Several years have passed. Our country sank, thoroughly wallowing in the mud to begin to rise in pieces again. Like all state-owned enterprises, our office has collapsed. But many private companies were formed. Here in one of these companies, I worked. True, I had to retrain a little. Now I commanded a tanker.

My vacation is over. Having visited the office, I found out that my ship would arrive at the port only in a few days. So, it was still possible to take a walk. Out on the street, I breathed in fresh air. It was a wonderful spring day.

My mobile phone rang in my pocket. The number was unfamiliar to me. Strange. But I answered.

“Turn around, please,” after greeting and calling me by name, I asked for a low female voice that seemed very familiar to me:

- See a large glass door opposite? Log in there, please - the phone is disconnected. I crossed the street and stopped at the bright sign “Oil shipping company”. It so happened that all the institutions associated with the fleet in our city are located on the same street. Not at all surprised, I pushed the door and entered.

- Hello! Please pass. The president of the company wants to see you, - the guard came to me.

“Good,” I shrugged indifferently, and went with him. We took the elevator, and he already at the reception desk handed me over to the secretary. She, saying hello, opened the door in front of me.

I found myself in a huge office. True, in such a huge, that, looking around, did not immediately notice that someone was sitting at the table.

I took a step forward and was stunned. From the table, smiling, Tamara Albertovna rose to meet me.

Then there was the joy of meeting. Mutual inquiries. There was brandy on a glass. The secretary brought coffee.

Actually, Tamara has changed. Has become more solid or something. A little plumper. But it really went her way. Yes, this woman generally went on everything. The hairstyle has also become different.

She made a haircut. But this, again, only emphasized the correct features of her face. And something else. Oh yes! She had never worn glasses before. This is where this solidity comes from. But her glasses were also very much to face.

We joked carelessly. It became very easy for me. I felt a few years younger.

“I have been married since last year, and now I accept compliments from men through time,” with a charming smile, she gently but firmly put me in her place.

“Now about the case,” her face became serious. She walked around the office, swinging her hips in the same high heels, pulled up her jacket of her strict business suit and turned to me:

- I bought a new tanker in Germany. I need a reliable captain.

- How do you know that I now work on tankers? - I began.

“I know all about you,” she snapped.

- But understand. I have a contract with another company. The transition will entail a bunch of formalities. And then, what are the costs and expenses?

- This is not your problem! - she sat down at the table and took off her glasses, making it clear that the conversation was over. As before, when she was angry, she was even more beautiful.

Already in the waiting room, I suddenly stopped.

- Not. Anyway, something is not right! And where is the curtsy? - I threw up my hands.

- What's wrong with you? - the secretary jumped to me.

- Girl, I'm fine. Here you have obviously something happened, - I smiled.

“I don't understand,” she shrugged.

- Waiting for you in the personnel department. This is the floor below. I just got a call.

Already in the elevator, a chill struck me:

- What is the personnel department? What is Germany? I did not give consent to anything!

... Two days later in Hamburg I took a new tanker.

After a couple of years in one hot country, coming out of the port gate, I was confronted face to face with the captain from whom I had once taken a passenger ship.

We hugged and kissed with the old chum.So embracing and fell into the tavern, which was located here in the port area.

Sitting at the table and drinking a glass of local wine, we led a leisurely conversation. What can Russian men talk about behind a glass, even if they are in another hemisphere? Of course, about work. My tanker was supposed to go tomorrow

in the sea. His tanker just arrived at the port yesterday. That's about it and the conversation went. About the ships. About our company. And, of course, about the owner of our company.

- Do you know that she now has a new nickname? - poured a glass of my colleague.

- I know. Is it because she recently gave birth to a daughter? - I already knew this news.

“Not only that,” my friend's eyes lit up slyly, well, just like then, on the passenger, when he didn’t explain to me why she was called the steel lady.

“Come on for my daughter to grow as beautiful as my mother,” I raised my glass. We drank to the children.

Discussing orders in our company. Sharing news. Remembering. Making a toast to the toast, we suddenly realized that a very clear and clear picture emerges before us.

