- Is it really, - I was a little surprised, because this ginger was not at all glued to me, but to Katrina.

- Of course, this is immediately evident, - Sergey nodded and grinned, - and I have known him for a long time. The guy has such a tactic. He does not immediately turn to the one he liked, but studies from the outside. Strategist.

“Wow,” I just said, surprised at the same time by the second composition of slow music that had begun, which was probably turned on because of the owner, who was dancing with a new girl and Fedor’s strange tactics.

To my surprise, when Sergei walked me to the table, the red-haired guy sat next to Katrina and calmly talked about the weather, local attractions, and she listened with a look as if they had met not today, but much earlier.

“You can’t imagine,” Kat began to tell me a couple of hours later, at the moment when we went to our place on foot, having hardly fought off Fyodor’s annoying offer to see us off, “I was naive thinking that this sun was sticking to me, but it interested in you.

- Yeah, I noticed, especially when you listened admiringly about the process of attaching a fishing line to a fishing hook, - I teased my friend.

- What if I go to study, along this line, - Katya giggled, - I need to show something at the entrance exams, except for money, of course.

Half an hour and we are already on the territory of the rest home, only our unpretentious female babble was interrupted by a loud, bad howl of dogs, heard somewhere far behind, from the side of the village. Katrina frowned and stopped, frantically looking around. But only rare vacationers were seen either on the shore of the lake, or in the park under the lanterns, and there were absolutely no signs of danger, in the form of angry dogs splashing saliva.

- Let's go, - she grabbed my hand and dragged me into the building, but I didn't resist. After all, a second before that, she herself was ready to cling to her and do the same.

The howling stopped, but the unpleasant feeling of this strangely spent evening remained. Or maybe the matter is in the new environment, which today was completely different from the one that surrounded us every day there, at home. At the end of the day, it turned out that, fortunately, I forgot my phone in the room, and did not answer five missed calls from Kursky.

Will be killed.

“Maybe we’ll go boating tonight,” I suggested to Katya, who was diligently filing her already well-groomed nails, “we’ll rest as it should be and go to bed early.

- Do you want to milk a cow tomorrow morning? Why go to bed early, - interrupted her work on sharpening strategic weapons friend.

- My dream is to sleep.

- You completely disappear at your work, you don’t see the white light. But I said, quit pharmacy and go to a private clinic. If you want, I'll arrange for a registrar I know, do you know how much they get? And they all sit all day in white, made up, leg to leg, the heel is exclusively a hairpin.

- Yes, I don’t complain about the salary, everything is fine here, and I don’t wear overalls either, and I don’t wear felt boots. Just a bit sick, I admitted reluctantly. Lately, I really wanted something, I was drawn to something. But she has not yet tried to step on the rake again.

- So you change the situation, and there you look, you will find yourself some elderly rich patient, he takes care of you, he will marry you, you are a prominent girl with us, just a beauty. Then he will give an oak, and leave you his unearthly inheritance. If only there were no other heirs, but we will pick up a lonely and wealthy grandfather.

- And what should I do with the old man while he is alive? Feed semolina porridge or an enema for constipation? - I supported the theme of my friend. And what, the idea is not bad, only the performer in the form of me is useless, or rather unsuitable for such cases. Love, you see, give.

- Well, it’s not necessary that the old man gets caught, and what’s wrong, you cook porridge, you also understand medicines, you play caring wife. Yes, you won’t even have to play, look how much attention she provided and spoiled her Kursky. And he did the best he could.

And what would I do without you, - the plans of a friend caused an involuntary smile, - you look, and you will find some kind of senile, who wants to find a white girlish body. And we will meet like this, say families and shake pills in front of each other, telling what they are for.

The picture he painted was too funny to imagine without laughing.

And in the evening we really didn’t go anywhere, because today, according to the poster, a dance competition was organized on the site, and why not, you can, if not participate, then at least watch. And they were satisfied with the time spent, like high school students who came to a disco of different ages.

“Lik, listen, maybe we’ll take a walk to that cafe in the evening, huh?” The friend said the next morning, skillfully rowing oars towards the middle of the lake, trying not to damage the yellow capsules freely growing here.

- Yes, you can, - I agreed, dipping my hand into cool water, which glided pleasantly over the skin, - have you already had a rest?

- How to say, - she wrinkled her nose, - seems to be not bad, but somehow not so. It was necessary to choose a sanatorium, you see, they would be busy with procedures, in addition to rest.

-Another time, but it's better to have a more active rest, otherwise you can go crazy from idleness .. Katyun, look, they are waving to us from the shore.

-Police? And your cafe dancer. Really looking for you, how romantic, - said a friend, turning the boat to the shore.

But everything turned out to be much more complicated and unpleasant. The red-haired Fedor disappeared and they decided to ask us, as those who saw him on the last day.

- We left you, - I told a man in uniform, who periodically wrote down something, and she looked askance at Sergei, - and immediately went here. But there were only the two of us, because we decided that we ourselves would get there quite well without Fedor. Didn't he come back?

- He returned, but only for a little, and then he left and did not come again, - the owner of the cafe replied.

- And what time was it? - The district police officer asked, preparing to write it down.

“I don’t know, only after that the dogs howled terribly,” Katya answered for me and I shuddered, remembering this howl behind me.

-Yeah, I thought all the village dogs had gathered. Precisely just before that, Fedor left, - Sergey added.

“Maybe he’s on a fishing trip?” A friend suggested, but I doubt very much that she herself believed in it.

“Everything is possible, just without going home, and without gear, this is doubtful,” the policeman added authoritatively, slipping his paper to me, “sign that it is written correctly from your words.

