"Your love is stronger than death" Maria Sadlovskaya. Maria Sadlovskaya: Your love is stronger than death (compilation) Maria Sadovskaya your love is stronger

* * *

Jasper beads

Once, under the old government, all sorts of things for the needs of the military unit were stored in this place. In the summer, life revived: a health camp was opened for schoolchildren, children of military personnel, under the name "Star".

For the new government, there were blackened from time to time, unsuitable for anything, wooden houses. The letters "Stars" that had previously sparkled in the sun with silver acquired a dirty gray tint and became completely invisible. Someone in power came up with the idea to open a nursing home here. Evil tongues used to say that one of the bosses had to put up an old mother-in-law somewhere...

Soon the rotten boards were replaced with new ones, the walls were insulated, and the sewerage was renewed. The buildings were painted, after discovering stocks of paint in one of the sheds. And the previously abandoned houses sparkled again, pleasing to the eye.

Igor Vasilyevich Kruzhkov, an official from the district administration, was appointed director. He was happy, happy, because he was soon to retire, and he hoped to work in a new position.

The attendants and medical personnel were determined quickly: in the region, as elsewhere, unemployment flourished.

The opening of the institution passed quietly and imperceptibly. It was not the time for celebrations: many had not yet recovered from the so-called "perestroika". Therefore, officials from the district introduced the director, shook hands with everyone and hurried to leave.

The first residents of the institution began to arrive immediately.

The people were different: survivors of a stroke, disabled from birth, and just old people who could not serve themselves. Although none of them admitted it.

- My son is finishing building the house, there is still a little left, and he will come for me. She will take her home, - Natalya Fedorovna Kizlyakova daily informed her roommates. She still served herself and even tried to help the nannies in cleaning the room.

In accounting documents, the nursing home was still referred to by the old name of the Zvezda school camp. Then "from above" an urgent proposal was received to rename the institution, so as not to propagate the former symbols.

Grateful to the current government, Igor Vasilyich, together with his wife Valyushka, came up with the name "Sunset" for the nursing home. The silent, meek "Sunset" replaced the "Star" that gave back to the proletariat. Proud of his authorship, Igor Vasilyich rightly expected encouragement from his superiors. But unexpectedly, a delegation from the inhabitants of the institution entrusted to him came to his office, to which he was sincerely surprised.

The delegation was diverse, starting from the one-legged grandfather Peter on crutches and ending with the always singing fool Vadik. The brisk and well-loved nurse Nastyusha spoke from the walkers:

- Igor Vasilyevich, everyone is demanding a different name for our shelter! - (The old people stubbornly called the institution "orphanage") - Nobody wants this "Sundown". And even some are afraid!.. It's not divine!

Then Nastya, with an innocent expression on her face, humbly suggested:

– Dear Igor Vasilyevich! We consulted here and decided: let our house be called "Zorka". Elderly people are used to getting up early, at dawn ...

Everyone looked at the director expectantly. He frowned in concern, mentally uttered the word "Dawn" several times and, not finding an analogy with the "proletariat", nodded his head importantly in agreement. Nastya looked back at her detachment and deliberately said loudly:

- You see, I told you that our director is an understanding person!

The reception of a new tenant has always been an event for everyone.

Today a new tenant was brought from the nearest village of Zoryanskoye. The old woman was blind. She was accompanied by the chairman of the village council and a young girl, Katya. While Varvara Polikarpovna, the head nurse, was filling out the paperwork, Katya took Nastya aside and spoke excitedly:

- Baba Ksenya does not want her daughters to know that she is blind. She is afraid that they will then take her to their place abroad, they live there. And she admitted to me that she was waiting for someone. Has been waiting for a long time. Therefore, he cannot leave. In fact, she will soon be eighty, maybe something is wrong with her head ...

Katya felt embarrassed, she fell silent for a while, then continued:

- She has a purse with letters, she does not let go of it. She will ask you to read aloud to her. There is the last letter, I wrote it myself, as if from Natasha's daughter. Because the grandmother stands at the gate every morning, looks out for me. I work as a postman. My daughters don't write often. If you read it to her, add something of your own. I wrote in haste. And the chairman is already coming, we will move home ... Yes! In the passport of Baba Ksenya there is a piece of paper with the addresses of her daughters, I put it. Just in case. Okay, come on!

Ksenia Ivanovna was brought to the fifth ward by nurse Nastya. In the corner, behind the door, there was a free bunk, where Grandma Ksenya settled down. Everyone immediately liked it. On the very first day I managed to tell that I was not alone, no, no! There are two daughters, but they live far away ... Everyone noticed that Ksenia Ivanovna did not see at all. Only the light of a light bulb distinguishes. That's why it ended up here.

