apples

- Son, buy apples, your own, home, not drip.
It was this “not drippered” and made Alexander stop and turn around. This is what his grandmother always said in a distant childhood: not to spray, but to splash.
“Not spotted,” he said, he approached the bench.
The old lady with a bunch of apples resurrected and said quickly:
- Not drippled, not drippled, from his tree in the garden, this year a apple has been born, like never before. You do not see that they are not as large as the merchandise, but the imports, God knows where, there eat more than apples. And this is ours, the locals, her hands quickly picked up the apples, showing the buyer the goods from all sides. They smell like apples, and they are delicious, you try, try. Here, look, look, - with some enthusiasm continued the grandmother, stretching the apple, on which there was a small brown mark - you see, even the worm eats them, because they are not drip.
Alexander laughed after these words:
Are they all worms?
“No,” the old lady shrugged her hand with an apple, “look, all the whole, this one got, I didn’t take care. Well, the worm also eats, so it is harmless for a person, I say, not drip.
Alexander these apples were not needed for nothing, he simply, passing through the evening market, cut a corner on the way home. But something in the form of this grandmother, in her way of speaking, in her open and blameless gaze, in her way of convincing the worm of the truthfulness of her words resembled his native grandmother. Some, long forgotten, feeling of a warm wave spilled in her chest, and Sasha wanted to do something good for this old lady who was trading at the marketplace. Therefore, without negotiating, he bought two kilograms of these apples, not knowing why, telling him that his son fell ill at home (he is generally poor in health), coughed and his wife was in a position, and that, probably, it would be useful for them not to eat drip apples. In general, not understanding why, Alexander shared with this stranger the most secret that tormented his soul.
The grandmother wept, breathed, nodded her head, saying that now the old are healthier than the young, because, is there food in the cities now? This is a solid chemistry, and the air itself here is heavy and sick. He cried and agreed. When he was about to leave, the grandmother suddenly grabbed him for the hand:
- Listen, come here tomorrow, I will bring you a slice of dried raspberries with sweetened sugar, the first thing from the cold. So I bring you, you come tomorrow.
Alexander went home with the apples and smiled, it was fine in the soul, as in childhood, when the grandmother smooked her head with her shrimped hand and said, "Nothing, Sashok, everything will be fine."
*** by
He did not know his parents of Sasuke. The grandmother said that she didn’t know his father, and the mother... the mother was untrained. As she brought it one day from the city, in a blanket wrapped, so she went back. She promised to take her life as she would, and so she died.
I loved Grandma Sasuke. When she sometimes breathed hard in the winter evenings, recalling her missing daughter, pressing her grandson’s head to the chest, kissing him, he said:
Do not cry, ba. When I grow up, I will never leave you, I will always live with you. Do you believe me?
“I believe, Sasuke, I believe,” Grandma smiled through tears.
When Sasha was twelve years old, her grandmother was gone. So he found himself in the school-internat. Grandma's house was sold by some relatives (that is, when they lived together with grandmother, Sasha thought that they were alone in the white world, and when it came to the inheritance, there were a lot of applicants).
Who lived in a nursery, it is not necessary to tell all the "charms" of staying in such institutions, and who did not live, he will not understand until the end. But Sascha did not break and did not follow the curved path. He served in the army and acquired a profession. He was not lucky with the girls. And although Sasha himself was a tall, athletic, cute guy, all his friends, learning that he was an orphan, quickly disappeared from his horizon. Therefore, when five years ago he accidentally encountered in a supermarket with Svetka (they were raised in the same kindergarten), he was delighted as the most familiar and close person. The light was very pleased to meet. Six months later they got married, a son was born, and now they are expecting a daughter. In other words, life is fine.
*** by
- Light, I bought an apple here for you and Deniska at the marketplace, home, not drip, - I stretched the package to my wife.
The light that grew up from birth in the children's home missed all these epithetes by the ears. She washed the apples, put them in a large plate and put them on the table. Half an hour later, an apple smell came out.
“Listen, what cool apples, and how they smell,” said Light, wrapping them on both cheeks with her son.
So home, not dotted.
That night Alexandra dreamed of a grandmother. She grabbed him on the head, smiled and said something. Sasha couldn’t find out the words, but it wasn’t important, he knew that the grandmother was saying something good, kind, affectionate. From which flowed peace and happiness, forgotten happiness of childhood.
The sound of the alarm interrupted the sleep.
All day at work, Alexander was not on his own. Something bothered, some incomprehensible grief bit the soul, periodically climbed to the throat. Returning home, he caught himself in the thought that he really wanted to see that grandmother with the apples on the market again.
*** by
Evdokia Stepanovna (so called the grandmother who traded apples) walked around the courtyard, breathing hard, wiping away the tears that ran into her eyes. Long ago, her eldest son died in the performance of official duties (he was a firefighter), not even had time to get married, and the youngest daughter, a beautiful and clever woman, when she studied at the institute in the capital, married an African and went into a hot climate, where bananas and pineapples grow. Her deceased husband long busted and cared about it. And she what? She just cried, feeling that she would never see her girl again. So it went. As long as her husband was still alive, she was alive. What to do when life is like that? And as two years ago the husband disappeared, the light in the soul of Evdokia Stepanovna died. She lived more by habit, asking God to take her quickly into the kingdom of peace.
