didn’t hear what Stepan Fyodorovich was telling him.
GRANDFATHER STEPAN (pulling Nikolai’s forearm): … Isn’t it true, Kolya?
KOLYA (comes to his senses, blinking): No fear, old man, we defeated the Germans, and we’ll cope with these ghouls!
Looked like Kolya’s final phrase hit the mark, because the old man nodded with satisfaction and squeezed the guy’s hand tightly. After that, Stepan Fyodorovich turned his back on Nikolai and slowly walked towards the house. Nikolai stood at the gate for a while, watching Alina gracefully cross the yard. He stood frozen until the girl disappeared behind one of the buildings in her grandfather’s large yard. Nikolai sighed sadly, straightened his tousled hair, and headed for his house, looking back now and then in hope of seeing Alina again.
Scene 7
Deciding that she had rested enough, Maria got up from the sofa, put on rubber gloves, took a bucket in one hand, a mop in another hand and headed to the bathroom. She heard the sound of the front door opening and closing with a bang, then footsteps, and a cough right behind her back. Maria stopped and froze, not daring to turn to the man who entered. Although she knew for sure, of course, that it was her brother Nikolai.
KOLYA (with schadenfreude): I wonder, I wonder, what is Your Excellency doing on our farters’ land? Have they really kicked you out of the institute?
MARIA (without turning around, looks out the window with wide eyes): Kolya, can we talk normally, like a brother and a sister? KOLYA: Hi there, don’t be my scare! You want to talk? So you should have come when our mother… well… was alive. There were so many topic points: medicines, and doctors, and “nobody needs me, Kolenka.” Why didn’t you come? We could talk a lot at the family table!
MARIA (calmly, but sternly): Kolya, I explained it to you a thousand times. I drove away because I wanted to help our mother. Living in the city, all I thought about was how to create this damn medicine to cure her. All the while I thought only about her. Isn’t it clear?
KOLYA (sadly, almost crying): Tell me this for the thousandth and first time. Probably mom will feel better. (He pointed his finger upward). Even on the death bed she repeated: “Masha, my Mashenka will come, and I will immediately feel better!” Mashenka didn’t come. She has arrived now. But she is five years late…
Maria still stood with her back to Kolya. Her eyes immediately filled with tears, and they rolled down her cheeks in large drops. After standing there for a few seconds, the girl moved to the bathroom, still not turning to face her brother.
Kolya was totally exhausted. Memories of his mother seemed to have taken most of his energy. He sat down heavily on the sofa, put his hands on the knees of his long legs, and gazed at something on the floor. Maria returned with a bucket of water, placed it in the center of the room and began sweeping out litter from the corners, using a homemade broom she had found in the entrance hall.
KOLYA (with squinty eyes): What are you doing?
MARIA (surprised): What do you mean? I’m cleaning the house!
KOLYA (with a drunken grin and disgusting voice): “I’m cleaning the house!” It’s the right word! It’s like I told you: “clear the house”, and you misheard me.
Kolya burst out laughing. Maria stared blankly at him. Kolya abruptly came up to the bucket of water, put his foot on the rim, and in one sharp movement dropped the bucket on its side, so all the water poured out onto the floor.
KOLYA (sarcastically): Clean the house, and then clear the house. I repeat for the slow-witted: clear the house means “get away from the house”!
And Kolya, looking at his sister with contempt, showed her the following gesture: with the help of the index and middle fingers of his right hand, he imitated steps. After these words, he left the house and walked towards the gate with his signature gait: slightly bending his legs at the knees and swinging his long arms.
MARIA (raising the bucket): I hate you! Dipso! Cocky mug! Scum! Pig! No, you’re even worse than a pig: it would be offended now! You should be the subject of our experiments. It’s you who must be chipped. Maybe you can come to your senses this way only?!
Suddenly it dawned on Maria. She straightened her back abruptly and dropped the bucket onto the floor again. Maria thought there were many candidates in the village who had nothing to lose, take at least Kolya’s friends, or rather his drinking buddies. This is a great fund for scientific experiments!
The girl hurried to look for her purse. Having discovered it, Maria took out her phone and selected Fyodor’s number. He picked up the phone almost immediately.
FYODOR (a surprised voice comes from the phone): Hello?!
MARIA: Hello, partner. You’d be surprised, but I need your help. I have an idea of how we can continue our research!
Scene 8
The intense quarrel with Nikolai did no good for Maria’s working spirits. For a long time, she paced back and forth, not knowing which way to turn. Finally, the girl sat down on the sofa again. Looking around the living room, she remembered what it looked like long ago, in her childhood. A scene from that time recurred to her again.
Masha is twelve. She stands