New Year story 4.
Some time ago, my work involved constant business trips around Russia. I was rarely at home.
For two years I had to work in Tyumen and the Tyumen region. Tyumen, Zavodoukovsk, Tobolsk, Yalutorovsk, Uray, Labytnangi, etc. And suddenly, unexpectedly and urgently, our group had to be in the city of Ishim. (Group - three people. Lawyer, economist, well, I am the project manager). At first glance, nothing complicated. Our funds were unlimited. Up to the point that I had a bunch of receipts, where I hand-wrote the cost of bribes (Special Rewards). But everything was not easy. All taxi firms refused us. Although there are only 300 km between Tyumen and Ishim. We decided that we had to go to the station, and there on the forecourt to negotiate with cunning, rogue taxi drivers directly. But it didn't work out. Despite the fact that we could buy a car and a driver with giblets more than once, the taxi drivers refused to take us. Come back not so. When they heard about Ishim, they stupidly laughed without explanation.
And what to do? We went to warm ourselves in the station building and there we accidentally saw the timetable for the departure of trains. And, lo and behold!! ! Literally a minute later, on the eleventh track, a mail-passenger train numbered 10.000 departed in the direction of Ishim.
Picking up our junk - laptops, compact copier, presentation equipment, we rushed to this platform. There was no time to buy tickets.
There was clearly a freight train on the platform.... Fortunately, the janitor explained to us that there are passenger cars on this train. There are two of them and they are at the very locomotive.
A gallop to the head of the composition. We get into the wagon. The young conductor stands up to meet us with his chest and says that he won’t let us in without tickets.
I answer that we will pay for everything on the spot and he announces the amount to me.
It turned out to be so insignificant that I asked him before leaving my run - '"Is this in dollars? "
It turned out to be in rubles.
We paid and he took us to our seats.
Catch your breath. We looked around. And they realized that they were in a somewhat unusual situation.
Several decades ago, this car was an honest reserved seat. Then, apparently, he was transferred to the category of general. Well, when he became decrepit, he was finally written off as a postal-passenger.
Coal was stored in wardrobe trunks under the lower shelves. There were holes in the floor in the corridor near the titanium and in the toilets, and one could observe the rotation of the well-lubricated axles of the wheeled carts. But it wasn't scary. We went to Ishim and had time!!!! !
At the nearest station to Tyumen, we bought beer and sat down for preference. Everything was fine until it got dark. In this car, the light warmed only at the moments of acceleration. At stops and smooth driving it was almost non-existent. So, it was necessary to remember the cards, and, laying them out on the table, say - "King of clubs. " And to believe that the parterres are throwing the right cards.
Well, be patient.
The train dragged along like a snail. At all sorts of microscopic stop-station, he stopped for 40 minutes or more. And by one in the morning we arrived at Vagay station. (We left about 4 o'clock in the afternoon). The guide told us that we would be staying in Vagai for 2 hours. And we went to eat.
In the station buffet, we were told that the train crew members were served first. So what? Everything is legal. It was just strange to look at the pride with which, almost disgust, the machinists, the conductors of refrigerator cars, just conductors, etc. , walked around us in line with trays. simple faces.
Yes, well, and the jester with them. But in this canteen, an episode from the film "Deja Vu" was repeated. Our most modest economist Igorek asked for an extra spoonful of condensed milk on a serving of syrniki. In response, he was told - "Not allowed. " I tried to negotiate and said that everything would be paid for. But no. Not allowed. Then I said that they would count the second portion of cheesecakes, but without cheesecakes, but only condensed milk. "It's not allowed"... As a result, Igor scraped off the condensed milk from the second portion to his plate.
We ate. We went out to the platform. It's full of horror. Blizzard. Feverish spotlights. Prisoners were unloaded from one wagon to the barking of dogs and shouts of "Faster, faster. " As the guide explained to us, these were not the most dangerous criminals who were brought to build something there.
It's dark all around. Somewhere in the distance, a few muddy lights from a blizzard. Also the distant barking of dogs In such a place it is probably good to go into a binge.
Although if I came to this Vagay in the summer and on normal transport, maybe everything would be different.
Maybe there's a pretty bucolic around there. And in the morning the young shepherd plays the flute to full-breasted peasant women going to mow the born Jerusalem artichoke.
We returned to the car. Already tired. Already some drunkenness. The caught minuscule are no longer caught. But the road is still long.
And suddenly some old woman flies into our compartment and starts to wail - "What happiness. How good! ! And he tries to kiss us all. And kisses. I pushed my grandmother aside and asked - "Mother. What did you see good here? Where is happiness?
She replies - "Adult guys are coming. They drink beer. They play cards. And they don't swear. They talk culturally. So there is hope.
And then I looked around. Really. Everything is quite good. Yes, holes in the floor, yes, shirts from coal turned black. But in general, everything is fine. Let's go. We have time. Not cold. There is beer. Sometimes there is light. There were cheesecakes. When we flew on IL 14 from Urai to Tyumen it was worse. In addition to us, there were only drunken conscripts and a sluggish ensign on the plane. And the conscripts came up with the idea to rock the plane. It was much worse then.
Dear TourPravdintsy. I congratulate you on the upcoming New Year and wish you the same optimism in 2018 as this obscure grandmother. It costs a lot. Seeing the good in the ordinary or the unpleasant.
God grant us. . .
P/S.
You don't have to read further. But it's just a pity not to tell.
We arrived in Ishim at 5 am. The mournful hotel, located in a three-story Khrushchev building, seemed like paradise to us.
In the morning, in front of the window, I saw a giant American flag. Without joking, I decided that these were brain phenomena after the move. Blinked. Didn't help. It turned out that Ishim was a sister city of some town in the Midwest of the United States, and a delegation came to them from there.
For work, we were given a library room in the local administration. The clerk told us that if we are interested in some books, we can take them away, because the library will be liquidated and everything will be burned. We went through everything carefully and found a box with unpacked copies of Stalin's "Short Course". Well, not knowing why they took books 5 - 7. The binding is painfully beautiful.
I took care of the way back in advance. Tickets for the super-duper express Vladivostok - Moscow were bought. From Ishim to Tyumen, he walked for about 4 hours. In the compartment, we found a completely feral young man. You know, there are such painfully sociable people who, without company, fall into an almost hysterical state. This one was like that. He immediately began to tell us about his life. Stone cutter. Bone cutter. Found my niche in business. Makes chess from mammoth bones. All sorts of dark personalities deliver these bones to Vladivostok, and he makes chess out of them and sells them on the Arbat. In part, they bring him several sets made by the Yakuts and Chukchi. But it's not for everyone. It's too hard to play when the rook, knight and king are yaranga, deer and shaman. And he offered us to play for "interest". We refused. Well, we are not chess players. They offered him to put something unusual on his part, and we were obliged to put something crazy on ours.
I think these were the strangest bets in the history of chess. He supplied three bars of mammoth bones, and we supplied three copies of Comrade 'Short Course'. I. V. Stalin.
We won. .
Site administration, Turpravditsy!!!!! ! I congratulate you on the new year once again and wish you optimism, optimism, optimism!!!! !
