or unmarried, and we still hang side by side, so… I can say I didn't lose anything. He's so impulsive, you can't say the word.
GRISHA (measured): And you have to think what word to say!
LIDA (measured): It is necessary, I do not argue, but how can I think…
GRISHA (understandingly): Well, Yes…
Pause. Glance.
LIDA (with interest): So that… are you serious?
GRISHA: What?
LIDA (with interest): Well… what about me?
Grisha sighs languidly…
GRISHA: of course, seriously. Is this a joke?
Lida smiles shyly.
LIDA (with interest): So you… really liked me?
GRISHA (to himself): yeah.
LIDA (with interest): And you are willing to marry me not out of pity, but out of your heart?
Grisha pauses.
Lida insinuates her gaze into his face.
GRISHA (to himself): yeah.
LIDA (with interest): Ah that you all uh-huh Yes uh-huh. It's like I'm forcing you.
GRISHA: So differently I have already declared my feelings, you have dismissed them!
LIDA (excitedly): Yes, I didn't dismiss my feelings, I thought that…
Lida stops abruptly, takes a deep breath, and smiles affectionately at Grisha.
LIDA (softly): I really liked you, too. Very, very. Truth.
Grisha moves away from resentment. She smiles modestly.
GRISHA: Go on…
LIDA (excitedly): Well… I don't know what to say in such cases. Can you imagine? This is the first time I've said this in thirty-five years. Tell me… and they didn't say that, but I did… This is my first time.
GRISHA: How does it feel?
LIDA: Yes, as if scalded with boiling water. But not now, but literally that's it. And… I don't feel pain, but I feel like it becomes dramatically easier… Right othodnyak be blessed… Right good…
Grisha smiles, he understands Lida.
GRISHA: I first confessed my feelings in high school. She was the best student in the class and knew her own worth. Well, I wasn't very good at knowledge, but I wasn't a two-biter either… So, in the middle kept…
LIDA (interrupts): Grisha, Grisha! Wait, wait! I understand everything, let's make sure you tell us about it, but only maybe later. And that time is mercilessly running out. The hour is inexorably passing. And this may not happen later. I may be a girl, but I've always kept my word. Let's spend the rest of our time on… You and me. I'm sorry, I may have been rude, but understand me…
GRISHA: Yes, you are right. How much time do we have there?
Lida watches the time on her phone.
LIDA (excitedly): Twenty minutes.
GRISHA (to himself): yeah.
Lida looks hopefully at Grisha, but he is silent.
Soft sad music is playing.
Lida looks down, moves away, and sits down with her back to Grisha.
Grisha thinks. She puts her hands together, interlocking her fingers, and touches her lips. Lida puts her hand on her arm, like a schoolgirl at a Desk, her hands in her lap. He puts his head in his hands. He doesn't know what's going on behind his back.
Grisha looks at Lida. His eyes are serious, determined.
The music stops.
LIDA (gravely, quietly, without turning around): Well, what's that girl for?
Grisha does not answer immediately, gradually moving away from his thoughts.
GRISHA: She laughed at me. And in public. She made a fool of me in front of the whole class.
Lida turns and looks at Grisha with sympathy.
LIDA (trembling): I'm sorry…, I… I wasn't too different from that schoolgirl in my actions, was I? I'm Sorry, Gregory. You bared your soul to me, and I…
Grisha sighs.
LIDA (trembling): Understand… I've been through a lot. Well … not more than anyone else in the world, that's for sure, but I've seen life on the side of riches and on the side of poverty. Of course, people live very differently.
Of course, the thinking of both is very different, and how many different third parties… But… But there is something that unites them all. And I'm no exception.
Lida looks at Grisha with trepidation.
GRISHA: Go on…
LIDA (trembling): One day I was coming back from work by the back streets. No one was waiting for me at home, so I took my time. I wanted to delay my return to the empty house as long as possible. And I went along an unfamiliar path, by alleys, somehow bypassing, somehow sidetracked.
Grisha listens attentively, very reverently and very seriously regarding this speech.
LIDA (trembling): She went down to the log, crossed the rickety bridge, and looked back.
A small pause, Lida remembers, selects the right words.
LIDA (trembling): There was no free space on the slopes along the small river. Everything was littered with ramshackle houses. Some sheds, buildings. How do people live on these slopes? How do they bridge there? How do they get in there anyway? After all, neither the ambulance nor the fire Department will be able to approach these barracks if anything happens. And they somehow build there, somehow settle, somehow live… After the usual ideas about villas and estates, I was shocked by what I saw. My new life was spent exclusively in apartments, and private sector houses of this type did not come across my eyes. And now, my eyes were drawn to one house. More precisely, not even a house, it was, in fact, no different from the rest of the area. A small fence caught my eye. Quite small. Literally meters and a half wide and in length from the gate to the porch two and a half meters in all. But on this small patch of freedom, a brand-new basketball Hoop was installed. Bench, kennel for the dog. I suddenly realized that Yes… this family lives very poorly, does not have any communications and amenities, which, without thinking about what happens otherwise, are used by residents of large cities. But with all this, the father in this family comes home from work and plays basketball with his son. They just throw a ball together in the
