Escape to Happiness

A Drama in Three Acts

by

Natalya Churlyaeva

Translated from Russian

by

Jane H. Buckingham

Natalya Churlyaeva
Kolomenskaya 12/42
Krasnoyarsk, Russia
churyahin@rambler.ru

Escape to Happiness by Natalya Churlyaeva

 CHARACTERS

GRANNY: Claudia Semyonovna, owner of the apartment.

VICTOR: Claudia Semyonovna’s son.

LILIA: VICTOR’S wife.

NELLIE: LILIA’S daughter from her first marriage.

SVETLANA: ostensibly LILIA’S younger daughter but in reality

NELLIE’S daughter by VICTOR.

SASHA: a man from prison.

Escape to Happiness by Natalya Churlyaeva

 SETTING
The action takes place in Claudia Semyonovna’s apartment.

TIME
The present.

SYNOPSIS
A drama of family members compelled to live together. The secret of the
younger daughter’s parentage is the core reason for the unnatural
family relations. In the end, the situational deadlock breaks the middle-
aged heroine and leads her to madness.

Escape to Happiness by Natalya Churlyaeva

 I-1

Act One
As the curtain rises, SVETLANA sits at a
table and eats something. GRANNY
enters.

GRANNY
Are you eating again?
(Pause.)
Tell me, how can one eat so much? Take a look at yourself,
what do you look like?

SVETLANA
Gram, are you sorry for the food?

GRANNY
I’m not sorry for the food, I’m sorry for you. You can barely
fit on the chair!

SVETLANA
Stop nagging me. I want to eat, so I eat.

GRANNY
But not so much! Have to know your limit.

SVETLANA
(Continues eating.)
You’re weird, Gram. Think for yourself, how can there be a
limit if a person wants to eat?

GRANNY
Well, fine. Just don’t cry afterwards.

SVETLANA
And I don’t intend to. What makes you think I’ll cry?

GRANNY
Who was sniveling last night? Who was complaining that the
boys in the courtyard were calling her a pig? What, already
don’t remember?

SVETLANA
Nope, don’t remember.

GRANNY
 I-2

What memory you have, Svetka.

SVETLANA
Gram, lay off. Don’t be a bore.

GRANNY
Aren’t you ashamed to talk this way to your own
grandmother?

SVETLANA
And how do I talk to you? In my opinion, quite properly.

GRANNY
No, not properly! Do they teach you this at school?

SVETLANA
First of all, I’ll have you know that I’m already in high school.

GRANNY
As if it makes a difference! I’m asking you again: do they
teach you to be rude to your elders?

SVETLANA
They don’t teach me anything!

GRANNY
That’s obvious! All the same, there’s no sense coming out of
you.

SVETLANA
One must think there’s a lot of sense out of you.

GRANNY
Oh, you, how mean! I laid down my life so that your father
could stand on his feet! Do you think it was easy for me?

SVETLANA
How do I know if it was easy for you or not?

GRANNY
I had to work my whole life without a moment’s rest!

SVETLANA
Perhaps you liked it very much, how would I know?

GRANNY
 I-3

What did I like?

SVETLANA
Fussing from morning till night for pennies.

GRANNY
Don’t talk nonsense! Who would like it?

SVETLANA
Those who like to torture themselves. They torture, torture…
First, they torture themselves and then they start to torture
others. They say, “I sacrifice everything for you and now you
must give up everything for me.”

GRANNY
Svetka, what are you talking about?

SVETLANA
Not what but whom. About you, Gram, about you, my dear.
Here you brag that you worked your whole life without a moment’s
rest, right?

GRANNY
So?

SVETLANA
Why did you do it? Didn’t you have a husband for that? You
had, and not just one. So let them sweat their guts out for
you.

GRANNY
Ah, some husbands…

SVETLANA
Well?

GRANNY
Well…a mess.

SVETLANA
What about Grandpa Alexander?

GRANNY
Your grandfather Alexander was the worst. Spent ten years in
prison but didn’t become any better after he came out… At
least he no longer attacked people. Still, he watched
 I-4

everyone like a hawk until his death! As soon as he was

drunk, he would go for a knife time and again. In fact, that’s
what got him in prison in the first place, knifing.

SVETLANA
(surprised)
Because of knifing?

GRANNY
Aha. He wanted to celebrate the birth of your father that
day. I was waiting for him in the maternity ward, waited and
waited, wondering when he would see fit to come see his
son, but he never showed up. Well, I thought, some husband
I landed! Doesn’t even want to look at his own son! But no, it
turned out to be something more serious. We’re still in the
old apartment then. It seems that he and the neighbors
bought a case or two of vodka to celebrate the birth of
Victor. They drank, drank, and didn’t even have a bite to eat!
I didn’t have time to make anything at home when my labor
started. And you know, they got so drunk that in the end he
killed one of them.

SVETLANA
(surprised)
Interesting… And father told me that Grandpa Alexander was
an accountant in prison for embezzling.

GRANNY
If you listen more to him, he’ll tell you something else… Had
to invent some such nonsense, an accountant, indeed!
Although, it’s understandable, of course. When he was
growing up, when his father was in prison, I also had to spin
all kinds of yarn.

SVETLANA
What yarns?

GRANNY
Initially, that his father was a famous polar explorer living on
an ice floe. That he hasn’t forgotten his own son and
couldn’t wait to meet him.

SVETLANA
And did you fool him for long?

GRANNY
 I-5

What fool? As if I was the only one telling a child fairy tales
about his father… What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t tell
him what actually happened…
(Angrily)
You sit here and babble all kinds of nonsense because you
haven’t your own yet. When you have your own kids, you’ll
sing a different tune.

SVETLANA
No way! I’m not singing any tune for any punk.

GRANNY
Not any but your own. Your own children.

SVETLANA
Why? I don’t have to have kids.

GRANNY
Don’t have kids? How can that be?

SVETLANA
Exactly that. Very simple.

GRANNY
(confused)
How can one live without kids? It’s awful without kids,
Svetka.

SVETLANA
Yea? And it was very good for you with yours?

GRANNY
I’ll not lie, you can never tell. But until the good people
made Victor aware of what happened to his father, we were
happy.

SVETLANA
There, there, Always so.

GRANNY
Always what?

SVETLANA
Some good person always turns up. Some neighbor who likes
to poke his nose into other people’s business.
 I-6

GRANNY
What neighbor? What’s it got to do with neighbors here? The
neighbors knew nothing about Alexander at all. In fact, as
soon as they locked him up, I immediately exchanged the old
apartment. And later moved twice more so that my son would
grow up peacefully, knowing nothing about the business with
his father. I wanted to save him from malicious tongues, and
fat chance! It’s easier to dodge a bullet than false
allegations people make.

SVETLANA
What allegations, Gram? Grandpa was indeed in prison.

GRANNY
So? Who wasn’t? And are there less in there now? Besides,
he’s in jail for what he did, that’s his business, why implicate
the kid? Why did the teacher lecture Victor in front of his
class that he was living up to his no-good old man? That if
his father was punished by the state, then it’s rightly so.
That he’s serving time in prison, as expected, and if Victor
didn’t stop lying, then very soon he would join him there.

SVETLANA
What scum! And Gram, didn’t you smack her face for that?

GRANNY
What’s with you!

SVETLANA
What?

GRANNY
How could I do that? I only told Victor that he’ll understand
everything when he grows up…

(LILIA enters.)

LILIA
Has anybody phoned me?

SVETLANA
Who? Someone needs you?

GRANNY
Lilia, do you hear?
 I-7

LILIA
What?

GRANNY
The way she talks! Don’t you have any control over your
daughter?

LILIA
And what exactly is the problem, Claudia Semyonovna?

GRANNY
Don’t you see how out of hand she’s getting?

LILIA
I don’t see anything special yet.

GRANNY
First, she’s constantly eating, non-stop…

LILIA
So? The kid sits at the table and eats. Are you ordering me to
spank her for this?

GRANNY
The kids in the courtyard are already calling her a pig! She
complained to me yesterday…

SVETLANA
I didn’t!

GRANNY
Secondly, she talks back all the time, rude to her elders…

SVETLANA
I don’t talk back! And I’m not rude!

GRANNY
You are too!

SVETLANA
What if I am? Whose business is that?

GRANNY
Here, please!
(Turns to LILIA.)
Do you hear how she talks?
 I-8

LILIA
They all talk like that these days.

GRANNY
Not true, not all.

SVETLANA
You’re right, Gram, no all. There are those who simply swear.

GRANNY
What do you mean they swear?

LILIA
Quite normal. I was just on the street now and saw a group
of punks, boys and girls, maybe thirteen-fourteen, no more,
and the filth that came out of their mouths!

GRANNY
How can that be?

LILIA
That’s how it is.

GRANNY
How disgusting! And where are their parents?

LILIA
Most probably staring at the bottom of a bottle. Where else
would they be?

GRANNY
Well, okay, let the parents be drunks, it was so in our time
too. But where are the schools? Where are the social workers?
What’s public opinion, after all?

SVETLANA
Gram, give it up! Mommy, did you hear that? Our Gram is
kinda, quite…
(Twirls a finger at her temple.)
See, schools are not enough for her, give her social workers
and public opinion!

GRANNY
(gets angry.)
You ingrate! I’ve had enough of you!
 I-9

(Slaps Svetlana with a towel.)

I tolerated and tolerated your pranks, but no more!

SVETLANA
Gram, don’t come near!
(Grabs a knife from the table.)
Don’t come near me or I’ll cut you up!

LILIA
Svetka, stop it! Do you hear? Put the knife back now!

SVETLANA
No way!
(Waves the knife in the air.)
Aha, afraid? That’s right. You’ll know how to deal with me.

LILIA
Svetka, stop it! What are you doing?

SVETLANA
Training from my genes!

LILIA
What genes?

SVETLANA
(Runs and waves the knife.)
My gangster genes! Inherited from my Grandpa Alexander!
He was a real gangster, that means I’m also a gangster! He
was a murderer, so I can also kill if I want to! I’ll kill
whomever I want!
(Lunges.)
Can be you, Gram…
(Lunges again.)
Or you, Mommy…

GRANNY
Svetlana, what are you inventing? You’re already a grown
girl! Behave yourself!

SVETLANA
I don’t want to behave! I want to be a gangster! I want
everyone to respect me!

GRANNY
Who respects gangsters?
 I-10

SVETLANA
Everybody respects gangsters.

GRANNY
Only good people are respected… respectable people...

SVETLANA
Мom, do you hear? Our Gram is blathering again! Who needs
them, these good people? What’s the use of their
respectability? Gangsters, now that’s quite another matter!
Whether you want to or not, you have to respect them.

LILIA
Svetka, shut your mouth, or Claudia Semyonovna will have a
stroke.

SVETLANA
Don’t worry. Our Gram is old school, she isn’t afraid of any
stroke.

GRANNY
Blabbermouth! My legs can hardly move and you’re laughing
at me?

SVETLANA
Why are you complaining about your legs? How old are you?

GRANNY
What’s this about my age?

LILIA
To tell the truth, Claudia Semyonovna, complaining about
your legs at your age…

GRANNY
What? At my age? And what’s this about my age? What’s that
got to do with my legs?

