His royal highness martin

Mikhail Samarsky

His royal highness martin

TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY BARUCH PLETNER

Dedicated to Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II
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Translator’s Foreword

For many reasons, the Russian Federation is nowadays viewed through a political lens, a fate not deserved by modern Russian authors. They, like their illustrious prerevolutionary colleagues, deserve to be read and judged on the merits of their prose and on the interest that their works hold to a worldwide readership. The complex political climate surrounding modern-day Russia makes it all the more important that people outside of the Russian-speaking universe become acquainted with that fascinating country and its infinitely rich culture, both classical and popular, as it really is, rather than as it appears through the competing lenses of both Russophiles and, more commonly perhaps, Russophobes.
Undertaking the translation of this particular piece of young adult fiction was done, thusly, with this in mind. It is my intention that by reading this engaging and modern novel, the curious reader will discover Russia as it really is; a place in which both adults and adolescents experience all the joys and sorrows, the successes and the failures, the small victories and the insurmountable challenges that people, both young and old are experiencing wherever men, women, boys, and girls, and most importantly dogs live, love, laugh and cry together.


A dog resembles him, who gave it its name.


Prologue (sort of)

The award ceremony for the winners of the International Mathematical Olympiad for schoolchildren was set to take place in the main conference hall of Imperial College in London at seven o’clock in the evening.
Since quite naturally on that day there were scheduled no competitions, the teams finally found the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the capital city of Great Britain. Throughout the regular days of the Olympiad this had been impossible, as the participants spent every waking moment in preparations and in competition.
Unlike teams from other countries, which had eight to ten members, the Russian team had only six. Four were students – three boys and one girl, plus two accompanying adults. The team leader was Nadezhda Stepanovna, a woman in her forties, who was supported by the scientific lead, Maria Fyodorovna. Fiftyish in appearance, Maria Fyodorovna wore glasses and used a rather foolish hue of pink lipstick, which never failed to penetrate each and every one of the myriad wrinkles around her mouth, giving it the rather startling appearance of the exotic fruit durian.
Not wasting any time, the Russian delegation woke up early for its excursion through the foggy streets and sights of Albion. Nadezhda Stepanovna, who sported a bob hairdo, had often stated: “to visit London without ever laying eyes on Big Ben is an act of utter betrayal.” The organizers of the event had been rather insistent in advising the teams to avoid being late for the awards ceremony, which is why at six twenty sharp our team was already lined up at the entrance to the conference hall, guarded by a smiling coed student of the College. Having ascertained from the team leader the country that the team represented, she proceeded to peruse the printouts that were laid out on the small desk in front of her for the names of the participants, from time to time adjusting her glasses, which had the nasty habit of sliding down to the tip of her nose. A blond boy approached her and clumsily tapped his index finger next to the names she had been looking for.
-Thank you, - she said, casting upon him a shy glance accompanied by a quick smile.
-No problem, - he answered in English, smiling back and opening his arms as if to accentuate his openness to help
The young girl checked off the names of the team members and waved her hand, inviting them to follow her inside. Entering the vast hall, she cast a glance around it.
-Your places are over there, - she said, pointing towards the third row, which indeed sported several empty seats.
-Thank you, - answered Nadezhda Stepanovna and, looking back at her team, commanded them to follow her.
Even though the young mathematicians arrived at the ceremony a full forty minutes prior to the time it had been scheduled to commence, they found the large space full to the rafters, with nary an empty seat to be found. Clearly, no one was about to miss an event of such magnitude, especially since the awards were to be handed out by none other than Her Majesty, the Queen. The Queen’s presence was precisely the reason for the firm admonition issued by the College authorities: any late comers would have to listen to Her Majesty’s speech from the hallway. There was a good reason for this. In the words of the College Principal: “Queen Elizabeth is the embodiment of punctuality; she is never late herself and she rather dislikes tardiness in others.”
The Queen is the titular head of the College and every one of her rare visits had always been a major event for the institution. The current gathering commanded an even higher level of attention to detail on the part of the College, since it was a high honor for it to have been chosen to host this year’s International Mathematical Olympiad. It has now been a full seventeen years since the last time this important competition last took place in England. For five whole days, the undivided attention of the world mathematics community and that of the leading institutions of higher learning has been riveted to the proceedings at the College. Despite the protestations of the Principal, Mr. Ed Burns, to the effect that his august institution had no need for public relations, members of the world press were greeted at the College with open arms. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as too much good publicity. And now the Queen herself had elevated the level of interest by agreeing to personally hand out awards to the young winners of the competition.
-Orlova, why have you frozen in place? – Nadezhda Stepanovna addressed her attention to the sole girl in her team. The young student stood with her head tilted up as high as it could go, which caused her copper tresses to descend all the way down to her waist. With her mouth open, she was observing the domed ceiling of the conference hall, which seemed to be soaring up to the heavens. – Alisa, you are standing in the middle of the passage and making everyone squeeze by.
-Oh, I lost track of time, - said the girl.
-You lost it, alright, - grinned the team leader, - plenty of time to observe the ceiling later.
When Alisa finally joined her teammates, everyone had already been seated and she got the seat at the edge of the row, right by the center aisle. She smiled, noticing the small Russian flag attached to the back of her seat.
-Why do they need the girl at the entrance, if the seats are so clearly marked, - she inquired of a dark-haired boy sporting a crew cut who was seated next to her.
-For the most gifted among us, I gather, - he answered, in no way avoiding the appearance of sarcasm.
Alisa removed the flag, sat down, and observed the surroundings. The majority of the seats in the hall were taken up by the contestants; that year, participants from one hundred and eleven different countries were taking part in the competition. Across the aisle in the third row, the Chinese delegation had its seats. Noticing Alisa’s gaze, a young man by the name of Tao, leaned forward to better see her from behind one of his teammates and waived a bright red flag at her. Alisa waived back. On the first day of the Olympics, at the stage when they had to tackle three problems of varying difficulty, Tao was seated next to her. Naturally, when they were “on the clock” solving math problems, there had been no time to talk, but the next day, when they ran into each other in one of the College hallways, they greeted each other like old acquaintances. The following day, her desk mate was an American named Brad. Alisa’s scanning gaze saw Brad’s team back in the fifth row. He was engaged in a lively conversation with his neighbor, using his hands for extra emphasis. Noticing Alisa’s interest, Brad gave her a broad smile full of blindingly white teeth and waived in a friendly manner. Seats that were not taken up by contestants were occupied by the hosts of the Olympiad: Imperial College faculty and students. A multilingual din of voices filled the hall while everyone was waiting for their High guest of honor to arrive. Every so often, someone could be heard laughing out loud and flashes of the obligatory selfies were reflected from the polished oak walls. Professional photographers were stalking the aisles and one of the walls was fully populated by members of the press corps with their telephoto zoom lenses mounted on tripods.
-I can’t believe how much press is assembled here, - Alisa said, swinging her head from side to side.
-Did you really think that a visit by Elizabeth could be kept a secret? – harrumphed her neighbor and added, - local students are saying that even for them this is quite a sensation. Not only is the Olympiad being held at their school, but now the Queen Herself has taken quite an interest and volunteered to present the awards. It may sound funny to us, but they see in this a sign of divine providence.
-I have read online that she has a court poet and everything he writes immediately becomes a classic, - said the blond boy who had helped the gatekeeper locate their names on the list, - I wonder how I can join her court; as one of the stargazers, perhaps.
