Голубые ступени / Stepping into the blue

«She just sits herself there and don’t budge.» Filippovich paused by the low fence and coughed. The old woman wasn’t even moving a muscle.

«Hey, lady!» Filippovich called out softly, but with no response. «Hey, lady! The grounds are closing. Do you need help?» He was starting to get involved – you could hear it in his voice.

The old woman slowly turned her dark face toward him and tried to get up, leaning on her walking-stick, but she couldn’t move.

«Give us a hand here!» Filippovich gestured to the man behind him, and the worker, wearing a warm jacket, stepped out from behind his back.

«I’m all stuck here. Can’t do it!» he explained. Then the rotund Filippovich, who had a hard time bending over himself, leant forward and tried to take hold of the old woman’s elbow. She managed to get up, only to drop back to the bench.

«Hoo, boy!» By this time he was really upset, not so much because of the elderly woman’s infirmity as the unexpected challenges that had come his way. «How come you’re all alone here, and on the Sabbath yet?»

«No matter,» came the reply.

«I’ll get up. I’ll get there. I wanted to do it on my own, ’cause…» She was wondering whether it was worth the effort to continue speaking, when Filippovich interrupted her:

«And at your age!»

«At my age I can do everything! I can go for a walk alone at night, even on the Sabbath!» Suddenly she gave a start and took a first step.

«Aha, it’s comin’!» the worker chortled. «Well, now, granny! How many years you got under your belt?»

«Ninety,» she answered, to the amazement of all.

«How many?» Filippovich echoed.

«You don’t believe me?» After a pause, she added: «It’s exactly seventy years today that we’ve been… like together.»

«What do you mean, ’like together’?» Filippovich marvelled, looking at the dates on the headstone.

«You don’t know how to count! Can’t count! Those years that went by – every one of them counted as two. So they add up to many more!»

While she felt a swelling in her legs, and wondered whether, indeed, she would make it home now, she was nevertheless completely free of not only fear but even concern.

True, the thought did cross her mind that once at home she might go crazy, but since that had happened a number a times already, she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. In any case, she had done everything right. They had been so little together in life that Ziama was probably in full agreement with her.