? He almost closed the door, sitting alone all day in the attic, reading a mysterious book, called what "my father's journal".
? He kept this book locked in a wooden box, and I often saw him wash his hands before taking it out.
? The book was small and thick, with a tan leather cover. The ink on the title-page was faded, and it seemed to say these words, "With infinite gratitude to Mr. Vasily Kashirin for his kind perusal." The inscription is a strange name, traced with a dragon's flight, like a bird in flight.
? Grandpa carefully opened the thick leather cover, set up the silver-rimmed presbyopes, gazed longingly at the line of inscription, and from time to time twitched his nose to prevent the frame from slipping off. I asked him more than once what this book was about, but he always said to me seriously, "You don't need to know now. Wait a little longer, and when I die, I'll leave it to you, and the raccoon-skin coat too."
? He spoke to his mother much less than he used to, and in a much gentler tone. When he listened to his mother, he looked attentive, and murmured and made little gestures, sometimes winking his eyes like Uncle Peter.
? He had several trunks full of fancy clothes and treasures of all kinds: flowery satin dresses, satin shawls, sleeveless silk tunics inlaid with silver silk, two-horned hats and shield-shaped headdresses inlaid with pearls, silk scarves of all colors, heavy Mordovan jeweled collars, and necklaces of all kinds of precious stones in crystal clear shades. He carried them all to his mother's room and spread them everywhere on the table and chairs. His mother stared enviously at each of these things, and he said, "In our day, we dressed much more carefully than we do now! Although we were well-dressed, we lived a simple life and got along well. These days are gone! You try it on and wear it ......."
? Once, my mother went into the next room and came out in all her splendor: a dark blue sleeveless blouse with gold filigree, and a two-horned hat with pearls. She bowed y to her grandfather and asked, "Is this good, my lord father?"
? Grandpa drew in a breath of cold air, and then his whole body glowed, and he walked around his mother, waving his arms, and murmured in an unintelligible manner, "Alas, Varya, if you were a rich lady, and you were with some famous gentlemen, what a sight it would be ......"
? Mother lived in two rooms in the front house, where she had frequent guests. The most frequent visitors were the Maximoff brothers: one of them, Peter, was a tall, handsome officer, with a golden beard and beautiful blue eyes, and it was in his presence that Grandfather used to beat me to death for spitting on the bald master.
? The other, Evgeny, was a tall, thin man with long legs, a pale face, a small black beard, and eyes as big as brass bells. He always wore the green uniform with gold buttons pinned to it, and on his narrow shoulders were rows of initials embroidered in gold thread. He had a habit of tossing back his long wavy black curls from high on his head and smiling at you humbly and politely. He speaks in a raspy voice, and no matter what he mentions, the phrase always pops up, "You see, I think it's ......"
? His mother usually listened to his conversations with narrowed eyes, interrupting him from time to time with a laugh, "You're just a child, Evgeny Vassilyevich, please don't be angry ......"
? "He is a child!" His officer brother slapped his knee in complete agreement.
? Christmas had been a hot one, and almost every night, scantily clad guests came and went from her mother's room, and she was always the prettiest of them all. Each time, as soon as she and the merry crowd left, the whole house seemed to sink, silent and terrifying.
? Grandma was like an old mother goose, traveling from room to room, constantly picking up. Grandpa leaned his back against the tile stove in warmth, but also said to himself: "Come on, just follow her own, I want to see what will be the result ......"
? As soon as Christmas was over, my mother sent Sasha, Uncle Mikhail's son, and me to school.
? Sasha's father was married again, and his stepmother hated him as soon as he passed away, beating him for three days, which is why Grandma insisted that Grandpa take him back to live with us.
? I went to school with Sasha for about a month, and of all the things I was taught, I remember only one thing, and that is: when someone asks "What is your last name?" When someone asked, "What's your last name?" it wasn't enough to say "Pishkov", I had to say, "My last name is Pishkov."
? I also could not say to the teacher: "Why yell at me, man, who is afraid of you ......"