- If my daughters knew that I was blind, they would immediately come and take me away! But I don't confess. Let them live in peace.

Valentina Petrovna, as always in a bad mood, drawled caustically:

- I-I-know! Daughters and sons will take everyone from here. I will stay alone. Nobody will take me ... And they will do the right thing! Who needs me in a wheelchair?!

Grandma Kizlyakova could not stand it:

- I'm sorry, Petrovna! I know that you used to work in mental work. But why so angry - I do not understand! Don't let people be happy!

Kizlyakova herself considered it her duty to set the mood for her neighbors in the morning. She began with a story that she saw in a dream at night:

– My Yurik finally completed the house. He comes for me in a silver car, exactly like the director of the shelter, and my son and I are leaving home! I coughed and I woke up!

Valentina Petrovna remarked peevishly:

You've said this several times already! Have you forgotten?

- So, it will come true! - quickly found the narrator.

Kizlyakova's dream was in hand. Toward evening, a man of indeterminate age burst into their room, with a bruise in half of his face. Traces of a hard life were also reflected in his torn, swollen ear. Glancing at everyone with dull eyes, he lingered on Kizlyakova, sank into the nearest chair and uttered with a stuttering tongue:

- Here, come ... Mom, help! Give me money!

There was silence in the room. The women looked at each other. Someone asked:

- Who is this for?

The answer was found in Valentina Petrovna:

- This is to our Kizlyakova. There, in the yard, is there probably a silver car?

Nobody smiled. Everyone looked sympathetically at Kizlyakova. She somehow cringed at once, became smaller, helplessly shifting her gaze from one woman to another ... After a pause, she said doomedly:

– Yes, this is my Yurik.

Yurik, who had crouched by that moment, started up and, firmly observing his interest, as best he could, articulately confirmed:

- Yes! I am Yura! Mom, I didn’t come for a long time, appreciate it! You have collected a pension, give! Not everyone calculates in accounting, I know! ..

Kizlyakova pulled a bundle from under the pillow, turned away from her son, and began to untie it. Her hands were shaking and she couldn't untie them. Thirsty Yurik said impatiently:

- Don't untie it! Let's do it, then I'll untie it, - and he held out his hands for a bundle.

But unexpectedly, the same Valentina Petrovna entered the dialogue. She drove the wheelchair close to Yurik, almost hitting his leg with the wheel, and in an orderly tone of the former physical teacher of the school issued:

- You will receive money exactly for a ticket to get home. More for bread. For the rest - you will earn! Once again in this state you will come to your mother, I will personally hand over to the police!

Yurik looked around in search of justice. Not finding it, he fell into deep despondency, but then his gaze again returned to the cherished knot and already firmly stuck to it.

Valentina Petrovna turned to Kizlyakova and said softly:

- Give me, Natasha, I'll untie! – and, passing the money into Yurik’s hands, she added:

- Next time the remark will be physical! Don't look that I'm in a wheelchair! Understood?

During the discussion, the newcomer Ksenia Ivanovna periodically asked with hope in her voice:

- Did someone come to us? I don’t see anything, I just hear a male voice… No, it’s probably not for me…

* * *

After a while, the rumor about the "Zorka" shelter went beyond the district. There was a long list of people waiting for an empty seat in the accounting department. I had to attach an additional room to the brick house where the administration was located. This made it possible to have empty seats in reserve.

Their old-timers appeared here, taking care of order in their small society. One of these was the one-legged grandfather Petro Nikolaevich, who moved on crutches. Lost his second leg ten years ago, hit by a car. After the death of his wife, he sold the house and went to live with his son and daughter-in-law. But feeling superfluous, he asked to come here.

Over time, on the trail of the owner, his dog Borman came after him. To match the owner, he jumped on three legs: there was not up to half of the front paw. As Petro Nikolayevich said, Bormann once fell into a trap.

Next to the barn, where he had previously equipped a pantry, the grandfather built a booth for his pet, and Bormann felt like a master in the territory entrusted to him.

In the summer, grandfather Petro and the dog stood up "on the night of the watch." What they were guarding - no one knew, including themselves. In the morning, after breakfast, Petro Nikolayevich, with a sense of accomplishment, went to bed in his room after the "night shift."

Periodically, "trouble" came to their peaceful, quiet shelter. She was received by the head nurse Varvara Polikarpovna.

"Trouble" did not linger on the territory of the shelter for a long time. A couple of hours later, a van arrived from the district hospital and the deceased was taken away. After that, for a while, everyone walked lost, avoiding looking into each other's eyes. Then a new inhabitant arrived, and life returned to its usual course.

In the fifth ward, it became a habit in the evening, after dinner, if no one was sick, to tell something. Not everyone was told. Baba Vera usually kept silent, but listened to others with interest.