Everyone laughed out loud.
-Anton, I think the cushy stargazer positions are all spoken for, so cool your heels, - said a chestnut-haired boy with a smirk.
-One can dream, Egor, can’t one? – Anton answered innocently.
-Dream all you like, just don’t forget to wake up, - retorted Egor.
-I heard that all the swans in Great Britain belonged to the Queen, - a young boy who had so far kept quiet joined the conversation. He was seated on the opposite side from Alisa and had to lean all the way forward and place his elbows on his knees to be able to see all his teammates.
-Ilya, not only swans, but all the fish and even the dolphins and the whales belong to her majesty according to a law dating back to the year 1324, - added Egor.
-Give me a break, - said Alisa, - that’s just impossible.
-Possible and how, - chuckled Egor, that’s what monarchies are for, baby.
-British people believe that if one is lucky enough to meet the queen, luck in other matters will not be far behind, - said Ilya. He pressed together the palms of his hands, tilted back his head as if to look at the heavens, and added, - may we all experience joy.
His young teammates burst out in laughter.
-Yes, luck is something we could all use right now, - agreed Anton, and, raising a clenched fist, added: - as a team, we all managed to extract from the sharp mental claws of our competitors, - this phrase brought on renewed peals of laughter, - a very honorable second place. Now we just have to see how we all did as individuals.
-Amen, - intoned Egor, accompanied by the continued mirth of his friends.
-Guys, can you be a bit quieter, - the math instructor, who was seated next to Ilya, gave the youngsters a stern look from above her glasses, her head slightly tilted to one side.
-But Maria Fyodorovna, the event has yet to begin, - Anton reminded her. - Look around you, everyone is having fun. And the jitters, too. Around him, laughter continued, albeit at a reduced volume.
-Erofeyev, cut it out, please, - the teacher stuck her nose back into the book she had been reading for the duration of the trip.
-Guys, don’t you dare laugh when things do indeed commence, - chimed in the group leader. – The last thing we want is to make a spectacle of ourselves.
-Nadezhda Stepanovna, how is that even possible, - asked the blond boy and immediately answered his own question, - it is indeed impossible. You mustn’t worry. We shall be quiet like mice and lie low like fresh cut grass. After all, it is not every day that we find ourselves in the company of monarchs.
-Oh, please, - she gave him a feeble wave of her hand. On her brightly painted lips, one could detect the merest hint of a smile.
Alisa recalled the first time she and Anton had met each other. It was two years ago, during the All-Russian math Olympiad, which was held in his home town of St. Petersburg. At the time they were still eight graders, though now they were about to start eleventh grade. How time flies, she caught herself thinking. Even back then, Anton had been an indomitable jester. On the last day of competition, having finished his work and having yet to submit it, he wrote, God knows why, “Finito La Comedia” on the last page. This did not sit well with the organizers and the judges, and that’s putting it mildly. In fact, it infuriated them. As the resulting brouhaha was reaching its crescendo, Alisa inquired of him: “Anton, what in the hell made you do that?” “I have no clue. The sheer joy of having completed the assignment, I guess,” was his reply.
In spite of the fact that Anton’s work contained not a single error and as attested to by Maria Fyodorovna the math teacher, had not even a single sign of an eraser having ever been used, he received the lowest possible score. His comment was viewed by the judges as a slight. How dared he call their cherished Olympiad a “comedy”? All of Anton’s efforts to convince the judges that he had meant no such thing, that this was just an innocent remark, an attempt, perhaps misplaced, at humor, had come to naught. With all the results in, Anton hadn’t even made it into the top three. It was then that Alisa made herself swear that from that time forward she would think twice before making any jokes. Unfortunately, humor was something that not everyone appreciated or shared. There are plenty of people who perceive attempts at humor as personal insults, which was exactly what had happened with Anton.
-Her acquaintance with Egor and with Ilya came a year later, at the Moscow Olympiad. Though acquaintance may be overstating it. More precisely, they had briefly met during the closing ceremonies. Now, having been together in London for all of five days, the boys and she had coalesced into a real team.
Alisa smiled to herself when she recalled the somewhat apprehensive Nadezhda Stepanovna giving Anton precise instructions on their flight to London: “Erofeyev, do not even think, at this Olympiad, to finish your work with something like “Goodbye, London, time to go home”. Her admonition had become quite a source of mirth for the remainder of that flight.
A sudden hush took over the hall and brought Alisa back to reality. She woke up her smartphone and the screen glowed back at her. It was six fifty-seven PM. A spectacled gentlemen sporting a neat beard appeared on stage. He wore a dark suit with a striped tie sharply delineated by a blindingly white shirt.
-Honored participants, students, and staff of the College, I am glad to welcome you all, - the gentleman said rather formally, opening his arms as if to embrace them all. The proceedings of the Sixtieth International Mathematical Olympiad are now at an end. We are both honored and proud that it had fallen upon our institution of higher learning to host this event. I hope that you are satisfied with your performance and with our efforts on your behalf. You are all aware of the team standings that you have been able to attain, but the individual standings yet remain a secret. It is my privilege to reveal this secret and to finally reveal the identity of the winners. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second.
Everyone rose to their feet and turned towards the massive oak doors at the other end of the hall. Alisa gave her phone another look. Seven PM sharp. The doors swung open and admitted into the hall a small elderly lady, dressed in a suit of baby blue and a small matching hat from under which one could see peeking a few white curls. Had Alisa met this lady on the street, she would never have imagined that this was a queen.
“One really can set one’s watch by her,” Alisa thought.
From her place at the center aisle, Alisa could well see Elizabeth slowly make her way down the aisle and towards the stage, all the while sweeping her gaze from side to side and nodding slightly. No, Alisa had been quite wrong to think that this lady resembled an ordinary woman. Nothing could be further from the truth. In her entire demeanor, in her very being, in the slight tilt of her head, in the barely discernable smile on her thin lips, even in the way she clutched her purse in her white-gloved hand, there was unmistakable royal haughtiness and grace. She didn’t just walk, she carried herself down the aisle.
Alisa couldn’t help but smile herself when she noticed the small dog, who, like its mistress also regally carried itself behind her on its stubby legs, its paws seemingly clad in white baby booties. The dog’s ears were perked up, its eyes and nose forming a triangle of black dots on its white and gingerbread colored face. The thick, flaming red coat on the dog’s back made it seem as if it had been wearing a vest. On its all but invisible neck was hung a medallion, which was stately swinging to and fro with each step. The procession was followed by a tall gentleman in formal attire, carrying a wicker basket in his hands. As they walked past her, it was all Alisa could do to stop herself from petting the dog. How adorable it was! Even from her place nearby, Alisa could not tell what had been placed in the basket. She nearly burst out laughing when she imagined that it might have been pastries personally baked by Her Majesty for the winners of the Olympiad.
The man on the stage descended down to the floor level to greet the queen and offered her his hand in assistance. She deposited her purse with her valet and took her place at the microphone. Elizabeth swept the premises with her royal gaze and embarked upon her prepared remarks in a low, rather gravelly voice, which bore unwitting testament to her age.
