Why would you want to move? Especially in the countryside. Everyone tries to go to the city, and you’re the opposite. What’s good there? I don’t understand you. It’s only good in summer, and there’s nothing to do in winter.
I have a friend, Laura, who tried hard to persuade us not to move to the country. That greatly annoyed my husband and me too. As if we would do as she wants.
After about a year of searching we still managed to find a suitable house and we moved. Laura called me almost every day and mockingly kept asking me if we had found a job. Although she was well aware that we were working remotely and had no plans to change this. She also kept asking, “Is the Internet bad there?
Laura came to visit in early October. It had been over a year since we moved in. She reluctantly walked around our lot and sat at home drinking beer with her spouse for the entire two days she stayed with us.
All those days, in spite of the guests, we continued to lower the vegetable stock and close the compotes into the cellar. On the third day of our stay, Laura and her husband began to pack for the bus in the evening. I did not offer them any gifts. Then my friend herself asked me to give them a sack of potatoes and apples.
I offered to go down to the cellar for all this stuff, but they didn’t want to do it with a hangover. Under the apples I gave them a bag and buckets. Expressing discontent with their looks, they went to gather the fruit. I wondered how they were going to carry it all on the bus. But after they had picked the apples, it became clear to me – they had asked my husband to drive them.
It was about a three-hour drive one way to town. my husband was quick to figure it out and said he had already had a bottle of beer. So they left on their own with the bag. Disappeared from sight for a couple of years. We called each other, of course. But they never came to visit. Maybe I’m bad, but I think they have no business in my such a bad village.
But then at the end of November, they showed up on our doorstep, and without warning. They kind of wanted to surprise us. Came for the weekend, but we were not up to them. We’ve been pecking the bird for a week now. We had a lot of orders for the new year. Three steers were still being cleaned that day. Well, okay, a surprise is a surprise.
Quickly set the table. Laura and her husband were eating and drinking, and we raced over to the table. At least we offered to help. It would be fine if they did not know how to pinch poultry. We’re from the countryside ourselves.
All my poultry have already been painted to order. We decided to kill it for ourselves and our parents before the New Year. But I did not feel comfortable. Then I offered them a goose, but I said that they would have to pluck it themselves. They said they would do it tomorrow.
The next day came and silence. I thought to myself, you can keep silent. This time they came with their own car and bought one. Before I left, I offered them some vegetables and pickles. Choose what you want. They loaded the trunk full. I am not sorry, you are welcome to eat them. We have enough of this stuff for several years.
But Laura’s next question surprised me. Don’t you have any extra beef?
We said no. We really did not have extra beef. We will get orders first, and then we will harvest the steers. There is no work, but we need to live. And if we had extra meat, we have parents, sisters and brothers.
They probably resent us. So far, Laura hasn’t called or written. And our mutual acquaintance said that we were greedy. Came to the village and left without meat, she told her.
