The apartment is quiet
“Have you ever heard how blackbirds sing? Or dogs bark? Or cats meow? Well, a beautiful apartment near a bird market is just for you!”
This ad I caught my eye. But my family got a new apartment in a beautiful area, in a newly built 12-story apartment. Before that, we lived for 12 years in one apartment with my parents—you know how difficult it is to live with parents. We lived with two children in one 18-meter room, and my parents had two rooms. I stayed up late, preparing for lessons, and my husband was preparing materials for his thesis defense with the lamp on. The children slept on folding chairs. It was incredibly crowded. But we were expecting an apartment with the hope of improving our living conditions. And then, our dream has come true. We got a (free) apartment in a new building on the first floor with two balconies, a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet, and three rooms! Happiness, joy overwhelmed us!
Do you remember how Vladimir Mayakovsky described the introduction into a new apartment?
The story of the caster Ivan Kozyrev about moving into a new apartment
I am a proletarian.
To explain this is superfluous.
I lived just as how my mother birthed me.
And here, my flat gives me housing, a job.
Wow—how large!
Ventilated, illuminated, and warmed.
The first day after receiving the documents, my husband and I ran, no, rushed to look at our new housing! And found that it will take a few more months before we could settle there. Well, we will tolerate it, we decided, because we expected this event for several years! Speaking of a free apartment, the other day I was talking with an American neighbor about housing and told her that we got an apartment for free. She was surprised and did not understand how it could be.
And we often came to visit the new neighborhood; we were worried about the construction of our house and apartment there.
And one beautiful day, we found out that the house was already built—the apartment too—but the electricity was not yet connected. My husband, an electrical engineer with an already-completed higher education, said that he could simply plug in the light bulbs and turn on the light. So he did. The whole house was dark, but we had light in the windows of the first floor! On the walls were glued with a decent wallpaper, on the floor there was an oak parquet floor; everything looked wonderful. Only here it seemed to us that the parquet should be slightly corrected, cleaned. I must say that the transport did not go that far, so we had to walk to the new house. But nothing stopped us! We armed ourselves with brooms, vacuumed, rented a machine for cleaning the parquet and set off! We carried all these things and looked forward to the shining of our new house and the parquet in it! Wonderful!
In my stories, I like to ask my readers questions. Here's one of them. Why do we use the front door? You will say that it is strange to ask this. Of course, so that no stranger would look to your home without your permission, and not disturb you. Many residents pay a lot of money for a steel and bulletproof door, and even cast special locks, because they do not open with a simple hairpin like the old ones do. You can lock yourself inside; your house is your fortress! Do you remember how, in the past, the key was put under the carpet in front of the entrance or hung on a carnation? What if the children or grandchildren came, but we were not at home? But now it's not like that—it is necessary to close. And not just using one simple lock!
Leave the door open, but do not enter without permission. —Japanese proverb
We should remember these words in a new apartment, where we enthusiastically cleaned up the floor, dust flying in all directions; the vacuum cleaner hummed, collecting mud, and the noise was strong. But we worked with joy! We decided to rest a little. We stopped the machines, looked at the result, and then we regretted it. The parquet did not become better from our cleansing, on the contrary, some dents were formed! We decided after a short break to continue work. It would be necessary to ventilate the apartment a little. We went out into the corridor and gasped!
“What is it? Where is our door? Where has it vanished?” It was a cheap door leading to a small corridor for two apartments. Neighbors, we had not. But disappeared, the door had. We turned on the vacuum cleaner and did not hear, over the noise, as someone took this door off its hinges! We, of course were upset and did not know where to run. Where should we search for thieves, who should we tell? Should I go to the police, or something? And where is the police station in this new neighborhood?
But, as they say, speak of the devil and he shall appear!
A tall and large policeman, in uniform and bearing documents, suddenly squeezed in through our open apartment door. We were delighted, then the policeman asked us questions that were difficult to answer: “Why are you in this apartment late at night? Why did you connect the electricity? The house is not yet completed, you have no right to be here and repair anything! Present your documents!”
Well, we showed our passports, happy that we had brought them here! And what do you think happened next? Guess!
¹1. We were put out of the apartment. ¹2. We were fined. No. 3. We were taken to the police station.