-Please take your seats, - Elizabeth made a practiced gesture with her hand. After a few seconds, when everyone had reacquired their seats and the hall had resumed its graveyard silence, Elizabeth continued: -today, we honor the winners of the sixtieth Math Olympiad. The history of this event dates all the way back to Romania in the year 1959 and it pleases me that this tradition continues to this very day. I believe that it is mathematicians, more than anyone else, who hold the key to continued technological progress. My country has won the mathematical Olympiad three times and I take a special pride in that all three fell during the years of my reign. We have done everything we could to make your stay in our land as pleasant as possible. I hope that you have indeed found it so, - Elizabeth paused and yet again swept the hall with her gaze, - I have always had the utmost respect for smart and talented people and have always tried to offer them my support. It was not on a whim that I have decided to personally award the winners of this competition; I am a realist and I know that this may well be the last time that I am able to do so. I hope and believe that those of you to whom I will have the pleasure of granting the awards will achieve much success and that their knowledge will prove useful not only to their own countries, but to all humanity, - the Queen took another pause and then addressed the master of ceremonies: - you may proceed.
The MC took from the podium a sheet of paper and glanced at it. The hall froze in anticipation.
-The winner of the individual competition is, - the MC put on a rather formal expression and remained quiet. He gave a wry smile, keeping his audience in suspense just a while longer and then continued: - Alisa Orlova, from the Russian Federation. Please come up.
The silence in the hall was broken by the loud exhaling of hundreds of held breaths and immediately transformed into a raucous applause. Alisa did not immediately realize that it had been her name that was called and remained seated. Of course, she had been quite confident in the majority of her answers, but some doubt persisted. It was quite possible that an error had crept in at one of the stages of the competition. For example, in the last stage of the sixth exercise, she had been called to apply knowledge that far exceeded anything she had learned in school. Solving this type of combinatorics problems in preparation for the Olympiad required much hard work and even harder thought. Nevertheless, she could hardly have imagined that she would be the winner of the individual title. It seemed to her that this time around there were competitors whose knowledge and preparation had been far superior to her own.
-Is there an Alisa Orlova from Russia present here? – the MC repeated, scanning the audience.
Finally, Alisa got a grip on what had just happened. Saying that she was immobilized by this realization would be putting it mildly.
-Alisa, have you fallen asleep, or what? – Egor nudged her hard on the shoulder, - it won’t do, you know, keeping the Queen waiting.
Hearing this last part of Egor’s speech, Alisa jumped out of her seat as if stung by a wasp and ran to the stage as quickly as her feet, which suddenly seemed made of lead, would carry her. Alisa’s relations with her step mother had never been good, but at this moment she mentally thanked her for the one piece of advice she had offered her before her departure for London. “Buy a dress,” she said. “Just in case.” Well, here it was, this “case”. Alisa had never been one to bother too much with her wardrobe; she never considered clothes to be an important part of life. Now, however, she was quite happy that she had taken Irina’s advice, for had she not, she would be now greeting the queen in her jeans and tank top.
Alisa climbed up on the stage and, upon approaching Queen Elizabeth, addressed her in rapid fire fashion:
-Your Majesty, I beg your forgiveness for keeping you waiting. It was just that when they said my name, I could not believe my own ears.
-I congratulate you for winning this title fairly. As Mr. Burns has just now informed me, you have performed brilliantly, - the queen gave her a small smile, and received from the hands of Mr. Burns the MC, first the diploma and then the gold medal. Alisa had to curtsy so as to allow Elizabeth to place the medal around her neck, - but this is not all, - added Elizabeth and, raising a white-gloved index finger, added: - I have a special gift for you. I have spent some considerable time deciding upon what gift to give you; I wanted to make it so that you would remember this moment. Remember it for your entire life, that is, and I have come to the conclusion that there can be no better, no more deserving gift than a loyal friend.
Elizabeth beckoned her basket carrying valet with a flick of her wrist. When he removed the embroidered napkin that had been hiding the basket’s contents and Alisa could see what, or more precisely, who, had been placed in it, she nearly fainted from the wave of emotion that had overtaken her. Elizabeth extracted from the basket a puppy, a tiny copy of her own dog, and handed it to the Olympic champion. With trembling hands, Alisa received from the queen the most precious, the most welcome gift of her short life and, bringing the tiny fur ball to her chest, kissed it squarely on its forehead.
-Your Majesty is making me a present of this puppy? – Alisa exclaimed, still hardly believing her recently found happiness.
The hall was humming its approval of the proceedings on stage like a massive beehive to the accompaniment of the incessant clicking of camera shutters and the corresponding blinding flashes.
-Yes, - nodded Elizabeth and, with a smile, added: - I happened to find out that you have dreamed about a puppy of your own and decided to play the role of the good fairy.
-Upon obtaining the royal affirmation, the first thing that crossed Alisa’s mind was the way her father and her stepmother would react to Her Majesty’s largesse. A thousand thoughts swirled in Alisa’s head. Her parents had always made their categorical opposition to pets of any kind abundantly clear to her. Had her father not remarried, Alisa could have likely talked him into it, but her stepmother would not as much as hear about it. Irina was one of those people who simply disliked animals. She saw in them agents of chaos, enemies of a tidy and ordered existence. And she did like order. She was nuts about it. When Irina spied something that had been left out of place, she immediately started yelling and repeated, with unshakable conviction: “everything must have its rightful place”. Sometimes, Irina’s obsession with order bordered on the absurd, or at least that’s how it had seemed to Alisa. If she had, God forbid, been so distracted as to place her outside shoes in anything but perfect alignment when she came home from school, this horrid state of affairs never failed to escape the notice of her stepmother, who would then barge into her room and force her to correct the cosmic injustice. This behavior by her stepmother drove Alisa to distraction. She could never fathom why the way her sneakers had been aligned meant more than a pile of beans in the grand scheme of things. But all of that notwithstanding, Alisa’s father was deeply in love with his young wife and there was nothing that she could do about that. For the sake of his happiness, she had been forced to live with her stepmother’s excesses. No matter how she had begged them to buy a puppy, it was to no avail. When Alisa was younger, their excuse was her age; after all wasn’t she too young to take care of a living breathing animal? When that could no longer work, they switched to the excuse that Alisa had to devote all of her free time to studying rather than raising a pet. And finally, her father and stepmother themselves had no time to spare, as they were busy night and day growing their mutual business.
They had met at the office. At the time, her father had been the chief legal counsel of a large corporation; the same company that a little while later had offered a job to Irina. After they had gotten married, they decided that they had spent enough time working for The Man. Conditions were now ripe to open a law office of their own. No sooner had Alisa as much as opened her mouth with regards to her dream of owning a puppy, than a deluge of excuses, reasons, and admonitions began pouring on her poor head, all designed to make her finally give up. But how was this possible? Could one ever give up ones dreams? Of course, one could pretend to have set them aside, but one could hardly fool one’s own heart. Now that she was clutching her precious gift to her heart, she suddenly felt that she couldn’t give a rat’s tail about the opinions of her parents. After all, they weren’t going to kick her out of the house, or were they?
-How did Your Majesty find out about my wish? – Alisa’s green eyes were still round like saucers from all the excitement.
-My dear, this hardly matters now, - said Elizabeth with a graceful gesture of her hand.
-My God, could it be that I am dreaming? – exclaimed Alisa, still clutching the puppy to her heart and looking all around her rather incredulously, as if trying to find support for the reality of the events.
The queen placed the palm of her hand on Alisa’s shoulder, thus assuring her that everything she was experiencing was indeed real.
-His name is Martin, - she said, petting the puppy’s head, - he is the son of my Jane, - the Queen nodded in the direction of her own dog, which started prancing with its front paws as if trying to tap dance.