LILIA
Everything. The older the person, the worse the legs can
support him.

GRANNY
Do you know, my dear, what I’m going to tell you?
 I-11

SVETLANA
What?

GRANNY
Listening to you, you would have had me underground a long
time ago! Only it’s too soon to bury me.

LILIA
Who wants to bury you? Please, live long and healthily. Live
as long as you want.

SVETLANA
What do you mean as long as she wants? Did you ask me,
Mommy? For example, I don’t want to live in the same room
with Gram. I’m sick of her turning in her bed and snoring all
night.

GRANNY
Nothing strange about that. One must think that you don’t
snore.

SVETLANA
No, I don’t snore.

GRANNY
You just don’t hear yourself. You do, and how you snore!

SVETLANA
But then I don’t stink! You stink awfully… At least use
deodorant or something...

GRANNY
Do you know what I’m going to say to you, Svetka? Perhaps,
you’re still not a pig as the boys in the courtyard call you,
but you’re already quite a notable piglet.

SVETLANA
Well, fine, a piglet, then a piglet… Oink, oink, oink… What’s
so bad about being a piglet?

GRANNY
Here’s what. As piglets grow big, they turn them into
sausages.

SVETLANA
Not me.
 I-12

GRANNY
Why not?

SVETLANA
Because I won’t let them! Indeed, I’m not an ordinary but a
gangster piglet! Oink, oink, oink!
(Runs around the room and makes faces, waving the
knife.)
I’m a gangster piglet! Oink! Oink! Oink! I’m a gangster
piglet…

LILIA
Enough, Stop right there! Listening to your nonsense is
already a pain.

SVETLANA
If you don’t want to listen, then don’t! Cover up your ears
and don’t listen! I’m a gangster piglet! Oink, oink, oink…I’m
a gangster piglet! Oink, oink, oink…

LILIA
Well, Claudia Semyonovna, satisfied? Good try! Fine work
with the girl!

GRANNY
Why am I guilty? Is she my daughter? Did I bring her up from
infancy?

LILIA
Why did you tell her all kinds of tall tales? Why can’t you
understand how hard it is for us with her?

GRANNY
Wait, wait, Lilia, what tall tales are you talking about? What
are you accusing me of?

LILIA
I’m not accusing you, but to tell the child that your last
husband was a gangster? This is really going too far! We’re a
decent family and the girl’s in a respectable high school,
then all of sudden, for no rhyme or reason, you started to
drum into her head that she falls completely short of her
social status…

SVETLANA
 I-13

Mom, what’s with you?

(Stops making faces.)
Are you sick, by any chance?

LILIA
(hysterically)
Leave me alone! How many times do I have to repeat, leave
me alone!

SVETLANA
I’m not bothering you! On the contrary, it’s you who’s
bugging everybody!

LILIA
Here, Claudia Semyonovna, please look at what you’ve done.
It’s indeed exactly your influence.

GRANNY
Lilia, do you want to say that I teach Svetlana something
wrong in your absence? That I tell her, “Don’t listen to
anybody, be rude to everybody, don’t study…”? Do you want
to say this?

LILIA
No need to pretend, Claudia Semyonovna.

GRANNY
What do you mean “pretend”?

LILIA
As if you don’t understand.

GRANNY
I really don’t understand, Lilia. What are you driving at?

LILIA
Well, since you don’t understand… Fine, then… What else is
there to say to you if you don’t understand…

GRANNY
No. Give it to me straight, what’s so unsatisfactory to you?

LILIA
I’ll not talk about this anymore.

SVETLANA
 I-14

Finally! Take a little rest from the emotional rollercoaster. At

least Gram and I can take a little rest from you, right, Gram?

LILIA
Here, Claudia Semyonovna, please see for yourself! No need
to say anymore. You can clearly see without words what you
have achieved with your ridiculous stories.

GRANNY
Blame it all on Granny? Fancy that, not likely! And perhaps,
on the other hand, it’s your training? Lilia, you may resent
me, take much into your own head, but all the same, I’ll tell
you this: you don’t nurture Svetlana.

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, how can you not be ashamed to say
this?

GRANNY
No, I’m not! She’s like an orphan even with her own mother!

LILIA
An orphan? And how can you not be ashamed! Just look at
her! Isn’t she dressed fashionably? Isn’t she well fed? In fact,
so well fed that others can only envy her! And she goes to a
prestigious high school! Well, tell me, what else? What else
does the girl need?

GRANNY
She needs you to be a mother! Understand, be a mother!

LILIA
Be a mother?

GRANNY
Yes, be a mother. Watch over her, bring her up as a mother
should, teach her to be good…

LILIA
Good? And here I don’t see any good in your telling her
about Victor’s father! Absolutely no good…

SVETLANA
How is it no good? On the contrary, it’s very good! It turns
out that Grandpa Alexander…
 I-15

LILIA
Silence! You still don’t understand anything in life! When you
grow up, you’ll understand that you definitely don’t need this
jailbird grandfather! A decent family won’t let you in the
door if they find out… If you keep on shouting about it at
every street corner. I seriously warn you, be smart, keep
your mouth shut, and don’t breathe a word about any
criminal. Understand? Don’t take it into your head to babble
everywhere about any grandfather-murderer! There’s no
such thing in your family, there wasn’t and couldn’t be!

GRANNY
Thank you, Lilia, for this compliment to me in my old age. So,
according to you, it turns out that my Victor is a bastard,
with an unknown father? That he has no kin? So, it turns out
that I, an old woman, don’t know whose child I gave birth to?

LILIA
He’s whoever’s child you wanted him to be.

GRANNY
He’s my husband’s child!

LILIA
I don’t want to continue this worthless conversation.
Svetlana has her Grandfather Boris, whom she can be proud
of, so let her tell others about him. About his work, about his
merits. Believe me, Claudia Semyonovna, there’s a lot for her
to tell.

SVETLANA
Yea, there’s a lot to tell. Only don’t have any regrets,
Mommy, when I start telling people about your dear papa.

LILIA
What are you talking about?

SVETLANA
The truth! Indeed, there’s no need for me to tell lies, I’m not
afraid of the neighbors. For example, I can tell them how
Grandpa Boris couldn’t stand me, what he did when I went to
his place…

LILIA
Don’t talk nonsense! How can you remember?
 I-16

SVETLANA
I remember everything! It’s you, Mommy, who has forgotten
what he said when we got there the first time.

LILIA
What did he say?

SVETLANA
“Why did you bring her here? No one wants her here!” That’s what he
said.

LILIA
Svetka, you couldn’t have remembered it. You were only a
wee one then.

SVETLANA

I remember! I remember everything! It was a holiday…

LILIA
Right, it was a holiday, and there were people coming then.
Grandpa was afraid that you would get in the way of the
celebration…

SVETLANA
I was always in the way! When you left me with them and
later brought me home, wasn’t I all black and blue? Are you
saying that you don’t remember those bruises?

LILIA
You’re always a naughty girl, fought with the boys, that’s
how you got those bruises. Really, one must think Grandpa
and Grandma beat her up…

SVETLANA
I never set eyes on any boys there because Grandpa Boris
never let me anywhere near them! He never let me outside
at all!

GRANNY
What’s this, never let you outside?

SVETLANA
Just like that. As soon as Mother left, he immediately took
me away to the furthest room and locked me up. He also
pulled the drapes very tightly over the windows. There, in
 I-17

the dark, I crawled about on the rugs and played by myself.

LILIA
Svetka! What nonsense you’re making up!

SVETLANA
I make up nothing! Once I wanted to climb onto the
windowsill, to look out onto the street, so your distinguished
papa pulled me off by my ears! Imagine, Gram, he held me
like that, by both ears, above the windowsill! He held me like
that for a long time, and only then put me down on the floor.

GRANNY
Good Lord! What horror you’re describing...

SVETLANA
I’m telling the truth.

GRANNY
I can’t believe it, your own grandfather… Lilia, is it really
true?

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, don’t you see, Svetka invents
everything! Carried the girl by her ears… What nonsense.

SVETLANA
Nonsense? And the bruises are also nonsense?

LILIA
The neighborhood boys gave you those bruises.

SVETLANA
No, not boys, but my dear, respected by all, distinguished
grandfather! That’s how it was, Mommy.

GRANNY
Lord! How could that be?

SVETLANA
Here’s how! Very simple…
(Runs up to LILIA and GRANNY and pinches them.)
That’s how… That’s how…

LILIA
Ouch! Ouch! What are you doing? It hurts!
 I-18

GRANNY
Ouch! Svetka, it really hurts!

SVETLANA
I hurt too! Hurt so much that I screamed in pain, but Grandpa
Boris brought me to the fireplace and threatened me. Said
that if I didn’t stop screaming, he’d push me into the
fireplace, pour kerosene, and set me on fire! And to scare me
some more, he dropped something into the fireplace and
burned it. The fireplace was big, old, and fire burned quickly,
but Grandpa lifted me up and carried me to the fire. I
remember well how the tongues of flame almost licked my
feet! How I nearly died of fright, from Grandpa’s threat
forgot about the pain, how I didn’t want to scream anymore,
and begged him in a whisper not to drop me into the fire.
How I promised to be a good girl and wouldn’t oppose him in
anything. He let me go only after I took an oath never to tell
anybody what he did to me. And he told me that if I ever
break my oath he’d definitely find out about it, would get me
even from his grave and throw me into the fireplace.

GRANNY
Svetka, my dear child! But where was your grandmother
then? I mean the other one who lives in Riga.

SVETLANA
She was in the kitchen.

GRANNY
In the kitchen? What was she doing there?

SVETLANA
Preparing steamed cutlets for Grandpa Boris.

GRANNY
It couldn’t be! I can’t believe this… I just can’t believe…

(VICTOR enters.)

VICTOR
What can’t you believe, Mama?

GRANNY
Oh, Lord! You… My God…
 I-19

VICTOR
What’s the matter?

GRANNY
You should have heard what she’s saying about her
grandfather.

VICTOR
What?

GRANNY
Oh! Better you don’t hear it.

LILIA
Why not? Do you want to say that you gave birth to a prince
of blue blood and he must never hear this filth that we
heard? That his delicate soul wouldn’t let him beat the
daylights out of Svetka for such disgraceful words about her
own grandfather?

SVETLANA
Daddy, don’t listen to them! Especially don’t listen to
Mommy!

VICTOR
Perhaps I should cover up my ears? Or better, go away
altogether?

GRANNY
Oh, I don’t know… Perhaps, also better out of harm’s way.

LILIA
Indeed, let him stay and sort it out with Svetka! She doesn’t
want to listen to anybody!

SVETLANA
Daddy, no need to sort it out! I don’t need any!

LILIA
Yes, she does! Must knock some sense into her head.
Otherwise, for all I know, she’ll start talking nonsense on the
street… Or to somebody in school. What will people think of
us then?

SVETLANA
As if you don’t know what they think of us now.
 I-20

LILIA
I don’t know and I don’t want to know.

SVETLANA
Yea, you don’t want to. If you don’t, then don’t stand near
neighbors’ doors and eavesdrop.

