Damenstok

Angenie didn't have long to live. Since childhood, she has been a sickly and excessively weak child who rarely went outside to walk and play like normal children, and whose second home was not a school, but a hospital. But, despite severe ailments, she studied hard and reached for knowledge, hoping for a bright, independent and rich future... But her parents decided too early to tie the knot with twenty–seven-year-old Noyent Gnidaye, a violent pimp who owns the "Anheles" brothel. By the way, he had never been in love with his wife, but why the hell did he marry her – no one seemed to know, and even Noyent himself did not fully understand why he decided to marry such an unremarkable girl from a poor family. In appearance, Angenie was the epitome of the whitest lily: light matte skin covered with blush, short crystal-white straight hair at the ends created curls because of wide thin shoulders, the white fluff of eyelashes was striking in its length, large blue eyes sparkled with purity and innocence, and only dark circles with swollen eyelids spoke of her unimaginable suffering. Every year, Angenie health failed her more and more, and, in the end, a hitherto unknown disease finally confined her to bed. Whenever she looked in the mirror, which, as luck would have it, stood in front of her bed, tears involuntarily rolled into her exhausted eyes and flowed in rivers down her pale, sunken cheeks. She became completely emaciated, becoming more like a skeleton than a human, white eyelashes, like thin hair, constantly fell out and got into her eyes, inflaming them, lips turned blue, circles around her eyes turned black and nails, boasting of their beauty and strength, became broken and almost did not grow. Many times, Angenie asked her husband to remove the mirror, but he kept delaying this moment and completely forgot about his wife's request, because every day, little by little, Angenie pushed away the heavy mirror, as it seemed to her. Noyent, as you understand, did not care about his wife at all, did not monitor her mood or her condition, because this was done by constantly changing nurses (who left because of more profitable offers from outside) and cheap unqualified doctors, but even they shrugged their shoulders and only stuffed the patient with mountains of expensive medicines, hoping that her torment would be smoothed out. Nothing, of course, was smoothed out. One day, after another dismissed nurse, having barely got out of bed and approached her husband, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room and reading a foreign tabloid novel, Angenie touched his mighty shoulder and whispered in a weak voice: "Noyent... Can we talk?" "Yes?" without turning to face her, the pimp scowled. "Do you remember, Mr. Libidin..." "Why do you mention this devil?" "He... he said that he had an option for a nurse..." "Ah, a nurse..." "Y-yes... Please, can you call him?.. I'm tired of having nurses all the time... They're leaving our house. Maybe his version will turn out to be... Faithful?" "So be it, I'll call you. Go to bed; the morning of the evening is more complicated". And Angenie was not mistaken: the next day, an angel in the flesh himself came to their house in the direction of Arkady Libidin – Efip, a very young, pretty boy with long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, white fluffy eyelashes, blood-red eyes sparkling with kindness, a straight nose and thin white lips. He was dressed in an all-white suit: vest, trousers, tie and shirt. When she saw him, tears welled up in her eyes, because this boy looked very much like her late son... ... Three weeks have passed. Efipa Noyent did not notice at all, like the other nurses, because the young man calmly paced the apartment, cleaned it himself and helped Her move around the rooms on his arm. The woman felt much better, was very cheerful and cheerful, despite the fact that she had completely stopped feeling her left arm. Efip put a teapot with fragrant chamomile tea on the bedside table and filled a small old cup with it, painted with children's scribbles. "I brought you tea". "Thank you, my boy..." Angenie burst into a fit of terrible coughing, shaking her whole body. "It's okay, don't worry... Can I ask you something?" "Of course, I am completely at your disposal". "Move this cabinet aside and sit down next to it... I beg". The young man obeyed, pushed aside and turned away the mirror, and sat down on a chair near the bed. – What else can I do? – Nothing. Simply... I want to tell you something. Can I? – Of course you can. I'm all ears. And Efip really turned into a rumor. She sighed with relief, lay down on the pillow and gently took the young man's hand. "I want to confess to you, my boy, if I may. Permission granted? Thank you... You know... I am a very bad and scary woman. "Why do you talk about yourself like that?" "Because it's true," a nervous laugh escaped from blue lips. "I... I've sinned a lot in this life. It seems that my birth alone was a terrible sin, because I killed my twin while still in the womb. As you can see, this murder did not help me, and I was born a very sickly person who