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It was too late to do it legally. No doctor would take it up at this stage. So going to Petrovna was Luda’s only chance.

Petrovna was a necessary evil that the local people bore with. She wasn’t very old though she did look rather aged with her network of tiny wrinkles on a pale round face. Her small eyes had a piercing and knowing look. She used to work as a nurse in the city hospital. After her retirement she settled in her native village . Doing abortions and telling fortunes were the source of getting a surplus to her pension and it made Petrovna feel above the rest of the villagers which was not unpleasant.

Luda had been to talk to Petrovna on Thursday after work and now was slowly walking towards her house in dim twilight. She was carrying a bag with about three dozen eggs and a jar of cream. Together with  money that was to be Petrovna’s payment.

Luda  didn’t feel any frustration. Maybe because she  had a practical mind. Or because she didn’t have any illusions about herself.

At twenty-seven, her chances of getting married were scarce. Not only because of her age which was considered as too old  by prospective mothers-in-law.  Luda was a plain, ordinary girl with a freckled face and scanty colourless hair. After school she went to work on the farm and lived a quiet life with her mother. She had neither means nor ambitions to leave the village. The few relatives they had, lived in the next street. It is true that a distant cousin of her father was living in St.Petersburg but that was so far and they hadn’t heard from him for the last ten years and what she would do in a great city without her cows and hens anyway! So she came to be the oldest unmarried girl in the village and there was not a single “marriageable” man for her.

When a mechanic came from the city to help with the new machines, Luda got her chance, it seemed. The man was well after thirty, divorced (at least that’s what he told her). He took Luda to the cinema, bought her sweets and behaved like a true admirer.After his work had been completed he returned to the city and left Luda waiting. Some time passed, and no news came.

Luda wasn’t afraid of sharp tongues, she could snap back, that’s certain. She didn’t discuss her situation with her mother, what was there to discuss? It was like an abortion was the kind of decision which everybody expected from her.

So now Luda approached Petrovna’s house.

 She knocked on the door and was instantly let in. Petrovna didn’t keep her visitors on the doorstep. She led the girl into a small room with only a bare couch and an old table and told her to wait a little. Luda took off her woolen cardigan, folded it , lay on the coach and put the cardigan under her head.

“Ouch!” She felt like something started to beat inside her belly and felt a sudden sickness in her throat. Luda jumped up right at the moment when Petrovna was coming in. “Scared? Calm down, dear”, Petrovna took Luda outdoors through the back door. Pacing under an old apple-tree, Luda felt the pulsation in the belly grow weaker.

In two minutes it stopped and Luda returned to the coach trying not to look at the things that Petrovna was arranging on the table.

As soon as Luda  lay on the coach, the beating resumed. It was irregular and this time stronger. The girl sat straight. “I’ll go out for a while”, she said. Outside she took a deep breath and put her hand on the belly. Immediately her palm felt a bump from inside and Luda got it at last. It wasn’t the pulsation, it was the baby!!

Her pacing under the tree took a little longer  but Petrovna didn’t urge her. She wasn’t going to have trouble with someone’s nerves. So when Luda was back on the couch the woman said “Just lie down and relax. I can wait”.

Luda was lying with her eyes fixed on the ceiling. Bump. Bump.Was it anger or fright coming from inside her? How could it know what was going to happen? More frantic bumps. All of a sudden Luda remembered her visit to one of her more successful friends. That friend had just returned from the baptismal ceremony. Her baby son was lying on the bed and turning his head and mouth to the left  and then to the right in a funny way, searching for the mother’s breast. His cries sounded both helpless and demanding. Bump. Bump.

Luda slowly got up , put on her cardigan and left the room by the front door. “There. You won. We go home.”

The following evening Petrovna returned the bag with  cream and eggs.