З життя
Прощання з коханкою: ніжно висадив з машини і повернувся додому…
Висадив коханку з машини, Бучко ніжно попрощався з нею і поїхав додому…
Біля під’їзду трохи постояв, обмірковуючи, що саме скаже дружині. Піднявся сходами та відчинив двері.
– Привіт, – сказав Бучко. – Олено, ти вдома?
– Вдома, – флегматично відповіла дружина. – Привіт. Ну що, йти смажити відбивні?
Бучко вирішив діяти прямо — впевнено, різко, по-чоловічому! Поставити крапку у своєму подвійний житті, поки на губах ще не охолонули поцілунки коханки, поки його знову не затягнуло буденне болото.
– Олено, – почистив горло Бучко. – Я прийшов сказати тобі… що нам треба розлучитися.
Звістку Олена сприйняла більш ніж спокійно. Взагалі, вивести Олену Бучко з рівноваги було нелегко. Колись Бучко навіть дражнив її «Оленою Холодною».
– Тобто що? – спитала Олена у дверях кухні. – То мені не смажити відбивні?
– На твій розсуд, – сказав Бучко. – Хочеш – смаж, не хочеш – не смаж. А я йду до іншої жінки.
Після такої заяви більшість дружин кидаються на чоловіків з пательнею або влаштовують бурхливу сцену. Але Олена до них не належала.
– Подумаєш, якась там інша, – сказала вона. – Ти мої чоботи з ремонту приніс?
– Ні, – зніяковів Бучко. – Якщо це так важливо – зараз же поїду до майстерні і заберу!
– Охохо… – пробурмотіла Олена. – Такий ти і є, Бучко. Пошли дурня за чобітьми – він старі й принесе.
Бучко образився. Йому здалося, що пояснення про розрив сімейних стосунків йде не так. Не вистачає емоцій, пристрастей, гнівних звинувачень! Хоча що ще чекати від такої дружини, як Олена Холодна?
– Мені здається, Олено, ти мене не чуєш! – сказав Бучко. – Я офіційно оголошую, що йду до іншої жінки, залишаю тебе, а ти про якісь чоботи!
– Правильно, – сказала Олена. – На відміну від мене ти можеш йти куди завгодно. Твої чоботи ж не в ремонті. Чому б не ходити?
Вони прожили разом довго, але Бучко досі не міг зрозуміти, коли його дружина іронізує, а коли говорить серйозно. У свій час він саме закохався в Олену через її рівний характер, безконфліктність і немногослівність. Плюс важливу роль зіграла її господарність і приємні форми.
Олена була надійна, віддана і холоднокровна, як тридцятитонний корабельний якір. Але тепер Бучко кохав іншу. Кохав гаряче, гріховно і солодко! Тому належало вирішити питання і розпочати нове життя.
– І ось, Олено, – сказав Бучко з ноткою урочистості, жалю і скорботи. – Я вдячний тобі за все, але йду, бо кохаю іншу жінку. А тебе не кохаю.
– Та треба ж, – сказала Олена. – Не кохаєш мене, напівоксамитова фігурка! Моя мама, наприклад, кохала сусіда. А батько любив доміно і горілку. І що? Дивись, яка врешті чудова вийшла я.
Бучко знав, що сперечатися з Оленою дуже важко. У неї кожне слово – як гирька. Весь його початковий запал кудись випарувався, не хотілося сваритися.
– Оленко, ти й справді чудова, – кисло сказав Бучко. – Але я кохаю іншу. Кохаю гаряче, гріховно і солодко. І маю намір піти до неї, розумієш?
– Іншу – це кого? – спитала дружина. – Наталку Крапівину, ніби?
Бучко відступив. Рік тому у нього дійсно був таємний роман з Крапівиною, але він навіть не припускав, що Олена з нею знайома!
– А звідки ти її?… – почав він і замовк. – Втім, неважливо. Ні, Олено, мова не про Крапівину.
Олена позіхнула.
– Тоді, може, Світлану Бурбульську? До неї ж намилюєшся?
У Бучка похолола спина. Бурбульська теж була його коханкою, але це залишилося в минулому. А якщо Олена знала – чому мовчала? Ах так, вона ж кремінь, слова не витягнеш.
– Не вгадала, – сказав Бучко. – Не Бурбульська і не Крапівина. Це зовсім інша, чудова жінка, вершина моєї мрії. Я не можу без неї жити і збираюся піти до неї. І не відмовляй!