LILIA
(indignantly)
Don’t make it up!

SVETLANA
I don’t. You’re always eavesdropping when you go along the
stairs.

LILIA
I have no such habit of eavesdropping by other people’s
doors!

GRANNY
It’s okay, Lilia, no need to lie, you do. I’ve found you at it
more than once.

LILIA
You yourself are lying, Claudia Semyonovna!

VICTOR
Wait, wait, Lilia. Why are you talking to my mother this way?

LILIA
I talk any way I want!

VICTOR
Don’t be like that. Why do you insult her?

LILIA
I don’t insult her. Claudia Semyonovna, please tell us, have I
really offended you at least once?

GRANNY
And you, Lilia, think for yourself, have you offended me or
not?

LILIA
How have I offended you?
 I-21

GRANNY
Here you forbid me from telling my own granddaughter about
myself, my husband, my life…

LILIA
I forbid you?

GRANNY
Yes, you do. I’m not going to hide it, I’m very upset. As if I’m
not a person but some insect.

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, please listen…

GRANNY
No, better you listen, Lilia. One can say that my life is
already nearly over. Though it hasn’t been very good but
can’t call it bad either. There was everything in it. Probably
more grief than happiness, but it was my life after all, and I
can’t live it all over again. Why then should I be ashamed of
it the way you think? I didn’t do anyone any harm. I regret to
say that I also didn’t have time to do much good. I thought
there was still time, I thought I’d manage to repay all the
good people did for my Victor and me. But no. Life has
turned out that they’re no longer around before I can pay my
debts. They’ve all died, but I’m still alive… As for you, Lilia, I
can say this: I owe you nothing. I’m not at yours, but you’re
at mine, living in my home. And all of you besides…

VICTOR
Mama, don’t.

GRANNY
Don’t what?

VICTOR
Reproach us for living with you now. You know what the
circumstances were.

GRANNY
What circumstances?

VICTOR
You know we had to deal urgently with the issue: return to
Russia or take another citizenship.
 I-22

GRANNY
But I didn’t drive you to Latvia! You went there yourself for
happiness. Well, son, did you find much happiness far away
from home?
(Motions to LILIA.)
Couldn’t you indeed find such happiness here?

SVETLANA
But what about me, Gram?

GRANNY
What about you?

SVETLANA
Am I not a little bit of happiness? By the way, I too was from
Latvia.

GRANNY
What happiness are you! You, clown, are trouble for all of us.
For your father, mother, and me…

SVETLANA
Fine, all right, Gram, don’t have to continue. I understand
everything.

GRANNY
What do you understand?

SVETLANA
How much you love me. Almost as much as my dear Grandpa.

VICTOR
What Grandpa? What are you talking about?

SVETLANA
Not what but whom. I have two of them by the way, and one
deserves the other.

VICTOR
Who deserves what?

SVETLANA
Each other. One of them is a gangster, and the other a
sadist.
 I-23

LILIA
Victor, did you hear that? Why are you quiet? Do something
with her!

VICTOR
Svetka, have you gone mad? What gangster? Whom are you
talking about?

SVETLANA
About your own papa!

VICTOR
W-what?

SVETLANA
About how he killed his neighbors when they wanted to take
the vodka away from him.

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, here’s the result of your stories.

GRANNY
Svetka, where did you get this? What nonsense? Did I really
tell you this?

SVETLANA
(Runs around and shouts.)
You did! You did! You told me how my grandfather grabbed a
knife and let them have it! Swish! One nasty neighbor’s
gone! Swish! Another! Everyone was afraid of him! Even in
prison! And when he was released he became leader of the
underworld altogether! In short, I had a tough …

VICTOR
Mama, what does this mean? Why did you have such idiotic
talks with Svetka? Don’t you know what she’s like?

GRANNY
Victor, son, do you really think your mother could make up
such nonsense to tell her own granddaughter?

VICTOR
Then where did she get it? I asked you in Christ’s name not
to tell anyone anything about father! Especially not Svetka!
Why did you?
 I-24

LILIA
(In amazement.)
Victor! Victor!

VICTOR
What? Victor what?

LILIA
Do you want to say that your father really was...
(Lowers her voice.)
…a murderer?

SVETLANA
(Dancing.)
A murderer! A murderer! Not just a murderer but a real
gangster! The real boss! Oh, what a tough grandfather I
had…

LILIA
Shut up, fool! Keep quiet or you’ll regret it!

SVETLANA
You’ll regret it! And write to your papa that he’ll also be
sorry yet! I’ll pay him back for everything! His pinching, his
threats…

LILIA
How silly you are! Your Grandpa was only kidding you and
you make false charges against him.

SVETLANA
(Jumps onto a chair.)
But I’m not joking with him! I’ll go to him in Riga and grill
him in the fireplace!

GRANNY
Oh Lord, what punishment is this...

(NELLIE enters.)

LILIA
Nellie, you tell her! Tell her, tell her, perhaps she’ll at least
listen to you.

NELLIE
Svetka! Get down from the chair, now!
 I-25

SVETLANA
No way!

NELLIE
I say, get down, or I’ll drag you down by your ears!
(Takes SVETLANA by the collar and pulls her down from
the chair.)
You miserable! Well, answer me, you nasty!
(Shoves a piece of paper in SVETLANA’S face.)
Is this your work? Yours? Is this your mean trick?

SVETLANA
What? I know nothing! Oh, Mom!

NELLIE
I’ll show you mom! She doesn’t know… Just you look at her!
All innocence! How she learned to play the fool…
(Drags SVETLANA by the ears, SVETLANA squeals.)
I’ll tear your ears off!

GRANNY
Take it easy, Nellie. Of course, Svetka deserves punishment,
but this is too much... Nellie! Lilia, you stop her!

LILIA
Nellie, Nellie...enough! That’s quite enough.

VICTOR
Nellie, really, would you calm down, else, for all we know,
the neighbors will hear.

NELLIE
They’ll hear! What they’ll hear! Soon they’ll hear such noise
from here that not only the neighbors will come running! See
what fun it’ll be when our guests from camp arrive!

VICTOR
What camp?

NELLIE
The usual, prison camp! Where they keep criminals! What,
don’t understand? It turns out our Svetka has been writing
secretly to prisoners! And it seems she’s found boyfriends
there already!
 I-26

SVETLANA
I don’t, but you do! I sent the letters there in your name. And
put in your photo… Not quite boyfriends but a boyfriend. All
of one and only.

VICTOR
Wh-a-a-at?! How dare you!

SVETLANA
I’m sick of her living with us and ordering everybody around!
She should be married long ago! Thirty soon! An old lady
already! What, isn’t it true?

LILIA
And so you decided to marry Nellie off to a criminal?
(Laughs hysterically.)
Ha-ha-ha-ha! How wonderful! A criminal! Ha-ha-ha-ha! A
criminal…
(Leaves, but stops at the door.)
My God, another one… Ha-ha-ha-ha! Can’t think of anything
better… Ha-ha-ha-ha!

SVETLANA
Mom, what’s with you? What’s the matter? What’s so funny?

NELLIE
Mama, where are you going? Have to do something fast! I
just don’t know what to do!

GRANNY
But why do we have to do anything?

NELLIE
Because he, Svetka’s boyfriend, got some fellow to pass a
message to me!

VICTOR
How?
 I-27

NELLIE
I was standing there, dealing with somebody, when a fellow
came up to me. He’s obviously someone who’s been around,
and said, “Are you Nellie? I recognize you immediately. Here,
take it, news for you…” He said that and shoved this letter
into my hand. I stood there like a fool, not understanding
anything, only smiled, and he had already disappeared
without a trace. I opened the letter, started to read, and was
shocked! Only listen to what he wrote, “My dear, beloved,
darling Nellie! Soon, very soon I’ll finally be able to see you,
and not in dreams but in person. My dreams of you will come
true and I can hold you tight in my arms, at last. I only think
and dream about this. About the moment when I can hold you,
and kiss you, and... Oh, my beloved Nellie, I don’t even dare
dream of what’ll happen then. My sweetheart, I’m counting
the minutes! Exactly minutes and not hours till we meet, and
after that, I’m sure, we’ll never part. No force on earth can
separate us...” And so on all in the same vein. Well, how do
you like that!

VICTOR
Give it to me.
(Takes the letter and reads.)

GRANNY
Nellie, but I like it. By God, I like it! Why are you so upset? I
can’t understand you. The young man, it seems, is very fond
of you, so why are you...

LILIA
What young man? Where did you see a young man, Claudia
Semyonovna?

GRANNY
What else?

LILIA
It’s a criminal! A true-to-life criminal!
 I-28

SVETLANA
Mom, you haven’t even seen him yet, but you’re talking!
He’s the spitting image of Jean-Claude Van Damme! If you
don’t believe me, I can show you his picture.

LILIA
(Hysterically)
Throw it out! Throw it out right away!

VICTOR
(Concerned)
Wait before you make noise! Listen to what he wrote, “I’ll come to
you if not today, then tomorrow…” What are we going to do?

LILIA
Kick him out, and that’ll be the end of it!

GRANNY
Lilia, what are you talking about! Can you really treat a person
this way? It’s not his fault if it’s Svetka who deceived him …

LILIA
Then give Svetka to him!

VICTOR
Don’t talk nonsense! Why are you doing that?

LILIA
She made the bed, so let her lie in it! Let him take her and
go wherever he damn well pleases!

VICTOR
Lilia, never joke about such people. Judging from the letter,
he’s a serious person, and if we start by kicking him out, then,
you know…anything can happen. It could get very bad for us… I
just don’t know what to think.

GRANNY
Too late to think now. Come what may, have to meet the
man, properly. What will be, will be.
 II-1

Act Two
As the curtain rises, LILIA and VICTOR are
in the midst of an argument.

VICTOR
Lilia, I’m asking you...

LILIA
You can ask as much as you want but I’m not going to be a
part of the farce.

VICTOR
Lilia, why don’t you think about the consequences? It’s more
serious than you think. We are tied to this place and can’t
move. We have a booth at the market and, in general… How
is it possible to act this way? Damn such…these people…

LILIA
Yes, if you want to know, I have no consideration for such
people at all! Bump them off in the can, and that’s that with
them.

VICTOR
Stop! And don’t take it into your head to say anything like
this when he turns up here.

LILIA
Don’t worry, you won’t see me here until he goes away.

VICTOR
But what if he stays here? Where are you going to go then?
You haven’t even gotten any acquaintances in the city yet.

LILIA
Doesn’t matter, I can muddle through at work.

VICTOR
Are you talking about this lousy joint we set you up with? By
the way, it’s business, and you can’t do anything there
either.

LILIA
I can. I can do a lot for social protection.
 II-2

VICTOR
What can you do?

LILIA
I can at least send your mother off to an old age home
tomorrow.

VICTOR
Oh, you, how daring. Watch out they don’t send you there
ahead of time.

LILIA
Do you think I’m afraid of this? At least no one there would
get on my nerves every day. Perhaps I can at least get some
rest there away from all of you at last… From everything in
this life…

VICTOR
Lilia, can’t you be a bit more serious? Remember, we’re
talking about your daughter’s destiny! You’re the mother,
how can you be so indifferent in such a difficult situation?