cannot be left alone for a moment; I always need someone's support and help. And even Mom and Dad got tired of me, so they put me in the care of Noyent. But he doesn't love me, no, he doesn't love me..." she shook her head bitterly. "Yes, he doesn't like it. I'm a burden to everyone". "But not for me". "It's only been three weeks, everything is still ahead, my boy. But thank you for staying with me, despite my helplessness and such a small payment..." "I do not look at the payment, but I look at the person I have to take care of, and I consider you a very good person". "Interesting, how interesting... You're too kind for this cruel world, little Ether. You can't live here, you just can't. I am very afraid for you... For me, you are an angel sent by God, the very embodiment of tenderness and innocence... The hour of my confession and atonement has come. Can you listen to me? I am not asking you to forgive me, no, I know that after death I will go to the very depths of Hell and suffer (and there is something for that), I just ask you to listen to me and understand". "Okay, I'm listening". She smiled faintly, her gaze constantly darting from Efip to the ceiling. She continued: "Noyent has never loved me. No, he doesn't hit me, he doesn't call me names, but treats me with coldness and indifference. You know, I once had a dream that he beats me and at the same time says that he loves me terribly, and I woke up terribly broken, because humiliation and pain, it seems to me, are much better than indifference. If he was hitting me, it would mean that he feels at least something for me, whether it's hatred or love, but he feels absolutely nothing for me. I know that he constantly goes to the left and cheats on me with other girls and women who are more beautiful and passionate than me... Oh, I remember with pain and horror our first and last bed experiment, because then I felt unimaginable pain and humiliation. He's too cruel, and I really can't imagine how other girls and women he sleeps with feel. You can't be such a cruel person, you just can't! But he can. Unfortunately, he can do a lot. But something took me the wrong way..." "I'm listening to you. Say what you want". "Thank you, my boy..." she squeezed his fingers in her cold palm. "We had our first and last sex. He didn't touch me anymore, because that's when we conceived our first and only son. I had a very difficult pregnancy: I was constantly vomiting blood, I couldn't get out of bed even to drink water, because I was watched by two nurses, on whom Noyent spent quite a lot of money. What for? I don't know, but maybe. It gave him a strange pleasure. But even they couldn't ease the pain that I was left alone with. Finally, when I gave birth, my torment stopped. I had a Caesarean section, and my baby Savely was born. Sava... I've always dreamed of naming my child that way, and Noyent didn't mind, because he absolutely didn't care about our son until..." She burst into a bloody cough. Pale and trembling for some reason, Efip reflexively jumped to his feet. She stopped him by clutching his arm and wiping her mouth with the hem of her hospital gown. "Sit down, sit down... please..." The young man obediently sat down and continued to listen to the poor woman's confession, although for some reason he was shaking terribly. "Noyent decided that he wanted to get rid of the child. He forced me to say goodbye to my son. I... although I wanted to, I did not contradict him, because he was terribly angry and worried, and, sobbing, I said goodbye to Sava. He took him somewhere far away and left him on the side of the road... I wanted to follow him, but I couldn't even get out of bed. I remember how terribly hysterical I was, how, upon my return, Noyent calmed me down and for the first time in his life treated me not as an object, but as a person. I remember how he kissed me on the forehead and said that everything would be fine now. But it didn't go well: the next day, he treated me again as an unnecessary and inconspicuous object, again pulled away from me and no longer raised the subject of his son, and I continued to tear my hair and fight in hysterics. I had nightmares for a long time, where Sava came to me and asked why I gave him to the monster, why I abandoned him and did not save him, and so on, so on..." She fell silent and burst into tears, covering her face with trembling hands. Efip sat down on the edge of the bed and, without saying anything, gently hugged her. "My son, my son, Sava!.." ... The next day, she spent in unconsciousness. She did not understand what was happening around her, looked at everything with an empty gaze, did not recognize either Efip or Noyon, and constantly muttered incoherently under her breath. Efip, without closing his eyes, sat next to her, fed and watered through a straw, and every time he hugged her with tears in his eyes, whispering: "Please hold on!.." By evening, the patient's condition worsened: she was shaking terribly, saliva foamed on her blue lips and her eyes rolled – it was agony that lasted for who knows how long time. Three days later, Angenie died, never realizing that Efip was her dead son.