The public in the hall gave Jane’s tap dancing routine a loud ovation. Alisa cast a glance in the direction of her teammates. Anton was giving her an enthusiastic thumbs up with both hands. Nadezhda Stepanovna, the group leader, was smiling as if it had been she that got a puppy and Maria Fyodorovna, the scientific lead, was glowing like a Christmas tree ornament. And why shouldn’t she be? After all, it was she who has introduced Alisa to mathematics.
-Of course, you may choose to rename him, - the Queen carried on, - but I think that would be unwise because for the first four months of his life he had gotten quite attached to his old name. One of my favorite authors is Jack London and I had named the puppy after the hero of one of his stories.
-Martin Eden? – fired off Alisa and immediately reprimanded herself for the silly question.
-I see you are familiar with that work, - smiled Elizabeth and added, casting her glance at the puppy, which got his teeth on one of the ribbons on Alisa’s dress and seemed to have been quite determined to tear it off, - he likes you. I hope that he will bring you happiness.
-He already has, - answered Alisa joyfully, - today, Your Majesty has made me the happiest person on Earth.
-I am glad that you like my gift, - sad the Queen.
-Your majesty, what is the name of this breed? – asked the happy owner of the royal gift while never stopping petting it.
-Royal Corgi, - answered Elizabeth with noticeable pride.
What transpired then Alisa could hardly see or hear because all her thoughts had now been occupied by the red fur ball sitting on her lap. On the periphery of her hearing she heard Anton’s name come up; he had won third place after her and her friend Tao.
-Alisa, it appears that the role of the Royal Stargazer is yours for the asking, while I shall only see it in my dreams, - was the first thing Anton had told her when he returned to his seat, medal on neck. He petted Martin on the head and added:
-Cool puppy. One can only dream of such a gift.
It is difficult to put into words all that was transpiring in the young girl’s soul. Perhaps, this was how those who won millions in the lottery had felt. Alisa still could not quite believe in the reality of all that had happened, regardless of the fact that the proof positive was sitting on her lap. Things like this may happen when one dreams about something for so long and the dream never comes true, so in moments of despair the dream begins to feel unachievable, but then, bam, out of nowhere, the dream becomes a reality and the dreamer, from an excess of happiness, cannot find his bearings in this world.
-Lovingly scratching Martin behind his ear, which had now been constantly twitching from being tickled by Alisa’s tresses, it had finally dawned on her that her life from now on would forever be divided into “before” and “after”. Alisa was the consummate pragmatist and never gave credence to any foretellings of fortune, otherworldly influences, and any such nonsense, but observing the furry coat of her new friend, a coat whose color so perfectly matched her own hair, she couldn’t help but feel that it had been providence that brought them together. She recalled how one night she had washed her hair and fell asleep before drying it, so when she woke up she could not gather it into a pony tail even with her largest scrunchie. Catching sight of her in the kitchen with her full mane, her father exclaimed:
-Baby, you look like a lion cub!
This had also been the reason for the nickname her classmates gave her; Boniface, after the famous cartoon character. Alisa never took offense at the nickname; in fact, she secretly liked it. The nickname didn’t last long and now it was only her best friend Vera Kuz’mina who sometimes used it in jest. On the other hand, the offensive “nerd” did indeed permanently attached itself to Alisa and that from the first day she had set foot in that school. Because of her love for math, boys never saw her as a girl and girls thought of her as nothing but a bookworm. In Alisa’s mind, nerds were smart-alecky overachievers with thick glasses. She had never considered herself as such. Yes, it was possible that she really loved math a bit too much, but she did, after all, have other interests. Alisa could never imagine her life without literature or music. Ever since she had begun participating in math Olympiads, her classmates took to calling her exclusively “Perelman”. This never bothered her a bit. Far from being ashamed of the nickname, she bore it with pride. If only she could have the same talent. On one occasion, Alisa asked her friend: “Vera, why are you friendly with me? Everyone thinks I do not belong in this world.” To which Vera responded: “Boniface, one should befriend only smart people. Why waste time on friendship with fools? What possible good can come out of it?”
“So, finally the two lion cubs have met”, thought Alisa, petting Martin on his head. She suddenly had the strongest feeling that Martin did not just appear in her life for no reason and something now had to change. What kind of changes awaited her she couldn’t yet tell, but for some reason she knew that they would be simply wonderful.







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Chapter One
-Ladies and gentlemen, we have just landed at the Moscow International Airport. The local time is three-thirty in the afternoon and the outside temperature is a pleasant twenty degrees Celsius. On behalf of the captain and our entire crew, I wish to welcome you to Moscow and wish you a pleasant day, - the words came to Alisa just as the last remnants of sleep were leaving her.
Her eyes now open, she first glanced at Martin, who, having woken up just as recently as she had, was now sitting up in his basket, looking out through the airplane window. Alisa petted him and immediately smiled. That smile hardly left her face ever since Her Majesty had awarded her with the best gift she had ever been given. How little, it turned out, a girl needed to be truly happy. Nadezhda Stepanovna, who was seated next to Alisa, turned off her tablet and shoved it into her purse. Memories of their departure from London flooded Alisa’s consciousness. On the eve of their leaving the British capital, the hotel housing the Russian delegation was visited by one of Her Majesty’s representatives. The gentleman brought everything necessary for the puppy – documents (an international travel passport and an immunization record), a travel basket, and even some puppy food for the trip. He informed Alisa that since Martin had already had all his shots, he could now be walked outside. At the airport, the papers worked like a charm; everything went as smoothly as possible and Alisa had been given permission to transport Martin in the passenger cabin rather than check him in as one would other pets. Clearly, the queen still had some influence in her domains and royal gifts still had a certain cache. Every employee of the airport who they had come across expressed their admiration for the puppy and never neglected to ask to pet him. Alisa formed the opinion that all of London had been acutely aware of her pet’s royal provenance. And of course, she was right; all the local and international news channels were full of stories about Alisa’s first place win and the unusual gift granted to her by Queen Elizabeth. The night after the award ceremony, when she and Martin first lied down to sleep in the hotel’s bed, Alisa turned on the television set in her room and nearly lost it when, on one of the main news channels, she saw her own face, shining with happiness, hugging Martin right next to Her Majesty the Queen. As soon as she had woken up to the landing announcement, Alisa turned off the airplane mode on her smartphone. The boys – Egor, Ilya, and Anton, who were seated in front of her, immediately jumped out of their seats and started pulling down luggage items from the overhead bins.
-Take it easy, guys, - said Maria Fyodorovna, who was seated across the aisle from them, - let everyone else out and then we can deplane.
Alisa’s phone erupted with Eminem’s “White America”, giving quite a jolt not only to her, but to Nadezhda Stepanovna as well.
-Quite a ringtone you have there, Orlova, gave me a heck of a start, - she said with a smirk, shaking her head.
