Renata realized that
childhood has ended and adulthood began at the day of her seventeenth birthday
in the hospital, when a small bundle was brought to the patient room after a
terrible pain, longstanding agony and distress. Touching the creature in it, she
forgot about everything...
Renata was discharged on the
third day. Husband Alex, unfortunately, was not able to pick her up from the
hospital - he went to his parents in a neighboring town 2 weeks ago. He
literally crawled up home a week later after discharge, filled with the smell
of alcohol, tobacco and sweat, and immediately climbed to the cradle with the
child, and then to Renata. She tried to defend herself, asked, begged and
threatened. She explained that he can’t touch her immediately after birth, but
Alex still got his way.
While her husband was
sleeping after a number of hard parties, she packed her things and left with
the child to Moscow for her cousin. After the death of Renata’s parents she was
her only close relative.
Sister was reluctant to
accept her with daughter, she advised to return to her husband or to take the
child to the orphanage to get rid of a burden.
- It’s difficult to find a
boyfriend in Moscow, but it’s possible, she said. – But nobody will take you
with a child.
The young woman was silent, she
nodded her head, but she knew that all sister’s blandishments are vain, she
needed a temporarily crash, she had small amount of money raised from the sale
of parents’ summer house.
Several beautiful buildings
stood near my sister’s house, where mostly the wealthy people lived. Renata understood
it while watching cars entering the garage – almost all models were
prestigious. Once she got into each of these houses and put a small piece of
paper with the offering of cheap and professionally cleaning the apartment on
the call-board. The business started. The woman would manage to leave for a
couple hours while the daughter was sleeping, then return to feed the baby and
run again for cleaning. Daughter seemed to understand the state of her mom: she
ate, slept, and if she woke up when no one was home, she would lie quietly,
staring at the ceiling. It’s been three weeks since the work started. Knowing
that Renata was working, sister asked her for money for accommodation. She
gratefully paid her and promised to solve the housing issue soon.
- Yes, think about it, I
can’t live in this madhouse anymore, - sister said.
One day Renata came back
home late (on Sunday evening her sister was babysitting for a fee). Opening the
door, the woman realized that she wasn’t alone – she heard the clink of glasses
and the cheerful conversation at the guest room, where she slept with her daughter.
There was Alex sitting at the table, he was already well tipsy. Sister was
sitting next to him. Clutching his arm with one hand and barely holding the
glass with the other, she argued the “relative” zealously.
- It was your sister, who
called and said where you are. What, bitch, didn’t think I’d find you? - Alex hissed
through clenched teeth.
Glancing at the baby's crib
and making sure the girl was there, Renata tried to get her head together
without worrying and reached for the child, when suddenly her husband’s hand
covered her face, it became dark in the eyes, as someone have switched off the
light. She didn’t hear the rumbling noise her own body falling, didn’t see how husband
and sister were beating her with their legs. When the police, called by
neighbors, had rushed into the apartment, they saw two brutal weakened beasts,
continuing to mock a bloodied body of a woman.
An ambulance crew brought
her into senses. Sister and Alex were taken to the station and they promised to
keep them there at least for a couple days. Renata was asked to come and write
a statement against the attackers. The next morning she was unable to go to the
station. First of all, she didn’t want to judge her sister and was afraid to
put husband on a jail. In addition to it, her employer was waiting for her.
Barely getting up from the bed, the woman brought herself up and looked over
the bruises and went to work. The landlady – nice, bossy middle-aged woman -
immediately realized that the maid was in serious trouble. Embracing Renata
like a mothers, she seated her at the table and demanded to know what had happened.
Unable to restrain herself, barely drawing a breath, she, in tears, told all
story from the very beginning. How after the death of her parents she was left
alone and married a neighbor, who had just returned from the army, how he raped
her after giving birth and how sister had betrayed her... After listening to
her story, the landlady stood up and said:
– Let’s go to take the
child, you will live with me from today and no one else will be able to hurt
you.
Renata was flying from
happiness. Svetlana Andreevna was the sweetest of souls. She became the baby’s
godmother and the second mother for her. Time went on, the girl has grown so
much that it was possible to give her to the kindergarten. The woman worked in
the evening, cleaned the offices. Life was getting better – neither the former
husband nor her sister ever bothered. Four years have passed. Several times
Renata struggled to find housing so as not to embarrass the mother Sveta (so
she called herself), but Svetlana Andreevna was against it. She, of course, had
her own adult daughter, who lived with her family. Every six months she came to
mom for a few minutes to pick up another expensive trinket, which Svetlana
Andreevna had a lot in the apartment. She looked at Renata and her daughter suspiciously
and with disgust, but she did not say a word.
Spring came, the woman met a
long-awaited thaw with joy and hope, when suddenly... Svetlana Andreevna was
diagnosed with cancer. Renata and mother Sveta found out about it too late. A beautiful,
powerful woman passed away in three months. She died in summer. Her death was a
huge shock for Renata – she lost her mother for the second time. Before the
funeral Svetlana’s daughter ordered her to leave the apartment, threatening to
rot her in jail, if she stole something. The woman asked to stay in the
apartment for the funeral with tears in her eyes, Svetlana’s son-in-law, being
a worthy man, persuaded his wife not to kick out Renata with the baby for
another two weeks, until they found housing.
A lot of people came to the
funeral: friends, relatives, former employees from other cities and even
countries. One of them, a young woman, differed from all of them. Renata didn’t
know her and didn’t understand why this woman was so interesting for her. She
wasn’t like Svetlana, but they had something in common. Seeing her eyes filled
with tears at the funeral, Renata realized that her eyes were remarkably like Svitlana
– such imperious, but warm and amazingly relative. There, at the cemetery, she
went to Renata and said quietly:
- I’m Svetlana’s friend, I stayed at the
hotel “Metropol” on Tverskaya. Come to me tomorrow at twelve o’clock, and take
your daughter.
The next day, sitting in front of the
familiar women, Renata heard the amazing story. Svetlana’s friend said that she
came from Canada, her name was Leila, and she has long been involved in
spirituality and is a MEDIUM that transmits information of the Universal Mind.
She unraveled the tangle at the request of the deceased, opened and found the
cause of all the misfortunes of Renata. Before the revolution her ancestors
were cursed by spiritual people for the serious sins which they had committed.
They all died at a young age as their parents. The curse affected Renata in the
form of her husband and sister. Once Svetlana Andreyevna gave her a piece of
her heart, she got sick and died.
- I learned about you too late and at the
request of Svetlana began to clear your karma, - said Leila. - Now you just
have to change the name.
They discussed options and finally came to
the conclusion that the name Lana is perfect to Renata. She already had the
light – her little girl Svetlana, who was protected from the family curse
forever because she became a daughter of Lana, who was purified from all the
negativity by Leila from Canada.
P.S. Lana is married and is engaged in
successful business: she teaches primary school children. On summer vacation
she arrives in Toronto with her family to see, as she says, imperious, but warm
and kind eyes of Leila.