None of the above! The policeman saw our name “Rabinovich” and was surprised. He asked, “Is Comrade Rabinovich, the head of security in the city of Kharkov, your relative?” And what did my intelligent husband say? He said that all the Rabinovichs are relatives.
So, our question was solved. The name Rabinovich rescued us once again. The policeman turned around and, wishing us successful work, safely left. We did not even have time to complain to him about the loss of our door. By the way, after a while we went around all the apartments in our and other entrances, and found returned to its place, our door. Hooray!
We lived in this apartment for 12 years, arranging it how we liked and what we could afford. We thought that this, our dwelling, would serve us until the end of our days. But everything turned out differently. In 1994, we all family moved to a permanent residence in South Carolina.
For 23 years now, we have lived in America. At first we thought that we would not get used to the new climate and other conditions; we will never forget our cozy apartment in Ukraine. But our dream came true here, despite the low salary, and we managed to buy our own house and even fully pay for it. We continue to improve our living conditions. Guests who come visit us say that it is very comfortable.
And now, again, the events and people with whom I worked for 12 years in my one, but favorite, high school are recalled. Getting an apartment was the most important event for all teachers: like a dream come true, joy, and the sun in the sky. Before such a thing would happen, many of us lived in densely-populated apartments, with several neighbors and one bathroom and toilet for all tenants. Some people had old houses, were demolished, residents were moved to new apartments, and new buildings were being built throughout the city.
And again I want to ask you a question, dear readers. Do you eat walnuts? I think that yes; you happily eat these healthy, vitamin-filled, essential substances! And how do you feel about snowdrops, the flowers that blossom in early spring? I personal treat them with care. After all, they have to manage to blossom and bloom under snow, without fear of frost! And here is what information I have found on the Internet about these wonderful flowers.
Soon after Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise, winter came. It lasted a long time, the earth was full of severe frosts, and the cold, ruthless snow did not regret absolutely anyone. Eventually, Eve could not resist - and burst into tears. She did not cry so much from the pain and cold, as from regret for the mistake she had made, and about the lost paradise. And then the Lord took pity on her—and turned her tears into the most delicate flowers of this world. So, snowdrops appeared in the snow, signaling the arrival of spring.
The snow-white forest has long been a symbol of spring, purity, youth and freshness, and also says that one should enjoy both the present and the future, and drive from their heart memories of failure—so it is not surprising that these gentle, beautiful flowers are extremely popular. I really liked this legend. If possible, I always tried to buy these charms. Why did I tell you about walnuts and snowdrops, you ask?
I want to return to the story of the apartments. The teacher of geography Valentina Nikiforovna Gradova was also among the lucky ones, having received an apartment in the far district of the city. We already lived in our new buildings, had put things in order, and improved our dwelling. We already celebrated our housewarming with relatives and friends, now-understanding the feelings of others who had just settled in. And Valentina's colleague also decided to celebrate this grandiose event in her life. Which she did by inviting all the others teachers over to visit. A group of the most active teachers happily accepted this invitation and travellde to the other end of the city, transferring twice between modes of transport. But that is not all. The school worked in two shifts, but everyone wanted to go to visit. After the lessons, our cheerful group gathered, discussing what should be taken with them, and went on a long journey. Coming out at a stop near Valina’s [Valentina’s] house, we found that there was still no lighting in the neighborhood, so stumbling and slipping on the wet snow, we reached the right entrance and climbed the unlit stairs to our colleague's apartment. The apartment was empty, a tablecloth was spread out on the floor, with a self-sewing machine; we had to sit down on the floor, in an uncomfortable position, to eat and drink. But this did not stop us. There was endless fun, we were joking around, remembering funny happenings from life, spilling our anecdotes [funny stories]. And then came another colleague, named Vakhtang Gulua. We greeted him, and he suddenly opened a grocery bag and scattered a whole pile of walnuts on the floor, and then gave a bouquet of snowdrops to the hostess. Where did he get these delicate flowers, only God knows!
I have already explained that walnuts denote firmness, responsibility and other qualities. Vakhtang proposed a toast, the meaning of which was that he wished that in this apartment joy, love and happiness always flourished. And we crawled around in the dark, gathering the nuts on the floor, laughing and having fun! This fun occasion of housewarming, talking with people of the same spirit and background, and learning will never be forgotten!