LILIA
Again Nellie, and again a difficult situation! How long can it
continue! Is she still a girl? Do we really have to keep
cleaning up her messes till we die?

VICTOR
Lilia, you’re not being fair. Nellie isn’t guilty in anything.

LILIA
Then who is?

VICTOR
It’s all Svetka’s doing! Had to think up something like this,
write letters to prisoners… Send Nellie’s picture… Invite
this…to visit us…

LILIA
Don’t be coy, say what you want. You wanted to say
“criminal”?

VICTOR
I can’t understand you, Lilia. How can you be so cruel? Not
helping your own daughter at this difficult time.
 II-3

LILIA
Know what? Have you forgotten how many times we’ve
helped her out? Everything revolves around her, all the time,
all her life! And now…

VICTOR
What now?

LILIA
And now she’s already a grown woman! A woman! I’ve done
so much for her already, even before we met! And now she’s
an adult already! At her age I...
(Makes a desperate gesture.)
As if you don’t know. I, the fool, thought, now, finally, all my
troubles have ended, now, at last, life begins. And what
happened? Such a beginning, such… Not half a year and she
made us such a bed that we’re still lying in it, and there’s
nothing we can do. Scary to recall what we’ve been through!

VICTOR
So, don’t recall it. Everything was gradually sorted out,
everything settled down, and took shape. Life has improved…

LILIA
Victor, listen to me carefully.

VICTOR
I’m listening.

LILIA
Nothing was settled. And nothing has improved, understand?
Everything has remained as it was then, in the same place.

VICTOR
In what sense?

LILIA
We didn’t solve the problem of Svetlana then.

VICTOR
Lilia, don’t. Don’t talk this way.

LILIA
I’m saying what should be said. It’s all in vain that I agreed
with you then. We should have done what my parents
advised.
 II-4

VICTOR
What, are you serious? Throw your own granddaughter out
with the trash?

LILIA
Not throw her out but simply leave her in the maternity
ward.

VICTOR
Simply? How simply? How can you talk about this? As if it’s
so simple, leave her… It’s not humane.

LILIA
Stop! It’s easy for you to moralize, but what about me?
Everyday I have to answer for this witch! Each day I tear my
hair out, bring her up, take care of her, but she only…

VICTOR
Lilia, to tell you the truth, you don’t take much care of her.

LILIA
I care as much as I can. I care within the limits of my own
strength. Only there’s not much of it left.

VICTOR
I don’t know about your limits but Mother takes much more
care of her.

LILIA
Exactly! She doesn’t know anything and thinks Svetlana is
our daughter.

VICTOR
Then let her keep on thinking it.

LILIA
What if she finds out that Svetka is not my daughter but
granddaughter? Finds out who’s her real mother? How will
she care for her then?

VICTOR
She mustn’t know… And how would she find out? Nobody, not
a single soul here suspects anything. This way we don’t have
to be careful with the neighbors. Personally, I don’t intend to
tell Mother, and I vouch for Nellie too, so there’s absolutely
 II-5

nothing to be afraid of… If, of course, you won’t spill the

beans either.

LILIA
I won’t, but I see everything turns out simple for you. No
need to be afraid, everything’s under control. You and Nellie
will both be quiet, and the neighbors won’t guess a thing.
But what if they somehow do? What then? Again I’m the one
to blame? Again me and not Nellie? And you’ll again defend
her? Just that no matter how you hide it, sooner or later the
truth will come out… And by the way, it’s very obvious.

VICTOR
What’s very obvious?

LILIA
That’s she’s Svetka’s mother.

VICTOR
Stop! What nonsense are you coming up with?

LILIA
If you haven’t noticed, it still doesn’t mean that it’s not
visible to an outsider. It is.

VICTOR
What is?

LILIA
That she doesn’t treat Svetka like a sister at all.

VICTOR
Give it up! Nobody except us sees anything more than two
sisters. Only a big difference in age.

LILIA
I would be very happy if you’re right. Only how would you
explain this… I was going down the stairs two days ago and
at the landing met the neighbor from 38. She said, “Hello,
haven’t seen you for ages. You don’t go out much, my dear?
You’re not sick, I hope?” I said, “No, I’m not sick, everything
is fine with me…” But she didn’t leave me alone! “Well,
thank the Lord, I’m so happy for you. Just that I only see your
Svetlana and Nellie. How remarkable she is! She takes such
good care of her little sister, almost like a mother. Every day
I see how she worries about Svetlana. Everything troubles her,
 II-6

whether Sveta has eaten, dressed warmly, and studied. To tell you
honestly, not every mother takes such good care of her own
child as Nellie does her little sister...”

VICTOR
What so peculiar about this? What do you find so strange in
Auntie Anna’s words?

LILIA
And you think this old hag really so admires how she cares for
Svetka?

VICTOR
Why should I think differently?

LILIA
Do you really think she started the conversation with no
ulterior motive?

VICTOR
I’ve known Auntie Anna since childhood! She has always
been like this. She says what she thinks, straight to your face.
There’s never an ulterior motive in her words... Here, listen!
When I was just about to leave for the institute after school,
do you know what she said straight to my face? She met me,
just like you, on the landing and said, “Well, Victor, very
ashamed of your own father? Want to go far away from him
to start your own life?” I was floored by surprise and started
to object with something about being trained in a specialty
only in Riga. How I remember now, she looked at me with
eyes screwed up, in distrust, and continued, “It’s fine if
you’re drawn to the specialty. But it would be bad if it has
nothing to do with the specialty nor Riga, and you’re simply
running away blindly as far away as you want to hide from
yourself…” I replied, “Why do I have to hide from myself?
Everything suits me just fine…” And she said, “If everything
suits you just fine, then why does everything about your
father get on your nerves so? His blood flows in you…” Oh, I
was mad at her then! What filth did I not yell at her. I said
things to her, said heavens know what, waving my arms, and
in the end shouted, “Don’t you dare interfere with my life or
you’ll be sorry!” And you know, Lilia, then I was amazed with
her reaction. She was neither frightened nor indignant but
only looked at me quietly. I remember, she was standing,
looking at me with baffling pity, as if in front of her was not
a healthy, self-confident guy with his whole life ahead of him
 II-7

but an incurably sick child. She only said, “Ay, Victor, Victor,
must be your father’s blood boiling in you. Watch it you don’t
do anything stupid there like your father, you don’t want to
reproach yourself all your life...” She said that, turned, and
left. It seemed to me I was left alone on the landing. I stood
there, sent foolish threats after her, and suddenly noticed
that the other apartment doors weren’t completely shut. It
seemed that the neighbors heard this conversation. I was
very ashamed! I didn’t manage to gather my wits, only
rushed home for my things, got my butt in gear to the
station. I stood in line all night long for tickets, and was
already on the train the next morning…

LILIA
Here, you see! What did I tell you? There’s nowhere to hide
from these neighbors. You’ll burn with shame when
everything comes out in the open. I don’t know why this
Auntie Anna sticks her nose in other people’s business, but
one thing I can tell you: she’s not such a fool as she pretends
to be. If she started such a conversation...

VICTOR
All right, Lilia. If she pesters you again, just don’t answer
her. Pretend that you don’t understand and that’s it…

(GRANNY enters, loaded down with heavy bags.)

GRANNY
(Breathing heavily.)
Oh…I’m tired... And what are you doing? All taking it easy,
my dear? As if you have nothing better to do… And what’s
that pleasant conversation?

LILIA
Oh that, nothing… Simply sitting here with Victor chatting
about this and that.

GRANNY
Indeed, this and that! They’re yakking away here while the
old mother strains herself and drags heavy loads to the fifth
floor.

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, nobody forces you to drag the bags
upstairs. What for?
 II-8

GRANNY
Really Lilia, am I breaking my sick old back because of
nothing else to do? Do you think I like it?

LILIA
Probably you do, else I don’t understand you. You know very
well that Victor and I have our own business, the booth…

GRANNY
Oh! A business! The booth! Pitched a tent at the corner and
you have a booth. Peddling vodka there or even something
worse and that’s all your business.

VICTOR
By the way, one can sell vodka only in booths, not in a tent
or at a corner.

GRANNY
All right, I know you. A booth, then a booth, if it sounds
better to you. Still I don’t believe that you have anything
worthwhile there.

VICTOR
There’s a lot to bring from there… Or to buy somewhere else.

` GRANNY
Why don’t you, son, buy and bring something? What are you
waiting for? I only know that if Mother doesn’t do this, the
fridge will remain empty.

VICTOR
Mama, why are you this way?

GRANNY
What else? Any minute now, the uninvited guests can turn up
suddenly, and nobody is doing anything about it! Besides,
Svetka, the ingrate who started this whole affair, has become
quite brazen. I barely drag these bags home and saw her
sitting with the same punks on a bench. I said to her, “Help
your sick old Granny carry these bags upstairs...” And do you
know how this cheeky juvenile answered me? “Can’t, Gram.
Don’t you see I’m busy? Besides, you should know that
carrying heavy weights is very harmful to young girls. Easily
spoils the figure.” People passing by looked back and
laughed, but she didn’t care! Shame, if only… She has really
gotten out of hand.
 II-9

LILIA
Victor, did you hear?

VICTOR
I heard.

LILIA
How long can this continue?

VICTOR
OK, I’ll go down now and tweak her ears, if you don’t mind.

LILIA
Do whatever you want. Even beat her.

GRANNY
Oh, come on, beat her… First, you have to find her! You can
run after her as much as you want but you won’t find her
until she sees fit to appear. And she’ll be home only when
her belly demands.

VICTOR
Don’t worry, I’ll find her quick…
(Exits.)

GRANNY
Yes, you’ll find… You’re my good-for-nothing seeker…
Started to search since childhood and still searching all the
time... What you’re seeking, I really don’t know. Yesterday, most
probably.

LILIA
(Sits holding her head with her hands.)
Lord! How tired I am of all this!

GRANNY
And you think I’m not tired? I’m as tired as can be, Lilia.
Tired of everything.

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, please don’t torment me! Don’t you
see that I already don’t want to live?

GRANNY
Oh, stop it, Lilia! What kind of talk is this? We say things, but
 II-10

we all want to live.

LILIA
I don’t. Please understand me, I don’t want to live anymore.

GRANNY
What do you mean you don’t? Why don’t you want to live?
How can one be tired of living? I don’t understand… A person
doesn’t need anything, all he has…

LILIA
I have nothing. No-thing.

GRANNY
How’s this nothing?

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, I’ve lost any reason to live.

GRANNY
What, what? No reason to live? It seems you demand too
much from life… Lost her reason to live… I’m not judging
you, of course, Lilia, but you don’t know when you’re well
off. You’re more than provided for! Even your father, a big
chief in those days, and what a chief, didn’t have as much as
you do now. And you say you have nothing… You have
everything, everything… And even health. God doesn’t even
deprive you of your health.

LILIA
What does my health have to do with it?

GRANNY
Everything. Your poor unhappy father, paralyzed, lying there
without care...

