Шесть соток
Six Hundred Square Metres
B1 · Intermediate · fiction · 10 scenes · Premium story
An intermediate story about six hundred square metres of land and what a family turns out to owe it. Three generations drive four hours to a plot nobody has properly worked in years, to have the conversation they have been putting off for three: the roof leaks, the grandmother is seventy-nine and still digging, and selling is plainly the sensible thing. The case for selling is a good one, and it is given its full strength. Then the granddaughter, sent out to clear the shed so that she does not have to listen, finds a squared exercise book with one line in it for every harvest since 1975, and two lines, in 1992 and 1993, with something written after the figures.
Characters
- Lena (Лена) — The granddaughter, 27
- Andrei (Андрей) — Her father, 54
- Zoya Petrovna (Зоя Петровна) — The grandmother, 79
- Pavel (Павел Сергеевич) — Her husband, 1938–2004
Vocabulary from this story
- дача — dacha, summer house
- участок — plot of land
- сотка — hundred square metres
- забор — fence
- калитка — garden gate
- грядка — vegetable bed
- теплица — greenhouse
- яблоня — apple tree
- картошка — potatoes
- урожай — harvest, crop
- банка — jar
- погреб — cellar