Questioning was not accepted. It was not customary to "cry". Grandma Kizlyakova, after Yurik's visit, tried to complain about how she raised him alone, but the always vigilant Valentina Petrovna immediately shouted:

“Stop slacking off here!” This is still not enough for us!

Everyone was silent, and Petrovna, continuing the topic, suggested:

- We tell everyone something funny that will cheer you up. Tomorrow I will tell you about an incident in my 10th grade gym class. Everyone still remembers!

Ksenia Ivanovna, as if having received a task, tried to find something funny in her past - it did not work. Although the picture that appeared before her eyes was so bright that the woman even closed her eyes…

* * *

Early 1942. People frozen in anticipation: the Germans are about to appear. This news from a neighboring village, I remember, was first brought by Polkina Anisya, reporting on the German police stationed in the neighboring village of Ozerki:

- The police seem to be German, but the policemen are recruited from ours. And their boss is also ours. Some Boychuk. The girls said that he was young and very handsome.

Anisya took a breath, summing up:

- Well, it seems that everything has been told!

I remember that grandfather Zakhar, in a fit of patriotism, shouted out:

- The main thing is not handsome, but a traitor! You need to hang these!

His grandmother Nastya then got scared:

"Shut up, you old fool!" Do you care?

She turned to her neighbors, looking pleadingly into the eyes of everyone, making excuses:

- Do not listen to him, people, this morning he drank a glass of moonshine, and that's what he is carrying!

Then she grabbed the stubborn grandfather by the sleeve and dragged him home, saying:

- The Soviets weren’t imprisoned, so under the Germans they threaten the fool!

The Germans showed up the next day. Their column of trucks and tanks with black and white crosses stopped in front of the village council. The people hiding in the houses turned back the corner of the curtains on the windows and peeped. Ksenya remembers that the Germans began to throw something out of the cars onto the road. Everyone began to go out into the yards, looking around warily. Gradually came closer to the column. On the ground, underfoot, lay bright bottles of cologne and chocolate bars. This is what the Germans threw out of the cars.

An unfamiliar stranger in good boots and riding breeches generously explained:

- You can take cologne, chocolate. The soldiers threw it to you.

Then Kolka managed to pick up a bottle of cologne. For a long time there was an empty bottle painted with bright colors. Ksyusha adapted to pour plain water into it, after some time a smell similar to cologne emanated from the bottle ...

Then the German officer climbed the step of the truck, intending to speak to the people, when suddenly an unusual procession attracted all attention. Ksenya remembers how she and her friend Zina even opened their mouths. And not only them.

Grandfather Zakhar, in boots polished with wax and in a white shirt with a shirt-front embroidered with a cross, was holding a loaf of black bread sprinkled with a pinch of salt on top. From under the loaf hung two ends of a towel embroidered with roosters. His wife Nastya cautiously looked over her grandfather's shoulder, carefully supporting something with both hands in a wide apron. The villagers looked with bewilderment from grandfather Zakhar to Baba Nastya. Crazy Germans, just in case, took up their machine guns. The long pause was interrupted by the grandfather:

- Our dear German pans! We're glad you finally came! But even there is nothing to meet such dear guests! These ... (the woman painfully pushed her grandfather in the side with her elbow, and he replaced the obscene word) the accursed Soviets took everything from us. Here, take at least a loaf of bread and a dozen testicles!

The eggs were in Baba Nastya's apron. After her husband's speech, she grew bolder and solemnly approached the officer. He looked dumbfounded at the eggs in the apron and turned his questioning glance to the interpreter, a man in riding breeches. The translator saved the day. He took the bread from his grandfather and handed it to the soldiers, a German jumped out of the car, went up to Baba Nastya and put the eggs into his helmet, repeating several times: "Zer gut."

Ksyusha and Zina, afraid to laugh out loud, covered their mouths with their palms. But then it wasn't funny at all. The pan officer still spoke. Nobody understood the German language, they just listened to the guttural sounds of others. Then I got tired ... Then the interpreter announced what the German had said:

– From this day on, the German authorities have been operating in your village. If anyone tries to harm the Panama Germans, he will be shot. Every yard should help the German soldiers in gratitude that they freed you from the Soviets. You can provide assistance in the form of provisions, such as: eggs, lard, chickens, geese, and so on. And further. The German command announces the recruitment of young men and women who wish to work for the good of great Germany. Starting tomorrow, the village council will begin to register those who wish. If you fulfill all the requirements of the gentlemen of the Germans, no one will touch you. An example today is the owner, who brought bread and eggs to the soldiers. We appoint him as your headman ...

Ksenya remembered how Baba Nastya respectfully took her grandfather's arm, and they marched with dignity to their yard ...