This young man who bought apples yesterday wasted her soul. After all, a stranger at all, and how well he spoke to her, did not go away... Something was in his eyes... some hidden grief, pain, she immediately felt it. Her maternal instinct broke through in the words: "Come here tomorrow, I will bring you a slice of dried raspberries with sweetened sugar, from the cold the first thing. So I’ll bring you, you come tomorrow.”
And right now, wrapping in the newspaper a bowl with raspberries, Evdokia Stepanovna unwillingly smiled, thinking what would be like to seize for this guy and his family. She really wanted to delight a person and, of course, talk a little more like yesterday.
*** by
Yesterday's place behind the shelf was occupied, and Evdokia Stepanovna settled nearby, in the neighboring row. Having laid out a bunch of apples, she focused all her attention on the passing people, so as not to miss it.
People returned massively from work. By this time, Evdokia Stepanovna was finally upset. "Here is the old fool, directed herself, invented... and who to listen to and believe a strange grandmother," she thought annoyingly, and the eyes looked at everything and looked at a familiar silhouette in the crowd.
Alexander yesterday did not give special importance to the words of the grandmother about the lip and raspberries. “These baccarat grandmothers will say what you want, only to sell their goods,” he thought. “Will he really come? It doesn’t look like an experienced, fighting trade. The worm showed... just invented...” he smiled, remembering the face of the grandmother, with what warmth she spoke about the worm. “Oh, what a difference, anyway, I go through the bazar, I look, suddenly it stands.”
Sasha turned to the part of the bazar where the grandmother with apples stood yesterday, went along the shelf, the grandmother is not visible. "Thu, fool, was divorced like a little boy, good that yesterday, with a fool, Svetka did not boast of the promised strawberry." The mood instantly deteriorated, without looking at the sides of Sasha accelerated the step.
“Milok, I’m here, here, standing,” a loud cry came out, and Alexander saw yesterday’s grandmother rushing to him.
She joyfully grabbed him for the elbow, pulled after him and tweeted:
- The place was occupied, I stood next to it, afraid, missed, thought, would you come? I brought it all, and suddenly I didn’t believe my grandmother.
The grandmother was all "tarahtel" and "tarahtel", but Alexander did not listen to the words, he for a moment moved his soul into childhood. This manner of conversation, individual words, expressions, hand movements, a look in which the desire to please a person with his actions was hidden, all this reminded him so much of his native grandmother.
He asked, how much she ought, Evdokia Stepanovna shrugged her hands, saying that it was she who had cooked for herself from her bushes, and it was necessary to take it as a meal. And she also said that her raspberries are not sorted, but also the old one, not so large and beautiful in appearance, but real, odorable and very useful. And Sascha remembered his grandmother's raspberries, her smell and taste, and also for some reason he remembered the potatoes. Yellow inside, it looked so appetizing in the plate, and delicious what. After his grandmother’s death, he never ate such potatoes again.
Do you have yellow potatoes inside? He broke the old lady.
- There is a yellow and white, and the one that is well cooked, and hard for soup.
- I like yellow, her grandmother in her childhood always cooked, - dreamingly said Alexander.
Tomorrow is Saturday, weekend. And you come to me in the village, you will see what potatoes I have, I have a lot more... I am old already, it is hard for me to drag my bags, and you are young, here and go somewhere nearby, just forty minutes on the electric car. Come, I will not hurt you.
And Sasuke went. Not for the potatoes, but for the warmth lost from childhood.
*** by
Two years passed.
Is the cake really fresh? Evdokia Stepanovna asked for the second time.
“Yes, I tell you, yesterday they brought you, well, what do you, god, like a little child? The seller answered.
My kids will come to me tomorrow with their grandchildren, so I ask. Give me one, I will try.
"Look, Stepanovna survived completely crazy," they joked in a row, "found some hungry people, let the house, last summer Svetka with the children all summer on her neck sat. I liked it, they go again.
Oh, and do not speak. Foreign people, swing to the thread, or even knock on the butt, the house is good. Vasily was the deceased owner. I told her how many times, she cried out.
Weighs me a kilo, a good cake.
Finally, my aunt was standing behind me. You are not eating them, Stepanovna.
Evdokia Stepanovna, not in a hurry, went home and smiled. What is her conversation? All kinds of gossip. Parents are not relatives, what a difference. Where are those relatives? For so many years I did not remember her. But here Sasha with the Light help, and not to help the matter.
“Sasha, what can we wait for tomorrow? I have put all the things together and packed the guests, we are just getting the last electric. They went, right? - Agitated Svetlana's husband who came from work.
“Daddy, we went to my grandmother, we went,” Deniska picked up, “there are chickens, cakes, chickens with cherry...there’s fine.
“Baba,” the two-year-old Lennochka jumped, “I want to go to my grandmother.
Alexander looked at his family, smiled, shrugged his hand:
They went.
They sat in the electric car, the children looked out the window, periodically announcing the car with enthusiastic screams: "Look, look!" It’s so great when you have a grandmother who is always waiting!