Ave Mary

- Meeting, it is Sasha - he has a network of hotels in Turkey. It’s Gene – is dealing with the sale of electronics. This is Valera - a network of children's shops. This is Alice, a musician, a violinist.
Is he also a millionaire? I was joking.
“Well, how to say,” laughed my friend, “ ask him himself...
So we met. Alic, charming, cheerful, low in height, a little like Mr. Bean, instantly made friends with me, and after a couple of drinks told his story, as they usually tell people who are likely never to see again.

“My dad was the director of a music school in our town, and therefore, you know, I didn’t have a special choice: either piano or violin. My first violin was childhood. I grew up and the question arose about buying a full, adult violin. Then came the case. Immediately after the New Year, a musician came to the school and asked to pass him to the director. It turned out that he drank all the money he earned in the morning and, in order to trust home, decided to sell his violin. Even though he was a musician, he did not understand violin. He called the scraping teacher to assess the quality. The teacher was delighted and said, “Buy it! If you want to sell it, I will buy it for any money. Do you know what’s important about the violin? It sounds or not! And this sounds.
In general, a new violin cost him a hundred rubles. Well, you remember the salaries and prices at the time... At the official rate to the dollar – 60 green! How it came to Russia, I don’t know. I think after the war someone brought it from Germany as a trophy.

And I went with her through life: I went to the orchestra, began concerts, foreign trips. The violin documents had to be made in order to be allowed abroad. Habituated to her. You know, I used to say food. That was her for me. You know how I made money, right? He travelled abroad, carried canned foods, pasta, so as not to spend a penny and for a trip to bring something from there and sell. The counters in the hotels turned like angry, the traffic jams flew out when the symphony orchestra was cooking pasta.

Germany opened up. The question of going or not, did not stand. to go. What to do with the violin? There was an option for a thousand bucks. It was crazyly expensive for me! People left and sold apartments for just a few thousand. Then the prices have risen.
Long thought, decided to transmit with guides. The guys gave me theirs, checked. He paid 200 bucks and in mid-December handed them a box with a violin.
The next day he boarded a plane and flew to Berlin. A few hours before the train arrived at the station, I didn’t go by myself. I'm worried, I don't think God let anything happen to her!
The train is approaching, my heart is beating, and the look will jump out of my chest! Like on a first date with a girl. I can’t wait for the moment to press her and hug her. Even the kiss was ready.
The conductor comes out, looks down, I immediately realized - problems! I run hardly alive: - Where, I say, is the violin? And he turns his eyes away: - The Germans confiscated at the border with Germany.

In general, word for word, it turned out that these fools decided to celebrate a profitable business, bought vodka, snacks, drove, crossed the border with Poland - drove again, and then, so that no one would bother, just locked themselves in the coupe, drank the remains and fell asleep. The German border was reached, customs officers entered the wagon - there are no conductors. They knock on the box, they don’t open. They broke the door, and they don’t tie the bars there. They were accepted according to the full program. And in the box box, in it the violin is old, old, you can say. They confiscated, gave a paper, said that the disassembly should come to the owner personally, not to Berlin, but to Frankfurt on the Main. Well, you know, then I realized that my entire future is slowly covered with a copper basin. After all, without their good instrument, no decent orchestra will take me, and the money saved in foreign trips on pasta will not be enough even to buy a slide. I know nothing more. Business is zero. Both hands are left, I can’t even hit the nail! German, indeed, was taught in school, and what a matter, in Germany everyone speaks German.

In general, I moved in a couple of days in Frankfurt on the Main. I come to the customs office with a receipt and a violin passport, looking for the Chief Customs Officer. I found. It turned out a woman. I explain the situation, and they also taught Russian in schools, answering: - Do you want to sell a violin in Germany? I say, “No, I’m a violinist, it’s my instrument, I’ll play it. And she again: - You carry a violin without papers, so you want to sell!
This conversation with various variations and trips through the offices lasted almost until the closure of the customs. And then a brilliant idea came to her head: "If," she says, "you are a musician, play! And he looks at me with such triumphant eyes as Mueller looked at the Strider, the kind of catch.

I look at the envelope and think this is my last chance to touch my favorite violin, set up, play it may be the last time. I was so excited when I touched her. As if you had to meet a loved one after a talk, and how you will behave depends on whether he will stay with you forever or your paths will never cross. I closed my eyes so that the tears didn’t flow and I thought what to play with them? Play so that it will surely work out. And then suddenly I remembered that Catholic Christmas was on the nose. I think I’ll play them Ave Maria, Schubert. And when I play, I close my eyes, I see nothing, I stretch in a string, I get up on my feet, in general, I completely give myself to music. Ave Maria is a long work. I play, I forgot everything. I finished, I opened my eyes, a couple of shares of a second of silence, and then such ovations began! I have never been applauded for solo performance, I have always played in the orchestra! All the customs gathered. In the eyes of tears. They whisper their noses and knock their hands! The Main Customswoman washes her eyes with a towel. “Play,” he said, “we can do something else if we can. We will not be able to work anyway, and the customs will close in half an hour.
I arranged a concert for them. There were not so many Christmas songs in my repertoire, so I moved to the classics, then to the Jewish, burning. And they do not separate, the doors are locked so that no one from the outside enters and ask for more and more. And I play and I’m afraid to stop.
Two hours later, the Customswoman said, “Thank you very much! I have never seen Christmas in my life. I apologize for spending so much time, our service is like this.

“And then you joined the orchestra and earned your first million by performing on tours,” I put in my five copies.
Yes, you do, but you won’t earn so much! I forgot to say that their expert found that the violin was made by French masters and valued it at half a million German marks.

Wagoned