And then the shipment to Germany began. Mom dressed Ksyusha in a torn sweatshirt, wrapped her head in an old cloth scarf so that only her nose and eyes were visible. Just in case, she smeared her nose with soot and asked the younger children:

- Well, does our Ksenka look like an old woman?

Ksenia resisted as best she could, the younger brother and sister, laughing, answered:

“Mom, if she didn’t move, she would be exactly like the scarecrow that stands in our garden.”

However, not only in Xenia's family, in others, too, young girls hid, dressed in rags in order to be less conspicuous ... And Ksyusha sunk into the soul of Anisya's story - to see this handsome man. Look, Chief of Police! Traitor, huh? How is grandfather Zakhar? Boychuk is his last name, but he doesn’t know what to call him ... Soon I had to find out.

Hunchbacked Lenka, Zinaida's younger sister, out of breath, ran into the house and blurted out from the threshold:

- Hide, Ksyunya, quickly! The Germans walk around the huts, write to Germany. Now at Baba Polka's, they're about to come to you! Zinka sent me to you!

They did not have time to ask for details, because the door opened and two Germans entered, one with a machine gun. Everyone in the hut froze, hunchbacked Lenka let out a mouse squeak and, covering her eyes with her hands, sat down. Ksyusha sank down on the bench next to her. The mother, out of fear, could not hold the grip with the pot in her hands, and the borscht flowed from the stove in a thin stream.

Seeing some women, the soldiers relaxed, one unfolded a sheet of paper and read in syllables: "Ksenia Yavorsky, and who is there?" Ksyusha's mother, Alexandra, resolutely stepped forward, covering everyone with herself. For persuasiveness, I also stretched the apron with both hands in breadth. The inside-out pot in the oven angered her and gave her courage:

- I'm Yavorskaya! And I won’t go to Germany, I have children!

The German negotiator waved his hands frantically:

“Nine, no, no! No need for a mutter! Need a girl!

Bypassing Alexandra, he came closer to Xenia and exclaimed with obvious pleasure:

- ABOUT! Fraulein Xenia! I write you live Germany! Tomorrow you come to the village council, there will be a car!

After the soldiers left, there was silence in the hut for a long time. Then Lenka, at first cautiously looking out the door, went home ... And Ksyushin's mother suddenly began to lament. Children have never seen their always self-confident mother in such a state. "I'd rather cry!" Xenia thought. But Alexandra swayed from side to side and in a hoarse voice, like a spell, mumbled monotonously:

- My Vanyushka died in Finnish, the children were raised alone, the eldest Danya died of hunger, Sasha and Petya were taken to the front and not a single breath-ooh! .. - finally she paused and whined like a hungry Zhulka in the yard on a chain :

- Now Senka will be taken away, and this is the last hope-ah!

Kolya and Lida pressed close to each other in fear, looking imploringly at their elder sister.

* * *

Now Ksenia Ivanovna, probably, would not have dared to do this. However, who knows? And then...

She began to dress resolutely, and not somehow, but to dress up in all the best. And in the end she combed her hair, as before: they curled in curls on her forehead. Before that, I hid it under a dirty handkerchief. Alexandra and the children watched Ksyusha with all their eyes - where is she? The mother, closing the door with herself, still not recovering from her excitement, plaintively uttered:

- I won't let you!

- Mom, I won’t go to any Germany! Now let me go and don't be afraid! Everything will be fine!

And she went, choosing her fate ...

Many years have passed, consider the whole life, and Ksenia still does not understand what guided her then.

* * *

She hurried to the village council, hoping to find the chief of police there. Xenia really needs him! Boychuk is his surname. She urgently needs to see him and say that she can’t go to Nemechchina, her mother won’t be able to stand it. The kids are convinced of this...

A German with a machine gun blocked her way to the office. She doesn't remember how, but she went anyway. He was sitting at the table. I immediately realized that in front of her was the boss. But to somehow start a conversation, she asked:

Are you Boychuk?

“Me,” he agreed. - And who are you and with what question?

- I am Yavorskaya Xenia. In the list for work in Germany. I can’t go, the children are small, and the mother is sick.

The chief at the table asked incredulously:

- How old are you that you have already had children?

Xenia waved her hands in dismay.

- Oh, what are you? I don't have children yet. These are my younger brother and sister.

The girl felt that it was necessary somehow differently: many children and mothers are sick ... What could one think of?

- I have no money to pay, but take a string of beads, they are expensive. There were five of them, but my mother exchanged them for bread during the hunger strike and left only one for me, as a dowry. But I don't need to. - The girl pulled out a rag bundle from her bosom, untied it and placed a string of jasper stretched lengthwise in front of Boychuk. The guy looked in confusion from the pink pebbles to the girl, and she continued:

- Everyone says that you help your people ... Help me too, what's the cost to you?

