Grandma kept her eyes on her neighbor, and so much was in him that Anya was worried.
- Grandma! Granny!
- Yes?
- I'll have pancakes.
- That's good.
Tatyana Alexandrovna suddenly leaned over and kissed Anya on the top.
- We have agreed... - the granddaughter drunk.
- Yes, yes, you are an adult. I'm sorry.
Tatiana Alexandrovna rolled Anya further.
They stopped at the entrance. Summer stretched out in the sun like a warm, newly awake cat. The June air was so tender... While her grandmother was looking for the keys in her bag, Anya did not feel the chairs underneath her, only a light transparent attention around and the feeling of flight that it gave birth to. "Sashka arrived... - Over and over again, the words of Aunt Luba's words were heard in her ears. Anya turned her head back and closed her eyes. She wanted to see him and, at the same time, she couldn't.
- Everybody quarrels, then makes peace... This is where the world hangs in," said Tatyana Alexandrovna when they came home.
- Mm," Anya wasn't enthusiastic about it.
- You and Sasha just need to talk.
- Why are you telling me this?
- Shall we go after all? - Tatiana Alexandrovna winked at Ana, trying to relieve the tension.
- Where to? - Anya asked, dragging out the time. She knew the answer.
- To Luba. For the pie," said her grandmother patiently.
- Sasha was there.
- Exactly!
- You called him a sociopath.
- I did. But people change. And since they change, I too... khm... I try.
Tatiana Alexandrovna expected that Anya would smile. But she grinned as if she had got something bitter in her mouth:
- No.
- Well, no? Do you think I don't see it? - Tatiana Alexandrovna was upset.
- No. I don't think so.
- Here's the goat," said the grandmother quietly.
- What? What?
- I don't have my strength, do you hear me?
- I hear you. It's rude.
Instead of answering, Tatiana Alexandrovna left Anya alone.
In the evening Anna sat in her room. She watched as the light of the table lamp transformed unsophisticated wallpaper with a floral pattern. Ripped out of the darkness like from the ground, the flowers were dying on them. And what tormented Anya especially: at that moment she understood that there was life in them.
On the table in front of Anja was a mobile phone. From time to time she wiped his screen with her palm. That was her habit when she was waiting for the call. Grandma was watching TV behind the wall. It sounded quiet, inaudible. Previously, his sound had calmed Anya down. Now everything was different. She didn't recognize her room, she didn't recognize herself. She was chilly. But not from the cold, but from yearning. Mommy..." she repeated to herself. - Mommy..." And I held my mouth with my fist.
Grandma knocked. Then she walked into the room. Anya noticed that one of the buttons on her robe was not fastened. She put it on hastily over her nightie.
- Moscow is shown. Let's go and see - Tatiana Alexandrovna's eyes were burning.
Anya went to get her grandmother. There were footage of some city festival on TV, but they were not interested in the details of fun. Both in the crowd were looking for the eyes of Light.
- Well? - Tatyana Alexandrovna asked with hope, squinting helplessly.
- Beautiful," said Anya.
When the story about Moscow was over, she buttoned up her grandmother's button and returned to her room.
The next morning the doorbell rang. Grandma discovered it. Sasha stood on the doorstep. He had a large plate with several pieces of pie in his hands.
- Here, my mother said," he said.
Sasha barely turned 20, he studied in St. Petersburg at the Emergencies Ministry Institute. In their small provincial town, he was so alone.
Anya came to the door to look at him. He grew up, got older, and started wearing a mustache. Anya smiled. "Moustache," that's what friends and even Mom called Dad.
- Thank you, - Grandma took a plate. - Will you stay long?
- For a couple of weeks. Then again only a year later. It's expensive to drive like this," Sasha saw Anya and stopped talking.
- Will you come in? - Tatyana Alexandrovna asked and, noticing that he hesitated, began to insist: - Come in, let's have tea.
- Another time, I was going outside. I can go for a walk with Ana. Well, if...
Grandma turned to her granddaughter. She looked at her knee protruding from under her skirt and showed no interest in Sasha's proposal.
- She still needs to do her exercises, you go alone, probably... - said Tatyana Alexandrovna.
- No, I'm going to go, - Anya suddenly decided.
To be continued on the next part