I found this wonderful corner for a long time. He is not far from my big city. And it’s so sweet here that sometimes, looking at the motionless braids of birches, rising almost to the sky, you begin to think that the exotic beauty of the seas and oceans for us is nothing compared to that quiet calm, often bordering on the grandeur that our ancient land lives on.
I am glad to meet you, warmly and sincerely. Nothing has changed since last summer. I sit down on a spread blanket, and after a few minutes - into the river. Nice! Cool and warm at the same time. And near the coast, water lilies are already blooming with yellow roses.
When I go ashore to dry under the sun, I hear lightning screeching at the entrance to the tent. And then immediately, in a young way, emerges from the entire tent: naked, completely.
He comes to me, not at all embarrassed by his nakedness, and reaches out:
- Hello. My name is Paul. I have been living here for the second month. A week ago, Dima came to me. He is still sleeping. Here ... We are now together, therefore, here, in this beauty ...
- I'll go, wash myself though. And then I will treat you to coffee, if you wish ...
My new acquaintance goes to the river and begins to wash himself: all without hesitation. He is also returning swiftly, goes ashore, shakes himself off like a dog, casts a glance in my direction:
- I’ll go to wake Dima, I will warn you that we have a guest ...
Before he had time to say this, a bright head appeared from the throat of a tent with hair raised after sleep. Pavlik sees and shouts to his head:
“Do you even get dressed!” A man came to us ...
The head obediently hides in the bowels of the tent, but after a moment a short man emerges from there, pulling on his underpants.
Paul appreciated the agility of Dimino and here, it seems, noticed his own negligee:
- I’ll go and put on ... a coat and a bow tie ...
- And I am Dima, Pavlik probably already told you ... I’ll go wash too, huh?
He asked permission to leave the “guest” without attention of the owners for a while.
Already by the fire, which, like the experienced men, they thoroughly equipped (barbecue, barbecue grill), I see Dima’s eyes, the same green as Paul’s. There is something in my new acquaintances that somehow makes them very ... not similar, but somehow close to each other. If they said that they were brothers, then there could be no doubt.
We drink unsweetened instant coffee (“But we don’t have sugar!” Dima exclaims. “They forgot to buy yesterday when they went to the village for groceries ...”).
And somehow it’s simple, a conversation starts up by itself, as simple as our acquaintance.
- I actually live in Udmurtia. I work as a stoker. And I am saving all winter for the summer. Now there is no work, so I'm going somewhere, where I have not been yet. And then Dima met me. In September, when I will be returning home, I will take it with me. Why alone, you ask? So the wife died five years ago. We had no children. And when I go into the kitchen, I look at her pan-pans and think: “And this other woman will touch? .. No ... This is wrong ... Let everything remain as it was under my Julia ...”
- They took his passport in Makhachkala. Lured there, promising work and housing, bought a ticket, and even fed the whole way. And he, he says, then overheard how Karam, who was taking him there, agreed with another person about the price. For Dima. He wanted to sell it, so that he would work at a brick factory. And I took my passport when I bought a ticket ... I didn’t give it away ...
- I forgot, probably, - Dima enters the conversation. He sips his coffee and, looking somewhere behind the birches that have surrounded our clearing, he says further. - I did believe him right away. As soon as he told me that his name was translated into Russian as "generous, generous." And when he heard that he was taking me to a brick factory, I thought that I didn’t want that. In life there were too many people who wanted to build my fate for me.
It was already long evening, and we all talked and talked. More precisely, my new friends said, I listened more and more. It seemed that they did not want to know anything about me: it is important that now there was someone who would listen to them. Finally Pavlik started:
- Let's go to the village. We’ll pick up products there, we’ll buy sugar, and we will take you to the station ...
Already in the village, near the station I see a roadside cafe. And so I do not want to say goodbye to these Russian peasants, who themselves are so absurd, so almost stupid, but - life, they do with their own hands that I tell them
- And listen, guys! Let’s go to the cafe, and there we will have lunch, or rather, have dinner, or else all day in pieces and for coffee? BUT? How are you?..
When I see that they exchanged glances with almost fright, I say:
- Do not worry. I will pay. You fed me all day, fed me. So, I will make a response gesture. Besides, my name is not Karam, but Ivan. And the name of this is a completely different translation: "Mercy on God" ...