- Quiet! - Father slammed his palm over the table, and the children were frightened to silence. Slowly he circled them all, staring at everyone... At the brave little Lisa, offended by the proud Vlad and Andri... The only son and future heir to the family name. The future man who wanted to know what was going on. - I will definitely explain everything to you," Father said quietly. Lisa immediately went ahead with impatience. - But not today. This is not a topic for tonight's conversation and dinner. Eat, children. Tomorrow morning we will talk. I promise.
Chapter 3. Unusual day
Vlad's offended. She decided not to talk to the younger ones, and she took care not to notice them. Especially her sister.
Lisa thought it was stupid. It is not clear what is happening in the house and in the city, and Vladka thinks only about how cruelly she was insulted, calling her an idiot.
So there is a fool.
Not only is she not interested in anything but her artist, but also in other things. "Leave without sweets"! Here's the evil one!
Lisa looked at her sister, with whom she shared the nursery. Vlada sat in a chair by the window and, as always terribly diligent and focused, embroidered some nonsense. Flowers or butterflies. Sister's face would be very nice, do not overshadow his stubborn wrinkle between the eyebrows. Vlad was still angry, though it had been night after a quarrel in the dining room.
Lisa herself could not stand embroidery: the younger daughter of the professor, they always came out curves and ugly. So she was busy with a much more interesting job - wrote poems about a stupid beautiful bird that fluttered from branch to branch, sang songs to her fiancé and did not notice how the branch sneaked a big hungry cat. At first, rhymes developed so well that Lisa almost jumped with joy and just had time to record, but the further it became, the harder it became to write... All the images in her head were replacing the idea of the forthcoming conversation with her father.
What would he say? Maybe it's all about those scary vans that Lily's girlfriend was talking about? What if they did bring headless monsters who eat people at night? Lily said so... Of course, she can say a lot of things, but Mother is really scared.
Lisa put her pen down, dropping ink on a sheet of paper, and with her fists on her head, she thought about it.
The aunts in the yard were also talking about some kind of rockfall from the sky... But it was long ago and long ago forgotten.
Even a boy in the square was crying three days ago and asked not to give it to ghosts... No, it's all nonsense, too! Surely, he was just intimidated by his nanny. She looked awfully stupid.
Lisa sighed and got out of the table.
She was about to be invited to breakfast!
From the street came a subtle ringing of bells and a cheerful hoof base.
A festive team?
Lisa rushed to the window and opened the high door, making Vlad snort angrily.
And exactly! Right along the avenue, jolly shaking the maneuvers, three nesting horses ran, carrying a brightly colored kibitka. Lisa knew it! Usually, cab men in Alexandburg do not decorate their mare with bells so as not to make too much noise in the streets. It seems that there is even such a rule...
But, of course, it does not concern the festive carnival! And the kibitka is his messenger, it is absolutely obvious!
- Girls, breakfast is ready - Antonia came to the window and also looked down: - Oh, what a beauty ... Well, let him go. Come on, baby. Breakfast gets cold.
The professor gathered the children in the office.
Andri loved to be in this always a little gloomy, but such an exciting room. In his early childhood, it seemed to him that Daddy's office was like a door to another world... The world is full of mysteries and mysteries. On the shelves of high shelves in rows of books with terribly clever names and different incomprehensible objects such as models of molecules, statuettes from distant countries or closed boxes, the contents of which could only be guessed. Andrew, as well as other children, never dared to touch anything in the office, because they are almost not even allowed to cross the threshold of this room, which always smelled amazingly old oak, expensive tobacco, and unchanged father's cologne. The sounds seemed earlier here, and the ceiling was higher... And behind the heavy ajar curtains of the dense green color was seen not the usual street, but the deck of the ship or the road going into the depths of the enchanted forest.
Continued in the next part 11.