How it all happened - Oleg Molokanov

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We must explore the circumstances which led to conception of Pete as fairly and open-mindedly as possible, and that’s why we will mention only details directly linked with this conception – those which in one way or another worked towards Linda’s pregnancy. There is no need to turn on emotions describing our characters’ childhood, their fledging years, their achievements and failures; in this case the reader might choose himself a favorite character to support through the whole narration process. As a result, somebody will take Linda’s side, somebody the side of a man of hers; readers will try to figure out who is right and who is wrong – and this work, instead of being a serious investigation, runs the risk of turning into an ordinary piece of writing. We cannot afford such things.

      In terms of average statistics, there were plenty of men in Linda’s life. It is in woman’s nature to get faithful to a man after a more or less prolonged sexual relationship. To put it in general terms, a woman step by step turns into a domestic goddess wanting to spend the rest of her life at the fireside with her dear; but in Linda’s case such scenario was absolute nonsense. To begin with, she nearly did not care of her appearance. She looked beautiful, but in contrast with her female friends never tried to present herself in a favorable light. She had long eyelashes, but she never put mascara on – further still, she never bought mascara; she had a model’s legs, but she never wore slimfit jeans or pants – she preferred skirts, for they were more comfortable. Her female mates liked that, and here we see one more law of female nature: the less you, my friend, attract men’s attention, the more it is favorable for me. O.K., it’s time to picture Linda in more detail. Her hair was thick, with copper shade; she was a bit pug-nosed; her eyes were grey and a sort of mongoloid; her lips and teeth ordinary-shaped; her breasts perfect and with big hard nipples; her legs were long and straight but looked a bit childish – the same – childishness – could be said about her thighs; her pubic hair was maroon, soft and abundant – Linda wasn’t very much concerned about shaving it, say, every week. To apply the finishing touch, we should mention that she was rather tall – 5’10””. Of course, Linda could not be called a Hollywood star, but men found her quite attractive – and that’s for sure she was.

      Abortion #1. Before her first pregnancy, which occurred when she was 24, Linda sometimes thought she was barren, but she didn’t care of that in the slightest. She had no husband, no boyfriend – no man at all who could have wanted their common child and keep house with her. “If I meet such a man, I’ll pass medical tests and find a way out”, she used to think. “Today in medicine they use cutting-edge technologies, and thus…” At the same time, her female mates were having kids born one by one. Linda had no time to mark birthdays in her diary; she felt slight envy at them and hoped one day her triumph comes too. Nevertheless, she had no complex on that. She was as far from complexes as an armless man from fishing a coin from someone’s pocket.

      The story with her abortion is a bit extraordinary, and we hope it sheds a little light on peculiarities of Linda’s organism and temper. She could only get pregnant in some extreme situation – not whilst making a jump with a parachute or anything like that – but anyway amid some uncommon environment. God knows why, but her “classical” sexual contacts in a cozy and warm bed, with soft kisses and tender stroking that women love a lot – they never led to pregnancy though neither Linda nor her partners had taken precautions. What if her ovum only accepted male spermatozoids when she passed through something resembling a shock? And when the situation was favorable from common point of view, her birth canals refused to work? It’s difficult – if actually possible – to give the answer; we’d rather turn to further events to clarify a lot to ourselves.

      Linda met Ed on his first working day in the publishing house. Actually, it was supposed to happen, for their desks stood side by side. Linda’s job consisted in translating news blocks from Russian into English, and her boss asked her to let the newcomer into the work they were obliged from now on to provide as a team. For the last couple of years the information volume passing through their company had grown, and Linda herself could not handle it already – that’s why she needed an assistant, and they hired Ed. Ed seemed to be about five years younger than she, most probably fresh out of university. He was a tall and slim dark blonde with thin beard and deep voice. Linda couldn’t decide if she liked him or not – actually, love at first sight was not her cup of tea, be he even a doll. She did not worry much about her new mate’s attributes, especially height and thighs, to which the majority of women pay special attention. Walking behind whatever man, Linda was far from staring at his thigh muscles rolling under pants; she was as well far from imagining how the owner of the muscles makes rhythmic movements lying on her in bed; she never thought of how she’d squeeze those thighs, how she’d feel their power and strength with her own fingers.

      After a brief talk with Ed she knew everything she was, say, curious about. He had really got a university diploma in Linguistics, and it happened only a month ago; besides, he had good skills in computer software but very little experience in the work he was intended to do. “That’ll come with time”, Linda said to put him at his ease, “the main thing now is get involved in all that shit as soon as possible”. Having explained to Ed all the peculiarities and pitfalls of the working process before lunchtime, Linda rose from her desk and suggested going to a café situated right in their building. “You need to test the waters all around here”, she said with a chuckle and made him a sign to follow her downstairs. July was coming to end in Moscow, and it was so hot in daytime and towards evening that it seemed too much exertion even to breathe.

      When they came in, all the windows in the café were wide open, welcoming sun rays and sounds of the city in: Linda and Ed heard pretty well cars moving along, shredded dialogues and clattering heels in the street nearby. They sat down to their table right after the local advertising event had started. A man about 40, with handlebar moustache and in a Bavarian suit, was standing opposite a microphone explaining the rules of the game: the one who buys a bottle of beer, opens it right here and finds the letter B – first in the name of the promoted brand – at the inner side of the cork gets a plastic case of 12 bottles with “luxurious beverage that has no rivals”. Whose the idea was, Ed’s or Linda’s, that a bottle of cold beer in such a heat wouldn’t go amiss – it doesn’t matter. The main thing was that Linda found the needed letter on her cork, and the good-humoured moustachette, who was spreading around him a fragrance of sandal-tree, handed her the prize. The ceremony was accompanied by a round of applause from the thin audience in the café.

      Now we must point out one more serious thing, which will help us know deeper further ups and downs in Linda’s life. The fact is that Linda had been always seeing her unexpected gains as a gift of God and taking them in dead earnest. She understood pretty well the difference between winning in a card game or in a dancing contest – here your victory depends on quite a number of nuances, such as cut of cards, audience’s sympathy, and so on – and a gift that you get “from nowhere”, just what had happened in the café: you snap your fingers and you get it! Linda had very few gains of that sort in her life, and though the sum they cost had been ridiculous, she saw them as the finger of Fate, and after such blessings she usually expected more positive changes in her life and was sure they would come very soon. “This prize is only a part of something big”, she thought. “Wait a bit, and you’ll get much more!” In the café at that moment her feelings were just the same.

      Let’s go ahead. What happens when a team wins beer? Exactly – players kill it all as one. So, when the working day was over, Linda and her newcomer mate headed off to Gorky Park with half of the prize – six bottles of beer. The resting six were given to coworkers. They were sitting on a bench near a big fountain drinking their beer, and when only two bottles were left, they bought tickets to the panoramic wheel. There were few people around the attraction – maybe due to big heat or because it was a working day. When their cabin went for the second round, Linda felt sick. It’s hard to say whether it was booziness or height or both reasons at once, but when the cabin reached the highest point her sickness turned unbearable.

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