? Soon I was sick of school.
? On the contrary, my cousin enjoyed school at first and made a lot of friends. Until one day, he coincidentally fell asleep in class and desperately yelled in his sleep, "No, I can't!" When he woke up, he took a leave of absence and left the classroom. Just for this, everyone teased him one after another. The next day, on the way to school, we had only gotten as far as the ravine at Hay Square when he stopped and said to me, "You go alone, I don't want to go today, I might as well play." After saying that, he squatted down, buried his book in a snowbank, and walked away.
? It was a bright January day, and everything on earth breathed y in the warm sunshine. Although I was envious of my cousin, I gritted my teeth and went to school for my mother's sake.
? Sasha's books buried in the snow were gone, as expected, and the next day, he had enough reasons not to go to school. Until the third day, when his trick of skipping school was discovered by Grandpa. Now we were both interrogated: Grandpa, Grandma and Mother sat behind the kitchen table and questioned us. I remember Sasha answering Grandpa's questions ridiculously. "Why didn't you even get to school?" "I forgot the way." He answered nonchalantly as his timid eyes looked straight into Grandpa's face.
? "You forgot?"
? "Yeah, I looked and looked ......"
? "You could have followed Alexei, he knows."
? "I can't find him."
? "Even Alexei can't be found?"
? "How come?"
? He searched for a moment, sighed, and said, "The storm is coming and I can't see anything."
? Everyone was amused by him, as it was a sunny day. Sasha himself had to laugh miserably, but Grandpa still showed his teeth and taunted him, "So why don't you grab his hand or hold on to his belt?"
? "I grabbed it, but the gale blew me away."
? He answered slowly and without much hope. To hear him lie so clumsily was superfluous, and even I was ashamed of him. As a result, both of us were beaten. After that, the family hired a little old man who had been a fireman and had broken an arm to escort us to school.
? His job was to keep an eye on Sasha and not let him slip away on the way to school, but it didn't help at all. My cousin would suddenly bend down, take off one felt boot, throw it hard to the left, take off another felt boot, throw it hard to the right, and escape from the square in his socks. This little old man sighed helplessly, and had to split up to pick up his boots, and then lead me home with trepidation.
? That whole day, Grandpa, Grandma and Mother searched all over the city for the truant boy, and only in the evening did they find him in the Chirkov tavern, next to the monastery, dancing for the customers.
? The adults took him home and did not beat him. The boy wouldn't talk, and no one could do anything about it. He slept with me on the bed, stilted up two legs, towards the ceiling, and quietly said to me: "My stepmother does not like me, my father does not love me, and even my grandfather does not love me, so why should I continue to live with them? I'm going to ask Grandma where the robbers live, and I'm going to join the robbers and make them all sad and die! We'll both go, okay?"
? I couldn't go with him, I had my own goal at that time: to become an officer with a blonde beard, so I had to study.
? I told him my plan, and after a few moments of contemplation, he agreed: "That's fine. When you become an officer, I will be the king of robbers, and if you come to arrest me, we will not know who will kill and who will arrest. But I will never kill you."
? "Nor will I."
? In this case, we settled on that.
? Grandmother came, climbed up on the hearth-bed, looked at us, and said, "What are you talking about, two little mice? Alas, poor little orphans!"
? After pitying us for a while, she blamed Sasha's stepmother, the daughter of the tavern-keeper, the fat sister-in-law Nadezhda. Then she went on to scold all the stepfathers and stepmothers in the world, and incidentally told us a story about a wise hermit named Yona, whose father was an Uglich, a fisherman who fished on Lake Beloye. When he was a boy he had a lawsuit against his stepmother, and asked God to judge:
? The young wife had lost her heart,
? She poured poisoned wine and caused her husband's death,
? She took up the wooden pulley and rowed to the center of the lake,
? To the darkest whirlpool,
? Swung the boat bottom up,
? Husband like an iron anchor sinking bottomward into the ocean.
