Her hand, trembling with her fingers, touched the dusty glass. — Kolya, my love! — she whispered in the darkness. — And what would you say about all this? — To leave? To leave everything? The shots of the long-gone days came to mind.
Here Nikolai is chopping firewood in the cold air, looking around and laughing. — Marfa, don’t stand in the cold! The tea will get cold! Or he is repairing the fence after a storm, and she is swearing from the porch. — You are doing everything yourself again.
Call Petka from the next yard. — Who will do me better? — he answered with a laugh. Marfa Ivanovna suddenly remembered that terrible day when Nikolai left.
She stood by the window for a long time in the cold morning, unable to believe that his hands would no longer warm her shoulders, that his voice would not fill the house. She then thought for the first time that the house was empty forever. — Yes, you probably wouldn’t have left — she said quietly.
— You would have stayed for sure. Tears came to her throat, but she clenched her fists tightly. And then, from another room, a quiet purring of Masya was heard, as if the cat had felt her pain and was in a hurry to calm her down.
Marfa Ivanovna returned to her bed, but now her soul was a little calmer. Nikolai seemed to whisper to her that the house was a part of him, and that he could not be left in any way. In a restless half-asleep state, the woman waited for the morning to come.
At dawn, she went out on the porch. A light frost bit her cheeks, and the breath turned into a cloud of steam. Her hands mechanically pulled a woolen handkerchief.
— Why aren’t you sleeping? — the voice of Anna Petrovna’s neighbor made her shudder. — Somehow I can’t sleep. I’m thinking to myself, how can I leave all this? Marfa Ivanovna leaned against the railings, looking at the distant forest.
— But you’ll have to leave. Anna Petrovna came closer, straightened the handkerchief on her head. — Have you decided to go at all? — continued the neighbor’s conversation.
— Vera is persuading me. She says, I’m getting old. I need to get closer to the children.
— Do you want to do it yourself? — asked the neighbor. Marfa Ivanovna was silent, rubbing the edge of the handkerchief. — You know what I’ll tell you, neighbor? You’re much better off here.
— But who is asking us, old people? Everything is for our own good. Anna Petrovna sighed heavily after these words. — Just don’t forget the main thing.
Masya is more precious to you than all the cities in the world. After all, if not for her, you would have been in the cemetery a long time ago. Marfa Ivanovna looked up at her neighbor.
— Do you think I don’t know that? Anna Petrovna only nodded and quietly went home. And Marfa Ivanovna remained on the threshold, watching the smoke rising from the chimney of her house. Returning home, Marfa lay down and began to listen to familiar and native sounds in the chimney.
The crackling of the stove, the blowing of the wind outside the window, the quiet knocking of the alarm clock on the bedside table. But suddenly something went wrong. Masya suddenly got up from the window sill and began to meow restlessly.
— You can’t sleep again? — grumbled Marfa Ivanovna, sitting on the bed. However, the cat did not calm down. She jumped on the floor, approached the door and scraped her claws, as if calling the hostess to herself.
Marfa Ivanovna got up, put on a woolen handkerchief and unknowingly opened the door. The frosty air broke into the house, but with it came an amazing silence. The sky was clear and starry, and the moonlight lay in the snow, coloring everything in silver.
Marfa Ivanovna stood on the threshold of the house and could not take her eyes off it. And then she saw something very strange. On the edge of the yard, right under the apple trees, there was an old wooden chair, the same one on which her late husband loved to sit in the evenings.
But it was long ago put away in the shed. Where did it come from? — It’s you, Kolya! — she whispered, squeezing the floors of the handkerchief. Masya also approached the chair and quietly purred, as if confirming something.
Marfa Ivanovna sighed and suddenly realized. It was a sign. A sign that the house does not want to let her go, that memory lives here.
In every board, in every object, in every sound, Masya leaned against the windowsill and muttered discontentedly when Marfa Ivanovna picked it up. — Well, my dear, it’s time for us to get ready! — the hostess said quietly, gently stroking the striped wool. The cat even shrugged at this moment, as if realizing that her quiet days in this house were coming to an end.
Marfa Ivanovna sat down in the chair, making the cat sit on her knees. The basin was growling, and memories flashed back to the old woman’s head. Masya appeared here when Marfa Ivanovna was still keeping the house.
The little kitten, whom Vera brought, was all dirty and with a ragged ear. — Mom, she found me herself! I couldn’t just leave her! — Vera said then, holding the kitten in her trembling hands. — Oh, you little kitten! Well, now you’re mine! — Marfa Ivanovna muttered quietly, and Masya immediately purred in her palms.
Since then, the cat has always been there. When the daughter moved out of the house, and when it became too quiet after her husband’s departure, she patiently listened to the mistress reading the newspaper, complaining about the pressure, or recalling her youth. — I can’t live without you, Masenka! — Marfa Ivanovna whispered.
The cat raised its head as if it wanted to answer, but only yawned in sleep. When Vera noticed how the mother was sitting, pressing the cat to her chest, she immediately tried to calm her down. — Mom, don’t worry so much! You’ll get used to it! — And Masya will get used to it too! — Yes, she will get used to it! — Marfa Ivanovna repeated.
But there was doubt in her voice. Looking at the cat, she could not get rid of her heavy thoughts. How can you get used to it if you leave your native home? After all, you leave your whole life.
Marfa Ivanovna returned involuntarily to that miserable winter night a few years ago. She then slept soundly in her soft bed, as always wrapped in a warm blanket. There was silence in the house.
Only the stove could barely be heard crackling in the corner. But that night something happened that changed her life forever. Masya unexpectedly started meowing in the middle of the night.
At first, the woman did not pay attention, thought that the cat was just not sleeping. But the meowing became louder and louder. The cat rubbed against the owner’s hand, desperately scratching it.
Finally, Marfa Ivanovna woke up. — Masya, what’s wrong with you? — she murmured in her sleep. But the next moment her nose caught the smell of smoke.