The hard way of a maid

      Early morning in the cottage village. Work was in full swing in one of the houses.       “Elena, Lilia, please hurry up. You won’t make it in time.” A woman in her forties or forties spoke up.       “Calm down, Larisa, they will make it. There’s still plenty of time.” The white—haired man replied. “You’d better have some coffee.”       Arguing with your husband is like arguing with a wall. She rolled her eyes and went down the stairs.       “I’m really going to have a coffee.” She said, slightly raising her hand.       “Girls, really, hurry up a little. My brother, his nephews and his wife are due to arrive in a couple of hours. You are welcome.”       “We’ll manage, don’t worry, Arkady Ivanovich,” said one of the girls. “Yes, Lena?”       “Yes,” the blonde-haired girl with gray eyes answered.       The girls sped up a bit. Several rooms, corridors. In the kitchen, the cook has already prepared almost everything.       “Lena, did you hear that Ani’s boyfriend appeared again?” the friend asked.       “She is as usual. I’ve already slept with half the village.” Elena said absently, making up the bed.       Lilia was saying something else, but Lena wasn’t listening to her. She was thinking about going home tomorrow. To my sister. The parents are missing. A few years ago, when she was seventeen and her sister was twenty-one, her parents went to a party of one of the distant relatives. Late in the evening, when they left, they called their daughters that they would now take a taxi home. It was the last call and the last day they saw their parents. Long searches, trials. They were never found.       Evening. All the guests gathered for dinner. We discussed and congratulated on the wedding anniversary. The girls brought food, took away dirty trays. They dispersed well after midnight. The girls washed, changed into pajamas and went back up to the attic, where their rooms were.       “Well, are you going tomorrow?” Lily asked.       “Yes. The main thing is not to oversleep, otherwise you will have to pay for a taxi.” Lena replied, covering herself with a blanket up to her chin.       The girl fell asleep almost immediately. In the morning, she was woken up by the hated alarm clock. Lena got dressed, washed up without having breakfast, because she knew she would be sick, and went to the bus stop with a backpack. She waited for the bus for about ten to fifteen minutes. It was almost full. Everyone was on their way to the city. There was one place for a young gypsy woman. “Of course, I would not like to sit down with her, but not standing for forty minutes to drive,” Elena thought and sat down next to the gypsy. She looked at her. Lena tried not to pay attention to it. You never know what’s on your mind.       “Danger is hanging over you,” said the gypsy. “You need protection if you don’t want to die.”       “The concert has started according to the requests,” Lena thought, not knowing where to put herself.       “Please take the amulet.” the gypsy woman spoke without calming down, holding out a silver chain with a pendant in the shape of a wolf.       “I don’t need your amulets,” Lena said sternly. “I don’t believe in all this. Leave me alone. I won’t do anything for you. You’re lying to me.”       The gypsy woman fell silent. She grimaced. She put the chain in her pocket. She turned to the window. “She’s finally stopped talking,” the girl thought. There is very little left to the city. The older sister, Diana, called a couple of times. I was already waiting for her at the bus station. So the gypsy did not talk to her anymore. The bus station lived its own life: noisy, fast traffic, announcement of boarding for bus flights. Elena barely found Diana among this crowd.       “I thought you were joking again,” said the dark-skinned tall girl.       “Unfortunately, no jokes this time,” she girl replied.       “So, let’s not do this,” Diana said seriously, making a menacing face. “I’ve been waiting for you for two years, and you…”       Lena rolled her eyes. They left the bus station, got into the older girl’s car and drove home. Lena was looking out the window. They were passing over a bridge. There was a river below, and in the distance, on a small beach, people were sitting and sunbathing. A little further on, also across the bridge, there was a large arena. Hockey matches, concerts, and the figure skating Grand Prix took place there. The sisters were silent. There was a certain understatement, tension. They were home in about thirty minutes.       Diana stopped the car at a five-storey panel house. They got out of the car, the last fifth floor. Three apartments on the site. A small two-piece. Once upon a time, parents slept in the hall, and the girls in a small bedroom. It made me sad.       “Well, tell me, how are you?” Dee asked.       “Oh, I’m going to tell you this”, Lena said with a grin. “But first I need to change my clothes and wash my hands.”       — Me too. Come on, then we’ll eat and talk in the kitchen. Let’s turn on the radio.       My father loved the radio in the morning, before work. Elena disassembled the backpack and found a pendant with a chain at the bottom of it. The one that the gypsy woman showed and tried to give her. “Where is he from?.. How?.. It’s impossible. — the girl thought, holding the thing in front of her eyes. — How did he get to me? What a gypsy trick. We’ll have to throw it out later so that Diana doesn’t see it, otherwise she’ll start a hurdy-gurdy.” The girl put the pendant in the drawer of the bedside table. And she went to the kitchen, where her sister was already preparing breakfast. They ate, drank tea, and discussed everything in the world. Then we went to the gym to watch a movie. They were thinking about something again. We had fun.       The morning imperceptibly turned into evening. The sisters had dinner, watched a movie again, took a bath and went to bed: Lena in the bedroom, Diana in the living room on the couch. Lena checked social networks, messengers, put her phone on the bedside table and wrapped herself in a blanket under her chin again. She closed her eyes. However, it was not possible to fall asleep quickly. She tossed and turned, counted sheep and frogs, but nothing came out. A couple of hours later, the girl fell asleep. The drawer opened cautiously, as if afraid to wake her up. The chain glowed slightly purple. He rose into the air. The glow became brighter. Half a second and it’s on the bed. On the blanket. A few more milliseconds and a bright flash enveloped the room. She disappeared with the pendant.

What is it? Damn it or Returning to the family home? What is true and what is not? Dream or reality?