? She swam across to the opposite shore in twos and threes,
? She made a show of crying her heart out,
? The good people wept with her and grieved for her:
? I am a widow at a young age,
? Who can support her in the days to come?
? But God is in charge of life and death,
? His will no one can disobey.
? Only little Jonah, the stepson, did not trust his stepmother,
? Laying his hand on her heart, he spoke gently to her:
? Where is grief in thy tears?
? How joyfully your heart beats!
? Let us ask the gods and goddesses,
? Who is lying maliciously?
? Let the sword fall on the sinner.
? The queen mother sniffed, her face fierce,
? Shouting and yelling at Jonah:
? The little brute has no honor, I raised you for nothing,
? How dare you be so arrogant as to slander your mother!
? The crowd saw this and guessed,
? Invite out the old fisherman, and let him ask the end of the story.
? The fisherman's proposition was this:
? Hear me, good people,
? I hold a sword in my right hand and throw it in the sky,
? Whosoever is guilty shall fall upon him.
? The steel sword flew up to the sky, but it did not fall to the ground,
? People look up and ask the sky, where will it be?
? I saw a thousand sunsets, sprinkled on the surface of the lake,
? The queen mother burst into a sneer, full of red light,
? The sword was like a flying swallow, stabbing her straight in the chest.
? Kind people have kneeled on the ground,
? Blessed Almighty God, the wondrous heavens:
? O Lord, we feel supreme honor for You!
? The fisherman led little Jonah, into the monastery walls,
? Just near the hidden city of Kigecha,
? There flowed the clear waters of the Kerrencha River ......
? I woke up the next morning covered in red spots, with smallpox. So I was quarantined to the attic in the back room and lay there for a long time, with a cloth over my eyes and my hands and feet tied with wide bands. I often had nightmares in the middle of the night, and one particularly vicious one almost killed me.
? My grandmother was the only one who came to visit me, feeding me like a baby with a spoon and telling me lots of fairy tales and legends.
? Later, I gradually got better and my hands and feet were loosely tied. But in order to prevent me from scratching my face, my fingers were still wrapped in bandages, like a pair of fingerless gloves. One night, my grandmother didn't come to see me as usual, and I couldn't help but worry.
? Suddenly, it was like I could vaguely see her, lying on the boards outside the dusty attic, face down, arms spread, her neck almost severed, like Uncle Peter's. A big cat was coming out of a dank corner, staring greedily with green eyes, and stepping closer to her.
? I violently rolled out of bed, desperately kicked with my feet, hit with my shoulder, smashed two windowpanes, jumped from the window and fell into a snowbank. That night, my mother was in the room to greet guests, no one heard me break the window, I lay in the snow for a long time.
? Luckily, no bones were broken, only one shoulder was dislocated, many places were scratched by glass, and I lost consciousness in both legs. For about three months, I could only lie motionless in my room, hearing the house getting more and more lively, the door slamming and banging, the guests coming in and out, a stream of endless.
? The storm whistled through the roof, the wind whined and hissed outside the attic door, the chimney chirped its funeral song, and the dampers of the furnace clanged. The cold crows were heard wailing in the daytime, and the mournful wolves howling in the wilderness in the dead of night; and hammered to the sound of such music, my mind grew by degrees.
? Finally, shy and quiet, the breath of spring has been unstoppable day by day approaching, bright spring light unfolding glittering beauty, frequently looking at the world in the window. Cats began to call out on the roof, screaming miserably and sadly. The footsteps of spring have also penetrated the wall: the crisp sound of ice skates breaking, the rustling sound of snow shaking down, and even the jingling bells on the carriage ring more cheerfully than in winter. Grandma often came to visit me, but the smell of alcohol in her mouth grew stronger and stronger, and then she simply brought a white teapot and hid it under my bed, winking at me and saying, "Little boy, don't tell your grandpa that old ghost!"
? "Why are you drinking?"
? "Don't ask! You'll know when you're older."
