5. Brother 3

2. Martha didn’t lie when she said that she had things to do on Monday — she needed a medical certificate to be employed. This means that you will have to get up early, get tested, go to doctors, stand in lines. She postponed this unpleasant procedure for so long. So the mood on Monday morning was far from brilliant.

She easily found the clinic on Trudovy Reserves Street, waited for the opening together with other “suffering” ones.

The clinic occupied three apartments on the first floor of an ordinary five-story building. It was empty and uncomfortable here - bare walls with dull rows of chairs, lean faces of people sitting for hours on these chairs, the smell of medicines ... And in this place she has to spend at least a couple of the next days!

So far, she only managed to get tested.

The shortest queue was to the gynecologist. Martha bravely stepped over the threshold and was taken aback - at the table was a middle-aged man with a stern appearance. Martha sat down timidly on the edge of a chair, and he took the card and began to ask questions:

- Have you been living an intimate life for a long time?

- Absolutely not…

He looked up from the papers and stared at her accusingly.

- What? Have never been with a man at all?

“No, I wasn’t,” the girl replied, and under his surprised look, she felt rather stupid.

- You are ... twenty years old? - The doctor asked cautiously.

Martha nodded. Now he avoided looking into her eyes, and that was really embarrassing. She felt like some old maid, shriveled and ugly.

- When was the last period?

- Now ... it ends.

“Ah… well… come on Thursday. A woman will accept.

- Goodbye.

- Good luck.

The day was almost wasted, and a very unpleasant aftertaste remained from visiting the gynecologist.

On Tuesday, after class, he went to Mengistu and warned him that he would bring a girl tomorrow. He began to ask, but Nitram tried to avoid an answer - for some reason he was nervous, he was not sure that she would come. And one more thing: he could not get rid of the feeling that he had already seen this face and those blue questioning eyes somewhere, but he could not remember exactly where. And it was depressing. Intuition told him that remembering was important, and he was used to trusting his inner voice.

Twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday, Marta went to the studio in the mornings, to the courses of props and costume designers. At the end of them, she had to pass the exam and get a grade. She was promised a job in March, when the shooting of new movies begins.

Sometimes the lectures were interesting and then she strenuously scribbled notes, and sometimes they were rather boring, and Martha thought about her own, painting the covers of the notebook.

She still could not decide: to go on a date tomorrow or not? She clearly knew that she wanted to see him again, but at the same time, something held her back.

She came here with her own goals, with a passionate desire to study directing movies, she was too lazy to establish some kind of "human relationship." Well, what can they have in common? "I don't even know what to talk to him about." And one more thing: she was a little afraid to step into the unknown. What this meeting might turn to be? Why does she need this man? As for now she is indifferent to him, and then?

And even when Wednesday came, there was no clarity.

After a long and careful preparation, Marta stood at the window, looked at the lights of the stadium and thought: "Should I go or not?" She even tossed a coin, but it rolled into dust somewhere under the sofa, and Martha did not look for it.

To ask Sasha? He was at home, had already returned from work. But despite their close friendship, the sympathy and trust that existed between them, Martha, by a strange whim, did not say a word to him.

She slowly crept out the door, glanced at her wrist watch and decisively went on the first real date in her life.
 
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from novel WANDERER/ Роман "Пришелец"