It rained outside the window in the morning, and it made the residents of the orphanage feel bored and depressed. The older children were reluctant to move around the playhouse, and the younger ones, such as Julie, were having fun playing with each other. Thunderclap disturbed the soothing noise of rain, giving in to the children's hearts the superstitious fear that was known to our distant ancestors. And lightning bolts repeatedly cut through the celestial surface, illuminating the foggy street.
Julie sat lonely in the hallway on the window sill, shaking her legs. She had Teddy Bear in her hands, and she lovingly held down the only creature that seemed to understand the girl and looked out the window with sadness.
- Julie! Julie! Where are you? - I heard the voice of the old nanny Maria. She loved children, but still thought they should be raised in a strict manner," Julie-i! Where is this obnoxious girl? - Julie smiled, and the nanny always calls her pets that when she's angry. The girl jumped off the window sill and shouted:- Nanny Mary, I'm here! - a woman looked around the corner, not yet old, but not young anymore. Maria was about forty years old, her golden hair hadn't lost its former shine yet, but her youthfulness was almost gone, only her gray-blue eyes were still shining with love.
- Oh, you obnoxious girl, - almost angrily the nanny twisted, come here, I will fix your dress, and I will straighten bows. Anna came to you.
- Annie?! - Julie smiled happily, but immediately became serious - Where are we going in this rain?
Mary distracted herself from the girl's bows and put her hand on her shoulder:
- She came to pick you up forever," Mary smiled sadly and wiped out her tears. Julie looked attentively at the nanny, pinning the toy down even harder:
- So Annie was my mother?
- Now yes," hugged Mary's apprentice, "and now let's go soon, or Annie will be offended and leave. Julie was happy to have her head up, and grabbed Mary's hand and followed her.
***
There was a young woman standing in the doorway of the game building, with her long, curly hair, droplets of rain dripping down on a black, elegant jacket.
Julie stopped for a moment, but then her eyes shone with joyful light and she rushed into the arms of her newly baked mother. Annie laughed and pressed the girl against herself:- So, have you said goodbye to the guys yet? - The sound of her voice was like the sound of gems when you put them from one hand to another - melodic, ringing, and at the same time, in some places, as if from another century.
- Nah," Julie smiled, "and I poked my nose into Anna's wet hair, "I wasn't friends with them.
- Well, let's go," Annie got off the floor, "but I'll talk to your nanny, okay?
Julie nodded happily, looked at the toy:
- Okay, Tedd, so here comes our mom!
Disturbing the peace of life...
Julie loved Annie very much, she visited the orphanage more than once, and played with the girl. Annie loved to braid Julie's copper curls, and all the time telling her stories about the sea adventures. In such cases, the new mother's voice became a little rude, cheerful, and she could not resist some of the accompanying gestures.
- Carramba! - Bonnie screamed, and Julie seemed to be on the ship's mast, giving orders to her team.
- Get on board! - and Julie was rushing to a fictional ship with a homemade sword - a bed. Annie always laughed when Julie tried to "take over" an enemy "ship". The girl was inexperienced swinging her sword, and always dropping it in the heat of "battle".
Sometimes Julie noticed that Annie looked at her thoughtfully and sadly, and once she couldn't bear it, she asked:- "Annie, why are you looking at me like that?"
- Me?! Yes, I just see myself in you, and I realize that I'm getting old slowly - she made a sad face - you're ten and I'm twenty-nine!
- Twenty-nine? You are still young! You have a whole year to go until you are thirty! - Julie was surprised.
- Thank you, I calmed you down," Annie laughed at Julie.
So two years passed after the games and laughter. Annie and Julie became very friendly and called each other by name. Julie graduated from junior high school during this time and went on to middle school. She loved pirate stories and watched movies on the same subject with Annie, who was acting very strangely during these shows! Sometimes she'd wave her arms around like the heroes of a movie, muttering under her nose the unchangeable Carramba, and giving advice to the movie's heroes such as "Where did he go, where did he go? Here you have to fix the ends, and here to remove the sails! Well, what kind of people go! Julie had a lot of fun with such scenes, but she could suppress laughter, or she disguised them very well with a cough so as not to offend Anne.
One day, when Julie was doing her homework, Anne got a call. The woman pales a little bit when she looked at him and came out to the kitchen. The door wasn't tightly covered, so she was able to catch the scraps: "Mary...like a prisoner?!... George...Yes...I can't...J...oh