? She took a sharp swig from the spout of the jug, raised her cuff and wiped the corners of her mouth, put on a contented smile, and asked me, "What did I tell you yesterday, little granddaddy?"
? "Said my father."
? "Where was I talking about?"
? After I reminded her, she went on like a babbling water tirelessly.
? Off with her father, it was she who first mentioned it to me. On that day, she had not been drinking, and her face was tired and sad.
? "I dreamed of your father last night - he was whistling, walking through the fields, with a spotted dog following him, tongue lolling. And I don't know why, but Maxim Savateevich keeps coming to my dreams, it seems, and his soul has been restless and unsettled ......"
? For several nights in succession she told me stories of my father, as good as all the others she had told.
? Grandfather had been a soldier, mentioned as an officer, and then was exiled to Siberia for mistreating his men. It was somewhere in Siberia that the father was born. He had always had a hard time, and as a boy had run away from home several times. Once, in order to find him, my grandfather took a hound and searched the whole forest as if he were chasing a rabbit. Another time, grandfather caught him and beat him to death, thanks to the neighbors saved him and hid him.
? "Do children always have to be beaten?"
? "That's true." Grandma replied without moving.
? Grandmother died when he was very young, and grandfather died when he was nine.
? He was adopted by his godfather, who was a carpenter, and entered the carpenters' guild in Perm, but his father ran away from him. At first, he guided the blind in the marketplace. At the age of sixteen, he went to Nilny and worked for a carpenter's foreman on a ship in Kolchin. By the time he was twenty, he was a very good joiner carpenter and decorator. The store where he worked was also on Blacksmith Street, next to Grandpa's house.
? "It's a bold thing to do with walls," Grandmother laughed, "The other day, Varya and I were picking marionberries in the garden. Suddenly, as if I heard something, I jerked my head up and saw your father jumping off the fence, which scared me. A tall young man came out from behind the apple tree, wearing a white shirt and velvet pants, bare feet, no hat, and his long hair tied back with a leather belt. And guess what he came for? Came to ask your mother to marry him! I've seen him a few times before, passing by my window. Every time I saw him, I thought: what a nice young man! When he came closer, I asked him, 'Young man, why don't you take the road?' But he knelt down and said: 'Akulina Ivanovna, I sincerely ask you, and Varya, to organize a wedding for us, for God's sake.'
? "I was so stunned that I didn't know what to say. I saw your mother, the little vixen, hiding behind the apple-tree, her face as red as a marionberry in shame, making gestures at him, with tears in her eyes. 'O you two little ingrates,' I said to them, 'die of this while you can, Varvara, why are you so confused? And you, young man, think it over; are you worthy of this marriage?' Your grandfather was a very rich man at first, before his children were separated, with four houses, rich and famous, and not long ago, having just completed nine years as president of the guild, and having been awarded a uniform and a gold-brimmed bowler hat, he was a great man in those days! I told them what I should say, and I was scared to death, but I saw their frustration, and I pitied them.
? "At that moment your father came up to me and said: 'I also know that Vassily Vassilyevich will never marry Varya to me, and that I can only marry her secretly, so please you must help us!' He wanted me to help them! I raised my hand and slapped him, but he didn't dodge a bit. 'You can just stone me, but you must help us!' He said, 'I will never give up!' At that moment Varvara came close to him, put his hand on his shoulder and said, 'We actually got married back in May, all we need is a wedding.' That hit me like a blow to the head."
? When she said that, Grandma shuddered with laughter. She took a puff of snuff, wiped away the tears from her laughter, sighed cozily, and continued:
? "You're still young and don't know what getting married and having a wedding have to do with each other. But what a terrible thing it would be for a girl to have a child before marriage. You must remember, when you grow up, you must not entice a girl to do such a thing, otherwise it would be a great sin, not only ruining the girl's life, but even the child born would be an illegitimate child. Hear that, and you'll remember it now! You must know how to love your woman, love her with all your heart, and not toy with her. What I have told you is of vital importance."
