The Doll (a very sad story)

I want to tell you the story of a little girl from not the most deaf Siberian village. She was conceived and born in a legal marriage, but never saw her father: he was taken by another woman while the mother and the newborn were still in the nursery. Three years later, the girl's mother married again, and the girl fully experienced what it means to be an unborn child. Her mother-in-law always treated her as an illegitimate. However, this word does not convey all the contempt, contempt, humiliation that fell on the part of the girl. There is such an old word: fool. Here it describes much better the attitude of the surrounding adults to the little girl: she was a bastard.

When she was five years old, she was obliged to go to the store for bread. She was given 10 rubles of "old" money to buy four breads of bread. Do you know what the store was in those years? One saleswoman traded everything: cider boots and cheese, blades and bread, nails and fucks. There was a miracle in the store. It was the greatest beautiful puppet schoolgirl Tanya. The little girl had a spirit. Since then, every time she came for bread, she stopped at the board with the doll and, holding her breath, looked at this miracle. One day, the girl looked at the doll longer than usual. The seller noticed her and asked, “What do you do, girl?” and then the little girl stretched the seller’s “ten” pressed in her fist and almost silently whispered, “Doll.” On the way home, the girl stopped several times, carefully placed the box on the ground, opened the lid and admired her treasure. The mother of the girl saw her out of the window and understood it. She came out of the cellar, without a word, took the doll and took it back to the store. This is how the huge light childhood happiness in an instant turned into a little black sorrow, sowed in the heart a small burning piece for a lifetime.

My wife told me this story several times. And every time she ended, she said, “I’ve never had a doll in my life since then.”

I’ve long wanted to correct the injustice, but the search for the most beautiful doll lasted for years. I finally found her. The most damaging, but such a sweet face struck me with innocent eyes from the computer screen and it seemed that she was about to say, "It's not me that put the button on the chair." Of course, this doll is not very similar to that Tanya doll from a distant childhood, but we have changed a bit since then. I gave my wife a doll on the eve of our 40th anniversary, the ruby wedding. She rejoiced like a child, and did not let the doll out of her hands all day, as if she was afraid that the dream would pass, and the little girl someone will take her doll again. Don’t be afraid, this doll will be with you forever.