was even further behind that village, on a hill by another lake. There were buried all Rebrov’s grandfathers and grandmothers, there also rested in peace his beloved mother. Near the cemetery once stood a beautiful church, that was seen miles away, but in the thirties atheist bolsheviks dismantled it to use the quality old bricks, and its bells for scrap. They left only high bell-tower, obviously, for some military reasons. Now this tower, declined and decayed, with thin birches growing on the crumbling bricks high over the ground, stood as if looking with sorrow at surrounding forests, lakes, the depopulated villages, recalling better life there: proper, godly and sober.
С Машей Ребров учился еще в первых классах начальной школы, в ее деревне. Но с третьего года его перевели в далекую школу-интернат, а ее увезли к родным в райцентр, в десятилетку. Мельком виделись, конечно, летом, на озере, но любовь пришла только в восемнадцать.
Он снова работал в лесу, в другой бригаде. Хорошо работал – и пилил, и возил. Платили тут не в пример регулярнее после того случая, даже аванс иногда выдавали. Он даже успел деньжат подкопить: хотел избу поправить, надстроить, перед тем, как жену в нее ввести. Ждали только весны, чтобы расписаться, когда ей исполнится восемнадцать.
Ivan and Masha went to school together for only two years. From the third year he was sent to boarding school, and Masha was taken to her relatives living in the district center, having there a good high school. They saw each other and played together every summer, but real love came to Ivan Rebrov only at eighteen.
He worked then again in the woods, but with another team. He worked hard, sawing the timber and hauling it by the trucks. They paid better there and more regularly after that grim incident. Rebrov did not drink much and saved all the money: he wanted to repair his house and add one more room, good enough to bring his wife into. They both were waiting for spring to marry, when Masha will be eighteen, too.
Ребров работал всю зиму на дальних делянках, но часто кто-нибудь из земляков приезжал-уезжал, и они оправляли друг дружке нежные хорошие записки. Сам он домой специально не ездил, хотел испытать себя и ее: ему скоро было идти в армию. И вот испытал. Записки к концу зимы стали приходить в лес реже и стали они как-то суше. Потом вообще перестали приходить. А в апреле один вернувшийся из деревни земляк так прямо и сказал Реброву:
– Загуляла твоя Маша.
Rebrov worked all that winter on distant allotments. Almost every week someone of their team went back home for a short stay to one of the neighboring villages, and Rebrov exchanged with his Masha gentle and loving letters. Rebrov never went home himself and didn’t see her several months: he wanted to test their love, because he had to go to the Army soon. He tested their love all right, though it didn’t endure their winter parting. By the end of the winter fewer letters reached the snowbound woods, and they became kind of formal and dry, and by the early spring they stopped coming. In April one fellow that came from the neighboring village frankly revealed to it to Rebrov, “She’s having a good time, your Masha.”
Поехал домой Ребров только на майские праздники. Приплыл на ройках в ее деревню, но к ней сразу не пошел, остался у магазина. Тут было людно, шумно, он выпил с одними, с другими, но в душе у него стоял озноб. И вдруг он увидал ее. Она шла по улице под ручку с одним знакомым малым. Ребята, что пили с Ребровым, и знавшие про его любовь, как будто сразу осеклись, замолкли.
Она тоже увидала его. И как будто желая спрятать своего парня от Реброва, вдруг суетливо повернулась – спиной, очень тесно к тому, парню, и грудью к Реброву. Без улыбки, и только с перепуганным лицом, будто птичка защищающая своего птенца..
Rebrov went home only on First of May holidays. That was both official and folk festivities stretching often well up to Ninth of May, the Victory day. He sailed to her village by roiki with his little brother, but he didn’t go to her house but stayed by the store with a bunch of his old half-drunk friends. He drank half a glass of vodka, then some more, but his soul was trembling. Then he suddenly saw her. She walked down the village main street, closely arm in arm with some guy. Rebrov’s friends, who knew about his love, stopped talking at once, and the dead silence fell on store’s porch. She saw Rebrov, too. As if trying to hide her boy from Rebrov she fussily turned, but then stepped forward, with a back to her boy, breasts to Rebrov, with worried and scared eyes, as a bird protecting her nestling.
Ребров шагнул к ней, хотел только поговорить, но она вдруг стала пятиться от него назад, толкая спиной и этого малого. Ребров все сразу понял. В его душе, тронутой уже водкой, как что-то вспыхнуло. Он вынул свой нож и шагнул к ним. Он должен был убить этого малого, а после – все равно, будь, что будет.
Rebrov stepped forward. He just wanted to say “Hi!” to congratulate her with a May’s Day, and maybe to have some talk. But she warily backed from him, bumping at her boy. Rebrov, taken aback, stopped. Something flashed in his affected by vodka mind. And getting his knife out of pocket, he walked to them. Deeply insulted, with everybody around watching, Rebrov felt he should kill this guy now, because nothing else could lift his months-old pain, whatever happens
