01/31/2025
In a rush to get to work, the cleaning lady found a basket with a baby in it. Who could have thought that the baby...
As for that place, Elvira hated to remember it, but the gray institutional walls of the orphanage, the dismal, dirty yard, and the worn swings and benches would never be forgotten. Like many children from the orphanage, she never knew her parents; no one ever visited her. The baby girl had been left at the gates as an infant, only three or four months old. Thus, the girl grew up without maternal affection, always unusually pensive, not particularly playful with peers, and tended to keep to herself, away from everyone. She loved observing nature and became especially attached to a kitten that somehow found its way to the dining hall. She fed it, stroked its fur, and cared for it as though sensing something familiar and kin in it. She also devoted her time to studying, excelling in school, reading a lot. Mathematics and the sciences came easily to her; she could mentally calculate large numbers and even solve complex equations! Teachers were amazed at her ability, praised the girl, supplied various literature, and interesting puzzles.
Elvira disliked frivolous pranks, silly jokes, and bullying others, which made her unpopular. The girl dreamed of growing up fast and breaking free to escape the province for a place with more opportunities for an interesting and fulfilled life. Physically, she resembled a Turgenev maiden: quiet, modest, with long blonde hair almost to her waist, and sad gray eyes. The mean-spirited teenagers, long disinterested in studies and experimenting with ci******es and some even with alcohol, taunted her mercilessly. She constantly heard, "Bookworm! Nerd! Think studying well will make you a millionaire? Fat chance! Get real! We're the kind no one wants! So your effort is pointless!" Elvira often cried, choked by grievance, but despite all the hardships, she graduated from the orphanage with honors and was even recognized with a certificate for her excellent performance. From there, it seemed, all roads were open.
Elvira moved to the metropolis filled with great hopes. She had long decided to obtain a higher education, applied for a distance-learning program at the economic university, and after successfully passing the exams, she got admitted on a scholarship! However, to survive and support herself, she needed to find a job. She knocked on doors, hoping to secure a good position, but no one would hire her without experience and a diploma! Finally, through an ad, she managed to barely get a job in an office, albeit as a cleaner. It wasn't the kind of job she dreamed of, which greatly upset her, but there was no alternative. She hoped that over time, upon finishing her studies, she would be noticed and offered a better position; the main thing was to get her foot in the door.
The team she worked with was disjointed and unfriendly; everyone was watching each other and gossiping behind each other's backs. The office workers were cool towards Elvira: young and pretty, she already seemed like a potential threat, plus she was studying at a university. Elvira didn't like it either, but there was nowhere else to go; money was more important for her at the moment. Then the deputy director tried to involve her in office politics, seeing the cleaner as a perfect spy, unnoticed and everywhere, but Elvira flatly refused to snitch, which infuriated Boris Andreevich who then looked for any excuse to fire her. The firm was managed by Vitaly Sergeevich, an elderly, dignified man who was very pedantic, well-groomed, and always dressed to the nines but, for some reason, wore a ridiculous wig! Apparently embarrassed by his baldness, he thought it made him look younger. Employees often died laughing behind his back, as he really looked comical in it. Office workers frequently discussed in the smoking area how he disliked his son, Roman, always finding faults with him, and how he also went for manicures and rejuvenating masks, which was also a subject of cruel jokes.
Elvira suffered greatly from loneliness, essentially alone in this huge city, with no one to share with, help, or comfort! She desperately wanted to find her parents, to look them in the eyes, to know why they abandoned her. There must be some reason; after all, children aren't just abandoned for no reason. She periodically called and wrote to the director of her orphanage, Fyodor Petrovich, with whom she had a warm relationship, begging him to help find any traces.
One day, when important negotiations were planned at the firm, Elvira heard a baby crying near her bus stop on her way to work. Looking towards the sound, she noticed a basket. Approaching, she saw a newborn baby flailing in the swaddle. She gasped for air...
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