“They’ll still let you down under execution!”

And strictly to the girl:

- Who said that? When where? Speak!

Ksenia was frightened, and most importantly, she realized that she was saying the wrong thing again, and she panicked. In order to somehow correct the mistake, she confessed:

– She just came up with… Forgive me!

And the frightened faces of Lidka and Kolya clearly stood before my eyes, and the lost - of the mother. And Ksyusha, as if in a whirlpool of her head, issued:

“You need to marry me urgently!” Then I, as the wife of the chief, will not be driven to Germany!

Out of fear for what she had said, she kept talking, afraid to stop:

Don't think that no one wants to marry me! Andrei Matyushin proposed to me before leaving for the front - I refused. Petka, the son of Arsen Kondratyich himself, also refused!

The man sitting at the table mechanically ran his fingers through the beads of beads, like a rosary, and stared at the girl with all his eyes, not understanding anything. And Ksenia finally gave the final chord:

- And I will not refuse you!

- Wow! – only the guy could exclaim. Then he burst out laughing and clarified through laughter:

- Until then, you yourself woo me!

Xenia's face was on fire - she still remembers it. It is not known whom, she mentally asked: "Help! What a shame, what a shame! Well, no one else hears!"

And he was laughing at the table. Then she didn't care. She said as she left:

- Okay, I was joking! Send even to Turechchina! Nodding at the beads, she proudly added:

- This is for you to remember!

And she left. At home she was silent, avoiding the eyes of her relatives. The mother looked at her daughter and sighed mournfully.

* * *

The newly minted police chief Aleksey Boychuk, who remained in the office, was downright puzzled by what had happened. What cases happen at a new position! And the girl is funny. What's her name? Xenia, it seems.

Boychuk took out the lists to be sent to Germany, quickly found the village of Zoryanskoye and actually read "Yavorskaya Xenia" there. There was a thick cross next to her last name. Alexei was acquainted with some conventional signs and knew that pretty young girls were marked with crosses, later coming into the possession of the department providing gentlemen officers.

Yes, the girl will have to help. Aleksei grinned wryly: "If only because we are here no worse than gentlemen officers!"

There was another reason for this. At that time, Boychuk had a "darling" named Valka. The girl clung to him with a death grip, and just like that you can’t get rid of her. She, of course, is a hot woman, and he was even pleased with her, but he had no plans to promise her anything! Yes, he can't. He is a man of servility.

So if the marriage is not real, he will help this girl, Xenia, by marrying her. He liked her, although she was quite young - incomplete eighteen. It’s even a pity that everything is not real ... But he can’t really until the end of the war.

Boychuk put all the papers on the table, warned the sentry that he would be back, and went to the local headman, grandfather Zakhar, whose house was next to the village council. Lists for sending to Germany were compiled by region with the help of village elders, which means that Zakhar will tell him where this same Yavorskaya lives.

In the evening, when dusk fell, a rider galloped up to the Yavorskys' house. In the yard he dismounted, tied his horse to an old pear tree, and tapped on the window with the end of the batog.

At first, everyone was afraid of an unexpected guest. Then Alexandra, having learned what he had come with, was indignant and indignantly attacked the newcomer:

"At least tell me who you are?" Who are your father and mother? And if he came to woo, then where is the bread and salt, where are the matchmakers, why alone ?! As if he came to the hut to some tramps! Do you think that if there is a war, then there are no human laws?

Alexandra took a breath and continued more calmly:

- Ksyushka, I have a girl from the top shelf! If only in what hands I will not give it up!

The mother began to bend her fingers in her hands, counting who was wooing her daughter, but she refused.

- And all because the men are all uncouth! And we, the Yavorskys, are from a noble family!

The guest who came, it was Boychuk, tried to break into the conversation:

- Wait, mother! There will be matchmakers and bread. In the meantime, I want your consent!

“It’s too early to call me mother!” You are not my brother-in-law yet!

Ksyusha sat neither alive nor dead. Then, making sure that Boychuk really came to woo her at her own request, she went to his rescue:

Mom, I know him. He will help us. Will help me not to be sent to Germany!

Alexandra snorted dismissively and asked:

- What is he for such an important bump?

Suddenly she cut herself off in mid-sentence and stared at the guest. Then she uttered in a drawn-out tone, without tearing her tenacious gaze from him:

“Wait, wait, is that you…?”

Everyone fell silent, silence reigned. Ksenia was afraid to say a word, waiting for Boychuk to answer. To her surprise, the guy was confused, blushed, as if justifying himself, and answered:

- Yes it's me. It happened. I had to agree.