Under the previous government, by what criteria were we assessed? And only two criteria were taken into account. This is loyalty to the regime, simply partisanship and the so-called moral stability. And how many were thieves? For our mommy it was all

full dribid. In fact, the company was successful. Paid well. Conditions were acceptable. Of course, they wanted to get there. The man collected some recommendations. Stood in line in the personnel department. I waited in reserve. But everything is empty. On the other hand, you could be approached directly on the street or even spotted on the beach,

and after a couple of days you were already at sea. By the way, this is exactly what happened to me and my interlocutor. Mom selected people for two other qualities. The first is the highest professionalism. And the second is personal loyalty. Well, everything is clear with professionalism. But about personal loyalty, I will try to explain.

More recently, when oil prices jumped nemeryannom, I brought the ship out of the port and afterwards received a categorical order from mommy. And I, a mature, intelligent man drove

tanker across the ocean. It drove through storms, fogs, rain charges, which soon gave way to snow. Approaching the edge of the ice, I did not wait for the caravan with icebreakers, but, without hesitation, I got into the ice and took the ship in a single ice navigation mode. If that, there would be no one to help. Any sailor, especially the captain would call me a fool. And rightly so. And I spent days and days, without getting down from the bridge, flew and flew forward. But on arrival, he didn’t even sleep off, as it should, in the huge office he was awarded with a charming smile and was given the honor to kiss Mommy's hand.

When I told this to a colleague, he was not even surprised.

- I myself went through this. And not once, - he waved his hand. We drank for personal loyalty.

“And yet, she always set you apart from all of us,” the captain somehow looked at me sadly. In the voice of my friend, there was a note of envy.

- Do not you think? - I raised the glass again:

- That we are gradually starting to turn into her then girls, with whom she did what she wanted. And they idolized her for it.

- So what? And if it suits me? - my colleague stared defiantly at me.

- Oh-th-th! - I stretched. It suddenly became obvious to me that my friend had long and hopelessly loved this woman. We drank for unrequited love.

- Listen, - I turned to him:

- In English, no one here understands, but in Spanish I am not strong. We still need to order, but the conversation is not glued.

“No problem,” he waved his hand to the owner of the tavern, who had long been admiringly looking at two captains from distant and incomprehensible Russia. In his opinion, the conversation was very serious if, having drunk already three bottles, they asked for more.

“Listen, my dear,” my colleague in the purest Russian spoke to him:

- In local ink, of course, has its own charm. But the degree is clearly lowered. So roll us a couple more bubbles.

Surprisingly, the owner understood and immediately put two bottles on the table.

- Have you heard about the Ukrainian noise last year? - my friend again filled the glasses.

“I heard something, but at the edge of my ear,” I took my glass.

“I was there,” he nodded.

- Yes, what are you? Tell me - I almost spilled wine.

- So, - began my friend:

- Ukrainians obstinate, refusing to ship our transit. So much so that the terminal manager cannot move a claw. By evening, Mom arrived. From the plane to the car and there. Imagine, unloaded from a jeep, and at the very belly already on his nose climbs. Here - here to give birth. And, how to start dismantling arrange. They did not know where to hide from it.

And then she gathered a meeting, showed a finger to her stomach and said:

- I need a couple of days in Moscow for personal matters. If you don’t bring order here during this time, I’ll fly over. And then...

My friend made scary eyes:

“Can you imagine that?”

- Yes-ah-ah! - I took my hands on his head.

We drank the last bottle only for mommy. There was no point in continuing the conversation. The conversation slowly but surely began to develop into a drunken bazaar.

The next day, sitting on the bridge in the captain’s chair, I squeezed a lemon into a glass of strong tea, trying to arrange for myself at least some reanimation after yesterday's Latin American ink. The tanker, shuddering with its whole hull, climbed a steep ocean wave.

- Maybe slow down the pace? - the navigator came up to me.

- Follow the previous move! - I waved, not even looking at him. He chuckled, offended, turned and went into the navigational cabin.

The navigator, of course, is right. Why force yourself and the ship? Yes, that's just what this boy can understand in life? After all, not after the flight he will have to stand in a huge office with a report.

I took a sip of tea and thought:

- Everything is normal! ... That's just a pity! ... It is a pity that I will not see in this huge office a chic French curtsy with modestly lowered eyes, covered with long eyelashes!