LILIA
What without care? Don’t talk nonsense! How can he be
without care if Mama is looking after him?

GRANNY
Well, it’s very nice that she does. But, Lilia, I’m not talking
about that.

LILIA
Then what?
 II-11

GRANNY
That now they’re all alone there, in the Baltic, nobody wants
them, lonely. Certainly your mother tries, manages everything
her strength allows, but how much strength is still left in
her?

LILIA
But I already don’t have any strength left! None left for
anything.

GRANNY
No strength left? What, do you have to drag sacks around? I
had to slave away like mad all my life, but you, everything
was handed to you since childhood… And even now, think,
what haven’t you got? Judge for yourself: a husband beside
you, this apartment at your disposal, we’ve found work for
you, easy work, well, what else? You have two cars, a garage
close by…a booth in the market place...and two healthy
grown daughters to boot. What more do you want from life?

LILIA
For that matter, this apartment isn’t mine but yours. We rent
that tumbledown garage for money, big money. The cars are
old, falling to pieces… And my work, it isn’t true work but
heaven knows what… And I don’t want to talk about my
daughters… I’m tired.

GRANNY
And again, Lilia, you’re not right. Certainly, I understand you,
Svetka’s no bundle of joy. I understand, a very difficult child,
but she’s yours, yours! There’s nothing much that can be
done about it now, how you raised her, so she’ll behave. Your
own fault.

LILIA
(Loses control.)
That’s just the problem, she’s not mine! Please understand,
not mine!

GRANNY
(Amazed)
How is it not yours?

LILIA
She’s not my child! And I’m tired of constantly hearing your
 II-12

reproach that I bring her up poorly! I’m not guilty for her and
I’m fed up with her… Don’t even want to see her! I regret that
I did something so foolish in my youth…

GRANNY
(Dumbfounded)
Lilia! How is this? It turns out Svetka was adopted? Did you
get her from the orphanage? Ay-yai-yai... So, you couldn’t
have your own… Ay-yai-yai... That’s why you suffer so now…
Ay-yai-yai...

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, I would only be too happy if it were
so… No, it was much more complicated, much more stupid,
and much worse.

GRANNY
How worse? What’s worse?

LILIA
What happened then.

GRANNY
What happened?

LILIA
I can’t tell you the whole truth.

GRANNY
No, Lilia, that’s no good. Since you’ve already blurted it out,
you must tell everything. No reason for you to keep it in now.
Come on, tell me.

LILIA
I can’t.

GRANNY
Come, come, tell me. We live here together, as one big
family, so we must know the truth about each other.

LILIA
Why do you need the truth? You don’t need it… Nobody
needs it, easier to live without it.

GRANNY
Don’t kid yourself! If it were easier for you to live with a lie,
 II-13

then you wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag even under torture!
And I didn’t torture you; you yourself couldn’t keep it in. The
secret has so worn you down that you wanted to share it.

LILIA
I can’t share it.

GRANNY
Why?

LILIA
It’s not my secret. If it were only mine. But it’s our common
secret.

GRANNY
Whose?

LILIA
Mine, Victor’s, and Nellie’s…

GRANNY
Wait, wait! Did you say Nellie’s? How old is Nellie now?
Twenty-nine. Svetka will soon be fifteen... So that’s what it
is! Did Nellie really give birth to Svetka? Holy! And you
adopted her?

LILIA
Well, you figured out everything yourself. I didn’t want to tell
you, and I didn’t have to.

GRANNY
(Embraces Lilia.)
Lilia! My poor dear! You unlucky one… And I, an old fool,
reproach you all the time, reproach you for not being
sweeter to the girls… For not talking nicely to them, not
laughing with them… But what’s there to laugh about? It’s no
laughing matter.

LILIA
(Cries.)
I’ve stopped laughing, stopped laughing… Didn’t keep my
eyes on my daughter then, and now I can’t laugh any more.

GRANNY
But how could it have happened? Lord! Nellie was still quite
young then… A little girl still... Ay-yai-yai... And who’s
 II-14

Svetka’s father?

LILIA
I don’t know, Claudia Semyonovna, and I don’t want to know.

GRANNY
How’s this you don’t know?

LILIA
Nellie doesn’t talk about it. She didn’t say from the start,
still silent now, and I don’t ask… And why do I need to know
who Svetka’s real father is? Nobody, especially Svetka,
needs to know. Let her think it’s Victor.

GRANNY
(Thoughtfully)
Well, well… That means Victor wasn’t against it?

LILIA
Quite the opposite! It was all his idea. He proposed to me not
to leave Svetka in the maternity ward but for us to adopt
her. And how nobody should try to talk him out of it, it’s
useless. When Father found out, he didn’t want us to take
her out of the maternity ward at all. And Mama said, “You’ll
regret it...”

GRANNY
Okay, you did it, it’s done, and God be with her. The girl has
grown and it’s all right… Only I still can’t understand how
could such a thing happen to Nellie? She’s such a modest
person. All the time you have lived here, she hasn’t any
boyfriend. Not once have I seen her with any, not even the
most unpopular… How’s that?

LILIA
She has become so now. Besides, honestly, to tell you the
truth, I don’t believe in her modesty, Claudia Semyonovna.
But then… You can’t even imagine what was going on there
then! Everywhere, in every corner, it was sex, sex, sex!
Naked behinds looked out from each kiosk. Even in school,
during PTA meetings, they started to talk not about
schoolwork but seriously discussed whether we should
arrange special rooms for kids’ dates as they do in more
developed countries. They brought in special classes. As if
anyone needs to learn this business. As if they didn’t know
that doing a bad thing is simple… Here video rentals also
 II-15

appeared in almost every back alley, and every home owned

a VCR. They started to get together to watch porn…

GRANNY
What are you saying! And did Nellie watch this filth too?

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, why do you ask such a question? Who
didn’t? Even now, they don’t shy from showing them on TV.

GRANNY
Didn’t you watch over her?

LILIA
Me? Did I really understand then what it would lead to? I was
too young… The first time, the minute I turned eighteen, I
jumped to get married. Not half a year passed and Nellie was
born. At twenty, I was already divorced. For ten years, I
brought her up alone without a husband. Good thing my
parents helped, both materially and around the house…and
did everything for Nellie. They bought clothes, hired tutors,
and set her up in different groups. She wanted for nothing at
all. It was obvious just looking at her. She was always stylish, well
groomed, spoilt. Boys were after her in droves since very
young. Her grandpa, my father, was always bragging about
her to his colleagues. When she was growing up, he loved to
walk with her hand-in-hand along the streets. And when he
found out that she was pregnant, he almost lost his mind. At
first, he wanted to send her abroad for an abortion, but while
the documents were getting ready, he changed his mind.
They talked him out of it, told him all kinds of nonsense, and
he was frightened that it could be dangerous for her health.
He arranged for the birth in another city, in secret… Then he
started to search for a family to adopt Svetlana...

GRANNY
(Thoughtfully)
You know, Lilia, it seems to me that it was the right thing to
do. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t adopt Svetlana either.

LILIA
It’s too late now. And then your Victor for some reason
interfered. Imagine, he even burst into tears! He said, “Pity,
a little defenseless baby left to who knows whom. What if we
won’t have kids of our own? At least let Svetlana be our
daughter…” His tears touched me deeply. I thought, must be
 II-16

I’m lucky with a man this time. After my first marriage, I

never expected to meet such a child-loving man.

GRANNY
You know, Lilia, I also didn’t expect this of Victor… Such an
act... Indeed a nice one… Though also a fool... Oh, he’s such
a fool!

LILIA
I said so too. Then he justified it this way, “In two years
Nellie will finish school and go study somewhere, Moscow or
Petersburg. And we’ll have so much fun with Svetlana. She’ll
be both daughter and granddaughter to us...” Well, I agreed
to register her as mine. There was no problem; everything
was done with money, connections, and other things.
Everything was done quickly and without any noise, and it
seemed fine in the beginning. Just that Nellie didn’t leave us
to go to school, not in two years, not five, not ten. You see for
yourself, she’s still with us, has no intention of going
anywhere. Didn’t even agree to stay in Riga with her grandpa
when he was paralyzed, three in the big house... What are we
going to do now? I’m at my wit’s end…both with her and with
Svetka… One thing I can tell you for sure: can’t go on this
way... I don’t want to live this way any more.

GRANNY
You’re right, Lilia, it can’t. But something might change with
Svetka’s silliness, doing a kind deed by accident, when she
started looking for a husband for Nellie...

LILIA
What’s the matter with you, Claudia Semyonovna?

GRANNY
What? Just you watch, the Lord has mercy on us, some nice
fellow will come, they’ll catch each other’s fancy, and he’ll
take her away.

LILIA
What if he won’t take her away? What if it doesn’t turn out
the way you think? What if he wants to stay here instead?

GRANNY
Where, here? God forbids! There won’t be room to breathe in
here then.
 II-17

(They hear a noise at the door.)

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, there’s only one thing I’ll ask you.
Please don’t tell Victor that I lost control and blurted out our
secret. He’ll be very upset.

GRANNY
Don’t worry about it.

(VICTOR enters, dragging a resisting SVETLANA with

him.)

SVETLANA
Let go! Do you hear? I said let go! It hurts!

VICTOR
And you’re doing things to hurt people?

SVETLANA
I’ve done nothing to no one!

LILIA
That’s exactly it, nothing! You’ve done nothing good to
anyone!

VICTOR
Here, look at our beauty! Roaming the streets with some
idiots!

SVETLANA
I wasn’t!

VICTOR
Looking for adventures!

SVETLANA
I wasn’t looking for anything!

GRANNY
Then what were you doing?

SVETLANA
Just walking along the streets…strolling.

LILIA
 II-18

What do you mean strolling?

SVETLANA
Don’t you know how people stroll? They walk along the
streets and take in fresh air. Here I was doing just that.

LILIA
Well, and have you taken in fresh air to your heart’s content?

SVETLANA
Not yet... But why are you jumping all over me? What have I
done?

LILIA
Can’t you guess?

SVETLANA
No, I can’t.

GRANNY
The girl understands nothing. Won’t understand no matter
how you explain to her.

VICTOR
When I take the belt to her back, she’ll understand real
quick! She’ll know about upsetting Granny!

SVETLANA
You have no right to hit me!

GRANNY
And what else is there to do with you? Have to beat the
daylights out of you if you don’t understand words.

SVETLANA
How mean you are, Gram!

GRANNY
Beat you to an inch of your life until you smarten up.

SVETLANA
You’re a true fascist! You’re ordering your own son to beat
your own granddaughter because of your stupid bags!

GRANNY
(Loses control.)
 II-19

Pugh, shameless trash! And what kind of granddaughter are you

to me, if it comes to that?

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, what’s with you? I asked you!

GRANNY
Oh, Lord! Forgive me, Lilia, I couldn’t control myself.

VICTOR
Mama, what? What are you talking about?

GRANNY
I’m like that. Nothing, son, nothing. I simply got worked up,
don’t mind me.