Alisa has chosen this track for her ringtone two years ago and had never changed it since, but she still came up short every time her phone rang. Regardless of the passage of time and the fickleness of fame, Alisa had never stopped being Eminem’s devoted fan. Her friend Vera thought of her as rather old fashioned, and often made fun of her: “Orlova, even in music you have unpopular tastes. Only old farts listen to Eminem. You are young, can you really like that kind of trash?” To which Alisa replied: “And what, may I ask do you listen to?” “Don’t even think about making comparisons,” Vera’s reply never took long, “Nirvana is a true rock n roll classic!” To which Alisa would retort, “Exactly! And Marshall is a true rap classic.” At this point their argument would come to an abrupt end. The girls never really fell out and even when, once in a while, they did have real conflicts of interests, they never delayed much in finding a compromise. And by the way, Eminem was far from Alisa’s only favorite musical giant; she also very much enjoyed classical music and often listened to Chopin, Khachaturian, and Prokofiev.
-Hi, Dad, - she said to the phone.
-Hello dear, - her father’s happy voice came through the speaker next to her ear, - how was your flight?
-Very good, -Alisa replied, smiling at her puppy. Martin fixed her in his stare, holding his head slightly akimbo, as if afraid of missing her slightest move.
-Little one, so sorry, but I will not be able to greet you at the airport, - Sergei Alexandrovich’s hurried speech was abruptly brought to an end.
-Dad, I totally understand, you have an important meeting, - Alisa stopped him in his tracks.
-Alisa, you are a big girl and you must understand that it is not for nothing that I am working around the clock, -her father was not allowed to finish yet again.
-You are doing it all for my future, -Alisa completed his thought for him.
-Little one, I beg you, let’s not be mad at each other, -he continued in a supplicating tone of voice quickly changing the topic: -let me congratulate you on your victory. I wanted to call you last night, but I could not get away from work until it was too late to call. I glanced at the time and knew you would be sleeping, so I didn’t want to wake you.
Alisa was hardly surprised that her dad forgot to call her and congratulate her on taking first place. He and Irina had never taken her infatuation with mathematics seriously. They believed that it had only been a passing phase, since math was clearly not meant to be a career path suitable for a girl.
-Thanks, -Alisa snorted and, changing the topic herself now, added: -dad, are you aware that I am coming home with a friend?
-What do you mean, -her dad clearly had no idea what she was talking about.
-The queen has gifted me a puppy, -said Alisa.
-Oh, yes, -exclaimed Sergei Alekseyevich, -I saw it on last night’s news. Let’s talk about this when you get home.
-Talk about what, -Alisa asked with apprehension.
-About what we are to do with it, -he replied.
-What do you mean, -asked Alisa seeing her worst nightmare coming true.
-I think we should make a gift of him to somebody, - her dad said rather nonchalantly, -we will not be able to take care of him in our place. Irina and I are off to work early each day and you have to focus on your studies. Or have you forgotten that you have your matriculation exams coming up next year? But don’t worry, -he added, -I will noodle on this and figure out a good place for him.
Alisa felt her blood rushing to her head. Her teeth clenched together and she squeezed her phone so tightly in her fist that she thought she heard cracking sounds.

Upon hearing the loud and obviously distressed voice of his mistress, Martin’s black beady eyes bulged clear out of his head with fear. Seeing her puppy terrified tugged at Alisa’s heartstrings and made her overflow with pity. Great big teardrops burst from her eyes. Nadezhda Stepanovna petted her on the back and offered her a tissue from her purse. Alisa gave a loud sigh and wiped her cheeks. Her father held the line for quite a while without saying a word. He knew his daughter very well indeed. She was the mirror copy of her mother, his late wife – Margaret. His first wife could be quite longsuffering, but when her patience finally came to an end she became a real fury, shooting from the hip, listening to no one, unstoppable.
When Alisa yelled at the phone, he had quite a d;j; vu, a feeling that he had been talking with his late wife, so similar were their voices. So many years had passed since her death, but he could not forget her still. Alisa was eleven when it happened – that age when children are already fully aware of the loss of a loved one and are fully capable of mourning. The first year had been the worst. Alisa did not want to come home after school. For hours she wandered the streets or took the trolley to the cemetery and, in all weathers, sat for hours at her mother’s grave. Coming home from work and not finding his daughter there, he had to go out in search of her. To this day Sergei Alekseyevich was grateful to Maria Fyodorovna for coming to Alisa’s rescue in this unbearable period in her life, managing to interest her in mathematics, and staying with her after hours doing math exercises until he could come and pick her up. Though he had never considered mathematics to be a suitable field of interest for a girl, it was certainly better than wandering the city streets unsupervised.
At first, Alisa and he had lived on their own. It was only after three years had passed that he met Irina. He was forty-two at the time and the woman turned out to be ten years his junior. Sergei knew that Margaret would never come back and life as a single man seemed too hard to contemplate. When he first brought his love interest home, Alisa had given her a welcome that was quite frosty to say the least. Though perhaps “frosty” is putting it rather too mildly. Alisa offered Irina no welcome at all; she simply ignored her, as if refusing to even acknowledge her existence. Irina also struggled to find any kind of common language with the young girl; perhaps her lack of parenting experience had been at fault. As it happened, Irina had never had kids of her own. With time, passions cooled down a bit and the relationship between the two women graduated from “nonexistent” to “barely polite”.
Upon hearing such a categorical proclamation from his daughter, Sergei Alekseyevich suddenly realized: his daughter’s patience had reached its limit. The time had come to take her wishes into account and yield to them. If her mind was set on a dog, so be it. After all, she had won it fair and square with her unrelenting studies and hard work. In this too, she was the mirror image of her mother. It was quite likely that he would have long since acquiesced to her wishes and given her a puppy, but he was prevented from doing so by Irina who had always been categorically opposed and whose wishes he had been reluctant to override. She plied him with countless stories of her friends who had given their children pets only to be saddled with their care. Sergei often found himself in the middle of the battlefield, but somehow he had always come down on the side of his new wife. Like her, he had always thought that his daughter’s desire for a dog was nothing but a preteen fancy, the real life results of which would end up being shouldered by the adults. It was only at this moment that he had realized how real all of this was.
-Alisa, everything is fine, -he said with a heavy sigh, -don’t get yourself all worked up, we will have to make it work somehow.
Alisa made no reply, instead continuing her sobbing, periodically wiping the tears off her cheeks.
-Little one, I called to tell you that there is a taxicab waiting for you at the curb just outside of arrivals. I will text you right now its number. Please don’t take any other taxi, -he said and added, -see you tonight. When the phone fell silent, Alisa wiped off the last of her tears, shoved the phone into her vest pocket and took Martin out of his basket.
-Baby, even if the whole world comes crashing down, I shall never give you away, -she declared and gave his wet, leathery nose a big kiss.
Not wanting to lag behind his mistress, Martin gave Alisa’s similarly wet nose a quick lick with his pink tongue.
All other passengers having long since deplaned, only Alisa’s team members were still present in the cabin. They stood in the aisle, unwilling witnesses to her family drama.
-Everything will be well, -the group leader gave Alisa a hug drawing her close and petting her head. She then distanced herself and gave Alisa’s blotchy face a good look over. –You’ll see, your parents will learn to love Martin, -she gave a small smile, nodding in the puppy’s direction and added, -how can one not love such a cutie, after all?
Feeling himself at the center of attention, Martin began chasing his own tail on the basket floor, breaking the tension and making everyone burst into laughter.
-Let’s go, we have made them wait long enough, - the math instructor said and looking at Alisa added, -Orlova, I trust that Martin’s appearance will not have a deleterious effect on your math studies.
-Maria Fyodorovna, how can you say such a thing? –Alisa asked and immediately added: - on the contrary, Martin will only make me redouble my efforts and help me conquer new heights.
