Cold

This story happened in the early 1980s. My mother worked in the accounting department at the time, right across from the kindergarten I attended. A sweet woman worked with my mother, and her husband was a driver at the same company. They were a wonderful family; the husband was madly in love with his little Valya. They had three children: five-year-old Tanya, eight-year-old Vanya, and sixteen-year-old Petya. The family lived right on the company's premises, which provided them with temporary housing. At the time, they were waiting in line for a four-room apartment.

One day, when Tanya was sick and didn't go to kindergarten, the parents decided to do the following: Valya would stay home with Tanya and Vanya until lunch (he was in the afternoon shift at school), and then Petya would come home from his first shift and stay to watch the children. Valya asked for the morning off, fed the kids at lunch, and went to work. Petya was supposed to be home from school in just a couple of minutes. 

The accountants (my mother included) were sitting there working, when Tanya walked into the office. It was deep autumn outside, and she was wearing a dress and slippers.

"Mom, Vanya's cold there..."

"Why did you come here all naked?" Valya asked, surprised.

"I'm not cold."

"Go home quickly, I'll be right back and see what's causing Vanya's cold."

Valya figured the kids were just bored and had decided to drag their mother away from work. But she was still getting ready to run home. As soon as she left, Petya greeted her:

"Mom, have you seen the kids? I came home and they're nowhere to be found."

"Yes, Tanya just came running in. They're probably playing behind the office or at the neighbor's. I'm going to work, and you go look for them. Vanya has to go to school already."

 Half an hour later, Petya arrived, completely white and stiff-legged. He couldn't speak at all, only grunting and pointing in the direction of their apartment. The accounting department was stunned, goosebumps running down everyone's spines. Valya ran home, followed by several other colleagues.

A horrific scene awaited them in the house. Tanya and Vanya lay bloodied in the kitchen by the old Soviet-era refrigerator. Their heads were smashed in, their faces and hands blue. Vanya was still breathing. They locked themselves in the refrigerator, apparently trying to scare their brother. They pounded on the door from the inside with their heads and fists until they ran out of air... It was no use; the ZIL had slammed shut. By the time the ambulance arrived, Vanya had died too...

Petya had gone crazy. He spent a long time being treated in the psychiatric ward of the local hospital—to no avail. He dropped out of school and wandered around town all day with a blank, expressionless gaze...

Having somehow recovered from their grief, Valya and her husband decided to have another child. Her husband cared so much for the pregnant Valya! He even brought her bananas, exotic for our city at the time. Valya, like the entire accounting department, constantly wondered: how could Tanya come if she was already dead? Poor girl, she must have wanted so much to save her little brother!

The day of the birth arrived. A drunk midwife dropped the newborn girl on the tile floor of the delivery room. A severe injury, disability...

A few years later, Valya's mother met her completely gray-haired, hunched over, pushing a wheelchair. A few years later, when she met her mother, Valya told her that her daughter had died at 14, and six months earlier, her husband had died in a car accident—he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a truck...