– Значить, найімовірніше, Майка, – сказала дружина. – Ох, Бучко-Бучко… органік ти тріснутий. Теж мені – секрет Полішинеля. Вершина твоєї мрії – Майя Валентинівна Гусєва. Тридцять п’ять років, одна дитина, два аборти… Так?
Бучко схопився за голову. Це був точний удар! Він дійсно мав роман з Майєю Гусєвою.
– Але як? – пролепетав Бучко. – Хто нас здав? Ти стежила за мною?
– Елементарно, Бучко, – сказала Олена. – Батечко мій, я гінеколог зі стажем. І я обмацала всіх жінок у цьому клятому місті, в той час як ти – лише малу їх частину. Мені досить просто заглянути куди треба, щоб зрозуміти, що ти там був, чучело горохове!
Бучко зібрався з силами.
– Припустимо, ти вгадала! – незалежно сказав він. – Хай це навіть Гусєва. Це нічого не змінює, я йду до неї.
– Дурнику ти, Бучко, – сказала Олена. – Хоч би зі злості у мене поцікавився! До речі, нічого надзвичайного в Гусєвій не помічено, усіма жінками як жінками, це я як лікар кажу. А медичну картку своєї вершини мрії ти бачив?
– Н-ні… – визнав Бучко.
– То-то! По-перше, негайно йди в душ. По-друге, завтра я зідзвонюся з Семеновичем, щоб прийняв тебе в диспансері без черги, – сказала Олена. – А потім поговоримо. Це ж ганьба: чоловік гінеколога не може знайти собі здорову жінку!
– І що мені робити? – жалібно сказав Бучко.
– Я пішла смажити відбивні, – сказала Олена.
– А ти мийся і роби, що хочеш. Якщо тобі потрібна вершина мрії без всяких болячок – звертайся, порекомендую…
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The Key in His Hand Rain drummed against the window of the flat with the bleak consistency of a metronome, each beat ticking out the time left. Michael sat hunched on the edge of his sagging bed, as if by shrinking he could disappear altogether from the notice of fate. His large hands—once strong, shaped by years on the factory floor—now lay powerless in his lap. His fingers curled and uncurled in vain, desperate for something solid to hold on to. He wasn’t looking at the wall; he was seeing a map traced on the faded wallpaper—a map of hopeless journeys: trips from the NHS surgery to the private diagnostic clinic. His gaze, like an old film stuck on a single frame, was dulled and washed out. Another doctor, another kind but weary “Well, you have to understand—you’re not as young as you once were.” He couldn’t muster any anger. Anger took energy, and he had none left. Only fatigue remained. The pain in his back had become more than a symptom—it was the backdrop to every thought and action, a white noise of helplessness drowning everything else out. He did everything he was told: swallowed pills, slathered on gels, lay on the chilly table in the physio clinic, feeling like discarded machinery on the scrapheap. And all that time—he waited. Passive, almost devout, for the lifeline he hoped someone—perhaps the government, or a brilliant doctor, or clever professor—would throw out to him as he sank slowly into the muck. He stared into the horizon of his life and saw only rain-soaked greyness beyond the glass. His own will, once so sharp and practical on the job and at home, was reduced to a single function: to endure and hope for a miracle from somewhere else. Family… There had been family, but it had slipped away, vanishing quickly and with a strange clarity. His daughter Katie was first to go—clever Katie, off to London in search of something more. He’d never begrudged her ambition; if anything, he’d encouraged her to chase it. “Dad, I’ll help you as soon as I’m settled,” she’d said over the phone. He’d known even then that it wasn’t important. Then his wife left—Raia. Not to the shops, but forever. Cancer took her so fast. It was as if her absence magnified the weight in his spine, leaving him, halfway between the chair and the bed, still breathing, but blaming himself for it. She, the wellspring of his strength, faded in three months. He’d nursed her until the end, until her cough turned desperate and her eyes dulled to a distant shine. Her last words, gripping his hand in the hospital: “Hang on, Mike…” He wasn’t able to. He broke. Katie called, begged him to stay with her in her tiny rented flat, but what use was he to her there? In a stranger’s home, a burden. She wouldn’t be coming back. Now only Raia’s younger sister, Val, visited, once a week by the clock—bringing soup in Tupperware, pasta with a lukewarm cutlet and a fresh pack of painkillers. “How are you, Mike?” Val would ask, peeling off her coat. He’d nod, “Alright.” They’d sit in silence, her bustling around, tidying his little room, as if the order of things could somehow restore the order of his life. Eventually, she’d leave behind the scent of another woman’s perfume, and the soft, near-tangible weight of a duty performed. He was grateful. Yet also, crushingly alone. It wasn’t just physical loneliness—it was a prison built from helplessness, grief, and a subdued rage at unfairness. One