We spent the evening on the territory of the rest house, and the next one, just as inconspicuous and boring, too. I no longer wanted to go beyond, probably the reason for the disappearance of the red-haired Fedor, but the very fact of the police visit did not work in the best way. From now on, passive rest according to the full program was provided.

- Did you hear what happened in the village? - An elderly, intelligent lady turned to us at breakfast, very similar to some artist of the seventies of the last century with a crazy challah bouffant on top of her head.

We shook our heads in unison and stared at the mysteriously smiling woman, who lacked a small dog to complete the image.

- Yes, a man disappeared, and yesterday they found him in the forest, tormented by terrible animals, and possibly a Chupocabra.

“What a horror,” was all I managed to say, “but who is this man?”

“They say a young man about whom the police interrogated you quite recently,” the omniscient woman said pointedly. At the time of the survey, several people passed by us, as if by chance, and this is the result, nothing secret.

“What a horror,” Katrina repeated after me, startled, and pushed her plate of oatmeal porridge aside.

We were shocked, as were other vacationers, a third of whom kept talking about an unknown chupocabra, and others about the untimely shooting of domestic and wild animals, who did it all. Some argued that dogs do not like drunks, and therefore got angry at a passerby who happened to be caught during the rut. And yet, it was hard to believe that this cheerful and slightly clingy ginger no longer exists, until one not-so-beautiful day Sergey came to visit us. Probably, the stress caught up with him, a strong-looking man, since he decided to come to the randomly familiar girls. Quite random, because you would not wish such consequences, or rather accompanying events, to anyone.

-I was driving by and decided to drop in, - he ran his hand through his disheveled hair, - to tell what happened.

- Yes, we heard that the whole rest house is buzzing, - I didn’t know how to talk to him, but I sympathized very much, - is this true about the forest and animals?

- Throat as if torn, but by whom. We have never had this. They thought about wolves, they even decided to shoot them, but I personally met them several times in the forest and nothing. Alive.

“Or maybe the dogs attacked because of the smell of alcohol,” Katrina put in her word.

- I do not know. The investigation is underway, but it is unlikely that the beast that tasted human blood will not repeat it again, so there will be a shooting. Yes, and the people now are not like in the forest, to the river and the lake to swim only in a bunch and with knives.

After what we heard, there was nothing to talk about, and after a few minutes of silence, the confused man said goodbye to us, inviting us to go to his cafe, but I personally didn’t want to do this, I’m sure that Katya Petrova didn’t burn with desire either.

The next morning, I woke up with a 100% feeling that I was completely fed up with this miracle - rest. It would be better to find a tourist base with an active pastime, at worst a sanatorium. And looking sideways at her frowning friend, who was reading something on the phone, she set to work.

Kat, you will be very offended if I say that I'm tired of it here - I was uncomfortable in front of Kat, in the end, it was she who arranged our trip here, and without her I would hardly have got out of the house, in extreme cases, I would go to my parents in the village to the dacha.

“Listen, Vasilyeva, how do you do it, I suffered for half the night to ask if I was tired here, and you got ahead of me, just some kind of telepathy,” she answered, sighing with relief, as if I had a bag of potatoes took it off her shoulders. - That's it, we're going. Today we’ll go to our place, sit somewhere, have a little fun, and then I’ll soon howl from longing.

“Don’t howl, they’ve already whined one redhead,” I blurted absently, without thinking, and Katrina looked at me so strangely. Yes, the environment matters a lot.

We were driving back, towards the city, and I kept thinking about the most unfortunate vacation in the world. And this must happen like this, how terribly that barely familiar fisherman Fedor died.

Over the next week, we went a couple of times in the evening to play bowling, then just sit in a cafe, but if someone approached us, then for some reason I remembered that cheerful redhead. Very impressionable, Katrina said so.

Chapter 2

Tomorrow is a day off and finally my parents will come, who have long decided that the best place to live is the village. Of course, I don’t argue, because gas heating, water, sewerage, a garden mean a lot, but still. I'm their overgrown child and I miss them! And now I went to the supermarket, which is located on the first floor of my house, to buy food, and then cook something delicious. For myself, it is very often too lazy to cook in the kitchen, but here, this is an occasion to eat normally.

- Help you, - a pleasant low male voice was heard above my ear at the moment when the handle of the package came off, and all the contents collapsed to the floor, after I had time to pay and move away from the cash register a little. - A beautiful girl should not carry such weights .

- And what to do, - I cheerfully answered, once again glancing at the field of activity with a quick glance, - I have to.

- I can help, - the man said and handed me a brand new package.

So together we quickly gathered the products, and then I took a closer look at him. Slender, fair-haired, about my height and age, dressed like thousands dress, or rather jeans and a T-shirt.

- Well, so, help, - his hand froze over the package, palm up, a wide smile filled with warmth.

“If only a little, I didn’t calculate, I gained a surplus,” I embarrassedly squeezed out a smile and be sure, I always blushed at the moment when I held out my burden, which was immediately picked up by a stranger, as if it had only three, maximum five kilograms.

This is how we met radio engineer Denis. There were only a hundred steps to my entrance, but he managed to invite me to the cinema (he hadn’t been for a hundred years), and also take a walk around the city, and just go eat ice cream in some local cafeteria. And I took it and agreed, because now I don’t grieve over this most unsuccessful marriage.

“So, maybe we’ll go right now?” My guide suggested when I reached for the package.

“Where shall we go?” I touched him with my fingers and it was not unpleasant. Rather, an impulse was sent that made my heart beat a little faster than usual. I think the reason is as simple as two times two makes four. It's been too long since I met a man to not just dance, as happened in "The Happiness of the Fisherman." So, Vasilyeva, it brings you somewhere.