Laugh of God

The Cost of Faith
I met a girl on the train to L’viv who was running away from home. Olya drinks and smokes, leading to constant fights with her mom. Her mother wants to help her kick bad habits and asks her to visit some sacred sites in Russia. “What for?” the girl shouts back. “To learn how the Saints lived and get yourself right” mom says. “What do I need your kind of “right” for? Take a look at yourself. Dad beats you every day for the sake of your church.”
Olya wanted going to L’viv to study at the Print Academy, but mother has her marked for a law degree. After while, mom promised to let Olya go to L’viv and give some money, if Olya will go to Russia. Olya agreed. This pilgrimage cost three months’ salary, she squirreled away, unknown to her husband.
Soon after, a bus with some church members and Olya set off for a three-week trip to Russia. They spent nearly the whole time cramped up in the bus, eating there, sleeping there. Olya have lost 10 kilo. The church members passed judgment for her short skirt, short-sleeved blouse, and her unruly hair. She had to steal any chance she could to grab a smoke. Once they caught her smoking near the WC, heaped abuse on her, telling the priest that she was an addict, and then shunned her, refusing to talk.
The mom didn’t really have anything to live on herself, and had taken a loan from a friend. She’d be waiting ‘til the Second Coming of Christ before she saw her next paycheck, if she ever saw it. Mom was hopeful that now, cleansed of her sins, the girl wouldn’t want to leave her.
Before Olya’s arrival, mom cleaned, and cooked her favorite dumplings with cottage cheese and poppy seeds. The girl came and said: “Give me the money. I’ve been to your Siberia; I’ll be in L’viv by tomorrow.” That night Olya went to the discotheque, say goodbye to her friends. She came home drun, her mom waited up, and crying all night told her: “God punishes me through you for not believing in him when I was younger.”