melancholy night, his wandering gaze fell on a key lying on the tattered rug. He must have dropped it the last time he shuffled in from the surgery. Just a key. Nothing special. A bit of metal. He stared at it as though seeing it for the first time. He remembered his grandfather—brightly, as if someone had turned on a light in a dark corner of memory. Grandad Peter—one sleeve empty and pinned—would sit on the stool and tie his laces with a lone hand and a broken fork. Patient, focused, quirkily triumphant when he managed it. “Look, Mikey,” Grandad would say with a gleam of victory in his eye, “A tool is always close by. Sometimes a tool looks like junk. The trick is spotting the friend in the rubbish.” As a boy, Michael had thought this was just old man talk—a comforting fable. Grandad was a hero, and heroes could always manage. Michael, he decided, was ordinary; his battles with pain and loneliness weren’t fit for brave stories. But now, staring at the key, the old scene rang not like consolation, but as a quiet rebuke. His grandfather never waited for help. He used what he had—a bent fork—and beat back helplessness itself. So what had Michael chosen? Only waiting, bitter and passive, sitting by the door of someone else’s charity. The thought jarred him. Suddenly, the key—the chunk of metal, echoing his grandad’s words—became a silent command. Michael stood, groaning as his body objected, almost shame-faced in the empty flat. He took two shuffling steps, picked up the key. His attempt to straighten was met with the familiar knife of pain. He froze, waiting for it to pass, but this time, instead of collapsing back onto the bed, he pressed on. Moving slowly, he went to the wall. He turned his back to it, pressed the blunt bit of the key to the wallpaper right where the pain sat, and gently, gingerly leant in, applying pressure. There was no plan to ‘massage’ or ‘treat’—just the act of pushing back. Pressure against pain, reality against reality. He found a spot where, miraculously, this struggle brought not agony, but the slightest, dull relief—something inside relented, softened a fraction. He moved the key, tried again, higher then lower, with the same careful experiment. Each movement was slow, full of listening to his own body. It wasn’t treatment—it was negotiation. The key, not some medical gadget, was his tool. It seemed foolish. A key was no miracle. But the next evening, when pain returned, he tried again. And again. He discovered places where pressure brought not more pain, but relief—a sense of opening a vice by fractions. He began leaning against the doorframe to stretch. Drank a glass of water when the empty cup reminded him—something free, at least. Michael had stopped waiting, hands idle. He started using whatever was at hand: the key, the doorframe, the floor for simple stretches, his own resolve. He kept a notebook—not a pain diary, but a list of ‘key victories’: “Today managed five minutes by the cooker.” On the sill, he placed three old baked bean tins—planned for the bin. He filled them with earth from the front garden and planted a few onion bulbs. Not a vegetable plot, but a tiny patch of life that he was now responsible for. A month passed. At the next appointment, the doctor’s eyebrows went up at what he saw in the new scans. “There’s some improvement. Have you been doing the exercises?” “Yes,” Michael said. “I’ve been using what I’ve got.” He didn’t mention the key—the doctor wouldn’t have understood. But Michael knew. Salvation hadn’t come by ship. It had simply lain on the floor, ignored while he watched the wall, waiting for someone else to turn on the light. One Wednesday, when Val appeared with soup, she stopped in the doorway. On the windowsill, in those tin cans, green shoots of spring onion pointed skywards. The room no longer reeked of medicine and defeat, but of something almost hopeful. “You… what’s this?” she managed, seeing him standing confidently at the window. “Kitchen garden,” he replied. After a moment, he added, “Want some for your soup? Home-grown, fresh.” That evening, she stayed longer than usual. Over tea, without discussing his aches and pains, he told her about the stairs—the single extra flight he now climbed each day. His rescue didn’t come from Doctor Dolittle with a magic potion. It had hidden itself as a key, a doorframe, an empty can, and a concrete staircase. It hadn’t removed pain, loss, or age. But it put tools in his hands—not to win a war all at once, but to fight his small daily battles. And it turns out, if you stop waiting for a golden ladder from heaven and see the plain, concrete one at your feet, you might find the climb itself is already a life. Slowly, carefully, step by step—but always upward. And on the windowsill, in those three battered cans, grew the finest green onions in the world.
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