-I’m a believer, - said Maria Fyodorovna.
Alisa never expected that they would be met with such formalities. It was like they were victorious soccer or hockey stars arriving after an international tournament rather than a group of young mathematicians. Uncomfortable as it must have been, both Alisa and her teammates knew – the attention of the press was not brought about by the very respectable performance of the team, one that has not been achieved since 2011, but the tiny puppy, the gracious gift of the British Monarch. It had dawned on Alisa that she would presently be inundated with questions. She had never in her life given an interview before this moment and had no idea what to say and how to say it. She became quite apprehensive, taking Martin out of his basket and clutching him to her breast. Whether she only felt that way or whether it had indeed been the case, but for some reason she knew that she was much more relaxed and centered with Martin in her arms.
As Alisa had predicted, as soon as they set foot in the arrivals hall she was surrounded by throngs of journalists.
-Ms. Orlova, tell us please, how did you feel when the queen handed you such an unusual gift – asked one guy, thrusting a microphone in her face. Alisa had to stop so she could address his question.
-Happy, - she answered somewhat robotically, petting Martin on his head, - I felt myself to be the happiest person in the world.
-What kind of impression had the queen made? – asked a blonde woman holding a recording device.
-Unforgettable, - Alisa replied with genuine feeling as she proceeded to catch up with her teammates, then she smiled and added as she kept walking, - I shall never forget meeting her.
-Alisa, wait, please don’t run away, - she was addressed by an older gentleman, forcing her once again to come to a stop, - you had to complete with many strong participants from China and from the US. How have you managed to beat them all?
-I don’t really know, - Alisa shrugged, - I guess it happened because I love math so much, - she added with true teenage na;vet; and ran off to join her team. Nadezhda Stepanovna had also been the center of attention of a number of journalists. Though the questions she had been asked bore a more procedural character: how was the Russian team received, had there been any attempts to discriminate against them, had they experienced any prejudice, and more questions along these lines.
;
At home, Alisa was met by silence and emptiness – her constant companions. She brought in her suitcase, took Martin out of his basket, and put him on the floor. He looked around and, rather tentatively, proceeded to explore the vestibule, sniffing everything in his reach.
-This is your new home, baby boy, -Alisa sat down cross-legged next to him and petted his head, - make the best of it.
The puppy made his way to the coat closet and seeing his own reflection in its large top to bottom mirror, bugged out his eyes and, evidently surprised, began barking loudly. Having barked for what he must have deemed long enough, Martin backed up a few steps, all the while never taking his eyes off the puppy in the mirror, and continued to observe his reflection tilting his head this way and that. Finally, having decided to make friends, he approached the mirror once again and gave his own face staring back at him a big friendly lick.
-Oh my God, Martin, you are so funny, - Alisa laughed out loud observing the unexpected spectacle.
She kicked off her sneakers and started making her way towards the living room.
-Come, - she beckoned Martin with her hand, and the puppy trundled after her on his short legs, wagging his tail.
Alisa, from force of habit turned on the TV, simultaneously reducing the volume to a mere whisper. That was her normal routine coming back home from school. It was not that she particularly enjoyed daytime television; all these talk shows and dramas had little enough interest for her, it was just that the unintelligible sounds emanating from the TV set alleviated her loneliness by creating the illusion that she was not alone in her apartment. She smiled, watching Martin attempt to climb on the sofa by placing his front paws on its ample cushions. She then turned the TV off.
-I don’t need you anymore, - she said.
She picked Martin up and placed him on the couch next to her. He sniffed around and began scratching at the upholstery with his sharp puppy claws as if trying to dig a hole through it. This behavior did not surprise her a bit. On their flight home, Alisa read, with much attention, an article on Corgi behavior. And sure enough, the author of the piece had clearly stated: “These cute little dogs are big lovers of digging disproportionately large holes.”
-No, Martin, this we cannot do, - she exclaimed rather loudly.
Martin gave a startled yelp, tilted his head to one side and looked back at her with a measure of surprise on his face.
-Forbidden, - Alisa said in a stern voice raising her index finger and added: - you can lie down here, but no digging!
Martin, immediately obeying his mistress, stopped digging and spread himself on the couch as if it had always been his and his alone.
-Good boy, -Alisa said, sitting down next to Martin and petting his back.
Mistress and puppy stared at each other. What thoughts went through the head of the new occupant of the apartment could never be known. Alisa, on the other hand, thought that now that Martin was here her routine would have to change quite a bit. She would have to get up earlier so she could take him for a walk outside, groom, feed, and take her new puppy to the vet. In her dreams, she was going to place him in dog shows to be admired by the whole world. After all, Martin had everything needed to become a winner – royal blood, killer looks, and an owner who had always achieved the goals she had set for herself. For the remainder of the summer break she could always be at his side, but once school started again, he would have to spend part of the day alone. Alisa had already decided that he would live with her in her room. She was quite certain that when her mother in law finally laid eyes on the puppy, she would inevitable say something like: “It is yours, so it’s up to you to take care of it,” but all of these mundane problems did nothing to discourage her. On the contrary, thinking of all the little details made her aglow with a welcome challenge. Her Martin would surely be the smartest and handsomest puppy in the world!
-Come little buddy, let’s give you something to eat and then go for a walk, - Alisa said out loud getting up from the couch, - I am sure that you need to stretch your little legs.
The puppy sprung up, walked to the edge of the couch, and intermittently looking down at the floor below and at Alisa’s face above began whining softly.
-Too yellow to jump? – Alisa smiled, gathered Martin up in her arms, and, kissing his wet nose, added: - my little scaredy cat.
Alisa put Martin down on the floor and made her way back to the foyer, once again beckoning him with her hand to follow in her footsteps. Although the girl and the puppy had only spent a short time together, they seemed to have developed a remarkable understanding. Never hesitating, Martin followed his mistress along.
-While you were asleep in the plane, - she was recounting to him as they walked, I was reading an article about your breed mates. It turns out that Corgis are very courageous and daring, and it also turns out that you can herd farm animals and are tireless workers. So, my little friend, I believe that when you grow up we will take part in some shows together. – Alisa stopped and looked back at him. Martin, craning up his short neck, stared right back. As if having considered her proposition and agreed to it, he uttered a determined:
-Woof!
-Yes, that’s right, - Alisa smiled and added: - but to get there, you’ll have to learn how to overcome your fears. She opened her suitcase meaning to take out the box of dog food given to her by the queen’s emissary, but Martin beat her to it. No doubt getting a whiff of the delicious tidbits, he jumped into the suitcase and, burying his nose in Alisa’s clothes, began to search for the hidden treasure.
-I know you must be hungry, buddy, - Alisa said removing, to his great surprise, from Martin’s mouth the bag of kibble he had just found. – That piece of chicken I had given you on the plane must have long since worn off. Let’s make our way to the kitchen.
Martin leapt out of the suitcase and hurried after his young mistress.
Since as of yet Martin had none of the things that come along with puppies such as a food bowl, a leash, or a chew toy, Alisa pulled a bowl from the drying rack next to the sink, put it on the floor next to the kitchen window and proceeded to fill it with the remains of the royal dog food. Impatient with hunger, Martin did his best to intercept each morsel before it hit the bottom of the bowl, making it all but impossible for Alisa to fill it.
-Stop it! – Alisa said in a stern tone of voice and physically moved Martin away from the bowl. – Can’t you tell that I have not yet finished filling your bowl? Wait awhile and I will let you know when it is ready.