SVETLANA
So, I’m not your granddaughter? Are you disowning me? And
only because I didn’t drag your stupid bags up five floors?
Where are they, these bags?
(Runs about and looks for the bags.)
Aha, here they are! Well, where do you want them? Here?
(Puts the bags on a chair.)
Or here?
(Puts the bags on the table.)
Neither here nor there? Then I’ll toss them out the window!

LILIA
Stop, now! Leave the bags alone! What’s with the bags?

SVETLANA
So, it’s not the bags? So, it has nothing to do with the bags
at all? It turns out you just don’t love me and don’t want me?
Everything’s clear. I’ve long understood that no one wants
me here. Then why did you give birth to me? If nobody wants
me, if I’m a burden to you all? I didn’t ask to be born! It was
completely not my idea. You wanted a kid, but now, wouldn’t
you know it, you’re tired of it! Don’t worry, I’m tired of you
too. I’ll go away and live alone…
(Rushes out.)

VICTOR
Where are you going? Svetka, stop! Svetlana!

LILIA
Let her go where she wants. At least we’ll have a little
 II-20

breather from her.

VICTOR
What if she really runs off?

GRANNY
Where will she go? There’s no place for her to go.

VICTOR
What if she disappears? It happens all the time.

LILIA
Don’t you worry. She won’t disappear anywhere, she’ll return
like a good little girl.

VICTOR
What if she won’t return?

GRANNY
It seems to me, son, you worry too much about her, you
worry like she’s really your own flesh and blood.

VICTOR
(As if deflated.)
Mama... What… Don’t.

GRANNY
Don’t? Who? You don’t? Or I don’t? Do you think I need this?

VICTOR
Lilia, why did you tell her? Why?

GRANNY
He still asks why. What am I to you? Just a mushroom in a
coat? Or Mother after all, who gave birth to you and raised
you? Well, answer me! Am I a mother to you or do you
already not think of me as your mother?

VICTOR
Mama, why are you saying such harsh words?

GRANNY
The matter is not in the words, but in your behavior. I say
what and as much as I want! I’ve kept quiet too long,
tolerated all your pranks.
 II-21

VICTOR
What pranks?

GRANNY
You’d at least recall, when you decided to get married, did
you inform your mother? What, you’re silent, nothing to say?
Only after two years did you get around to scribbling a little
note! And at the end of the letter a little postscript, “I’m
married and have a daughter. She’s walking and her name is
Svetlana...” Here’s some remarkable news. It turned out that
her name’s Svetlana! And here you seemed to have started
forgetting your own mother’s name already by that time. And
would have forgotten for sure if there wasn’t the sudden
urge to return, to come back to Russia. That’s when you, son,
remember your own mother! Recalled that she had buried
her man, was living quite alone in a decent old-style 3-room
apartment, recalled, thought it over, and decided that she
doesn’t deserve a quiet old age. Decided that she didn’t
suffer enough with your father, let her suffer more now in
her old age with strangers…

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, why are you like this? We’re not
strangers to you!

GRANNY
I thought so too, that you’re not strangers, That’s why I kept
quiet. I thought, good or bad, all are kin after all. But it turns
out that in reality, except for Victor, all of you are strangers.
It turns out just so, Lilia. Here I have to suffer
inconveniences and worries for strangers for so long already.
And why should I? For the sake of what? I thought it’s for the
sake of my granddaughter, but it turns out I don’t have one…

VICTOR
Mama, listen! Don’t talk like this! You’re wrong! You don’t
know everything…

GRANNY
I’m right! Now I know all about you…

VICTOR
No, not all! I tell you, you’re wrong! She is your
granddaughter...

(SVETLANA enters, followed by SASHA.)

 II-22

SVETLANA
What, surprised? Don’t be, I didn’t leave you… Believe me, I
really wanted to go away already, but here I bumped into
Sasha at the entrance.

VICTOR
What Sasha?

SVETLANA
Papa, what’s with you, forgotten our guests? We’re waiting
for guests!

LILIA
What guests? We aren’t expecting any guests.

SVETLANA
Mama, what’s the matter with you? Are you sick, by any
chance?

LILIA
Young man, strictly speaking, who are you and what do you
want?

SASHA
Please excuse me if I’ve made a mistake. I ’m looking for
apartment 52, the Potapovs should live there… Are you not
them?

GRANNY
Yes, yes, we’re the Potapovs! But who are you?

SASHA
Allow me to introduce myself: Alexander Sergeevich
Nekrasov. I’m looking for Nellie, Nellie Vengerova.

LILIA
Nellie’s not home right now.

SVETLANA
I already told him she’s not. Sasha, come in, Nellie will be
home soon… Gram…

GRANNY
Come in, Alexander Sergeevich, come in, don’t be shy…
Come in and sit down, you’re a guest.
 II-23

LILIA
Claudia Semyonovna, I don’t understand you.

GRANNY
What don’t you understand?

LILIA
I didn’t invite him.

VICTOR
Lilia, wait! Mama, if Lilia says…

GRANNY
And who is she, your Lilia? If it comes down to that, I’m the
hostess here, not her. I decide whom to invite! You all just
came on your own… So, Sasha, don’t listen to them, make
yourself comfortable, sit down next to Granny. We’ll settle
things without them.

SASHA
(Embraces Granny.)
Granny! I love you…
 III-1

Act Three
As the curtain rises, GRANNY and SASHA
are in the midst of a conversation.

SASHA
It’s nice here, Auntie Claude. May I call you that?

GRANNY
Of course, Sasha, of course. Though I’m not your aunt but
you also can’t say that I’m a stranger.

SASHA
No, I can’t, Auntie Claude. And do you know what else I’ll tell
you? You, Auntie Claude, are a real human being!

GRANNY
Really, what are you saying… We’re people, we’re all human
beings.

SASHA
No, not all. People like you we’ll never find another in our
time, no matter how we try. Everybody hides behind steel
doors and bars in his own burrow. Bricks up entrances and
exits and stays there quiet as a mouse. No one lets anyone
near!

GRANNY
They’re right not to let anyone near. If I were smarter, I’d do
the same. But God didn’t make me smarter and all my life
I’ve always gotten into trouble.

SASHA
Auntie Claude, what are you talking about? Not about your
husband perhaps? The one who did time?

GRANNY
And about him too… Oh, he was a fine goose! I had to suffer a
lot because of him… You know, Sasha, I’ll tell you this:
thinking about my life with him, there’s really nothing worth
remembering. When he went to jail, it was for a long
sentence… Smart people advised me then, “Divorce him and
start your life anew…” But like a fool I stubbornly refused,
“I’ll wait for him and that’s all…” I waited for him, waited ten
whole years, and finally. Then till his death I cursed my own
 III-2

foolishness.

SASHA
What foolishness is this? It’s not foolishness, Auntie Claude,
it’s called love.

GRANNY
Give over, Sasha! What love is there? We met, lived
together, here’s all our love.

SASHA
All the more so. All the more you’re a true human being! Why?
If you didn’t love him but waited while he did time?

GRANNY
He served not one sentence, but two.

SASHA
How so?

GRANNY
He got eight years for knifing but came out only after ten.
They added two extra years while he’s there.

SASHA
What did he manage to do there? Why did they add two
years?

GRANNY
Decided to escape, the idiot… And indeed his term was
already coming to an end! But my man, the good-for-nothing,
he didn’t want to wait till they let him out in good humor, but
thought it worthwhile to run.

SASHA
Did he really arrange an escape? Or by accident?

GRANNY
He arranged nothing… And by no means an accident.

SASHA
Escaped with a group?

GRANNY
What group! If it’s a group…then a group of animals indeed!
Beastly criminals, that’s the group.
 III-3

SASHA
Don’t be like that, Auntie Claude.

GRANNY
Like what?

SASHA
Don’t judge people so harshly. Different people end up there
but most of them are simply unlucky… Though now, of course,
it’s full of scumbags and goons.

GRANNY
I don’t know about now but then there were beastly fellows
with him. I’m not telling you about scumbags. They’re also
not nice, but still human beings, undeservedly so. I’m only
talking about real criminals! What, don’t understand?

SASHA
Explain it to me, Auntie Claude.

GRANNY
Here, Sasha, you spent more than a year in those places.
Have you ever heard of fugitives taking somebody with them
instead of canned food for a long journey?

SASHA
Well, Auntie Claude, you’re telling me… Haven’t heard about
such business in the slammer for a long time… And even
earlier it’s more talk than action.

GRANNY
I don’t know about action there but the investigator who
summoned me told me right away then, “If the escape was
successful, then they’d have killed and eaten your dimwit of a
husband in a few days when they started to starve.”

SASHA
And you believed him? What a simple soul you are! They’ll
slander us to you if you’ll only listen to them. That’s their
job, Auntie Claude.

GRANNY
Their job had nothing to do with it! Mine, after he came out,
told me himself that those criminals he was going to escape
with made fun of him all the time afterwards! They even
 III-4

called him “Corned Beef” until the end of his sentence.

(SVETLANA enters.)

SASHA
Hmm…it’s not good, really… Not good.

SVETLANA
Hi, Sasha! What’s not good?

GRANNY
Not good to miss school! Why aren’t you in school?

SVETLANA
Sasha, did you hear? See what a retarded Granny we have,
simply impossible! You tell her, tell her, and she just can’t
latch on. What school? I’ve been in high school for a long
time already! Understand, high school!

SASHA
By the way, I too don’t understand what’s the difference.

SVETLANA
You don’t understand because you don’t know. And you don’t
know because you’ve spent years in the slammer. Almost like
my Grandpa. How would you know about high school now?

GRANNY
Svetlana, leave the man alone!

SVETLANA
What, can’t I even say a word? Sasha, tell me, am I bothering
you? Just tell me honestly.

SASHA
No, you’re not bothering me.

SVETLANA
There! Gram, did you hear: I’m not bothering him. Indeed,
thinking that I bothered him!

GRANNY
Svetlana, you’re a grown girl already, don’t you understand
really? How can a guest say that you’re really bothering him?

SVETLANA
 III-5

But I’m not! Am not! It’s not true! Sasha, please, tell her
once again that I’m not bothering you!

SASHA
No, you’re not. But perhaps you’ve already managed to
bother Auntie Claude.

SVETLANA
(Suddenly serious.)
I know, Sasha. Lately it seems to me that I bother everybody
in this house… They’re all so mean…like tyrants.

SASHA
Nothing strange about it. It happens with everybody…
sometimes… And then it goes away.

SVETLANA
Really? Do you think it’ll go away for me too?

SASHA
Yes, it will. And the anger too.

SVETLANA
What if it won’t?

SASHA
It will, it will, don’t worry.

SVETLANA
But it didn’t for Grandpa.

GRANNY
Which grandpa?

SVETLANA
The same one! The one you told me about, how he was mad
at the whole world till his death.

GRANNY
Don’t make things up! I didn’t tell you that!

SVETLANA
You did! Sasha, she told me how until his death Grandpa
attacked people with a knife.

GRANNY
 III-6

He didn’t attack, only watched everybody like a hawk. And

it’s not one and the same.

SVETLANA
Yes, it is too! Sasha, tell her, you must know! Isn’t it indeed
all the same, attacking people or watching them like a hawk?
All the same, you’ll kill someone sooner or later… All the
same, my grandpa was a real gangster!

