Alexander explained his reasons with work and responsibilities at home.
Ludmila tried to believe, but a quiet uncertainty grew inside her.
When Ludmila said she missed him, Alexander would reply that “the norms are so bad now that you can barely stand.” He hugged her, promising that after the wedding, everything would change—there would only be their life together. And yet, those embraces lacked the old ease. His touch was warm, but somehow delayed, and his eyes—as if hiding something they didn’t want to reveal.
The meeting at the well that she remembered forever
One day, returning from the post office with a letter from her aunt in town, Ludmila saw Vera and Alexander by the old well with its crane. They were chatting animatedly, but as soon as they noticed her, they stopped mid-sentence. Vera smiled, slightly embarrassed, and quickly suggested that Ludmila help her sew a lace ribbon onto her dress.
Ludmila, though she felt a twinge in her stomach, agreed without hesitation—as she always did. She also invited Alexander over for cabbage soup and the cake he’d loved for years. He declined, citing household duties and his parents’ trip to the market. Instead, he promised to come back the following evening, under the old willow tree by the water.
Her heart heard something alien in this promise: a seemingly “yes,” yet without the former certainty.
Orchard, dusk and words that cannot be “unheard”
There were three weeks left until the wedding. That evening, the sky burned red and gold, and the air was filled with the scent of ripe apples. Returning from her grandmother’s house at the edge of the settlement, Lyudmila took a shortcut through the collective farm orchard. She thought of September: of the tables set out at the edge, of people laughing, of the music, of everything finally “falling into place.”
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