Martin gave her an offended kind of look, but did not dare budge from his place away from the bowl.
-Ok, you can eat now, - Alisa commanded and removed herself from the bowl thus allowing Martin to approach it. It would be better, she thought to herself, if he would learn to eat only when permitted to do so by me.
The young puppy, understanding her intent, approached the food and began to eat with gusto.
Alisa decided to join Martin and have a snack herself. She finagled a cheese sandwich, brewed a cup of tea, and sat down to eat, keeping an amused eye on her famished puppy. Martin was chowing down, once in a while making snorting sounds that seemed to have been emanating more from a common farm piglet than a royal canine. Alisa loved how quickly he picked up her commands, how rapidly he oriented himself, and, judging by how quick he had been to lounge on the couch, how well he adapted to new surroundings. She had no doubt that they would soon become the best of friends. In fact, they already were! Naturally, Alisa understood that raising an “ideal” dog required endless patience; that, however, was something that she had in spades. She had never been deterred by difficulties; on the contrary, she had always seen in them challenges to be overcome, tests of her own willpower.
From the article she had read on the plane, Alisa knew that Martin was now in the phase of his development that would require the maximum amount of care. If she were to neglect him and fail to guide his energy in a positive direction, he could become a veritable hurricane of destruction. In that case, nothing would be safe from his growing razor sharp baby teeth – shoes, furniture, books, and other objects in common circulation around the house would all become fair game. Driven by anxiety and ennui, Martin will chew through carpets, try to dig holes in parquet floors, pull throws off of beds, and tear goose down pillows to sherds. Alisa decided to use the time before her parents’ return home to go to the pet supply shop and pick up everything necessary for a growing puppy. Luckily, the prepaid credit card that her dad had given her for her trip to London still had a balance left. The young girl felt proud that she hadn’t maxed the card out – now, she could certainly put the money to good use.
Alisa hadn’t felt the need to bring back souvenirs for her parents; after all, they had visited England many a time and she was unlikely to surprise them with some trinket she could purchase. And her funds were insufficient for any real presents. Alisa could never bring herself to ask her father for more than he had offered her. Needless to say, she was hardly in need and had always had enough, but whenever he gave her money, her father never neglected to tell her that soon she had to learn how to provide for herself. And the only way to do that, he always said, was to get the necessary high-quality education, an education that he had done everything to provide. Other than various small items that she had bought in London such as drinks, ice cream, tickets for the Tube, and the price of admission to Madame Tussaud’s museum, Alisa purchased for Vera a Manchester United Football Club scarf. Vera, like her father, was an extreme soccer fan. Whenever a big match was being played on TV, they both disappeared from sight for a few hours. Calling or texting during those times was an exercise in futility. Alisa could not even imagine what would make Vera respond to a text message during a soccer match. And whenever her dad could get tickets to go see a soccer match in a stadium, that day was for Vera a festive occasion far more exciting than New Year’s Eve.
-Before we head out to the store, let me show you where you and I will be living – Alisa said to her puppy, who, having finished his lunch was now busying himself sniffing every corner of the kitchen.
Alisa got up and grabbing her suitcase from the hallway made her way down the corridor to her bedroom. Martin immediately left his explorations and followed in her footsteps.
In the room, complete order reigned. All the stuff that she had left lying on her bed on the day of her departure for London were now neatly arranged on the closet shelves and the bed itself had been flawlessly made up. The bookshelves boasted all of her textbooks and notebooks, neatly arranged by size and flanked with her pens, pencils, and other writing implements standing up at attention in clear glasses. Alisa, harboring no illusions as to whose handiwork this preternatural order had really been, nevertheless mentally thanked her stepmother. She recalled her departure for London. Tidying up was the farthest thing from her mind back then because she overslept and had nearly missed her flight.
Memories flooded Alisa’s consciousness. The night before her flight she could get no sleep at all. For half of it she was going in her mind over all the possible variations of the problems she was likely to face and all of their possible solutions based on the previous math Olympiads as reported by the website “Quant”, until her father showed up in her room. Sitting on the edge of her bed, he petted her head.
-Go to sleep, little girl. You know what they say – you can never get enough sleep before a big battle. In your case, it means that you can never solve all the math problems in the world before the competition starts. You have already put in plenty of work; I am certain that sooner or later you will win your Nobel Prize, - he added making Alisa laugh out loud.
-Dad, there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics, - she corrected him.
-No kidding! – Sergei Alekseyevich looked genuinely surprised. – I had no idea, he added.
-You are a Juris Doctor and yet you don’t know something like that, - Alisa retorted rather smugly.
-So you think that just because I am a lawyer I should know everything? – her father asked and immediately answered his own question: - I would let you know, my dearest, that I am a highly specialized professional and who gets the Nobel Prize is not in my area of expertise, - he shrugged his shoulders and added, - and by the way, why don’t they?
-I have read that initially Alfred Nobel did include math in his will, but then he abruptly changed his mind and replaced it with the Peace Prize. There are many explanations of this, but one of them, in my opinion, is the most interesting, - Alisa smiled, glad that she could shed light on the matter and continued: - they say there was this Swedish mathematician with the glorious name of Magnus Gustav Muttag Leffler who either had an interest in Alfred Nobel’s bride or had actually stolen her from him, naturally causing Nobel to hate mathematics and irrevocably remove it from the list of his eponymous prizes.
-Really? A whole branch of science became prizeless and all because of a woman?
-Well, it’s only one story, dad, - Alisa reminded him.
-Only one story, yes, but a very credible one, if one recalls how throughout history women are often the cause of conflict among men, or as the French would put it, “cherchez la femme”, - retorted her father and added: - ok, for real now, go to sleep. You have to get up early tomorrow, or rather just a little later today. Your cab will be waiting for you at eight. I apologize that I will not be able to give you a ride, I have a ton of things to do first thing in the morning.
-I had no doubt, - Alisa said rather caustically.
-Baby, I will need half a day to drive you all the way to the airport with all the midday traffic coming back to the city. By the time I make it back to the office, my whole business day will pretty much be over. You’re a big girl now, you must understand; we’re all adults here and all of us have important things to do.
-I know, daddy, - Alisa sighed, - it’s just that I am tired of being alone all the time. You guys don’t even want me to have a dog, even though it would be a wonderful companion and really help with my constant loneliness.
-Again with your dog story, - Alisa’s father retorted losing his temper somewhat. – You have a hard time remembering to feed yourself, burying your nose into books all day long. A dog? You’d let it starve to death, no doubt. Ok, talk is over, now go to sleep! He left the room, leaving Alisa alone with her thoughts. She only fell asleep in the predawn hours and, needless to say, could not hear her alarm clock ringing. Good thing that her father woke her up…


Alisa scanned the room with her eyes looking for Martin. The puppy was preoccupied by the laces in her sneakers; perhaps he wasn’t happy with how they were arranged and wanted to adjust them according to the latest science from Runner Magazine.
-Leave those things alone, boy, they aren’t snacks. She sat down on her bed and patted the sheets next to her. –Come here, she said.
The puppy did his best, but he was still too little to climb on Alisa’s bed, so he sat down opposite her and gave a short bark, as if acknowledging her command.
-Good puppy, -she said bending down to pet his head. –Do you like our room?
Martin gave her another woof.
