Vika reached the end point of the intended path.

To no avail. Where to go next - she did not know yet.

Outside the window of a second-class carriage, which arrived a quarter of an hour ago, it was late spring at the terminal of Kulikovo station. The sun painted everything yellow: the walls of the station buildings, the faces of passers-by and their clothes, even the gray cracked asphalt of the apron, along which the gusty wind drove bits of newspapers and various small garbage. The passing dachshund, passing in passing, marked a thick concrete pillar and ran on for some of her dog's business, amusingly turning over with short paws.

From thinking the woman sitting on the hard couch of the second-class coupe, brought a deaf male voice. He spoke abruptly. Short sentences. Each time pausing, as if pondering what exactly should be said in the next moment.

- Woman. We arrived. End station! Kulikovsky station. The train does not go further. You need to free the car. I'm here ... it is ... need to wash.

Startled after his first word, Vika glanced at the man who addressed her and recognized him as a young guide, with whom she traveled almost all the way. As soon as she got into the car before midnight before the car, the guide to the rhinestone seemed a little strange to her, but in fact turned out to be very kind and peaceful. Straight light-straw hair, gray eyes, a long nose, resembling the beak of a large bird, a strange expression on which perplexity froze - about that was his portrait. Buttons on the collar of the uniform of the conductor's shirt were unbuttoned, the tie removed from the neck imposingly dangling on a hairpin, over the stomach. The sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, and in his left hand he held a mop, leaning on it, as if on a staff and impatiently shifted from one foot to the other.

Startled, Vika returned from her thoughts to reality and realized that the car had been empty for a long time, all the passengers had already left it, and the conductor was engaged in cleaning up her workplace. He had already washed most of the car until he stumbled into her in the penultimate compartment - a passenger who had forgotten to leave.

The young man waited patiently, looking at Vika with a unblinking gaze, while the woman looked at him thoughtfully (as if remembering something or making some important decision). She was wearing a gray tracksuit and a blue windbreaker, old white sneakers on her feet, and on her knees she was holding a medium-sized black gym bag, scarcely filled with things, barely a third.

Its age was difficult to determine. Although it was evident that she was still quite young, the woman did not look her best: thin, gaunt, pointed cheekbones and broken rays of facial wrinkles, dark bruises under her eyes. Black hair, worn in places with silver threads of gray hair, was gathered in a ponytail and taut with a rubber band, which made her forehead look rather high. In the unbuttoned O-shirt, sharp clavicle looked through, and on the neck there was an aluminum cross on a plain white thread. There were no jewels, as well as traces of cosmetics on her, only two points in her ears testified that a woman used to wear earrings. Thin uneven fingers, with nails cropped at the root, also could not boast of either elegance, or the presence of jewelry on them, or manicure. The appearance of the passenger could be called ugly and possibly even repulsive if it were not for her eyes, large, deep blue eyes, as if in a baby, captivating with their naivety and purity. As if they did not belong to this person or this person, as if someone had planted white roses in the lifeless desert, they attracted a person and did not let him go. These eyes - they just lived their lives, and eyes, as you know - a mirror of the soul. So the conductor, having got into the trap of these eyes, was stuck in their bewildered gaze, and stood waiting, not daring to say a word, not to continue to wash the rest of the car.

The woman suddenly stood up abruptly, as if throwing off her delusion, somehow gazed at the coupe, looking at the forgotten things, and seemed to be about to leave the car, but, having stood indecisively and without making a single step, she sat back, under her brows guiltily looking at the conductor.

- The thing is ... I have nowhere to go!

***

Vika Verevkina all her twenty-nine years of life was a gullible simpleton. Somewhere these qualities helped her through life. Somewhere they were very disturbed, allowing others to have fun with her, or simply offend or substitute.

She lived with her grandmother from her youth, her parents after the divorce was not up to her. My father built his life, his mother hit the business, disappearing for weeks in Moscow, always buying up and selling and dodging a penny. At school, Vika studied mediocre, solid troechnitsy, but had a love for biology, algebra and works. Therefore, after graduating from 9 classes and getting a “solid-curved” certificate, she entered the Culinary School with a specialty cook-pastry chef. Neither an attractive appearance, nor the chiseled figure of a girl could not boast: thin, with a sharp nose and thin dark brown pigtails. She dressed simply, for the 90s too, she didn’t have enough money for more or less fashionable clothes, and she herself was rather reserved, not very sociable, had almost no friends, more and more sat at home for books, but helped her grandmother in the kitchen and housework. It was later, when she studied at a third year college, sometimes her friend Tanya Potapova’s desk managed to pull Vika into a movie or a dance, and even then only briefly, the girl was not used to such a life.

It was there that, at the disco, closer to graduation from the school, one cavalier drew himself, they called Aleshka Petrov, only came from the army, beautiful military badges on the form, muscular muscles. He smiled at her once and winked at her, Vika immediately fell in love with him, well, still, otherwise, youthful love is like a cold. And this guy just had to. First, to the house accompanied. Then midnight kisses in the entrance. Then his strong and confident hands, where his weak “do not” should not be. And then he allegedly left a fishing friend, left the keys to the apartment, everything happened, and Vika’s girl became Vika’s woman, and she didn’t remember the process of becoming, worried more and more, burning with shame and embarrassment, and then the pain is very sharp, down there, that's all. More Vika did not feel anything. When Alyoshka, completing the affair, fell off to one side, like a tick drunk, Vika quietly slipped out of bed, somehow washed off the blood in the cast-iron bath with ice water - was not hot, dressed and huddled modestly from the edge of the couch, resting her head on her first man’s chest reflecting on how they will now live happily with Alyoshka and love each other. So Vika could not close her eyes, admiring only Aleshkino's beautiful face and sighed softly.

In the morning Vika left early so as not to wake him up, she slipped home slowly with a mouse, grandmother and did not notice that she had not slept at home. Only the pillow head touched, and the girl fell asleep. I saw pleasant dreams, and only this tale ended. By evening, the whole court knew that Lech Petrov, Vika Verevkina, broke the hype in a dispute, and a week earlier than the stipulated time: they argued with the boys that he would have to mollify her for two weeks, and she gave him in six days. Here is a hero! Like, they say, in this dispute, he became a steward and won a bottle of beer from above, for efficiency, but then life did not work out for this Alyosha. Looks there is still a god in the sky. Although, on the other hand, Vicky didn’t have it from the very beginning, this life!

After the case, the grandmother on doctors screamed, was afraid that the granddaughter became pregnant, it is a sin to do an abortion, and another mouth who feeds it, but it turned out, this time God had mercy. It's a shame that only the little girl was branded, she hardly quit school before the final exams, but the management met them halfway, allowed her to be separated from all the exams ...