When Edik did not return to the hotel for dinner that evening, Masha felt a child's sucking fear - somewhere in the lower abdomen - she could have pointed out the anatomical organ and more precisely - yes, she remembered that fear from the time she listened to it, waiting for the key to turn at the end of the day in the lock of the front door and for her father to come home. The girl never knew what would happen this time and when the fight would begin. Now, sitting alone in a hotel room, she was thinking about how much she had to endure from him - from her father.
When it was profitable for him, he immediately became a Jew. He was a Jew when a narrow circle of selected professionals gathered and it was possible to repeat "I'm Jewish and you're Jewish" behind the vodka with the same frenzy with which the Russians tear their shirt off to demonstrate the Orthodox cross. However, even at such rare moments in his throat, he had a little fingertip, and he looked suspiciously at his fellow tribesmen as if doubting that he was respected for his own. Time was what it was, or the country was, that he himself began to doubt his historical selectivity.
When he got into the company of his wife's acquaintances and relatives, who all the way maniacally spoke about the mother and other lines of the Pushkins and Goncharov's, and in the perestroika company got to Rurikovich, he suddenly turned into a gentile and even began to mumble about something else about the merchant's blood, or Cossack. Especially he became non-Jewish, if the cases brought him to the cloak of his homeland, and on the abundant sabantuas of the bureaucratic brotherhood, with party members and guests, he was friendly slapped on the back, releasing another anti-Semitic joke ... And only in the most recent time, when even the Jews themselves are tired of talking about the Jews, it seems that he has finally forgotten about his nationality. Only once, when Masha in the polemical fervor expressed about her fiancé Edik this "new Russian", his father suddenly smiled almost sadly and said unexpectedly to himself:
- What kind of new Russian is he, if his father and I are old Jews?
Anyway, all these national halftones undoubtedly had a direct bearing on Masha Semenova's childhood, which took place in a large house on the Patriarchs, where her mother's ancestors had settled before the war because they were large Soviet employees, who were later repressed and rehabilitated many times. Slowly degenerating, however, the house was constantly in charge of some important economic departments, and therefore Masha Syzmalskoye grew up surrounded by Vochrovskie horns, and all these elevators and janitors, who were used in the service context, were perceived almost as distant relatives.
In addition, Masha's boyfriend had to spend a lot of time in their society, because her father used to keep Masha out of the apartment if she returned home after the appointed hour for educational purposes. Shameful and insulted, Masha was sitting in the service room of the front office on a shabby leather sofa near the night janitor. It was so embarrassing and painful to spend the night on this sofa and, in the middle of the night, watching the Patriarchs get engaged with the zor'ka!
The night janitor, the eternal old man Petrovich, seemed to share Masha's father's point of view on the issue of education. However, on his tanned face, there was a semblance of sympathetic expression, and Masha was ready to fall through the ground with shame. Of course, she tried in every possible way to make it clear to the old man Petrovich that such a night pastime in his cellar is an absolutely natural thing for a young girl from a decent family. Petrovich kept silent and gently looked away. He, a deserved retired state security officer, who had seen enough of anyone, was confused by how decent people tired their children. Whipping is still there. But to make a lady who is lazy lie there like the last one on a janitor's couch is too much!
This obvious pedagogical bend upset the respectable to the subordination of Petrovich, and, without looking at Masha on the couch, he sadly shook his head and began to clean for her a huge Antonov apple, which he extracted from the newspaper bag, prepared for him by his wife. He shared his brothers' home cutlets and pies with her, and only sucked the healing fire water out of his little flask. In the early morning, sleepy tenants began to pass by them, coming down to walk the dogs. A postman passed by with a thick bag on his belt. He also witnessed the Machine's shame. Then Petrovich's replacement came on duty and when he saw Masha, he exchanged an