Аннотация: MMMDVII. Female snipers of darkness in the undergrowth of the Amazon. A story. - June 16, 2024.
Female snipers of darkness in the undergrowth of the Amazon. A story.
The phone rings. I pick up the receiver.
"Please invite Tamara up to phone. It's Rita calling. Tamara and I work together at the "Advertising Club."
At last, I heard Rita - the slender and rich woman.
My Tamara tells me about Rita every day. Every evening.
Tamara returns home in the evening, and we devote a couple of hours to discussing her problems.
I have a lot of questions myself. I once told Tamara that we always talk only about her problems, but I also have questions. She didn't say anything in response. Surprise flashed across her face.
First time Tamara and I met at the "official place". There was a queue to the window with an employee. Tamara was standing right behind me. Little later we saw each other in the same minibus and exchanged phone numbers.
At first, our daily conversations concerned her financial, family, working, housing and other problems. Gradually, good solutions were found for all her questions. I directed my professional experience to her problems.
Well-off (settled) people have an advantage over unsettled people when applying for a job. Tamara is hired by the "Advertising Club".
The composition of the "Club" is mainly female. About ten women-employees.
All women, except Tamara, live independently, without male life companions.
I hear the most detailed stories from Tamara about the rich and slender Rita.
This is understandable.
Rita comes from a simple family. She got married successfully, lived in a happy marriage for 20 years. Rita and her husband successfully fit into the modern business reality. Successful deals, very substantial cash receipts.
But at some point, the husband of slender Rita became interested in a young woman, a girl. Rita was left alone.
A woman's intuition told her that her husband, after his youthful ardor will be faded, would most likely will return to the loving wife Rita, to his usual life.
Tamara's stories (for me) about the financially successful and attractive Rita consisted of several topics.
Firstly, the plot of a Rita's life movement. From her youth to her joining the Advertising Club. I wondered: why would a rich woman go to work in an "Advertising Club"? Tamara didn't give me any specific answers to this question. Apparently Rita - financially secure, but left without a life partner, woman, - needed a communication and a structuring of personal time.
Secondly, I learned about the educational work of the Advertising Club staff in relation to Rita, who hopes for her husband's return. The staff treated her hope for her husband's return with wary mockery. Rita was "shot at" for example, with such words: "Probably, have everything overgrown there, at you!"
Rita listened to all this, she had no other options. Show us a human who can stop a flying bullet with own palm.
Thirdly, I listened to persistent praise for Rita: how rich she is, how slim she is, how attractive she is. It hardly surprised me at the time. I co-attributed such praise to female friendship, to mutual female sympathy.
It seems that Rita was planning some kind of relationship with a man (a widower?) from a paramilitary organization. His working place was in Saratov. This man came to Rostov once a month.
Rita, who works in the women's team, had no way to avoid any kind of relationship with this man: otherwise she would have recognized the correctness of all the mocking remarks, with which they "fired", "shot" her person.
Day followed day, week after week, month after month. I listened to more and more stories about Rita, and I felt that the prospect of restoring Rita's relationship with her husband was gradually disappearing.
But Rita wasn't the only character in Tamara's stories.
The most authoritative figure of the female part of the "Advertising Club" team was a mysterious, very experienced, woman of considerable age who separated from her husband about 15-20 years ago. As it followed from Tamara's stories, this mysterious woman was not at all burdened with her independent life, but she (often) told the employees of the "Advertising Club", including Tamara, about own important knowledge of confidential algorithms for earning huge amounts of money.
Now I no longer remember the details, but it is quite possible that I asked - during Tamara's praise of this mysterious woman - the question: if she has the "secret of wealth", then why does she work in the "Advertising Club"? Apparently, I didn't get a clear answer to this my question.
Except women, there were also two men in the staff of the "Advertising Club".
One of them was described by my Tamara with mockery: he is timid, and he has a bald spot (although he is young), and his tummy has already grown out.
The second man, who was capable to influence the level of earnings of the employees of the "Advertising Club", was described by Tamara with sincere admiration: he had such details in his appearance that were able to evoke feelings similar to feminine tenderness.
Some elements of the relationship were mentioned so clearly that one could come to very cynical guesses. Moreover, at that time I began not the most successful period in my life. A bad period is the lot of the weak and losers. And weak losers - they will endure everything.
But not only slender and rich Rita, individual members of the women's collective, and two men were the subject of Tamara's stories. Gradually, I personally became the subject of some of her statements.
The longer Tamara worked at the "Advertising Club", the more her problems were solved (and were remaining in the past), the more an indirect mentions of me turned into a direct ones.
She used to drive (to our house) with joy and did not notice a time. And now, a bus is driving barely, what a patience it takes to use public transport every day!
The man from Tamara's past, it turns out, had a skills to preserve fruit trees (from the effects of insect pests) much better than me.
Indirect (and direct) comparisons pave the way for a clearer picture.
In direct and indirect references of my Tamara, more and more my personality appeared (was represented) on a dark background or in dark spots. I was listening out about all this after her returns from the "Advertising Club".
Here, at last, are sounding gentle references to the attractiveness of one of the male employees.
Finally, a kind of direct "shot" (at me) was issued, the "bullet" was sent. It was the end of our relationship with Tamara.
These relations ended completely in the office - about a year or a year and a half after the "shot" at my person.
The queue in this official place was moving according an electronic scoreboard. The visitors were sitting on chairs arranged in two or three rows. They monitored the appearance of relevant information on the scoreboard.
The entry in the queue was made in advance - a few days before the manipulation of documents.
By chance, or not by chance, Tamara appeared - fifteen minutes after I took place in line. She sat down in the chair next to me.
I was reading a magazine.
I didn't manage to hear any new stories about the "Advertising Club" (about its employees), nor apologies, nor regrets from Tamara.
So, we sat next to each other, silently (without a single word), for forty minutes.
Then the invitation of my personality to approuch up to one of the windows appeared on the scoreboard.
We got up from our chairs almost at the same time.
I didn't see where Tamara went.
As for Rita's call: I picked up the receiver. For the first and last time I heard Rita's voice. At that moment, Tamara's stories about Rita's slimness, beauty and wealth were fresh in my memory.
Maybe Rita was told something about me? Something in her tone, in her voice, made me to do a pause for half a second.
I replied that Tamara was not at home right now, that Rita could call later.
After that call, I never talked to this slender, beautiful, rich woman again.
Sometimes I think: How was built the Rita's relationship with a man (a widower?) from a paramilitary organization, who was working in Saratov, who was coming to Rostov once a month? Probably, following the "everything is overgrown there", new "bullets" were cast and fired?
June 16, 2024 05:20
Translation from Russian into English: June 16, 2024 16:25
Владимир Владимирович Залесский ' Снайперши тьмы в зарослях Амазонки. Рассказ '.
{ 3536. Снайперши тьмы в зарослях Амазонки. Рассказ. - 16 июня 2024 г.
MMMDVII. Female snipers of darkness in the undergrowth of the Amazon. A story. - June 16, 2024.
Vladimir Zalessky Internet-bibliotheca. Интернет-библиотека Владимира Залесского. }