SASHA
What makes you decide that he’s a gangster?

SVETLANA
Because he killed a man!
(Lowers her voice.)
With a knife…

SASHA
For shame… You are a silly little girl.

GRANNY
Right, Sasha! Great that you told her the truth.

SVETLANA
Not true! I’m not silly!

GRANNY
How not silly when you’re very silly? Your Grandpa ended up
in jail for his own foolishness. And by chance he survived
there, otherwise he could easily lose his life. But you, silly,
runs around shouting that your grandfather was a gangster.
What gangster was he? It’s not nice. He had done time ages
ago for what he did… And he’s been dead for a long time.
Why don’t you let his bones lie in peace?

SVETLANA
Sasha, don’t listen to her! I don’t disturb him lying in the
ground!

GRANNY
But you do!

SVETLANA
And I don’t even know where he lies!

SASHA
 III-7

You don’t know?

SVETLANA
No, I have no idea where he’s buried.

SASHA
Why?

SVETLANA
Because they haven’t told me.

SASHA
Auntie Claude, is this true?

GRANNY
Yes, Sasha, it’s true. That’s how it goes. Our Victor never
visits his father’s grave and doesn’t let them either. Only I
go there alone.

SASHA
Why is he so upset with his father?

SVETLANA
He’s not upset. Simply Mama and Papa think that it’s
shameful to have a jailbird as a father. They say it’s not
respectable.

SASHA
Oh? What about a cheat as a father? That’s respectable?

SVETLANA
Well, I don’t know... But what’s the big deal? Probably, if he
had stolen a lot of money… Especially if he managed to
transfer that money abroad.

SASHA
So, it means a lot of money is respectable? Interesting…
Very interesting…

GRANNY
Sasha, what about you?

SASHA
What about?

GRANNY
 III-8

I mean money.

SASHA
You don’t have to worry about this, Auntie Claude. I’ll quickly
get on my feet… In short, money isn’t the most important
problem for me.

GRANNY
That’s good, Sasha, that’s very good. Indeed, without money,
you understand...

SVETLANA
Sasha, if money isn’t a problem for you, why don’t you get
married? You like our Nellie, then marry her quickly. What’s
holding it up?

GRANNY
That’s right, Sasha, how’s it with you and Nellie? Do you like
each other or not?

SASHA
Well, Auntie Claude, how to tell you…

SVETLANA
Don’t tell her, tell me. She’s too old to understand when you
start talking about love.

GRANNY
Would you get away from here, Svetka, go somewhere else.

SVETLANA
Where am I going?

GRANNY
At least go out onto the street, take a stroll.

SVETLANA
I’m not going! Until Sasha answers whether he loves Nellie or
not, I’m not going. Well, Sasha, own up, are you in love with
her?

GRANNY
Aren’t you ashamed to embarrass the man? How can you ask
such a thing right to his face?

SVETLANA
 III-9

Why should I be ashamed? I’m not asking if he’s slept with

Nellie, I’m simply asking if he loves her. If he does, then
marry her, if not...

SASHA
And if not?

SVETLANA
If not, then marry me.

SASHA
(Surprised)
Marry you?

SVETLANA
Yes, me. When I turn sixteen.

SASHA
And why should I marry you?

SVETLANA
Because you look like Jean-Claude Van Damme, and I’ve
fallen in love with him since grade three. You know, Sasha, I
kiss his photo every night before bed… May I kiss you?

GRANNY
I’ll show you kiss, I’ll show you! I’ll show you so it’ll hurt to
sit down!

SASHA
I’m not Jean-Claude Van Damme.

SVETLANA
So? What’s the difference you or him? You look so much like
him…

(Voices from outside calling SVETLANA.)

SVETLANA
Oh! they’re calling me!
(Rushes to the window and shouts.)
Wait, be right there!
(Turns to SASHA and GRANNY.)
Okay, you stay here, I’m leaving...
(Rushes out.)
 III-10

SASHA
Hmm… Smart girl, nothing to say. Not easy to handle, it
seems.

GRANNY
Needless to say, Sasha. I’m so tired of her, no more
strength… And we’re all tired of her.

SASHA
But doesn’t Nellie help? Sister, after all.

GRANNY
She does! Nellie is a great help… to everybody, Victor, her
mother, and me… Still, it’s better for her to be married and
have her own family… And you, Sasha, have you made up
your mind? Will you marry her or not?

SASHA
To tell you the truth, Auntie Claude, I’d marry her tomorrow.
I’m really drawn to her, I don’t know why… And it grows
stronger… It’s time to think seriously… What would come out
of it, I don’t know, but I’d definitely marry Nellie.

GRANNY
And has she agreed? Have you talked to her?

SASHA
I have…

GRANNY
And?

SASHA
She didn’t give a definite answer, said she needs to think it
over.

GRANNY
That’s right. How can it be otherwise? How can one not think
it over? Mustn’t just pick up and run off to City Hall… But
how long will it take her? Did she tell you?

SASHA
She promised to make a decision today.

GRANNY
That’ll be good if everything is decided today… Ah, here she
 III-11

is, it seems… Did you hear the door slam? If it’s her, then I
won’t be in your way…

(NELLIE enters.)

NELLIE
Who’s at home?

GRANNY
Whom you see and nobody else… Where’s Victor and Lilia?
Did you see them?

NELLIE
They are in the garage, packing things.

GRANNY
I’ll go help them.

NELLIE
Why? They’re managing fine there without you.

GRANNY
No, no, how can I not help? Have to help. I’ll go help them…
And you can sort out your affairs here without me.
(Exits.)

NELLIE
Sasha, would you like some tea?

SASHA
Nellie, what have you decided?

NELLIE
Sasha, let’s have some tea. I’m very tired.

SASHA
(Holds NELLIE by the shoulders.)
Nellie…

NELLIE
(Moves away.)
Sasha… Don’t… Let go of me…

SASHA
Why? You don’t like it?
 III-12

NELLIE
Yes, no, Sasha… That’s not it.

SASHA
(Kisses NELLIE.)
Nellie… Nellie… Listen to me, let’s leave here together.

NELLIE
Sasha...
(Embraces SASHA.)
I can’t… Try to understand, I can’t.

SASHA
You can, you always can… Come with me.

NELLIE
You know nothing about me.

SASHA
I don’t want to know… Quiet, no need to say anything! Just
leave here with me. Far, far away…

NELLIE
But I can’t! Why can’t you understand? I can’t leave with
you.

SASHA
But why? What’s stopping you? Is it my past? It’s all over
with, I swear to you. Besides, I still have a stash in the wild,
both here and abroad. You will want for nothing, believe me,
nothing at all.

NELLIE
It’s not this, Sasha.

SASHA
Then what?

NELLIE
Not your past, but mine.

SASHA
Nellie, I have absolutely no interest in your past. Let it
remain in the past. After all, I’m not a little boy, I’ve been
around, knew many women…
 III-13

NELLIE
That’s not it, Sasha… If only it were so simple. Everything is
much more complicated with me... Stickier... Not a life but a
tangle of problems.

SASHA
No need to untangle them. Just cut them off and throw them
far away. Come away with me! I swear , with me you won’t
ever recall your past.

NELLIE
No, Sasha, it’s impossible… Nobody can… If you only knew…

SASHA
Nellie, get it out of your head. Everything will pass, everything
will be forgotten, time would heal all… Here, look at my
hands! What haven’t they done! But time will pass, they will
forget that…

NELLIE
Sasha, what do this have to do with your hands? Oh God,
how tired I am… Only why did she start all this? Sasha, why
don’t you want to understand that I didn’t do this! You didn’t
receive my letters, I didn’t write to you!

SASHA
Nellie, calm down, it doesn’t change anything. Do you think
that I only wrote to you alone? But I arrived here and you
imprinted yourself in my heart. Got hold of it with something,
understand? It’s absolutely unimportant who wrote those
letters, you or someone else.

NELLIE
Svetka, the skunk, wrote these letters!

SASHA
Not a skunk, but a smart kid, a younger sister, and thank her
for it.

NELLIE
Not sister but daughter!

SASHA
(Not understanding.)
Daughter? Well, yes, we’re all somebody’s sons or
daughters…
 III-14

NELLIE
She’s my daughter!

SASHA
(Still not understanding.)
Yours? Well, yes, I completely understand this.

NELLIE
What do you understand?

SASHA
That she’s like a daughter to you. I know it happens when an
older sister cares for a younger one as if she gave birth to
her...

NELLIE
But I really gave birth to her!

SASHA
(Surprised)
What? How? When?

NELLIE
April, 22… Nearly fifteen years ago.

SASHA
It can’t be... I don’t understand… But you…you were still a
little girl then!

NELLIE
Yes…slightly younger than Svetka.

SASHA
Wait, Nellie… I… To tell you the truth, I’m really taken
aback... Holy cow, what an announcement… But how could it
happen?

NELLIE
Sasha, it happens more often than you think. That year, only
in our grade, three girls got pregnant. They were lucky, but I
was forced to give birth because of my distinguished
grandfather. He cared for me so much that he overdid it…

SASHA
Wait, Nellie, not so fast. What did he have to do with it? Why
 III-15

did he decide whether you gave birth of not? Was it really his
business?

NELLIE
Sasha, you don’t know my grandfather. He was a despot from
those ancient days of tribal chiefs. It was useless to argue
with him at all, he always knew everything in advance. In our
family, precisely he made all the decisions on all questions,
and the others must obey implicitly. And we did, Grandma,
Mama, and me. Mama, she was always deathly afraid of him.
For a long time I couldn’t understand why, but later it came
to me that he simply didn’t love her.

SASHA
Didn’t love her?

NELLIE
You have to understand, he always wanted a son he could be
proud of, but instead of a son, he had a daughter. Well, okay,
a daughter, so a daughter, just let her be an exceptional
beauty. But you saw my Mama! Honestly, as the saying goes,
she’s nothing to look at… And when she married a man who
wasn’t supposed to come out in those years, he gave up on
her altogether. And he didn’t even want to see her while they
were together… He didn’t immediately take me to heart, not
since my birth. But then, as soon as my father left, a new life
began for me. Dear Grandpa appeared and started to spoil
his only granddaughter rotten. I had everything! Really
everything, even by today’s standard. He forgave me for
everything, all my pranks. Even my pregnancy, only very
concerned about me. He forbade me to have an abortion only
because the doctors, or “quacks” as he called them , could
kill me. But I wasn’t afraid of anything then. I wasn’t afraid
of giving birth, didn’t even think of the consequences. Then I
wasn’t thinking of anything at all. It seemed to me that it
was only a play, that it wasn’t happening to me. That all the
troubles would end soon and I wouldn’t even remember
them. And probably everything would turn out fine if Mother
and Victor hadn’t adopted Svetka. It was a bad decision…

SASHA
Why? It seems to me that they did a noble thing.

NELLIE
Not noble but simply stupid! My mother had never done a
smart thing in her life at all. As for Victor… He wasn’t
 III-16

thinking of being noble then.

SASHA
What else then?

NELLIE
He did it because of fear… And because of me.

