Islanders

Наталья Вячеславовна Андреева

Natalya Andreeva

Islanders

"The Bay of Pleasure"

The house was near the forest. When the sun slowly set over the horizon in a clear weather over the lilac pine-trees in twilight it seemed that the very top of the seventeen-storied building wore a gold crown. The red-bricked building was made of two close to each other like the twins. One entrance faced to the forest and led to the parking line the other – to the road crossing the blocks of houses. Windows like the sewing sticks glued the parts of the twins. A thick wall separated one section of windows from another. Each floor had four apartments: two one-roomed and two two-roomed.

The house was strange with the sharp corners and among surrounding five-storied buildings it looked like a tower spike. Inhabitants of "the red dwarfs" struggled against the long construction which broke ecology but they lost the fight and when the house had been built frankly hated it. They called it the Tower. It attracted the eye but not the soul. To live in that house for some reason would not be desirable. Apartments in the Tower cost fabulous and in fact there was a suburb of Moscow! A place was not overcrowded far from the center and the underground was not under the windows but investors did not reduce the price and waited for "the right client". There were a few clients for a year that the most part of the windows remained empty.

For that time the local businessman whose name was known very well rented the ground floor for a casino which he loudly called "the Bay of Pleasure". In the evenings under the neon signboard of "Casino" shone the other one "Billiard Club". Below it was "Bar" and to the left "Slot Machines”. "Crazy Cash" was written by huge red letters. Inhabitants of the five-storied buildings were frightened by "Crazy Cash". It also frightened off the possible buyers of the apartments in the Tower. They were not "crazy" to wait until somebody breaks "cash" and arrange shooting under their windows.

The profitable businessman had managed to find the sanction which forces of hired workers to build a brick separate entrance to a casino for the convenience of clients. So near the Tower which became ugly was the third entrance to "Crazy Cash". Behind one of the windows of casino there was a huge palm tree in an oak tub. It was proudly looked at pine-trees from its exclusive position. Unlike the pine-trees it's always bright and warm. But it wasn't important for the wild-growing plants which didn't want to entertain clients sitting in a tub. On the glass window there was an image of the same palm tree which contour from the neon fires began to shine brightly in the darkness. So the entrance was full of lights, the bar attracted, the billiard club promised, the hall of slot machines encouraged and the crazy cash drove mad. Casino didn't like the Tower either. As nobody came there Casino was afraid to lose money but the stubborn businessman as well as his investors was waiting for the clients.

Clients were not in a hurry…

…That year the winter didn't come for a long time. More over it was much snow which wasn't going to melt, frosts at the end of March were like in January and people were sad. It was Monday. Even lights in "the Bay of Pleasure" appeared not so bright and the palm tree was bored. Yes, it was the usual Monday. The beginning of the working week and the beginning of cold boring March. The combination on the green cloth of the casino’s table meant despair.

His new black "BMW" of the fifth model had stopped near "the Bay of Pleasure" in the center of the parking line. He had looked at the shining palm tree in the window and thought: "Crazy Cash. It is so primitive.”

That irritated him. Everything irritated him last time: the weather, the late spring, clients, colleagues, employers. He left the car loudly shutting the door. And he again looked at windows of casino: "Don't wait!" They had some minutes to think: "The client arrived. The rich car, the excellent suit, the black cashmere c