After studying for ten years at school, I realized that I could not bear it any longer and decided to go to work. But they didn't take me! Did not take, and everything! Were needed at least some documents about education. I had to first graduate. At worst, the technical school or even the worst - the school. Having chosen the middle option, I ended up at a technical school. And not on the electronic faculty, but on the plumbing. Revealed a health problem: "Unsuitable for high-altitude work." Representing my future as a kind of Athos from the eponymous film, for six months I tried to transfer to another department. Eventually, this was finally abandoned by the techie too.

Wallowing all day on the couch, listening to music, reading books, was awesome, but the money earned from the sale of the record library quickly melted away, and something had to be done.

- Let's go to the bakery to work? There only the metric is necessary, - Sergey from a neighboring school suggested.

- And then I am with you, - Sasha supported him - a childhood friend.

The conversation took place over two bottles of wine. Under the influence of wine vapors, we were ready for any exploits.

In the morning I was woken by a doorbell ...

- Well, are you coming? - asked Sergei from the doorway.

- Where?

- Stay at the bakery.

- And Sasha?

- Changed my mind ... Well, to hell with it! Have you changed your mind?

Three hours later, we went home with passes in our pockets and agreed that Sergey would come to pick me up in the morning.

Bakery. This smell. Unforgettable smell of freshly baked bread. The indescribable taste of crispy, hot crust of bread, fresh from the oven.

And the girls? What were the girls there! Blood. No, buns with milk! In white pants and sleeveless or in dresses, often dressed in a naked body. I realized that I was in heaven. And for this I was still going to pay money?

Ten minutes left before the shift. Ira-brigadier, quickly led me through the workshop, showing and explaining what and where. Mukoseyka, kneading machine, conveyor with forms, furnace, warehouse, loading. Sergey asked for loading.

I admired the pecari dance. She pulled out the triple shape of the finished buns, hit them, fresh rolls fell out. I threw in the pile at an angle empty forms, the following, the next. When the tray was released, she removed the molds from the “bookshelf on wheels” behind her and carefully put them on the oven tray, it seems there were twelve of them. A dozen times she made her pas and, singing a song, she poured the long-moving rolls from a long watering can.

- Yura, today you work on the conveyor belt, and then we'll see.

Near the conveyor was a pretty girl, a little lower than me, about eighteen or twenty.

- You on the conveyor?

- Yes ... My name is Yura, and you?

- Sveta. “Come on, you’ll be empty today, and I’ll upload full ones,” she said in an authoritative tone.

Male ego leaped on me. Why is she doing me a favor?

“No,” I said firmly, “you will be empty, I am full.”

“As you wish,” Sveta smiled and we changed two girls.

The work was monotonous, but for some reason I liked it. I downloaded the “bookcase”, unfolded it, downloaded it. Sveta extinguished the conveyor, we rolled the cart into the proofer, where the dough, heated with seventy-degree steam, rose to readiness. From there, they rolled out the finished one, set it up near the pekarichs. The process continued.

The process lasted three hours. Then the forms went heavy, then very heavy. My best friend was the carbonated machine. I drink a glass, and he immediately comes out of me later. I did not have time! A winding snake filled with dough forms filled the table and climbed, climbed, climbed ... Sometimes, these damn forms fell on the floor. Light ran up to me and helped disassemble the dam. She managed everything. And did not complain.

At first I was ashamed. Then it passed. I'm tired. I've never been so tired in my life. Many years have passed, but I can certainly repeat it!

It was not paradise! It was hell! Hell is exactly the way it is described ...

It's lunch. Bakers he relied forty-five minutes, the rest - fifteen.

Hell went on ... Sveta asked me to switch places.

Now I did not have time to put empty forms. They are not pulled out of the piles! Dough flopped on an empty conveyor. Kneeling, laughing, shouting their favorite joke:

- Yura crap again!

The girl silently ran up to me and helped me to expose or retrieve forms. I had to roll one with the dough on the lift, but I didn’t always succeed. She usually helped me. Sveta worked for herself and for that guy - for me, without having once uttered a single word, and not with a single glance without showing her displeasure.

There was an hour and a half until the end of the shift, and suddenly everything changed. I got back strength. I did not miss, I forgot the way to the carbonated machine and did not let it go to the lift. She smiled for the first time, hearing: "I myself." But by the end of the working day, fatigue, came over me again ...

Finally, the shift is over. I went home with firm confidence, never to cross the gate of the bakery again ...

In the evening, having had a little snack, I fell asleep ...

Ringing and crashing ... Crashing and ringing ... I woke up ... They knocked on the door and rang. Called and knocked. My body ached — from my toes to the roots of my hair. Each step was given to severe pain in all muscles ... Sergey stood on the threshold.

- I will not go...

- gave the oath?

- Which one? - we sat in the kitchen, drinking tea.

“That your foot will no longer be at the bakery,” he chuckled. “You are a weakling.” And what do I tell the girls?

- I already disgraced myself there yesterday ...

- A brigadier said thin such, and kept to the last. Before him was a healthy guy - after lunch he ran away. I had it too. Everything hurt. And if not for Teddy. He followed me on the second day. I wouldn't go either.

I crossed the gate of the bakery again. Nobody cared about me. Nobody laughed.

Sveta sympathetically asked:

- Does it hurt everything? Do not worry, in half an hour will pass! On the empty stand?

- On the full.

An hour later, everything went. I'm a little tired for dinner. Ira brigadier, grinning, asked:

- Still you want to work at the stove?

- Three days later - four. Not yet involved.

- Look, get involved, then you will not stretch. We're marrying you here. Didn't choose yet?

Light entered and sat opposite.

- Won Light, look what a lass. Sveta, will you marry Yura?

- I'll take it. Just let it grow up a bit.

I blushed. As they have everything easily. And do not hesitate.

- Sveta, how old are you?

- Nineteen, and you?

- Also nineteen ... In October will be.

“Well, that's not a couple,” the brigadier laughed.

After lunch, Sveta helped me take a couple of times apart.

On the second day, Sergey again came after me. Only arms and back ached.

On the third I woke up before his arrival.

On the fourth Sergei did not go - transferred to another shift.

The fifth was a day off, and I had a night shift.

At night, the dining room did not work. Mom put a meal on me for five people. From bread, I somehow refused:

- I work at the bakery. Well, why do I need bread?

Half an hour before lunch the conveyor broke. Pripepe drunken locksmith. They were usually two to replace: a mechanic and an electrician. But they did not show their eyes to the shop, but filled them with alcohol.

“The engine burned here,” I had to explain to the mechanic unsuccessfully poking a button, “the smoke came out of it.”

- Tady, oh!

- What, Vasya is very heavy? - asked the brigadier.

- Yes, it's not Vasya. There is no such thing. And to change, we would change with a guy. Can you disconnect? - he turned to me.

- Like two fingers ... Get your tools.

Ten minutes later, the locksmith, hooking the disconnected engine with a belt, dragged him out of the workshop.

- Sveta, since you have nothing to do, change pekarikha for lunch.

- No, - by touching the shoulder ...