Egor Romanovich Zalessky
Egor Romanovich Zalessky learned as a child a simple, unquestionable truth: the world does not merely revolve around him — it exists for him.
He grew up in the dusty small town of Zatonysk, swallowed by trees, where time always seemed to move more slowly under the old linden trees and poplar fluff drifted through the air as if even life itself were hesitating. In Egor’s chestnut-brown eyes there appeared early on a restless, overly confident light, which adults often mistook for talent.
The teachers would only wave it off:
– A smart boy… too bad he refuses to do anything.
Old women sitting on stairwell benches would whisper as he passed, as if a strange phenomenon were walking by them.
– Look, Tatyana Stepanovna… as if he’s not from this world – said Aunt Nyura, adjusting her headscarf. – Boys with eyes like that aren’t usually born here.
Egor’s mother only smiled tiredly. She loved her son with a blind, forgiving love that does not shape — only dissolves.
And with that, Egor’s fate was decided.
The boy quickly learned: what he wants, he gets. Attention is not a question but a natural state. Love is not a gift, but a mandatory response from the world.
The girls adored him. And he did not see this as a miracle, but as the baseline. Over time, even that was not enough. He did not want admiration — he wanted devotion.
I. The Backup Airport
Military service at a northern naval garrison hardened his body but did not break his self-image. By the time he returned to Zatonysk, the old world no longer waited for him: his friends had matured, started families, and slipped into quiet, ordinary lives.
But Egor still walked as if he were the protagonist of a story whose duty was to notice him.
He married late. He took Larissa — a blonde woman with delicate features whom many in the town envied. She was the “ideal choice.”
But in Egor’s home, someone else already lived: himself.
Larissa tried for a long time to find her place in this invisible competition, but she soon realized she was not a rival — just a tenant in a foreign temple. In the end, she packed her things and left. She took their daughter, Ksenia, with her.
And Egor remained — among the ruins, where his own self-love echoed back at him.
II. The Summer by the Lake
Salvation came in the form of an old summer house on the shore of Lake Svetloye, near Berezovaya Griva. Strawberry beds, apple trees, the scent of resin — and a slower world where it is easier to believe there is still time to fix things.
Next door lived the Korneyev family. Ivan Prokhorovich was a quiet, lean man, and his wife, Maria Valeryevna, was the kind of woman who could feed and soothe anyone at the same time.
And there was Sofya.
Eight years younger than Egor, she had watched him quietly and persistently since childhood — not with admiration, but with a naive belief that the world would one day give meaning to what she felt.
Egor always knew this. And always took it for granted.
– Look at that, Mom – he laughed once, lying in a hammock. – Little Sonya looks at me as if I were something special.
Time passed. Egor kept sinking lower: drinking, aimless evenings, days cooling into emptiness.
One evening, half drunk, he said only this:
– Relax. I always have a Plan B. Sonya Korneyeva. If I want her, she’ll come.
After the sentence, a long silence remained.
III. The Other Side of the Fence
At thirty-eight, Egor was hospitalized with severe pneumonia. During nights of near suffocation, he was not afraid of death for the first time — but of the possibility that no one would miss him.
When he recovered, he returned to the lake.
And there, Sofya was no longer waiting for him.
Instead — a woman.
Calm, upright, with a foreign gaze.
– Good afternoon, Egor Romanovich – she said coldly.
That sentence destroyed more in him than any illness.
Later he learned: Sofya was engaged, starting a new life, and would soon move away.
When Egor begged her at the fence, she only said:
– You have no place in my life.
And went back into the house.
IV. What He Was Not
Sofya was gone. And for the first time, Egor did not lose a woman — he lost his audience.
The world suddenly went silent.
His mother said:
– My son… you didn’t lose the battle. You lost the one you were fighting against.
Only then did Egor begin to truly live. He started visiting his daughter, Ksenia. He went to the gym. He worked. And slowly, a new and unfamiliar sense of responsibility began to form inside him.
V. A New Shore
At the gym, he met Margarita.
He did not adore her. He did not idolize her. He simply looked at her as one looks at a human being — not as a mirror, but as reality.
– How do you feel? – she asked after a workout once.
Egor smiled:
– Like I’m learning how to live for the first time.
And it was not an exaggeration.
Their relationship grew slowly, quietly. He did not want to possess — he wanted to be present. For him, this was a new language.
Two years later, he asked Margarita to marry him.
There was no big wedding. Just a dinner where, for once, no one was acting a role.
Epilogue
Years later, Egor lived in a new house by the river. He worked, laughed, and sometimes even stayed silent — truly silent.
One day, among old papers, he found a postcard from Sofya.
She was happy. With someone else. In another life.
Egor looked at it for a long time, then smiled.
– Everyone has their own time – he said softly, and embraced Margarita.
And for the first time in his life, there was no “backup airport.”
Only a home.
