what with her?

- You tell everything ?! Well you have a doctor for women's diseases!

- And who doubts? Cooming soon.

I went to the dry grandmother's cleaning lady, who replaced the pekarich for the lunch time. She famously knocked the bread out of shape, and the conveyor, happily squealing and gnashing her teeth, carried them to the loading compartment.

“Let me change you, babula-beauty,” the future baker said cheerfully.

- With a young flirt, - she smiled, retreating from the furnace.

The hundred-degree heat breathed on me, and I began to lay the forms. “Three seconds of stock. Not bad, I thought ...

Three hours later, the conveyor broke. Fortune always grinned at me.

- Iraaaaaa! - the baker shouted, - the conveyor is dead!

- What are you yelling? I am near, I substitute you.

I looked around. Workers hurried to us. Quickly podkatyiv empty bowl, they began to put there rolls. The stove can not be stopped! Baker continued to work ...

Came a mechanic with an electrician and changed the engine. The conveyor again gnashed his teeth and, just from the oven-fresh-bread, jostling merrily, they set off on their journey. Their indescribable fragrance gave me strength. Sweat periodically blanketed my eyes. Several times I burned my hand, but almost did not feel pain. I did not tolerate the heat. It was a hot summer. The shop was very hot. And near the furnace is just hell! Fatigue, smirking slyly, clutched at my hands. I could not take two forms at once, and I laid them out one by one, barely keeping up with the carousel. Sometimes the loaves got stuck in the socket, and time was lost for dismantling the dam. Carousel rode, not fully filled ...

Lyudochka, having picked up her free seconds, ran up to me with a glass of soda and sympathetically asked: “How are you?”. “OK,” was my answer ...

At the very end of the shift, my nose began to bleed. There were only two minutes left. The clerk, red-haired beauty Nina, seeing this, pushed me away from the oven with the words:

- You have blood, go, I'll finish it.

- Where? - was surprised, having worked only half a shift, baker.

- From the nose. Do you feel nothing? - Luda, who had run up, asked, and with her handkerchief removed from her head, began to gently wipe my face.

“For this I am ready to stand again at the stove,” and we, “waltzing”, headed for the exit from the workshop.

- Well, wait! I haven't wiped everything out yet. And we must stop the blood.

In the washbasin, she began to wash my face. Returning after a few seconds, put cotton in the nose and asked to raise her head higher.

“Have you ever had nosebleed?” - the girl was surprised.

“Not once,” I laughed, pulling the cotton from my nostrils. See? No longer flowing.

- Well, you're just the only one! Everything, I'm in the shower. I will skip another one.

- wait for me? I wanted to tell you something.

- I'll wait, - apparently, guessing what it was about, my love smiled.

We sat on a bench in the improvised summer dining room, and I did not dare.

Finally, he squeezed out of himself, for some reason confident of refusal:

- Lyudochka, I like you, and I invite you on a date.

- Good. I agree. And where?

- You agree?!!!

- Agree. And where will we meet, and at what time?

- Well ... Here at the gate of the bakery at ten in the morning. Do you have windows out of the hostel?

- Not. But I will sit with Zina, and as I see you, I will immediately leave.

***

I cried ... Tears were streaming out of me ... Probably, I even sobbed ... Who told you that men do not cry? That is nonsense! Or maybe I did not cry? Maybe it all happened inside of me? And the eyes were completely dry, well, maybe a little moist? Who cares?! I don’t remember ... I was sitting in my room and listening through the homemade headphones to the wonderful music of the Doors group. Sad memories brought me back yesterday ...

Totally happy young man chose flowers for his girlfriend. Should it be roses or tulips? Or maybe she likes cloves? Feeling my confusion, the saleswoman decided to help:

- Young man, and to whom do you want to give flowers?

- The girl ... My girlfriend ...

- Then, I would advise you roses, white roses - a symbol of youth and purity ...

At home, I put three beautiful flowers in a vase of water and poured in a spoonful of sugar. Well, where would I take the flowers in the morning? The store opens at ten, and at the same time I am supposed to be on a date. After all, he himself appointed ?!

I slept badly at night. And who would sleep well? I thought, thought, thought. Where to invite what to wear? I dreamed of the first kiss, the first hug, and maybe ... what if ... well, no! Most likely no!

What did not you think about? That morning, it is a good idea to drop by the pharmacy and buy condoms. That's what I did not think about! And it would be necessary! If I had been born forty years later, my thoughts would have been completely different. And on a date with flowers and candy would have to add a bottle of brandy or champagne. And where to invite the choice is much richer.

But it is now, but then the choice was not such: in the cinema, a zoo and a walk. To the theatre? It will not work - tickets must be purchased in advance. To the beach? Good idea! But that day, unfortunately, it was overcast. Therefore, having armed myself with a box of chocolates and a bouquet of flowers, ironed and ironed with the help of a mother-iron and her own hands, in new, never-before-worn boots, I went on a date.

Before the bakery was about five hundred, well, maybe seven hundred. Most likely, three hundred. Afraid to be late, I went out in half an hour. At thirty-five minutes, of course, the gates of the bakery proudly adorned before my eyes. I felt like an idiot with a box of chocolates under my arm and flowers in my left hand. For some reason I suddenly thought that Lyudochka would not come. And now they are sitting with Zina, and looking out the window at the idiot in new boots with a bouquet and, they laugh cheerfully like two young horses who have come to drink.

Zina came out from around the corner ... Her sad face, instantly shook out of my head idiotic thoughts ... "Something happened ... Something terrible happened to Luda ...". It was not hot. But sticky drops of fear and despair crawled along his back. Zina was moving very slowly ... As in a slow motion movie ... So she took a step ... one more ... more ...

- Hello, Jura. Luda will not come. Her trolley on the foot fell. The movie broke, and she fell down ... She screamed that way, but we could not fold the trolley.

I instantly imagined a monorail at a height of almost two meters and Lyudochka pulling a trolley chain. Suddenly, she stalled, the girl stands next to her and, swinging, trying to make her move. Suddenly she falls, Lyudochka does not have time to rebound and her foot is crushed by a two hundred kilogram load. Unsurprisingly, they could not immediately release her. But what was my partner doing at the bakery last night? After all, we go out tonight.

“We were asked to go out tonight.” She was very tired from the last shift. Sleepy was inattentive. Irina-brigadier will be stuck now.

“What hospital is she in?” I want to go to her right now.

- No, Yura. Will not work. Her mom and dad came in the morning and took her home to Barabinsk or Barnaul.

- So, to Barabinsk or to Barnaul? And who to know more precisely? Who else does she have from her friends?

- Only me. Yura, she asked you not to commit rash acts. She asked me to convey that she really likes you. And the doctor said that everything was going well and normal, and in six months she would be able to dance. You know, the ambulance arrived in three minutes! Everything is so fast. She was lucky.

“This is for you,” and I handed Zina flowers and a box of chocolates.

- To me? But you wanted to give this to Lyudochke.

- Let it be you ... Do not carry me back to my house. Well, just ... Please take ...

- Thank...

I do not remember how I got home. But I remember my thoughts. Thoughts of a complete egoist. Yes, I was worried about Lyudochka, I might even cry for pity for her, imagining how painful she was.

I turned on the tape recorder and revel in self-pity. To myself, that fate was pleased to deprive me of a date. To deprive the touches of my Lyudochka's warm lips. Fate did not allow me to merge into the arms of my beloved. And even more so ... although, most likely - no, I think Lyudochka would not allow ...

But who knows ... the future can always change ... And what would it be? Suddenly the trolley would not fall? Or Lyudochka managed to bounce? And if I went to the pharmacy in the evening ...