Alexandra said in a completely impossible, alien tone:

- God is your judge! And leave us in peace!

Then he left. But the next day he came back.

* * *

In the ward where Ksenia Ivanovna was, there was an afternoon quiet hour. At this time, the past was especially sharply remembered. The woman thought that she could tell her neighbors about her marriage. Of course, not everything will be spoken, but selectively. When everyone woke up, Xenia solemnly announced that it was her turn to tell a funny story tonight.

- I'll tell you how I got married. Of course, that was a long time ago.

No one began to argue about the prescription, and the narrator continued:

“My husband stole me. He put me on a horse in front of me and in the evening took me to a neighboring village to my house ... But because my mother was strict, she did not allow me to marry Alyosha. Rested, and there was no way to beg her.

- I'm sorry, but you, probably, were already expecting a baby? Natalya Fyodorovna asked in the affirmative.

- No! I married Alyosha as a girl,” Xenia objected with timid dignity. She thought for a moment, then continued:

“I really wanted to marry him!”

She frantically figured out how to get around in the story the fact that her husband served with the Germans. I decided to shorten my story and focus on a funny case:

- My brother Kolya liked the groom very much. He was then, God forbid, twelve years old. At that time, my Alyosha rode a horse, there were no cars then. The horse's name was Kochubey. And my brother had a dream - to ride on Kochubey. The horse was truly unique. All people, even in neighboring villages, knew Kochubey and wondered where such a handsome man came from. Old grandmothers whispered, as if Alexei had pawned his soul to the devil for his horse. This is nonsense, of course, but the fact that Kochubey saved the life of his master more than once is true ...

- It's interesting you, Ksenya, tell, but come on funny. That was the agreement, otherwise our Verka had already begun to snore.

Vera, who loved to talk about her geese, shuddered, rubbed her eyes, justifying herself:

- No no! I am not sleeping! I close my eyes from the light so that it doesn't hurt. I hear everything!

Ksenia, during a pause, thought over what she could say, and continued:

- Well, then, my Alyosha brought me to his house. He lived with his mother and older sister Pavlinka, his father was gone - he died a long time ago. I was introduced honor by honor, they say, my wife, do not offend. The wedding will be later ... The mother-in-law realized that something was not right, she began to pry. When she found out the truth, she sent Alyosha immediately to my mother to ask for forgiveness. But I was not offended, no. On the second day, Alexey went to our village, quietly met with Kolka. My brother was a smart boy. It was he who advised Alyosha to present a gift to his future mother-in-law ... a herring:

- You only, Uncle Lesha, look for a thicker herring. The back of the fish so that it is wide. Mom loves her very much! Then her mood is good, and she agrees with everything ...

My mother, God rest her soul, loved herring most of all. But where was it to be taken at that time? Alyosha got it. Our mother-in-law set us up. She put gifts in her purse: bread and salt and, most importantly, herring. And in the evening, Alyosha Kochubey saddled me, put me in front of him, and we galloped to Zoryanskoye. Kolka was already waiting in the yard, the main thing for him was to look after Kochubey.

Alyosha and I entered the house. I immediately knelt down in front of my mother, and my husband first unwrapped the gifts so that the herring was in sight ...

Mom forgave us, of course, and blessed us. She really accepted everything. Then Alyosha said:

- Yes, I would have given Ksyushka already without the herring. You lived with her for a whole week as with your wife. Where should I put her now? Take it! But thanks for the herring, gratified! ..

- Ksyusha, was there a wedding after all? Kizlyakova asked with interest. “But I know how strict it used to be!” Since I have already been with a man, no wedding for you! So, the party is only for the closest.

Tired of the memories, Ksenia Ivanovna, already regretting that she had begun to tell the secret, finished shortly:

- Yes. That is exactly what happened. Party.

Everyone was silent, sensing an understatement. The narrator turned to the wall, intending to rest. Kizlyakova blew her nose mournfully into a huge handkerchief.

Xenia's favorite hour came when everyone fell asleep. She herself had slept little of late, rightly believing that in the next world she would soon sleep off. And now, when silence reigned in the room, there was a feeling that she lives alone, in her house. The past became reality, and her life seemed to be lived anew ...

* * *

Everyone considered her Alyosha a traitor. And she thought so at first. How - the chief of police of the entire region, constantly hobnobs with German officers!

Especially the mother of Xenia Alexandra in anger reprimanded:

- My sons are fighting against policemen and traitors! They, perhaps, are no longer alive, God forbid! Alexandra crossed herself widely on the icon in the corner. - And my sister will lie in bed under a German henchman!

