" I've gotten a job, I don't want people to say I married you for a career. I will achieve everything on my own."

Dimitri spoke in a confident and unbending voice. Just a couple weeks ago I would have believed in his words unconditionally, but now it was funny. The girl whispered something fervently. I didn't eavesdrop any further and went back to the waiting room. The more I learned about him, the more disgusted I became. How could I love him?

The interesting thing was that I couldn't find a decent excuse. Betrayal killed love, and the brain kicked in. But so far he'd only wondered how blind I'd been.

I spent the whole day thinking about the stupid things I'd done in my life. Secretarial work was the most boring job in the world. The phone didn't ring very often, the visitors were mostly couriers who dropped by a couple times. And the boss seemed to have decided to sleep in, since he only called me once all day to let me know he was leaving.

I was home by eight o'clock, exhausted by the road, I walked up to our house without looking around. So I didn't notice the festivities right away. Neighbors, who jumped out of their houses, were frantically putting out the fire. I rushed to us and almost crashed into Ramila, who had come out of the house in a tiny robe, but with a huge bucket of water.

" What happened?"

" Idiots surrounded us!"

Ramila ran to the neighboring plot, and I rushed after her. The picture I saw was more pathetic than scary. A huge fire was burning in the middle of the neighbor's plot. When I looked closer, I realized that it was firewood prepared for the winter, but unused. A man in underpants, an alcoholic T-shirt and rubber boots was running around the fire. He didn't even try to put anything out, the neighbors were doing it. The curiosity of the situation was that the fire could spread to any house standing nearby. A strong gust of wind was enough to carry the spark.

Ramila splashed a bucket of water on the fire. The flames, hissing mockingly, continued.

" Damn fool! " The friend fawned over the man and ran back.

I agreed with her wholeheartedly, rushing back, going to join our rescue.

Following me, a burly woman flew into our plot, in whom I could hardly identify my neighbor on the right. This time she was wearing a plush bathrobe and carrying a huge skein of rubber in her hands. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a hose, just catastrophically wide in diameter.

" Come on, help me!"

The two of us quickly unwound the hose. I with one end stood in a fighting stance at the fence, going to water the fire. My neighbor hooked the other end to the faucet and opened the water.

The hose shuddered and hummed suspiciously. I was alarmed; I had never heard water make such a sound before. Seconds passed, and still no pressure.

The water rushed out like a geyser, hitting the fence. I fell on my back and let go of the hose. It danced around, splashing everyone with water. I jumped up and tried to grab the hose. A neighbor decided to do the same, and we collided on the approach. I collapsed to the ground, the neighbor snorted contemptuously. She was an indestructible rock holding the water pressure, directing it in the right direction. True, she had several targets, the fire and its culprit.

When she was done, she turned off the water and proudly walked away, leaving the firemen to deal with the arsonist. I was left sitting on the ground in a puddle of mudd.

" Impressive, to say the least," Ramilya commented.

I hooked and pulled myself up off the ground and wandered into the house. Why wouldn't this hard day full of surprises end?