? She fell into deep thought, rocking gently in her chair, and with a sudden jolt, went on:
? "What was the best thing to do? I hit Maxim on the head and pulled Varvara's braid, but he did say something sensible, he said, 'It's no use hitting us.' She interjected, 'It's not too late to hit us after you figure out what to do.' So I asked him, 'Do you have any money?' He said, 'Some, but it's all for Varya's ring.' 'And you have only three rubles left?' He said, 'More than that, there are a hundred or so.' Things were cheap then and money was worth something. I looked at your mother and your father standing there, still two children, a couple of little fools! Your mother said, 'I was afraid you'd see it, so I hid the ring under the bed, so I could sell it.' What children! Anyway, we decided to get married in a week's time, and I'll find the priest myself.
? "In spite of all this, I cried a great deal, and was frightened to death lest your grandfather should find out, and Varya too. But at last everything was ready.
? "Who knew that your father had an enemy, also an artisan, with a bad heart, who had been watching them for a long time, and guessed what was going on.
? "When the day came, I dressed my only daughter up and led her out of the gate, where a three-headed wagon was hidden in the corner, and when she climbed in, Maxim whistled, and they went away. I walked home in tears, but who knew I'd run into that scoundrel halfway! He said, 'I'm a good man and don't want to spoil their happiness. Akulina Ivanovna, if you will only give me fifty rubles.' How could I have any money, I neither liked money nor ever saved any, so I turned him down without thinking, saying, 'I have no money, I can't give you a penny!' 'Then promise to owe it first.' He said. 'How can I owe it? Once I have promised you, where shall I get the money?' 'Steal it from your rich husband, is it not easy?' The villain said. Alas, I, the fool that I was, should have held him back and circled him for a while, but I spat in his face and went home. The nasty thing got ahead of me, got to the yard first, and made a mess of the house!" She closed her eyes, a bitter smile flashed across her face, and said, "Being so reckless in the beginning, I'm still scared in retrospect."
? "Your grandfather burst into a rage and growled like a wild animal; it was certainly a bolt from the blue for him! He used to look at Varya, and used to boast that he would see how he could betroth her to a nobleman, a lord. But such a nobleman, such a lord! The Most Holy Virgin knows better than we do who should be married to whom. Your grandfather was jumping up and down in the yard as if he were on fire.
? "He called for Yaakov, Mikhail, Krim the carter, and the pock-marked craftsman. I saw him take a hammer, the thing with a scale hanging from the iron bar, and Mikhail took a shotgun. Our horses are all good and strong, and our carts are light and fast. 'He'll be able to catch up with them.' I thought. At this point, Varya's guardian angel pointed me in the right direction, and I took my knife and cut a bit of the leather rim on the cart's yoke, hoping it would break off halfway. Sure enough, the rickshaw came off on the way, and nearly cost your grandfather, Mikhail, and Krim their lives. They were delayed for a while because of that, and when they got to the church, Varya and Maxim had already been married and were standing at the altar, thank goodness!
? "Our men lunged at Maxim, thanks to his strength and power. He threw Mikhail off the altar with a casual throw, breaking an arm. Kerim was also knocked to the ground by him. So your grandfather and Yaakov and the craftsman, no one dared to go near him.
? "Maxim was calm despite his anger. 'Put down the hammer,' he said to your grandfather, 'I don't want to make trouble, and what I am taking away is by God's gracious permission, and no one has the right to take it away from me, and that's the only thing I want you to give me!' All our people retreated in fear, and your grandfather sat in the car and shouted, 'Varvara, the bond between our father and daughter is broken, I no longer have you as a daughter, and I don't want to see you again! From now on, whether you live or die is none of my business!' When he reached home, he beat and scolded me, I just grunted a few times and said nothing, knowing that what was coming would come.
? "Later, he said to me, 'Listen, Akulina, don't forget that your daughter is dead, there is no longer any daughter for you in this world, remember?' I said to myself, 'You old redhead, you're talking out of your ass! Your fiery temper comes and goes."
?