-You are so smart! You really understand everything, don’t you, -the young girl gave Martin a satisfied smile and got off the bed. –Ok, let’s go get you your stuff before the store closes for the day.
Alisa carried Martin to the pet shop in her arms. She was too afraid to let him walk beside her because the park that they had to cross had always been full of other dogs, especially later in the day when many people were home from work taking their dogs out for a walk after many hours of being cooped up in small city apartments. On the way back, she gained more confidence and led Martin proudly beside her on his brand new leash. His royal bearing elicited many admiring looks from both fellow dog owners and passersby. A woman with a big black and white mongrel in tow stopped right next to them, giving Alisa quite a fright when the dog ran up to Martin and started sniffing him from every possible direction. She was just about to scoop Martin up when the lady intervened:
-Don’t worry! Monya would never hurt your puppy, -she reassured Alisa. –She just thinks every puppy is hers, you know.
-Why? –Alisa gave her an inquisitive look.
-Because she has lost her own puppies, I suppose, - answered the older woman.
-What happened to them? – Alisa asked.
She looked down at Martin, who, exhibiting no fear whatsoever, head held up high, was examining his new friend, once in a while producing excited little barks.

Alisa could feel her eyes stinging as tears began to pool in them. She was deeply touched by the woman’s story. Alisa could not fathom how people could be so cruel towards defenseless animals. What harm have they done them? How could they throw their pregnant pet out on the street just before the onset of winter? How could they live with themselves, with their conscience, assuming they had any? Could they sleep peacefully, or were they haunted all night by their abandoned pet?
-It’s a shame about Monya, - Alisa whimpered slightly and wiped the tears off her face.
-Oh, no, please forgive me! I did not mean to make you upset, - the lady seemed quite distraught.
-I’m alright, - Alisa gave her a wave of her hand and looked down at the two dogs.
The mongrel was indeed behaving like a mother. She never left Martin’s side, though the little rascal sure gave her a run for her money as much as his leash would allow. Time and time again, Monya headed him off and brought him back between Alisa and her own owner.
-What kind of breed is your puppy? – The lady asked, smiling and nodding her head in Martin’s direction.
-Welsh Corgi, - Alisa answered taking care to pronounce the breed name just as it had appeared in the puppy’s passport and added: - his name is Martin.
-I haven’t seen this breed around our parts, very cute indeed, - Alisa’s new acquaintance said with a smile and asked: - where do you live?
-In that building over there. – Alisa gave a nod of her head in the direction of her red-brick high-rise across the street.
-And I live just over there, - the lady pointed to a neighboring building. Please come to visit us, Monya will be thrilled! I am Olga, by the way.
-And I am Alisa, - the young girl introduced herself and immediately took her leave: - See you soon. Come on, boy.
-Martin had no intention of departing with British manners. He gave his adopted mother a loud bark goodbye and bolted down the garden path.
-“Quite the young gentleman we have here, “ – Alisa thought with a smile following Martin with her gaze.
And this was how, quite out of the blue, Martin had found himself a mother, and not of any royal bloodlines, but a common variety mutt.
They were just approaching the playground located at the center of the park, when Alisa’s mobile phone rang out. Alisa glanced at the screen and smiled despite herself.
-Orlova, welcome back! – Her friend’s happy voice came through the receiver, - happy landings to you, my fairy tale princess!
Hello Verka, - Alisa answered, smiling. Where are you?
She sat down on a park bench, set down the shopping bag near her and called Martin over with a tap on her thigh. Rather reluctantly, he obeyed and sat down opposite her. Judging by how his front paws were tap dancing on the gravel, he was running low on patience and required much more exercise.
-I’m at my dacha, where else, - Vera remarked rather wryly, bringing an involuntary smile to Alisa’s lips, and added: - I’ve just finished pickling my little gherkins.
Alisa laughed when she heard that last part. Her friend’s parents were originally from the southern city of Rostov-on-the-Don, and although they had been living in the capital for over two decades, they still had a noticeable southern accent and employed idioms not commonly heard in Moscow. Vera could hardly avoid picking up these idiosyncrasies.
-And how are the gherkins doing? – Alisa inquired.
She placed Martin firmly on her lap, petting his head and watching the young couples strolling slowly by.
-If my parents don’t pack us up and head home tomorrow, I’m going to run away, I swear, - Vera answered rather furiously. –I’ve had it here, for real. They love it here and so they drag me along. But for me, this whole dacha thing – it’s… how can I put it – she paused for effect and added: - I don’t know why we need all this planting and harvesting of stuff that we can simply buy in the store. Ok, I know, when they were young, the store shelves were empty. Mom told me how they survived all winter on what they could grow in the summertime in their little garden. But it’s different now. The stores are full of every kind of vegetable, year round. And what use are all these cannings and picklings and jammings if all that’s in them is sugar or salt? And my dad’s doctor forbade him any kind of salty foods anyway. With your blood pressure, you should stay away from salt entirely, he told him. But my dad doesn’t care. Puts away whole jars of pickled cukes and tomatoes all day long. – Vera gave a longsuffering sigh to close out her rant and said: - By the way, I have also been missing you. And although I have already congratulated you on your victory a million times, I congratulate you again. Bonifacius, I am proud of you, you are the brains of our motherland.
-Ok, ok, that’s enough from you. – Alisa waived her hand about as if her friend were there beside her. – Come home soon, I can’t wait to introduce you to Martin.
-He is adorable. – Alisa could almost feel the smile on her friend’s lips. – Orlova, I swear to you, when I saw you on TV right by the queen’s side and heard that she had gifted you a puppy I nearly fell off the couch. I am so happy for you. Finally, your wish has come true, - said Vera and inquired, - but, listen, how did your old folks welcome the news about the princely addition to their household?
-Well, you yourself said that he was a true prince, - Alisa giggled and winked at Martin, who winked right back at her.
-What else could he be if his mother is the queen’s own pet, - remarked Vera and asked again: - so what did the ancient ones say?
-I haven’t seen them yet, - Alisa gave a heavy sigh, thinking of the inevitable reunion with her parents, and added: - What do I care what they say? It’s too late anyway. Now I have a dog whether they wish it or not. They will simply have to accept it. And if they don’t, I will run away from home.
-And where will you go, - asked Verka.
-I’ll rent an apartment, - Alisa answered.
-And the money for the rent, where will you get that? – Vera sounded far from certain.
-Nadezhda Stepanovna said that the president signed an order that all students who win Olympiads will be awarded a million rubles. If she wasn’t kidding, this should last me awhile. I will rent something small, so the money should last for a couple of years anyway, and then we shall see, - Alisa replied.
-Cool your horses, Bonifacius, don’t go nuclear just yet, - her friend said, trying to calm her down. I don’t think your dad will allow you to live alone. You are still a minor and he is still your legal guardian. Your father is a normal kind of guy. Everything will be cool, I reckon. And his sidepiece, well, she will huff and she will puff, but she will come to her senses. She knows what side her bread is buttered on.
-Let’s hope you’re right, - Alisa sighed. Her phone pinged once. She glanced at the display – a WhatsApp message from her father: “Baby, we are home. And where are you?”
-Verka, I got to run. Father is home from work, - Alisa informed her friend as she was getting up from the bench. – Come home quick, I won’t survive without you.
-You’ll live, the last of the Mohicans, - Verka laughed out loud and added: - Go, run home, then you can tell me what happened at the Yalta summit.


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? Copyright: Михаил Самарский, 2021