Andrew broke the seal and pushed the door. That was unlocked.
The rooms were empty, silent and unrecognizably scolded - there and there were boxes turned upside down, books were thrown down on the floor, trampled pieces of dishes. Only the old clocks still stood in the corner and measured the minutes.
Click. Click. Click...
Breathlessly breathing and barely holding back the sobs, Andry walked around the house - ruined and immediately became a stranger. He hoped until the last moment that someone else had managed to avoid arrest. Perhaps Lisa was able to find a hidden corner and now sits alone somewhere in the closet and is afraid to leave?
But the cupboards were open, and there was no one under the beds.
Everyone was taken away. Even Martha and Antonia.
Andrew was tired of falling on the bed in the parents' bedroom and then lay down, stuck in a silk blanket.
Mom's smell, floral. And his father's constant cologne.
Andri cried bitterly and for a long time. He was squeezing the blanket with his fingers, flinching his whole body, whining, like a bruised puppy. And when he ran out of tears, and only a dark, deaf exhaustion remained, he decided that he would not go anywhere from home. And whatever happens.
He woke up from the cold. There was a thunderstorm outside, and for some reason the window in the room was open... The wind was ruthlessly thundering the dry flowers in the vase on the small bedside table, and the curtains were blowing up like sails. Andri, shivering, got out of bed and looked back.
No, he didn't think it was possible to put things in order here. And what good would that do? It is clear that these... The Red Rags will come back again. They'll come back looking for something they didn't find right away.
He rubbed his palms on his face, then rubbed his shoulders under his shirt, but didn't close the window. It is better not to give away his presence.
The clock in the living room showed early morning. So Andri slept through the night. Now, a few hours later, he realized that staying home was stupid. Since he was the only one who hadn't been caught in the paws of his enemies, it was better to use it and try to find out where all his family members had been taken. And then figure out how to help them. Driving away from the cold, Andri found food in the kitchen and had a quick breakfast, drinking all the cold milk. And then he started to pack. In that bag that Antonia slipped him, there were two pairs of warm socks, a small wallet with money and a whole scattering of silver spoons. Andrei's eyes were once again defensive when he saw them. The nanny thought he could sell them to buy food... After swallowing, he returned the spoons back to the bag. Andri had found nothing of his belongings the previous day. All the suitcases had disappeared from the hallway. Maybe they were taken away by their parents and most of all by their convoys. Money and valuables in the rooms were also gone - neither silverware nor expensive statuettes... Even the gilded lamp plafond, which was hanging on the wall in the hallway, was twisted by the Red Rags. But there was food left. Andrew put as much as he could in the bag, and, having found a warm cloth jacket, came to the door on the black stairs.
I had to leave.
He didn't hesitate. He did not go around such familiar rooms, which he had been used to since childhood. Still, they didn't look like the way he knew them anymore. Andri spent his hand on the wall, saying goodbye to the house, and stepped over the threshold.
- Hey, Silent, pass me the inkwell! - One of the boys poked Andri between his shoulder blades in bad taste. I should have turned around and cracked him over the head with this inkwell, but Andri took the vial off the shelf in silence and rattled on the desk behind him.
Yes... was only in the middle of August, but the orphanage boys were forced to study at that time. That they had less time left for all sorts of pranks and ugliness. Oh, how little in common was the noisy galloping vataga of street tomboys with those diligent gymnasts who used to sit in the same class with Andri... Former homeless children and young thieves, gathered under the shelter roof sincerely and wholeheartedly hated studying, not hiding it at all. Teachers paid them the same - for any misdemeanor they used to use their birch buds. But boys were accustomed to beatings - they did not hesitate to put scrawny asses or hands under the whippy bars. And continued to act like little robbers - fighting, stealing, playing cards for money and making fun of the most ridiculous and helpless teachers.
The orphanage existed for many years. The townspeople invariably brought the homeless guys who were caught in the street into the shelter. And the upheaval in the city did not particularly change the life of this sad institution. The boys eagerly lived here in the cold months, but as soon as spring came, they found every opportunity to escape from the shelter away. So most of his comrades-in-arms spent little more time in the barracks than he did. Brought here in the middle of the summer, they only waited for the moment to flee and hang around the streets again, like the thief who stole Vladino's ring.
And it wasn't so hard to escape... But it didn't make sense to Andri. He already understood that he would not survive on the street and that there they were looking for him.
Continuation in the next part of 36