Твои воспоминания всегда с тобой
Your memories are always with you
Natalia Kolganova
I have read it in the book
There were five of us: 4 girls and a boy, five musketeers. We were always
together, no matter what. We all used to live in the same neighborhood. However, I
was a little separated from everybody because my building was one block further, and
every day it was a tragedy for me when coming back from school, I had to go
different way and leave my friends. I can say that our friendship was very untypical,
I mean the members of our company: 4 girls and 1 guy. You don’t see that often, do
you? Denis, a little cute guy, unfortunately, had some serious health problems. There
was something wrong about his blood or hormones that did not allow him to grow up.
So he looked the same since he was 6 years old. Maybe, that was one of the reasons
that he had chosen the company of girls to spend his free time with, not guys. No,
nobody rejected him; it is just that he felt more comfortable with us. Luba and Tanya
lived in the same building. As we were growing up, they turned to be a little subgroup
in our company being very close friends. I was so jealous of their familiarity. That
stupid one block distance between our houses was like a hundred-mile gap that kept
me separated from their world and deprived me from any opportunity to be closer to
girls. Despite of all those “problems” we were a great team. We were going to the
same class, and for some period of time I was even sitting with Denis at the same
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desk. In Russia, school desks are designed for students to sit in pairs. So, Disa,
like everybody used to call him, turned to be my partner; very useless I must say in
the educational process, but still a partner. School was not much of importance to
him; so he did not care about what we were studying. In comparison with Disa, I was
one of the best students in class. Although the teacher put us together at the same
desk in order for my “partner” to learn something from me, he kept on minding his
own business drawing cars or making paper airplanes. I felt responsible of taking care
of that little guy. Probably it was mother’s instinct, or I just felt sorry for him
sometimes because of his health problems.
“For tomorrow you will have to read chapter 8 and we will discuss it in class. I
am sure that you will find this chapter exciting.” That was our homework in the class
of natural science. We were in the third grade of high school and it was the most
interesting class because it contained a little bit of everything: geography, biology,
history, etc.
I could not wait to get home and read that chapter.
“Vova asked his parents where babies came from. Daddy gave a very technical
type of explanation. “Oh, it is very simple. Your Mom and I just spitted in the glass
and left it over night. That was it. Next morning your Mom just swallowed the liquid.
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Business was done.” Vova did everything like his father said. He took a glass, spitted
in it and asked his girlfriend to do the same. He left that special glass over night on
his night stand. However, next morning there was nothing else but cockroach in there.
Vova knew that there was something wrong with that technique of making babies, and
father had not told him the truth. Mother’s answer on the same question was very
different. “When man and woman love each other, at some particular moment their
bodies along with their soles become the whole, and a seed of love starts growing in
the woman’s body. After nine month a miracle happens – the baby is born.”
“Oh my God, it is such bullshit! Why they are telling us these fairy tales. We
are 9 years old already and everybody knows that babies come from their mother’s
bellies. Why they don not give any details? It is not fair.” I remembered that Mary,
the fifth member of our team, mentioned one day that the birth had something to do
with guy’s penis and sex. “But what is sex?” I saw couples kissing on TV, but my
intuition kept on telling me that it was something more. My thoughts about the
complicated problem of sex and babies were interrupted by a scream:
“Natashka, come here. I know where babies come from. I have just read it in
the book!” That was crazy Denis who ran into a house very exited. It was written on
his face that he had just discovered a great secret.
“You are such a stupid idiot! Thank you for letting me know this in front of my
mother!” I felt angry and embarrassed at the same time. For me that topic was
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forbidden, and I considered it impropriate for kids even mention it in front of
parents. I tried to explain to my Mom that it was our homework for the class, but
instead of listening to me she started laughing like somebody had just told an
unbelievably funny anecdote. Disa was shocked by my Mom’s reaction on his
statement. So was I.
“Come on, girls are waiting for us”, I gave Disa a wink, trying to let him know,
that it would be better for us to leave. He ignored me, staring at my hysterically
laughing Mother. I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the exit. “Tanya and Luba
are waiting for half an hour already!!!”
“Oh, Kids!” I just heard my Mom’s voice while closing the door.
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Do you want to give it a shot?
Only I could be so lucky to fall in love in teacher in high school.
Korchagin Andrej Aleksandrovich – 22 years old guy was about to graduate
from college and at the same time started teaching economics in my school. He was a
little taller then me, blond, not a model at all. But there was something about him.
First of all his sense of humor that sometimes being a little nasty was his great plus.
More than that, Korchagin was always the center of the company, his company.