* * *

When Alyosha brought her to his house, her mother-in-law, resigned to the circumstances, ordered Pavlinka to make a bed for the young in a large empty bedroom. Ksyusha's eyes burned with shame, not only her cheeks. At times, she even fell into unconsciousness, and therefore did not remember how she ended up in the bedroom. A thick featherbed lay on the bed, and the girl sat, drowning in it, not reaching the floor with her feet.

Alexey, to occupy himself, cleaned the wick in a kerosene lamp lit on the table. Trying to make the situation ordinary, he cheerfully said:

“That would be laughable if someone knew that you and I weren’t really…”

And he shut up. Something made him worry and fuss without measure. It was this unknown "something" that angered me. He never lacked women. He was carefree in dealing with them. Unless the last Valka gave him some trouble, but he solved them easily, in no time. Now his former passion lives with the lame Pashka. As it turned out, she will give birth from him. What is he worried about now?

* * *

Jasper beads

Igor Vasilyevich Kruzhkov, an official from the district administration, was appointed director. He was happy, happy, because he was soon to retire, and he hoped to work in a new position.

The attendants and medical personnel were determined quickly: in the region, as elsewhere, unemployment flourished.

The first residents of the institution began to arrive immediately.

The people were different: survivors of a stroke, disabled from birth, and just old people who could not serve themselves. Although none of them admitted it.

The delegation was diverse, starting from the one-legged grandfather Peter on crutches and ending with the always singing fool Vadik. The brisk and well-loved nurse Nastyusha spoke from the walkers:

Then Nastya, with an innocent expression on her face, humbly suggested:

– Dear Igor Vasilyevich! We consulted here and decided: let our house be called "Zorka".

Elderly people are used to getting up early, at dawn ...

- You see, I told you that our director is an understanding person!

The reception of a new tenant has always been an event for everyone.

Katya felt embarrassed, she fell silent for a while, then continued:

- If my daughters knew that I was blind, they would immediately come and take me away! But I don't confess. Let them live in peace.

Valentina Petrovna, as always in a bad mood, drawled caustically:

- I-I-know! Daughters and sons will take everyone from here. I will stay alone. Nobody will take me ... And they will do the right thing! Who needs me in a wheelchair?!

Grandma Kizlyakova could not stand it:

- I'm sorry, Petrovna! I know that you used to work in mental work. But why so angry - I do not understand! Don't let people be happy!

Kizlyakova herself considered it her duty to set the mood for her neighbors in the morning. She began with a story that she saw in a dream at night:

– My Yurik finally completed the house. He comes for me in a silver car, exactly like the director of the shelter, and my son and I are leaving home! I coughed and I woke up!

Valentina Petrovna remarked peevishly:

You've said this several times already! Have you forgotten?

- So, it will come true! - quickly found the narrator.

- Here, come ... Mom, help! Give me money!

There was silence in the room. The women looked at each other. Someone asked:

- Who is this for?

The answer was found in Valentina Petrovna:

- This is to our Kizlyakova. There, in the yard, is there probably a silver car?

Nobody smiled. Everyone looked sympathetically at Kizlyakova. She somehow cringed at once, became smaller, helplessly shifting her gaze from one woman to another ... After a pause, she said doomedly:

– Yes, this is my Yurik.

Yurik, who had crouched by that moment, started up and, firmly observing his interest, as best he could, articulately confirmed:

- Yes! I am Yura! Mom, I didn’t come for a long time, appreciate it! You have collected a pension, give! Not everyone calculates in accounting, I know! ..

Kizlyakova pulled a bundle from under the pillow, turned away from her son, and began to untie it. Her hands were shaking and she couldn't untie them. Thirsty Yurik said impatiently:

- Don't untie it! Let's do it, then I'll untie it, - and he held out his hands for a bundle.

Yurik looked around in search of justice. Not finding it, he fell into deep despondency, but then his gaze again returned to the cherished knot and already firmly stuck to it.

Valentina Petrovna turned to Kizlyakova and said softly:

- Give me, Natasha, I'll untie! – and, passing the money into Yurik’s hands, she added:

- Next time the remark will be physical! Don't look that I'm in a wheelchair! Understood?

During the discussion, the newcomer Ksenia Ivanovna periodically asked with hope in her voice:

- Did someone come to us? I don’t see anything, I just hear a male voice… No, it’s probably not for me…

* * *

After a while, the rumor about the Zorka shelter went beyond the district. There was a long list of people waiting for an empty seat in the accounting department. I had to attach an additional room to the brick house where the administration was located. This made it possible to have empty seats in reserve.

Next to the barn, where he had previously equipped a pantry, the grandfather built a booth for his pet, and Bormann felt like a master in the territory entrusted to him.

Periodically, "trouble" came to their peaceful, quiet shelter. She was received by the head nurse Varvara Polikarpovna.

