Cказки Призраков. Tales of Ghosts. Премия им. Эдгара По / Edgar Poe Award (Билингва: Rus/Eng)

Он не мог видеть лишь её глаз и шрамов под платьем, оставшихся от его многочисленных ударов ножом в поисках сердца…

    26 июня 1998

4. Frozen

«Hey!» Yuri whispered, glancing sadly at her beautiful cold face. «Today I came late, because I took the child to the cottage… I am sorry, Inna!»

She was silent.

«Well, forgive me!»

Inna said nothing.

So, all summer long Yuri came to her every evening to talk about his current life, and he brought her ice cream. Yes, I will always remember, she loved ice cream, and she froze some berries for the winter to defrost them and eat with ice cream… in the winter.

«God told us to forgive everyone. You’ve always believed in God, haven’t you, Inna? Forgive me!»

She was silent.

***

Autumn came, and it rained heavily. That evening, Yuri bought her a bouquet of small chrysanthemums.

«I’ve never given you flowers before. I’m sorry… Do you want me to bring them to you every day?.. And ice cream as well! Whatever you love!»

Inna was silent.

Yes, she was mercilessly cold!

Yuri often remembered that everyone envied him for such a wife – beautiful, young, cheerful, sociable…

«How long can you be offended, Inna? Yes, I was wrong! Although I’ve been holding back for so long! Just think, only once I was jealous of our child! Yes, because you spent too much time on him and paid no attention to me! I was very hurt, really! Well, I’m sorry!»

Yuri looked at Inna with such a plaintive look, but… she remained silent.

And he could hardly restrain himself, since men don’t cry.

***

In winter, almost every evening, in addition to ice cream, Yuri brought her also tangerines. Inna must have been fond of them as well, but… she continued to be silent. She was so cold… of course…

And then spring came. When everything frozen begins to melt, and it seemed to Yuri that Inna was about to melt, too! He came to her with hope, but she was still cold.

«Have pity on me!» Yuri shouted. «Listen to me! I can’t go on like this! I can’t live without you! I feel like I’m going crazy! I’ll take you away from here and make you happy! Just come back to me please! Well, forgive me!!!»

At that moment, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

You never know what one would do in such a state! I stepped away from the surveillance video camera and, fastening my bulletproof vest on the go, went to the client.

Yuri turned around as I opened the door and greeted me with a nod.