Old Woman and Soldier in “Unfinished Business”

You know how old I am?

I don't know. Old.

I'm 82. I've lived here my whole life. Right here, that house, this place. What do I care about "safe"?

I have a job. Don't cause trouble.

Trouble? You're not the first soldier to stand here with a gun. When I was 12, the Revolution came. Tsar's men, then Bolsheviks. Boys like you marching in lines. They told us to leave. No. Then there was Stalin and his famine, the Holodomor. My parents died. Two of my sisters died. They told the rest of us to leave. No. Then the Great War. German boys, Russian boys. More soldiers, more famine, more bodies. My brothers never came home. But I stayed, and I'm still here. After all that I have seen... so I should leave now, because of something I cannot see at all? No.

[takes the milk bucket and dumps it out; the others honk the horns of their trucks] It's time to go. [the old woman simply grabs the bucket and starts milking the cow again] Please stand up now. This is your last warning. [the old woman continues to milk the cow, until the soldier shoots it in the head] It's time to go. [the old woman simply sits there]