In the fifth ward, it became a habit in the evening, after dinner, if no one was sick, to tell something. Not everyone was told. Baba Vera usually kept silent, but listened to others with interest.

“Stop slacking off here!” This is still not enough for us!

Everyone was silent, and Petrovna, continuing the topic, suggested:

- We tell everyone something funny that will cheer you up. Tomorrow I will tell you about an incident in my 10th grade gym class. Everyone still remembers!

* * *

- The police seem to be German, but the policemen are recruited from ours. And their boss is also ours. Some Boychuk. The girls said that he was young and very handsome.

Anisya took a breath, summing up:

- Well, it seems that everything has been told!

I remember that grandfather Zakhar, in a fit of patriotism, shouted out:

- The main thing is not handsome, but a traitor! You need to hang these!

His grandmother Nastya then got scared:

"Shut up, you old fool!" Do you care?

She turned to her neighbors, looking pleadingly into the eyes of everyone, making excuses:

- Do not listen to him, people, this morning he drank a glass of moonshine, and that's what he is carrying!

Then she grabbed the stubborn grandfather by the sleeve and dragged him home, saying:

- The Soviets weren’t imprisoned, so under the Germans they threaten the fool!

An unfamiliar stranger in good boots and riding breeches generously explained:

- You can take cologne, chocolate. The soldiers threw it to you.

Ksenya remembered how Baba Nastya respectfully took her grandfather's arm, and they marched with dignity to their yard ...

- Well, does our Ksenka look like an old woman?

Ksenia resisted as best she could, the younger brother and sister, laughing, answered:

“Mom, if she didn’t move, she would be exactly like the scarecrow that stands in our garden.”

Hunchbacked Lenka, Zinaida's younger sister, out of breath, ran into the house and blurted out from the threshold:

- Hide, Ksyunya, quickly! The Germans walk around the huts, write to Germany. Now at Baba Polka's, they're about to come to you! Zinka sent me to you!

- I'm Yavorskaya! And I won’t go to Germany, I have children!

The German negotiator waved his hands frantically:

“Nine, no, no! No need for a mutter! Need a girl!

Bypassing Alexandra, he came closer to Xenia and exclaimed with obvious pleasure:

- ABOUT! Fraulein Xenia! I write you live Germany! Tomorrow you come to the village council, there will be a car!

- Now Senka will be taken away, and this is the last hope-ah!

Kolya and Lida pressed close to each other in fear, looking imploringly at their elder sister.

* * *

Now Ksenia Ivanovna, probably, would not have dared to do this. However, who knows? And then...

- I won't let you!

- Mom, I won’t go to any Germany! Now let me go and don't be afraid! Everything will be fine!

And she went, choosing her fate ...

Many years have passed, consider the whole life, and Ksenia still does not understand what guided her then.

* * *

Are you Boychuk?

“Me,” he agreed. - And who are you and with what question?

- I am Yavorskaya Xenia. In the list for work in Germany. I can’t go, the children are small, and the mother is sick.

The chief at the table asked incredulously:

- How old are you that you have already had children?

Xenia waved her hands in dismay.

- Oh, what are you? I don't have children yet. These are my younger brother and sister.

The girl felt that it was necessary somehow differently: many children and mothers are sick ... What could one think of?

- Everyone says that you help your people ... Help me too, what's the cost to you?

“They’ll still let you down under execution!”

And strictly to the girl:

- Who said that? When where? Speak!

Ksenia was frightened, and most importantly, she realized that she was saying the wrong thing again, and she panicked. In order to somehow correct the mistake, she confessed:

– She just came up with… Forgive me!

And the frightened faces of Lidka and Kolya clearly stood before my eyes, and the lost - of the mother. And Ksyusha, as if in a whirlpool of her head, issued:

“You need to marry me urgently!” Then I, as the wife of the chief, will not be driven to Germany!

Out of fear for what she had said, she kept talking, afraid to stop:

Don't think that no one wants to marry me! Andrei Matyushin proposed to me before leaving for the front - I refused. Petka, the son of Arsen Kondratyich himself, also refused!

- And I will not refuse you!

- Wow! – only the guy could exclaim. Then he burst out laughing and clarified through laughter:

- Until then, you yourself woo me!

Xenia's face was on fire - she still remembers it. It is not known whom, she mentally asked: "Help! What a shame, what a shame! Well, no one else hears!"

And he was laughing at the table. Then she didn't care. She said as she left:

- Okay, I was joking! Send even to Turechchina! Nodding at the beads, she proudly added:

- This is for you to remember!

And she left. At home she was silent, avoiding the eyes of her relatives. The mother looked at her daughter and sighed mournfully.

Maria Sadlovskaya

Your love is stronger than death

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