Olya was returning home from work. Autumn, slush, darkness… Even the streetlights could barely cope: they lit only a small patch around themselves, and beyond that there was darkness.
Olya did not like autumn. This one especially. After all, it was this autumn that she had broken up with her fiancé. They had only two months left before the wedding. And then something terrible happened: he raised his hand against her. Olya could not forgive that.
Of course, afterward he apologized, saying he did not even know how it had happened. But he was sure it would never happen again.
“And how can you be sure if even now you don’t understand how it happened?” Olya asked angrily.
“Olya, come on, you pushed me to it. I just lost control. Please forgive me! I promise, never again!”
But Olya did not believe those promises. If he hit her once, he would hit her again. And the main thing was, it was not as if there had been some reason. Some kind of excuse, at least. For example, if she had cheated on him. Or insulted his mother. But no, nothing like that. Olya had simply said she was tired and that he could cook dinner himself.
Then came one word after another, arguments about who had what responsibilities at home, mutual insults, and then that blow…
That same day, Olya packed her things and wrote to everyone that the wedding was canceled. Her parents lived in another city, but Olya already had a job and friends here. True, she had no place to live. For the past year, she had been living in her fiancé’s apartment. But never mind. She remembered her difficult youth. She rented a small apartment on the outskirts of the city. The neighbors were not the most pleasant, but Olya really liked the price.
With these thoughts, she walked home through a dark alley. And she really hoped that no one would stab her there.
There were about a hundred meters left to her building when Olya saw a human silhouette. And that silhouette was swaying somehow strangely.
“A drug addict or a lunatic,” Olya thought, wanting to walk around the person in a wide arc. Olya’s eyesight was not very good, so she only managed to see who was actually standing there when she came closer.
It was a young woman. And she was swaying strangely because she had a baby in her arms. The weather in October was far from warm, and today the temperature had dropped almost to zero. But the woman was wearing only a thin jacket, and on her feet she had slippers. The baby, too, was wrapped only in a blanket.
At first, Olya wanted to walk past. The fact that it was a woman with a child did not rule out the possibility that she could be a drug addict or mentally unwell. Especially in a neighborhood like this.
But then her conscience scolded Olya for her heartlessness. She remembered that indifference was the worst of all feelings and, overcoming her fear, approached the stranger.
“Excuse me, is everything all right?” Olya asked.
The woman raised her head and looked at her in surprise, as if she had not even noticed Olya approaching.
“Yes… everything is fine,” she answered quickly, glancing back at the entrance.
“Aren’t you cold? It’s chilly outside.”
The woman did not answer, but it was clear that Olya had guessed right. She was obviously freezing.
“Do you live here?” Olya continued asking.
“Yes. I’ll go home soon,” the stranger tried to smile with lips that had already turned blue.
Olya should have left, but how could she?
“I live in the next building. Come up to my place, you can warm up.”
The woman thought for only a second, then nodded.
They went up to Olya’s apartment. And although Olya was worried that this woman might turn out to be a thief or something even worse, in her heart she felt that something had happened to her.
“May I put my son somewhere?” she asked.
“Of course. You can put him on the sofa, and I’ll put the kettle on.”
The stranger appeared in the kitchen a couple of minutes later. She kept clenching and unclenching her fingers because they were clearly numb.
Olya made tea and immediately pushed a cup toward the woman.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, warming her frozen fingers.
“I have a frozen pizza. I’ll put it in the oven now,” Olya smiled. “We’ll have dinner.”
“I feel so uncomfortable…” the guest murmured without raising her eyes.
“Oh, come on. I wouldn’t be able to eat it all by myself anyway!”
The woman smiled. She clearly understood that Olya was trying to encourage her.
“Thank you,” she said a few minutes later. “I really was very cold.”
“My name is Olya,” the hostess introduced herself.
“And I’m Anya. And my son is Denis.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Anya no longer seemed dangerous to Olya. On the contrary, she looked lost and frightened.
“What happened to you, Anya?” the girl asked.
Anya sighed and immediately blushed. She was clearly ashamed.
“My husband… He got drunk and started threatening me. Then he grabbed a knife. So I grabbed my son and ran outside. Don’t think badly of him,” she immediately muttered. “When he’s sober, he’s very good. But when he drinks…”
“Anya, you can’t tolerate that. I know what I’m talking about,” Olya said quietly. “My boyfriend also raised his hand against me, and I left. If a man hits you once, he’ll hit you again. And who knows what goes on in the head of a drunk person? You have a little son. You need to leave.”
Anya smiled sadly.
“I know that myself, but I have nowhere to go. My parents died, and my brother took their house by deceiving me. I have no savings. I can’t go to work right now—Denis is still very little. I don’t have close friends, and who needs some woman with a child? So I endure it so my son can sleep in a warm bed. When my husband comes home drunk, I try to go out for a walk with the baby. And when he falls asleep, I come back. Today I didn’t manage to leave earlier…”
Olya felt terribly sorry for Anya. When she herself had broken up with her boyfriend, she had a lot of support around her. Parents, friends. She had somewhere to go, and she had a job. And she did not have a small child in her arms. Yes, it was easy for Olya to talk about needing to leave. But where Anya was supposed to go was unclear. There were supposedly some help centers, but no one knew what the conditions were like there.
“I should go now. I don’t want to bother you. My husband has probably fallen asleep. Thank you so much,” Anya said while Olya was still thinking over the whole situation.
“Wait.”
Olya herself did not understand how she came to that thought. Perhaps she had only briefly touched the horror Anya lived in and understood how scared, hurt, and offended she must feel. And she suddenly wanted very much to help this unfortunate woman.
Anya looked at the hostess questioningly. Olya still had a chance to change her mind, but she did not take it.
“Now we’ll go and get your things and your son’s things. Then you’ll live with me. We’ll manage. You’ll file for child support; let him pay. Maybe we’ll find a nanny for the child, and you can go to work.”
“No, no,” Anya said fearfully. “I can’t do that. You don’t even know me.”
“But I know that I can’t leave you in trouble.”
While Anya’s husband was asleep, the women moved all of Anya’s and her son’s belongings into Olya’s apartment. Yes, Anya had to sleep on the floor, but they decided to think about that later. Denis was put in the stroller, which they had also taken.
When Olya’s acquaintances found out what she had done, they were horrified. How could she do that? It was not like taking in a kitten. But Olya only waved them off, saying they would manage.
And they did. Olya and Anya became best friends. After the divorce, Anya filed for child support, and it was enough to provide for her son. Later, when the little boy grew a bit, Anya found part-time work online, and things immediately became much easier. A little later, she enrolled Denis in a private kindergarten, because the public one would not accept such a small child, and she herself went to work.
Now they had enough money to rent a two-room apartment. Olya became Denis’s godmother, and he simply adored her.
When Denis turned three, Olya met a man, and soon she and Anya moved apart. Then Anya also met a young man.
But their friendship did not end. They saw each other very often, and later their families became friends too. Both of their lives improved, and Anya never stopped saying how grateful she was to Olya. She said that if it had not been for her, perhaps Anya would not have survived.
Anya and Olya got married. And soon Anya had a second child. A girl.
First, she called her husband, and then immediately her friend.
“Did you give birth?!” Olya asked excitedly. She was pregnant too, but she still had three months to go before her due date.
“Yes! A girl!”
“Hooray! Congratulations!”
“Thank you.”
“What did you name her? You didn’t tell me until the very end.”
Anya smiled. Yes, she had not told her. She had not wanted to ruin the surprise.
“A beautiful name. Those who have it are very strong in spirit. And they are also very kind. I know that for sure. I named my daughter Olya.”
