Damenstok

Osip Tikhonovich fell ill. He had completely lost his voice and the only thing he could do was whisper, and even then barely audibly, because he often preferred to keep silent and gesture to show what he needed. Wife Elena, with whom they were about to break the bonds of marriage, almost did not understand his signs or did not want to understand, so she ignored requests and walked past him with her head haughtily raised and her eyes closed, which both angered and upset poor Osip. Their daughter, six-year-old Svetochka, repeated after her mother and ignored her father's requests, although she loved her parent very much and constantly rushed into his arms when she got tired of repeating after her mother, and only then fulfilled her father's requests and helped him to be treated. By the way, office plankton Osip was a pleasant man of thirty-three years old with short bog hair and a side parting, dull and gentle green eyes that looked like cucumbers, as Svetochka said, a haggard yellow tired face and tall stature. He was skinny and weak in build, which Elena terribly disliked, who loved Osip from the past – a slender, fit young athlete. But time, like all of us, did not spare him. And appearance became one of the many reasons for the dissolution of their previously seemingly strong marriage. Elena herself was not the most beautiful, but a good-looking woman of thirty-five with long curly brown hair, rounded beautiful cornflower blue eyes with a lush down of eyelashes, plump coral lips and a turned-up neat nose. She always wore makeup and didn't even wash off a ton of makeup at home. As she explained, it was prepared for unexpected guests, of whom they had a lot: three or four of her friends or a friend (or rather, a lover, but our gullible and unsuspecting Osip considered them her colleagues or friends) could come during the day. She worked as a secretary in a well-known firm and constantly flirted with a married boss who was not averse to going left a couple of times. And so, on the third of August, returning from dreary and hard work, Osip decided to please his beloved daughter and bought her the most beautiful and quite expensive doll, which she had dreamed of for so long. The dusky night was gathering, and the Damenstock was slowly sinking into hibernation. Somewhere in the distance, mothers sang lullabies to their children, cars honked and cabbies laughed, catching passengers among people hurrying home. Loud pitch crows chased Osip on his heels and constantly pecked at something. Passing through the streets and clutching the doll to his chest, Tikhonovich constantly looked around warily and walked quickly, quietly, to match his surname. Turning the corner once again, Osip turned around and noticed a man in a black raincoat and a wide-brimmed hat coming around the corner after him. A deep voice was heard to a soft lullaby melody that poured in invisible waves from a hurdy-gurdy hanging from his neck over his shoulder, and the echo ball bounced off the walls:

Step, two – you stumbled,

Three, four, down into the ravine!

Our hero is not drunk yet,

Although the wife is the strongest enemy!

Five, six – step to the side

And suddenly down into the ravine!

Seven, eight, head off the shoulders,

Ten, nine, loss bitterness...

Osip accelerated. Turning the corner again, he turned around and, to his horror, noticed that several more people had joined the alleged organ grinder, who were dressed in strange rags and were horribly hunched over. "Ghouls! (note: Ghouls are monsters capable of taking human form, copying someone else's appearance and framing people. Still, not everyone believes in their existence)" thoughts screamed. His legs, as luck would have it, were filled with lead and stopped. It is impossible to stop in any case, you never know if these people, or rather, monsters, will want to kill him! But they also walk slowly, as if they don't want to attack him... Or are they preparing for an attack? Our pale hero, despite his heavy legs, quickened his pace, breathing heavily and coughing almost continuously. The air clogged my lungs and throbbed in my sore throat. "Run! Run! Don't stop, run, no matter what!" Poor out of breath Osip ran as fast as he could down a deserted street, while people followed him, whose faces he couldn't see because of the darkness, even if they were walking under lanterns - hats hid their faces. Constantly looking back, Osip did not notice how he got off the road and only realized when he stumbled that he had made a mistake. He came face to face with a deep ravine, inside which the park was located, and was about to turn around and leave, when suddenly he slipped and fell down. There was a wheeze, as if someone was drowning - Osip was lying among the trees with his legs openly broken and his body scratched. A thick, dirty branch protruded from his side, which he tore out of himself with a painful groan. Grunting, he tried to get out, because he was stuck between the trunks, but nothing came of it. – Hey!.. He croaked, barely audible, but there was no one nearby. He rustled the leaves – no one came. Then he tried to scream, correcting his throat and spitting pus and phlegm, but his voice did not return. He felt his strength and fleeting blood drain from him. – Help... A couple of days later, a corpse was found between the trunks.