to the “Coffee corner” I see two women. Probably, a mother and a daughter. Both of them look very tired and it seems like sometimes they don’t have power to brush their hair. They dress in a old-fashioned way and no make up can be seen on their weared faces. However, the postures they have always kind of surprised me. The women like them should be crooked and bent but their backs are straight as arrows even though one of them always walks with a stick. The elder woman is Mary and her daughter is called Eva.
Mary used to be a ballerina. She used to be a star at her dancing school and her future was promising. She was very talented bud besides that she worked very hard. Mary never skipped a training and never let herself rest, she was sure that the future of a prima was totally worth the struggle.
At the time she was about to finish the dance school and start her career (she already had a couple of invitations to the best ballets) she got into a hard accident and broke her hip badly. That was a total disaster, as you can imagine. No need to tell that the next few years Mary was swinging from working hard as never to get on her feet again to drinking heavily after each fail. After all, she managed to start walking again, but she still needed a stick and doctors told her that this is the only way she can walk from now on. All Mary’s dreams went down and she had no one to blame. She realised that the chance is a strong force that rules the world and no matter how hard you try it can bring you down in a few disastrous seconds. Ruined and depressed, Mary moved to her small hometown where she settled. As she was a beauty, it wasn’t hard for her to catch attention of the most handsome man in the town. Out of boredom she agreed to marry him and right after the marriage she became pregnant.
When Mary was told she’s going to have a daughter everything went much better for her. Now she had a new chance to live. She will give her daughter a chance to achieve everything she hasn’t. So, the girl’s future was decided before she was even born.
By the age of 12 Mary’s daughter was spending half of her life at the dancing hall. She was wearing pointes more often than she was wearing shoes and she wasn’t asked even once if she wanted to do all that. Once father asked her who does she want to be when she grows up. “A Doctor!” - said girl naively. “A doctor?” - Mary shouted - “do you think I spend all my money on the best ballet teachers so you can become a doctor? Darling, don’t you want to dance anymore?”. “I want, mommy” - said the girl quietly as she didn’t want to disappoint her beloved mother. And this topic was never raised again.
Even though Eva was much like her father in meaning of clumsiness and rather short legs, her hard work had its results and she was accepted to the same dance school her mother was about to finish once. Mary was happier than she ever was for a very long time. She thought that she will finally feel the fame and achieve her aim. As she said goodbye to her daughter at the station and sent her out to the big city, she came home and found her best dresses. She tried them on and they fit her as they used to many years ago. She was sure that her daughter’s name and the results of her hard work will let her get a great role in the ballet. But once again she forgot about the chance.
After she arrived to the big city, Eva was charmed by it’s rhythm. She was caught by the beauty of night lights and the amount of nice places and beautiful people on the streets. Surely, was spending a lot of her time at the dance school but all her free time she was spending enjoying the night life with her new friends. When she fell in love she rarely showed up at the school at all. It was her first love and of course feelings were so strong that it seemed like nothing else in life mattered. Due to the fact that Eva has hardly ever seen anything but the pointes and mirrors in her life, this new life had a hold on her and finally she realised that dancing wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do. But actually there was nothing she wanted to do apart of partying. Finally she has abandoned the school and one night she got drunk and married. When she called her mother to tell her the good news, Mary cried all night. She put all her effort and all her energy to give this girl the future that Mary couldn’t have. But now it turns out that no one needed that effort, no one needed that future. Once again, Mary was ruined. Her husband couldn’t bear what he thought was a despotism and gave her a chance to cope with her depression on her own.
Years passed and everything changed for Eva. In 5 years she was left with a baby, her love of the life was gone and because of she didn’t get to dance anymore she gained weight. Eva had nowhere to go and that’s why she had to ask her mother for help. By that time Mary was feeling so hollow and uninterested in life that she didn’t really care much what to do. That’s why Eva, Mary and the baby began to live all together. The little boy was just like his father and that’s why Eva didn’t like him very much. Besides, he wasn’t a kind child and made everyone exhausted.
The two women were totally devastated and never missed a chance to get out of house sometimes and live the baby for the nanny. “Coffee corner” was their favourite place and that’s how we’ve met for the first time. This cup of coffee once in two days seems to be their only resort in the life full of broken dreams and baby’s cries.
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