He stood by the door, watching Vera serve the soup into the bowls, as if trying to figure out where the trick was.
That night, Lyuba fell asleep fully clothed.
Misha hid a piece of bread under his pillow.
But Rashid took a long time to go to bed and sat on a stool near the kitchen until Matvey brought him a second blanket.
These little things affect Vera more than any heated conversation.
A child doesn’t hide bread if he has always been certain that there will be food tomorrow.
A girl doesn’t sleep in boots if she knows she won’t be taken out until the next morning.
A week later, new difficulties began.
It was necessary to enroll in school, the clinic, obtain guardianship documents and temporary registration.
In the district office, they sat under a yellowish light, amid peeling walls and endless folders.
An employee was flipping through some documents and looked at Vera too closely.
Rumors about their wedding have already reached here.
“Have you decided to take him in?” she asked, in a tone that made the word “take in” sound almost like a whim.
Vera calmly placed the missing certificates on the table.
She didn’t explain anything about love. Newspapers don’t like intense feelings.
At night, when they were returning home, two women were talking too loudly near the store.
— Rich people like to pretend to be kind.
— Until I get tired of it.
Rashid heard everything.
He disappeared during the night.
Matvey was the first to realize that his bed was empty.
The blanket was lying on the floor and there were no old boots by the door.
The guesthouse immediately became cold, even though the stove had been lit since the night before.
Matvey paled as if he had seen fire again.
“It’s my fault,” she said. “He thought he’d fooled everyone again.”
They separated.
Matvey went to school and the old bus stop, and Vera went to the train station, where children from the surrounding villages used to wait for the last bus.
Rashid was sitting on the back bench, with his knees drawn up to his chest.
Her backpack was nearby; small, too small to escape.
When Vera approached, he didn’t even flinch.
It was as if she knew beforehand that the adults would only come to take something.
“Let’s go home,” she said.
“This is not my house,” he replied.
Vera sat down next to me.
The boards beneath the bench were wet and icy. The hem of his coat immediately began to absorb the moisture.
“When you get tired of this, you won’t tell us right away,” he said. “At first you’ll be patient. Then your mother will get angry. And then they’ll send us back.”
She spoke without tears.
And this made Vera feel even more pain inside.
“I won’t say it will be easy,” he replied. “I’ll say something else. I won’t disappear in silence.”
Rashid turned his head.
Apparently, this was the first sentence from an adult who did not try to buy it.
“Why?” he asked.
Vera stared at the railings for a long time.
Then she said:
“Because someone has already failed in their attempt to escape your misfortune, even though they could have. And because children shouldn’t have to live with a backpack full of baggage inside them.”
Rashid pursed his lips.
—Did he tell you?
– Last night.
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