- You ... you want me to ... quit? He asked, not realizing whether this was reality or a new round of his nightmare.

- Well ... worse. Much worse.

- You will die? - quietly asked Pasha.

The goat shamelessly laughed:

“Of course I will die.” Someday. Do not hope to get rid of me so quickly, understand? No, Pashutka. You and I just have a baby.

- What?

- And I'm not going to do any abortions, okay, you? I am a goat, not a flayer.

It was in the last class.

From that day, the whirlwind, in which Pasha had cooked until now, went. Five student years flashed by one day, filled to the top with cramming, pampers, young Edward howling, children's kitchen, interviews, dismissals, night jobs, sleeping in the subway and lead fatigue in the body. Edik grew up, went to kindergarten, to school - and the whirlwind went on and on, the days flashed and flashed, and there was no time to stop and take a breath ...

The goat was the perfect companion. She never quarreled with Pasha, never lost her sense of humor, and always, at any moment, was ready to help, even if she fell from her feet. Her eternal mockery lightened her spirits, and for Edik there was no boyfriend more fun than her mother.

And Pasha did not have anyone closer to the Goat. That's probably why he never had any male friends.

- Damn it, - said Pasha, - you and me and the beer do not care.

“Don't swear,” Kozlik answered him, “otherwise the devil will hear and take you.” Who will wear the bag then?

She has not changed since childhood: she was just as ruffled and independent, never spoke about her feelings, and you could take offense at her caressing with habit. She had a short hedgehog on her head, which she diligently bleached white. With him, she looked like an alien Niya from the old movie “Through thorns to the stars”.

“Goat is the best friend in the world. They gave me real friendship, ”Pasha thought,“ but they didn’t give me any love ... ”

He betrayed her at school - and since then he got used to having sex on the side, like a sauce, without which life would be as tasteless as empty buckwheat.

Sometimes it seemed to him that he did not wake up that day when Kozlik woke him up and said about the child, and he dreamed all this, and continues to dream, and he himself continues to sleep, and his whole life since then is a prolonged sleep, and all you have to do is wake up and shake it off ...

***

... Suddenly realizing that the bus is standing still, Pasha opened his eyes.

The last heads and backs came out of an empty cabin. Outside the window was a wasteland, a wall of the forest and a shabby sign - “13th line”. The ultimate.

Having noticed, Pasha drove his stop and drove to the hell out of place. Now either wait half an hour for the return route, or drink six stops. Heck.

- Damn, - said Pasha, going out to a shabby sign. - Heck! - He repeated, looking at the miles of wasteland and garages.

“I'm here,” was heard from behind.

"Jokes, damn it," Pasha thought, and yet he became cold.

On the bench was a figure in a coat.

For a minute Pasha looked at her, then he wanted to turn around and walk, but the figure repeated:

- I'm here. Did you call me?

“Ochchchchen witty,” Pasha finally said. - You know, you could even ... I do not know, you read the Karamazovs and Faustus *, or ...

_________________________

*"The Brothers Karamazov" - a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, "Doctor Faustus" - a novel by Thomas Mann. And here and there features featured, dressed in a modern suit (approx. AV)

“Who do you take me for?” Not only read, but also posed. It didn't look like it, the guys turned around ... but oh well. That's not the point. Sit down, there is no truth in the legs.

The figure moved, and Pasha froze in indecision.

"Crazy," he thought. “How would it slip away so as not to offend. And then suddenly violent ... "

- Not. Not exuberant, - said the figure, staring at Pasha with calm steel eyes, and Pasha became cold again. - HERE is not exuberant.So, Pashutka, Pavel Ilyich? Wife tired? Silk curls hunt? Yes, you sit down, what are you hanging around like a dick?

Pasha sat down not so much as fell on the edge of the bench.

- Who are you? ... How do you know ...

“Don't pussy,” the devil replied. - Come to the point, without too much blah blah. The essence is as follows: the wife is sob to nausea, the girls are pestering me so that the dick sticks out, especially long-haired, curly and teh te. And betrayal nifiga do not give, except for the torment, for you are so all of a noble. All right Nothing messed up?

He paused, looking at Pasha.

- Do not worry, Pavel Ilyich. You will have a wife such that her every fuck ... so what the fuck is there - every touch, every look will be worth all the eternal life with giblets. And the change will remain. I speak about your Goat, do not be afraid, I will not poke someone else's woman. I do not agitate you, I know that I agree. Otherwise, I would not have raised my old ass and would not fly here, to you. I became old - on calls to fly ...

- And ... what should I do?

- Oh, she, she! And it asks me a well-read intellect, tkskzt, philologist-academician? Do not fuck yourself, Pavel Ilyich. How much is the world - the price is the same. Okay, for the pro forma I will tell. You come home to your wife, you notice in her ... let's say, something new, and after a certain time you love her as you have never loved before. Even in childhood on the couch. And it will continue as long as the love fit into your soul.

- What is it like?

- And so. Do you think the soul is rubber? Every soul has a limit of capacity. Smart people feel it and do not overload the soul with love or anything else. And fools like Romeo-Juliet and te de are loaded for nowhere, and at once, in one sitting. Thought why famous love is so short? And - hryas! Bursting soul. This I explain to you in an accessible language, but how it really is, you don’t need to know, and you won’t understand. The soul is bursting, and it is not visible outside that it has burst - like the same person as it was. But the point is that everything under the moon is interconnected. The soul has burst - and the whole system of its interrelations with the world goes to hell with horns. That is to me. Invisible threads are torn, the balance rolls over - and that's it. The tragic denouement. So it will be with you.

- What?

- What do you think - that you can calculate the strength and not get greasy, right? Or that you have a soul, like a pocket of your president - can the whole world swallow it? Well, think, think. When you have depleted your soul and it bursts, there will be one of two things. Either you die, and your wife will die from grief, and will long die, for decades, - or she will die, and from grief you will die. You will grow old and you will kiss her panties with a toothless mouth. And when you die, then you are mine. However, you yourself are in the know.

“Dr. Faustus,” said Pasha. - One to one. Only here creative burning was replaced by love ecstasy. Almost plagiarism.

- Do not you fuck? - blinked the devil. - I can only offer you the familiar. You people only understand what you learn. Give me your finger, otherwise I froze here ...

- Finger?

- Well yes. Than to sign the contract, forgot what?

Pasha sat for a long time, looking ahead. Then he extended a numb hand.

Damn got the needle ...

- Eeee, what are you? - He grinned when Pasha at the last moment pulled his hand back.

“I ... I have to think it over.” I can't do it right away.

- A. Well, think, think, Chapay, - allowed the devil, hiding the needle. “That something, and I cannot take it from you.” It is your holy to think. Think. Whistle, if that. Break a leg!

“To hell with that,” Pasha answered mechanically and started: there was no one around.

He sat on the bench for a long time, looking at one point. Then he got up and went to the city.

***

He did not remember how he got home.

- Where did you wear it? I was worried, - said the Goat. She very rarely said that.

- I fell asleep, drove right up to the final one, behind the garages ...

- Yes? - The goat looked into his soul with its green eyes, and Pasha thought she could see through him. - ... Read more →