Bolshakov met Bestuzhev standing up.

“I want to ask,” began Nina Georgievna, “why do you paint me the most?” Other girls don't interest you?

“Well, Boris, your hour has come! - shook "I". - Give her the truth in the womb! Ha-hah ... "

“So that she thinks bad of me?” - Bolshakov did not accept the soldier’s joke.

"The main thing that would think about you ..." - insisted "I".

- Want to be frank? - Bolshakov bravely dived into the bottomless depth of black pupils. - I like experienced women ... Like you, Nina ... Georgievna.

- In general, it was not difficult to guess. But I wonder why?

- They do not need to learn anything. On the contrary, they can teach a master class.

“This is how,” thought Nina Georgievna with philosophical calmness, “it seems that now they will seduce me ...”

- You are the one about whom, I think constantly. Especially at night. Everyone is sleeping, and I imagine you in my arms ... - Bolshakov took Bestuzhev by the shoulders. - You are my muse! Next to you, I'm burning, not smoldering ...

His palms seemed burning hot.

- Stop it! - Nina Georgievna took a step back. - Do not forget that I am a married woman! And, besides - the wife of the political officer of the part! Do you know this?

Bolshakov, as jammed:

- Recently, I have been overcome by a strange feeling. As if, I see the world anew ... Everything that was before you seemed to exist. In all, only ... you. Perhaps this is happiness ... I ... I love you, Nina Georgievna!

For a long time Bestuzheva did not say such words, from which the heart should beat.

It should, but not beating.

“The guy is young and stupid! - thought Bestuzheva, looking at the Bolshakov dispersed. - You, my dear, not the hero of my novel! But, talk, talk ... Offended the captain, now you beat the wedges to another "little fool"? ... You’re eating butter and not my girl! "

Nina Georgievna shook her head, driving away not the best thoughts. A slight grimace of discontent ran through her charming face.

- Is there anything sacred for you, Private Bolshakov? First, Lena Kalinina, now, in line, so I understand, lieutenant colonel's wife?

The soldier did not lead an eyebrow:

“Holiness, holiness ...” he grumbled, shrugging his shoulders. - What it is is not clear. That is sin, it is clear to all. Because we live in sin. And what is holiness, I do not know ... I will not say a word about Elena Pavlovna either. Not my secret.

- God, what decency! ... And - stupidity. Mixed together: love, holiness, sin ...

- It happens to me: I say one thing, but my thoughts work, in a completely different direction ... Sometimes I ask myself: “What are you, Boris Bolshakov?” - And the answer is not unequivocal. As if - one in three faces ... and three - in one person. Do you, Nina Georgievna this is not happening? ..

Bestuzhev was silent.

- Sometimes, it seems to me that I, every day, are different ... And, in addition to this many-sidedness, I received karma to know life through contradictions ... I agree that this is very strange karma. But to her there is the most precious application - the ability to understand women. Can you imagine a man of my age get such a legacy ?!

Bolshakov lowered his voice:

“But I know so little about you women ... You, Nina Georgievna, are very interesting to me, and I trust you.” Could you give time and share, with a very obedient student, the experience of the right behavior with the fair sex? I mean the theoretical part ...

Bolshakov paused, leaving something on the face of a friendly smile. Like: "What, this frank proposal to talk about bedding scenes, answer, beautiful?"

“I understood that you shouldn’t take the irony and cunning,” Nina Georgievna found a loophole. - They invented an excuse and blamed everything on a certain instability of self-control. Like, I am, because I do not know what I am! Nonsense, bordering on hypocrisy! ... I, to something, dragged here ...

She said, and that the soldier did not see her face, went to the window.

She was imbued with a genuine feeling of indignation and a feeling that, this time, something was about to happen. Because preparing for a decisive rebuff.

Outside the window, it seems, the first spring thunder was brewing.

Bolshakov stood at the back and looked at the high neck, which was not covered by a short square, on sloping shoulders, a straight back with a thin waist, a stretched butt, elastic hips, turning into calves and was ready to swear that he felt their vibration. He felt a sweet certainty that in time he would have it all. But more than that he drank in the effect produced by his speech on Polyakov's wife.

He looked and was silent, giving the opportunity for verbal revelation to fill the consciousness of the target attacked by him.

It thundered in the sky, and it began to rain heavily. Heavy rain drummed on the metal roof of the building and jets of water, similar to mercury jets, heavy and viscous, rushed past the window opening to the ground.

Refusing to look at these silver streams, Bestuzhev tried to put her thoughts together, but they were carried away like grains washed away by rain ...

And, worst of all, now Bestuzheva heard her heart. It knocked everywhere: in the chest, in the temples, in the ears.

“Overworked and more! - she believed herself. “It’s not from the stupidity that this obnoxious boy is carrying, I am so pounding!”

In hindsight, she tried to understand what kind of man is ordinary Bolshakov? "Too frank, or pretending to be such?" ... "No! She said to herself. “This soldier cannot be judged so primitively.” Each of us is not unequivocal "...

For some reason, she was inclined to think that Bolshakov was a positive person. Even - interesting.

"Without a doubt, the guy had the gift of reincarnation ..."

Immediately, a beaten saying came to mind that life is a theater, and the people in it are actors! ..

Squeezing interlaced fingers, and without turning around, the lieutenant colonel asked:

- Do you think that a person should always be frank?

Bestuzhev didn’t know if this question was urgent at that moment, but the desire to hear the answer was formed in her agitated head quite clearly

- With a loved one, and with yourself - yes! Sneak poisons the soul, - answered Bolshakov.

“Then, private, I'll tell you quite frankly!” - for the first time, calling Bolshakov on "you", Bestuzhev turned to the soldier with an unbeatable look: - Forget that you have made a mistake here! I do not want to know! And if you pester, my husband will find out about your plans.

The skin of Bolshakov was covered with cold sweat.

- Do not know. You do not want this.

- Since when have we become “you”?

- Just. Or it seemed to me?

- It seemed! I'm not used to "knocking." But everything has a chapel. And I warn you! ..

The reader can easily imagine what kind of fire Nina Georgievna’s eyes flashed at that moment.

As if in confirmation of this anger, the rolling thunder struck outside the window ...

...

Lieutenant Colonel Polyakov served long enough to learn the simple truth: communicating with the general, you should be more silent and, as rarely as possible, open your mouth, and even more so do not stick with your thoughts and ideas.

Today he was at a meeting that Major General Repin conducted with officers involved in the preparation of a regional training ground for large military exercises.

Everyone knew that the Defense Minister Marshal Grechko would inspect the exercises!

This imposed on the organizational work of the field team and those involved in it a strong nervousness. And, with the approach of the date of arrival of high authorities, the situation at the site almost exploded. And one of the adjutants of the Minister introduced this explosive environment.

Arriving at the site with a preliminary inspection, he found a disorder in that no one expected. He stopped in front of the kitchen and pointed to a large sign above the entrance to the ground kitchen.

- What is this? Why is it written in black letters on a chicken background ?!

The adjutant was informed that updating signboards and other signs for speed ... Read more →