O.A. - Ruby

“Then there was another mother at work who began complaining that it was too expensive for her to hire a tutor for her brain-dead daughter, and what a monster the tutor was because he asks for so much money per lesson and how private lessons should cost less. Why the hell should they be cheaper?! Where does her certainty come from? Why is she so sure that he owes her anything? Anything at all? He lives on this money! Maybe he has a family and has to support them. Either he is worth hiring or not.

“You have to understand, I have to listen to this brain numbing garbage every day from Monday to Friday! The logic of these broads is the apogee of idiocy, the height of ignorance!”

“And if you…”

“They are also unhappy with what is happening in the world and in the country,” I interrupted her, “but in reality with the attitude towards everything and everyone that they have… They deserve all the crap that is going on!”

I understood that perhaps I now looked like a madman but I was certain that if I released that stream of consciousness through my words, I would feel relief (as if I had been riding in a bus for 12 hours, suppressing the urge to go to the toilet, and at last the bus made a cherished stop).

I grabbed my right side.

“What happened? Are you in pain?”

“Yeah, but who the hell knows why. Feels like I’m falling apart.”

“What hurts exactly?”

“You mean where does it hurt?”

“Yes.”

“On my right side, right under my ribs and between the ribs, sometimes it on the right but sometimes on the left too… In my chest, I don’t know where exactly. It feels like I’m being eating away inside… Like rust. It hurts between my shoulder blades. My larynx… Neck. Back and even my lap. All the time I am thinking that I might have cancer. Can I have cancer at my age? It’s hereditary… My grandmother died of cancer. I’m afraid that this will affect my mother too… This… I understand that I am speaking, maybe incoherently and too quickly, but the words themselves are just coming out…”

The tremor in my hands was already noticeable. Gradually, my shoulders began to twitch…

“So, Oleg. Let’s figure this out. Now, are you afraid of cancer?”

“And that too. Yes. I’m afraid of getting sick. I’m afraid my mom will get sick.”

“Let’s do this: you will name the reasons why you think that is possible and we will discuss them.”

“Well… So… Heredity. That is the first reason. Stress, the second reason. Statistics show that almost all relatives die of cancer. Global change of environment: my parents are planning to move south soon. I am now beginning to understand that you will convince me otherwise… But these thoughts are like leeches. I don’t know how to get them out of my head. I start to worry about something and then everything starts to hurt, that’s it! I’m starting to think it’s cancer.”

“Are those all the points?”

“I think so.”

“Let’s take them apart now. Heredity and statistics, in fact, can be combined into one item. At what age did your grandmother and relatives die?”

“About 75 or 80 years old. I can’t say for sure.”

“Not all cancers are inherited. There are breast cancer and types of cancer in female organs that can in fact be transmitted… However, in most situations, each case is individual and moreover cancer is essentially a disease of very old people. If everyone had good health and no one was sick with anything, then in the end everyone would die of cancer in old age. Some would also die from heart attacks or strokes…”

“And not live to see their cancer?” I interrupted, “And those who die from it just simply met their cancer?” I began to experience a feeling of unpleasant, inexplicable fun.

Craaaaazy, I’m going craaaazy… I sang in my mind.

“To some extent, yes. About the change of environment: if it caused oncology, then all migrant workers would die of cancer.”

I liked that Maria, having said this, almost laughed (I love black humor).

“And stress?”

“Stress levels do not affect the development of oncology. I understand that there are many articles on the Internet where the opposite is written but stress doesn’t cause cancer. If you are interested, I can e-mail you scientific articles by one good oncologist who is sorting out the exact issues that concern you.”

“I would be very grateful to you for that.”

“Oleg, tell me, when do you go to see Arthur?”

“I’m scheduled for next Friday.”

“I will correct the dosage regimen for you. Then I will contact Arthur and discuss it with him and if you have the opportunity, I would recommend going to the appointment early. In fact, the sooner the better.”

So, it appears, I really do behave like a nutcase…

On the way home, I got caught in a sudden rain storm after all which only exacerbated the completely disgusting mood I was in.

When I finally made it to my building and was in the elevator, I took my cell phone out of my backpack and saw four missed calls from Amir. I decided not to call back and find out what he wanted when I got home, since it would only be in a couple of minutes.

In the corridor, in addition to familiar shoes, someone’s new sneakers of impressive size caught my eye.

Maybe Amir just called to warn me that Bigfoot 2 2 Bigfoot is a semi-mythical creature like the Yeti. had come to visit us?

In the kitchen, in addition to Camilla, Sopha and Amir, our new guest was sitting with his back to me, and they were all playing the game “Who am I”. THEY HADN’T EVEN WAITED FOR ME!

Judging by the fact that the stickers with the words were only stuck to the foreheads of Sophia and Amir, Camilla had again won a victory.

“Oh, here’s Oleg!” Cam pulled out a plate from the fridge with a large piece of what looked like a puff cake. “Vinarterta or simply: ‘the Striped Lady’. It is intended to be consumed with a large serving of cocoa.”

“Oleg, get acquainted… My new friend,” Sophia sat with her chin in her palms and smiled. On a sticker glued to her forehead was the inscription “Elton John” (I would say with 100 hundred percent certainty that that was Amir’s idea).

The new friend got up from the table and turned around. It turned out to be a damn handsome, tall, muscular guy with a perfect chin and short hair.

Well, whyyyy… Whyyyyyyyyyy can’t I have one like that?!

“Hi, my name’s Oleg. Nice to meet you,” I shook the hand extended to me by the guest.

“Glad to meet you, Oleg. I’m Herman.”

God almighty!!!!!!!!

Herman’s overly strong handshake, along with his gaze, made me understand that I should pretend that we were meeting for the first time.

Well done, he did it himself.

After we had met on Monday, Herman shaved off his beard and cut his hair short. If he hadn’t given his name, I wouldn’t have recognized him at first. He didn’t look at all like the Herman I danced with in the club, but he was still pretty damn handsome. I didn’t even immediately notice the sticker on his forehead with the words “Diana Ross”.

The evening promised to be interesting.

While I was eating the Striped Lady, the game was coming to an end. It remained for Amir to guess the word on his own sticker, after which, if I’m not mistaken, we would start drinking cocoa and asking tricky questions to the damn handsome Herman. I’m more than sure that the guys shouldn’t have started doing this without me.

“Barbra Streisand!” Amir finally guessed the inscription on his sticker. “I knew immediately that it was her!”

“Yes, but then why did you guess her name for almost five minutes?” Camilla started making cocoa.