Galina ran along the platform, suffocated by the weight of her suitcases and afraid of missing the last train. After boarding a half-empty, almost moving car, she exhaled, sat on a bench, and tried to catch her breath for a long time. She took a small mirror out of her bag and looked at herself.
“Oh, yes! Wrinkles galore, dark circles under her eyes, and that stupid perm with the burnt ends—she looks like an old woman! That’s what her ex-husband did to her, damn it!”
It was a long walk, about an hour and a half, so the woman closed her eyes and began to remember her past, which wouldn’t leave her alone.
Galina didn’t know who her parents were, or whose she was. At five years old, the police found her crying at the station, begging passersby for bread.
There were no adults around. All she could say about herself was that her name was Galya, that she couldn’t remember her last name or where she lived. Her parents’ grief, of course, was immediately evident.
Since they lived nearby, in their drunken state, they didn’t even notice their daughter’s disappearance, so they abandoned her easily and simply.
The girl received treatment for a long time at the orphanage; she suffered severe bronchitis; her lice and scabies were removed, her hair was cut like a boy’s, and she was immediately nicknamed Galka, for her sharp nose, thin neck, pitch-black hair, and her resemblance to the bird.
Surprisingly, she didn’t remember or miss her parents at all, and the compassionate nannies never spoke about it so as not to traumatize the child’s psyche.
Life in the orphanage, of course, wasn’t rosy. She suffered from both hostile classmates and strict teachers, who could lock her in a closet with rats for the slightest offense. The constant feeling of hunger tormented her for a long time after leaving the orphanage.
According to the law, she should have received state housing upon reaching adulthood, but in reality, she was given an old, ramshackle room with holes in the walls and a broken window, and they told her as she left, “Come on, don’t bend down, settle in, darling!”