However girls in the class did not like him; they tried to use any chance to make fun
of my favorite teacher. Although I knew him better than other girls, because I used
to go to his additional classes at the Department of Education, I had to be on my
friends’ side to free myself from suspicious looks of my classmates and phrases of
this kind “Look at her, she is in love with a teacher!”
“We need another person for our team. You know that there is a country wide
competition in two weeks organized by the Department of Consumer’s rights, don’t
you?” Igor, the tutor in my physics class, that was close friends with Korchgin, told
me in the beginning of the 10th grade. How could not I know about that competition if
the best guys from my class were in the team and were talking about it nonstop? And
how Korchagin could not tell me that they were looking for new team members?!
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All the guys from the team were going to that additional class in the
Department of Education which I dropped a year before. At that time Andrej’s
father used to teacher economics there and it was very boring. It was my big
mistake, because as soon as Andrej started to teach the class, his office became just
a place to hang out in and spend a good time.
“Do you want to give it a shot?” Igor repeated his question.
“The only problem is that there is a huge amount of information and a short
period of time available for preparation. Plus, there is another guy who also wants to
be in the team. So, before we form the team, we will give everybody a final test.
There are about 100 pages of laws for you to study in two weeks. Do you want to do
it?”
“Are you kidding me? Of course!” Igor was kind of surprised to see me so
exited about his offer. But he did not know that he actually was giving me a chance to
be closer to my love! “I will do everything to get in the team!”
For two weeks I was doing nothing but studying. My desire to be a part of the
team was so strong, that I forgot about everything and everybody around. The good
thing was that we were allowed not to go to school during preparation for the
competition; however, we had to attend classes in the Department of Education.
“Guys, Do you want to repeat any chapters?” Korchagin looked at us with a hope
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for a positive answer in his eyes.
“Maybe, we will better go get couple bottles of beer, we have plenty of time
yet!” For 2 minutes Andrej was trying to play a role of a responsible and serious
teacher, but his love for beer took over and in couple of minutes we were already on
our way to the supermarket. Time went better with beer and pistachios, no doubt;
nevertheless the main goal never left my mind. I kept on studying at home, missing
“company’s meetings”. I had to choose between spending time with everybody,
including my love and his girlfriend, who was always around, and a chance to go to the
competition and maybe become closer to him! When you love, you always have to
sacrifice something.
When the representatives of the Department of Consumer’s rights came to
train us, I realized that I had nothing to worry about because I turned to be the only
one who knew material and could apply it on practice. Besides, I was the only girl in
the potential team and it was a plus as well. Furthermore, the final exam that we got
was more than easy and the result did not matter actually because the tickets for
our trip were already bought.
“I won, I did it!” I was creaming inside!
“Hurry up! Get into the train, drop your cigarette!” Iror was yelling at one of
the guys. Korchagin was promising to my Mom that everything would be O’k and he
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would take care of me. I was promising to his girlfriend to keep eye on Andrej and
from time to time to remind her fiancé that she would cut all his ”treasure” if he
decided to cheat.
“Nata, why do you take so long? Come on, everything is ready, we are waiting
for you!” Guys were rushing me, while I was trying to convince Andrej to join us.
Couple of teams gathered in our room in the hotel, where we stayed during the
competition. Andrej did not want to go, he was tired and was about to go to sleep. I
would better go to bed too than to spend time without him. But guys’ persistence and
Korchagin’s stupid behavior forced me to go with the guys.
“Stupid idiot! He is tired! Who cares! I can and I will have a good time without
you!” At that night I swore that I would stop trying to make him closer to me. My aim
was at least to become friends with my love, but even that did not seem to work out.
So, I just gave up!
“No, stop crying, it is not the end of the world!” Andrej was wiping tears from
my face. All his T-shirt was in my mascara. We had lost the competition and
Korchagin was doing everything possible to calm me down. I could not stop crying. I
felt so unhappy because all my efforts were useless; I studied hard in order to
prepare for the competition and to be around Adrej. And what were the results? We
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were on the last position in the total rating list. More than that I did not move any
forward in my relationship with Andrej. But at that particular moment there was a
slight feeling of happiness. He was hugging me and it was so good to feel his body
close to mine, even that I knew it would not last long.
When we came back to our city my Mom and Korchgin’s girlfriend were waiting
at the train station. The first thing that he did when he got out of the train, he
kissed his girl; tears streamed down my chicks immediately. That was the end! We
had a good time but it was over. I’d lost my love for ever! I am a loser…
“Do you remember how you were crying after that competition? I still can not
understand why you were so upset!” Andrej said to me two years later when we were
walking on the Red Square in Moscow. “You MEN are so stupid, it was not our loss, the
reason was you!” He gave me a hug and kissed my forehead. It was half a year already
that we had been together.
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