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Maria Matios
“I’ve told you, dearie, you
remember, mark my words,
it won’t end well… But who
listened to me?! I said, look,
good people, they’re making
the baby during the day,
because they’re keeping the
house locked up during the
summer day. Tell me which
proper gazdas will lock their
doors from other people for
so long to make a single child?
See, what I said happened?!
Who-who, and You, my
dearie, know well: any child
born in the middle of the day
was made in the middle of
the day.”
“Or isn’t it all the same to
you, Paraska, when someone
makes children? One might
think all ten of yours were
made in the middle of the
night and just in the winter!”
“No, you just think for
yourself: the delivery finds
the woman, and no one in the
village knows! No one knows
when that business was done,
or by whom it was done….”
“And you, what, my dear
friend, wanted to light a
candle for them, or show them
when children are made?!
They made it when the made
it, when it worked for them.
That’s their business. And
you should even be ashamed
to think that the baby’s not
Mykhailo’s.”
“Say whatever you say,
Kalynka, but they are good
gazdas.”
“They just avoid people.”
“And why do they need
people? People just make a
mess in other people’s lives.
Maybe it’s good for them
without people.”
“What do you mean why
do they need people?! For
control.”