SASHA
What was he afraid of? The child was yours, and you’re in
essence a stranger to him. Why did he want another one’s
child hanging around his neck?

NELLIE
I’m no stranger to him… And neither is the child… And she
couldn’t have entered the world without a man…

SASHA
Certainly. Some stupid lad… A classmate perhaps?

NELLIE
There were also classmates but the child’s not from any of
them.

SASHA
Then who?

NELLIE
Victor. That’s why he insisted on not leaving her behind.

SASHA
What Victor?

NELLIE
Our Victor… The one now packing things in the garage.

SASHA
Wh-what! It can’t be!

NELLIE
It can, Sasha, it can. Everything is possible in this world.

SASHA
Are you serious?

NELLIE
 III-17

Yes.

SASHA
Then he’s Svetka’s father?

NELLIE
He is.

SASHA
Here’s scum!

NELLIE
He’s no scum. He’s not to blame for it.

SASHA
A grown man? Got a little girl pregnant? Do you know how
they deal with people like that in prison? And if he would
still…with you… You understand me?

NELLIE
I understand, only it was nothing like that. And, Sasha, he
was still very young, just got out of college...

SASHA
All the same, he was a grown man and you were still a child.
What sentence they’d give for this! What, the wife couldn’t
satisfy him? If so, couldn’t he find somebody else?

NELLIE
Sasha, don’t swear at him. He wasn’t a grown man then.
Indeed he’s much younger than Mother. And I was already
fourteen. I liked him the minute he began visiting us… He
came in an air force uniform, a hunk. And quite inexperience
in matters of love…

SASHA
Was he a pilot?

NELLIE
No, he was an engineer by training. Worked at the airport,
was often abroad. Brought us gifts from there, for both
Mother and me... I probably fell in love with him even before
Mother decided to get together with him.

SASHA
But she didn’t notice? Where was she?
 III-18

NELLIE
I tell you, my Mother isn’t known for her smarts. Besides,
she’s completely unobservant, lives in some fantasy of her
own. She really doesn’t relate to people… In general, views
everything in her own way somehow. The whole world seems
hostile to her, therefore she finds herself constantly fighting
with someone. Because of these fights and conflicts with
people, she’s lost all trust. My mother suspects each and
everyone... You know, Sasha, she eavesdrops by the
neighbors’ doors all the time!

SASHA
So?

NELLIE
She’s isn’t exactly doing this for female curiosity.

SASHA
Then why?

NELLIE
She’s simply afraid of her own shadow. All the time it seems
to her that someone is hiding from her, either behind doors
or somewhere in a dark corner, plotting against her. So she
tries to find out about them beforehand in order not to get
into trouble by accident.

SASHA
But she’s not afraid of the loony bin?

NELLIE
No, Sasha, she’s not crazy. She’s just afraid of disaster,
feeling like it’ll creep up on her from somewhere, but not
knowing where, that’s why she’s afraid. She was already
afraid even when Victor first appeared, didn’t trust him…

SASHA
And she was right. Such a bastard!

NELLIE
He isn’t that! Simply a weak person...

SASHA
Yea? Getting a young girl pregnant isn’t enough? Why the
hell did he attach himself to a little girl?
 III-19

NELLIE
He didn’t. Quite the opposite, it’s I who attached myself to
him.

SASHA
Do stop justifying him.

NELLIE
Sasha, I’m not. You know, he’d never have touched me with a
finger if it hadn’t happen…

SASHA
What hadn’t happen?

NELLIE
That night I was alone at home. Mother was on night shift
and I was already in bed. Victor came in late, they were
celebrating something at work. He got home very drunk,
barely undressed, and dropped down in bed at once. I hear d
through the wall, he was already snoring. Well, imagine to
yourself: I was lying in the dark, and suddenly felt how my
body started to puff up! I understood that if I didn’t get up
and go to him then, I would simply die! What happened to me
suddenly? I don’t know… but I just jumped up and ran.
Exactly, I didn’t walk but ran… Don’t remember how I turned
up under his blanket… In general, I remember poorly how
everything went... Like in a fog... In the morning, we came
to… You should have seen his face! He was so horrified by
what he had done… Then he cried like a baby.

SASHA
And you felt pity for him. And you feel it still.

NELLIE
No, Sasha, quite the opposite. All my feelings for him
suddenly disappeared as if cut off. And until Svetka was a
year old, there was nothing more between us.

SASHA
And then? Did it start again?

(NELLIE is silent, moves her shoulders. SASHA grabs her

shoulders and shakes her.)

SASHA (continue)
 III-20

Nellie…Nellie, tell me, did it start again?

NELLIE
Yes…it did… When Svetka called him Papa the first time , he
was so touched that he even had tears in his eyes. I, on the
other hand, was mad. I asked him, “Papa, and haven’t you
forgotten who’s her Mama?” I thought he’d be scared or
angry but suddenly he began to kiss and fondle me…
(Sobs.)
Why did I do it? I don’t know why...

SASHA
(Embraces NELLIE.)
Nellie...Nellie, what a little fool you are…

NELLIE
Yes, Sasha, I’m a fool. Everything in my life somehow turns
out foolishly… Like Mother’s… And probably nothing will turn out
with you either... Though I like you...

SASHA
Really?

NELLIE
Yes, Sasha, really.

SASHA
You mean, you like me after all?

NELLIE
From the moment I saw you… But why you’d want me, I don’t
know...

SASHA
Quiet. Quiet, Nellie, no need to say any more. Let everything
bad remain in the past. There won’t be a yesterday for us,
there’ll only be tomorrow. And in this “tomorrow”, there’re
only you and me and nobody else!

NELLIE
And no one else?

SASHA
No one else! Only you and me!

NELLIE
 III-21

Only you and me?

(VICTOR enters loaded down with heavy packages.

Seeing NELLIE and SASHA in an embrac e, he drops the
packages and runs to them, but stumbles halfway and
falls.)

SASHA
What’s the matter with you? Legs can’t keep you up? So sit
down and rest…

VICTOR
(Gets up.)
Get away from her! Don’t you dare touch her, you son of a
bitch!

NELLIE
Victor, don’t shout, calm down…

VICTOR
Nellie, what are you doing? Listen, move away from him!

SASHA
Why should she listen to you? Who are you to her? You’re
nobody to her.

VICTOR
You’re the nobody! Beat it! Crawl back to where you came
from!

SASHA
You don’t have to worry about me, I’m not staying. Only I’m
not leaving alone...

VICTOR
You lie, you prison scum!

NELLIE
Victor, he’s not lying! Sasha and I have decided...

VICTOR
You’ve decided nothing!
(Grabs a knife from the table and rushes at SASHA.)
It’s not happening!

NELLIE
 III-22

(Shouts and screams.)

Victor! Sasha! Victor!

SASHA
(Kicks the knife out of VICTOR’S hand.)
Look at the tough guy... Grabs a knife just like his papa…

NELLIE
Sasha, are you hurt?

SASHA
No, Nellie.

NELLIE
He didn’t hit you?

SASHA
He’ll never be able to do it, no stomach for it. No strength,
only rage…

VICTOR
(Falls on his knees, crying.)
Nellie! My little Nellie! My one and only! Stay, don’t desert
me! I beg you, I implore you…

(LILIA and GRANNY enter. VICTOR doesn’t pay them any

attention.)

NELLIE
Victor, be reasonable, don’t shame yourself! Enough! It’s all
over between us! Do you hear?

VICTOR
No! No! Nellie, why do you need this criminal? Think what’ll
become of you with him!

SASHA
And what became of her with you? A squeeze? Nice
arrangement, you bastard! Living with two women under one
roof!

VICTOR
Nellie, don’t listen to him! Come to your senses! I beg you,
don’t leave! Please…

SASHA
 III-23

(Pushes VICTOR back.)

Go to hell! Don’t you understand? She already told you! What
do you still want?

VICTOR
Nellie, think of our daughter! Think what will become of
Svetlana without you!

(Suddenly LILIA screams like a wounded animal, tries to

run somewhere, but stops frozen in the center.)

GRANNY
What? What’s this? What do I hear? No! It’s not true! Victor,
son, what did you say? I can’t understand you…Victor! Victor,
tell me it’s not true!

VICTOR
Mama, leave me alone! Don’t you see I’ve no time for you
now? I’ll explain everything later…

GRANNY
When later?

VICTOR
Later, later! Don’t you understand? Nellie is leaving us!

GRANNY
So, let her go! At least wherever she wants! Victor, come to
your senses! Pull yourself together! Are you a man or a
mouse? And you, Nellie? Ay-yai-yai! I didn’t expect this of
you, didn’t expect…

NELLIE
And what did you, Claudia Semyonovna, expect of me? That
I’ll keep on trading at the market for the rest of my life,
providing for all of you? And satisfying your son whenever he
wants, in the garage or the broom closet...

GRANNY
Shut up, you hussy! Aren’t you ashamed! Do you want to
shame your mother too? Lilia, why are you quiet? Tell her if
she won’t stop talking sleaze, I’ll kick the lot of you with her
out of my home! Go live any way you want if you can’t live
like people!
(Stares at LILIA.)
Lilia…Lilia, why are you standing like a statue? Don’t keep
 III-24

quiet, tell her!

VICTOR
Don’t, Mama, don’t bother her. I’ll explain everything to her
too later…

LILIA
(Moves somewhat strangely and sings a popular Soviet
children’s song of the 60s.)
Orange mommies, orange daddies, orange sun, orange
camel… Orange mommies singing orange songs to orange
kiddies in an orange way…

NELLIE
Mama! What’s the matter with you?

LILIA
Where’s my schoolbag? Have you seen my schoolbag? I need
my schoolbag or I’ll be late for school... Oh, I still haven’t
tied on my bow! I can’t go to school without my bow… And
here’s my ribbon… How pretty…
(Takes a dirty rag from the table and fastens it to her
hair.)
My bow! My bow! I have my bow!

SVETLANA
(Rushes in.)
I want to eat! What’s going on? Why are you standing like
someone has given you one on the head?

LILIA
Hi, girl! Who are you?

SVETLANA
Mom, what’s with you? Why do you have this dirty rag on
your head?

LILIA
My name is Lilia. You see, I’m getting my things to go to
school. Come with me. We’ll be in the same class, okay?

SVETLANA
Mom, what’s the matter with you? Are you by any chance…
(Twirls a finger at her temple.)

GRANNY
 III-25

Svetka, shut your mouth!

LILIA
Oh, it’s raining!
(Goes to the window and opens it wide.)
Rain, rain, come down more, the grass will soon turn green!
Rain, how I love you! I love you very much, rain…
(Stretches out of the window.)
Please, take me away with you…

SVETLANA
Mom, what are you doing? You’ll fall! Be careful!
(Rushes to the window.)
My dear Mommy, what’s the matter with you? What have
they done to you?
(Turns to the others.)
Well, what have you done to her? What? What? What?

GRANNY
Better tell me, what have you all done with yourselves!

SVETLANA
What’s going to happen to her now?

GRANNY
What’s going to happen to all of us now? What are we going
to do? How are we going to live? Will someone answer me?

End