My Big Family. A Day of Tots. Дмитрий ЕмецЧитать онлайн книгу.
Chapter One
The Silver Sun
Children, for some reason, do not choose their life program by what we teach them and what we say aloud, but by the unspoken, often carefully concealed, which is the essence of our nature and what we ourselves, perhaps, are not proud of at all.
Papa Gavrilov walked along the seashore and dragged behind him a stroller, in which sat Alex, Rita, and Costa. Exactly behind, not in front. It would not roll in front at all. Papa already regretted about ten times that they had even brought the stroller. It would have been more convenient to carry the toddlers on his shoulders. The wheels got bogged down deeply in the sand, and in addition, the sand was covered with a layer of dried algae thick as a hand. Sometimes on the beach they came across people with large bags collecting dry seaweed to insulate walls and ceilings and loading them onto bicycles.
Costa was whining in the stroller. He had a strong attachment to old clothes and suffered any changes acutely. Here Mama had put a new lined knit cap on him, because the cap with earflaps was too cold for the sea. And then all the way Costa repeated, «My caaaap!» and further on in circles.
Behind Papa, stretched along the shore like a chain, trudged Mama, Peter, Vicky, Alena, and Kate – all freezing and with raised collars. Their neighbours Andrew and Seraphim, tagging along for company, dragged on last.
Andrew, having scratched his little finger when they climbed over the fence, was suffering and kept repeating, «I told you! I did! And now that's it! That's it!» In this case, what exactly he was saying and what exactly this «that's it» consisted of remained off screen. But Seraphim, both of whose legs were wet above the knees because he had gone into the sea, did not complain and appeared quite satisfied with life.
In general, Seraphim was very funny. Besides being constantly lost, he still said «hello,» «thank you,» and «goodbye» all the time. Even if he was just leaving for the next room, he inevitably said «goodbye.» And when he returned, he said «hello!» And this was awfully amusing: you go to the house and everywhere you meet Seraphim greeting you, looking out from anywhere, all but the closets.
There was nowhere to escape from the beach. From the paved alley stretching along the sea, they were separated by a high sand rampart that was swept to the fence by a tractor so that winter storms would not carry sand away from the beach to the sea. To the nearest gate there still remained about three hundred metres – a huge distance for an overloaded stroller. Papa Gavrilov pulled it, imagining himself a horse and the stroller a plough.
Suddenly the stroller became really heavy. Papa turned around and discovered that Peter had quietly pulled Alex, Rita, and Costa out of it and sat in the stroller himself.
«Scram! The wheels will break! You're too heavy!» Papa was outraged.
«They're sturdy.»
«The old one broke!»
«I didn't break the old one. Mama did!» Peter stated.
Mama was embarrassed. Peter was partly right. The last stroller broke because when Peter sat in it like so, Mama sat him down on his knees to show that this should not be done and he was not little. The stroller did not know that Mama's objective was pedagogic and grunted.
Alex, Costa, and Rita, unloaded onto the sand, were busy in their own business. Rita began to sit her dolls, of which she had three, down on the wet sand. They were called General's Wife, Italian, and Lorelei. Rita could not pronounce the word «Lorelei» and also regularly mixed up the rest of the names. The dolls looked in bad shape. Lorelei had lost its hair, and Alex had filled Italian's head with kefir through a hole and left it in the freezer overnight to check what would happen, but the doll did not look any prettier.
At that moment, Alex was roaming along the beach and finding discarded lighters. He came across some of them with gas and they burst when hit with a stone. Incidentally, a question excited Alex: when he is old like a grandfather, will he be able to buy as many matches as he wants?
«Certainly!» Mama said and, leaning over, deftly took out of Alex's pocket a box, which he had already stolen from somewhere, probably hoarding for old age.
Rita began to whine that she wanted to drink, «Driiink! Driiink!»
Mama took out a bottle of water.
«Not that water!» Rita quickly said. She already saw in the distance the red roof of the store and weighed all options.
«Ha-ha! You're our dehydrated one!» Peter said in a deep voice from the stroller. «You mustn't want to drink in December!»
Rita stared at him suspiciously and began to slowly open her mouth while closing her eyes.
«Why mustn't you want to drink in December?» Alex became interested. «And that guy over there?»
Peter looked around. «That guy there wanted to drink even in summer,» he whispered.
Leaving the stroller in the sand, Papa went to the sea and began to throw flat stones, forcing them to jump like pancakes. Suddenly, something caught him painfully on the ear. Papa looked around and realized that this was Costa also learning to throw stones, and he even, one might say, had already learned.
Peter, convinced that no one would tow the stroller with him, folded his hands on his stomach and argued with Alena, Alex, and Kate that they could not move him from the spot. Kate did not yield to the provocation and only snorted, but then Alena and Alex developed a storm of activities. Seraphim and Andrew helped them. After digging out the wheels of the stroller, they began to shake it and moved it about a metre and a half. Then Seraphim hung onto the handle, and Peter tumbled onto the sand.
«Come on, you! Can't do anything!» Peter said, and grabbing the empty stroller by the handle, ran off ahead with it to tease the young ones.
Alex, Rita, and Costa went on foot.
Alex was as fresh as a cucumber after resting in the stroller. «Imagine, what arrogance! Yesterday ten people called me back because I accidentally dialled their number!» he told Andrew and Seraphim, running ahead to see their faces.
Rita, having forgotten that she was just dying of thirst, climbed onto the sand hill and ran from it into Mama's arms.
Kate was about to go and catch Rita, but then someone beside her said, «Going for a stroll? And I have a day off!»
Kate turned around. Next to her was the «mouse girl» Liuba, who worked in the pet store. She was dressed in a ginger jacket and a cap with a rooster's comb, which made her deceptively amicable. Kate, accustomed to seeing Liuba in her work robe, an apron, and a metre-long snake in her hand, did not immediately recognize her. As if a formidable military colonel went out to the soldiers in slippers and a Santa hat.
Rita once again rolled down the sand hill and, having decided that she was tired, sagged in Mama's arms.
«Well, let's go further! Rita's freezing!» Mama shouted, although in reality Rita was flushed from running, but Mama was freezing.
They went along the beach, and together with them went «mouse girl», who stated that it made no difference to her in which direction they strolled, because a stroll was killing time all the same.
Alena, who, when meeting a new person, adored loving him to pieces, was glued to «mouse girl». Besides, it was important to Alena to clarify some details of human relationships. «Here if, for example, there are two girls somewhere: one pretty and the other a good person, who'll get married sooner?» she asked.
Liuba frowned and looked suspiciously at Alena, whose face expressed only genuine interest. «What kind of question is that? How do I know? What am I, your fiancé?» «Mouse girl» was indignant.
Alena addressed Papa with the same question.
«The good person!» Papa answered cheerfully.
Peter,