A spring evening creeps so quietly, creeps into the city - it will soon swallow it completely. The sky, in the morning the blue-mild, to the slope of the day grimaced in clouds, long and shapeless. As if to rain.
But the evening is so wonderful that you don’t want to think about brotherhood and other people's happiness. I want my own. Happiness, that is ...
And it, this very happiness, lingered somewhere around the bend and did not come close, even the nose from around the corner does not seem.
And you sit, wait for him, wait and all hope that if it didn’t happen today, then tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, it will certainly fall upon you.
In order not to be bored of waiting for his happiness, Slavka went to work. Five times a week. But it didn’t entertain much. And who will cheer the work of a loader on a forklift?
Slavka drove his Mercedes through the factory, and he thought about his own: he remembered his mother, sometimes his father, but more often his orphanage, where he spent most of his life so far. Of the twenty years lived, eleven, he was an orphanage.
Have these eleven years gone bad? Poorly. And it was good too. Probably, “good” was very arbitrary, but he didn’t know another “good” in his life, and therefore he was content with this “good” when Alexandra Ivanovna took him to his home for the weekend, “so that he would visit the family”, and there she fed homemade pies and allowed to watch a big TV all day. But "bad" ... Uh! What is it about “bad” to remember something! It was always bad, the rest of the time ...
The evenings are mournful, when it’s inky and impenetrable outside the window, but I want the fireworks and celebration, so that one of the adults hugs his shoulders and hugs him to himself. It would be better, of course, - mom. She always smelled of “home”. Like this? It is impossible to explain, but Slavka remembered this smell all his life, although his mother’s face had already forgotten - it blurred in time. But the smell of it, sincere, dear, did not forget, did not forget even in shades. It was the smell of food and bed.
And my father always smelled of tobacco, machine oil, and often vodka. And always - by force and some ... truth. The real life that Slavka has not seen around him now. Because of this fatherly smell, he went to the factory after the army. To smell like that too. As Father. And to live the same right life that they did not live together and which he missed was always scary. Because she broke off suddenly and suddenly.
Right in the middle of the night when there is fire, smoke, the buzz of a burning house all around, and then emptiness and hot nonsense. Hospital walls. Again emptiness and heat. Again the hospital. Darkness. And then - Alexandra Ivanovna came for him and brought him to the orphanage. While traveling here from the hospital on the bus, she stroked his head all the time and said: “Nothing, nothing, and it will pass ... Bear with me, Slavik. Soon it won’t hurt so much ... "
But he was not hurt. It was just empty and somehow very homeless. He knew that he no longer had a mom or a dad - they died in a fire. And he miraculously survived: firefighters found at a crumbling corner of the house, which covered him like a tent, and left a little air inside. Therefore, he survived. Or perhaps because the icon fell on his chest from a collapsed corner, and he hugged it and pressed it to him. So, together with the icon, they were found. The icon was slightly charred, but the face on it was still bright and clear. And Slavka left a large scar on his left temple. And the hair didn’t grow there.
He was embarrassed by this scar; his hair began to be released more authentically from this side in order to cover the scar. And Alexandra Ivanovna all the time said that it was his God who kissed and saved. And do not be shy.
So Slavka was not shy about one case.
Once, another "future parents" came to their orphanage. We came to the game room to the "bride". All orphanages knew that they were being examined and chosen. And everyone always wanted to like it.
Slavka also wanted to. He thought that future parents want to have a fun little son, and therefore they smiled all the time.
Once such a "future mother" came up to him. She smelled of perfumes that looked like strawberry soaps at their washstand. Slava directly suffocated with happiness when I felt this smell. And so he sat at his table and painted a house and smoke. And he was afraid to raise his head so as not to frighten away his happiness, which approached him in a bright crepe de Chine dress and handed him a big teddy bear.
Happy Slavka raised his head and smiled, looking into the face of his future mother. And she smiled at him too. Yes, it was so bright and joyful that it was clear: they finally found each other ...
And suddenly the future dad, who was standing at the back of his mother, exclaimed almost in dismay:
- Zina! Look !! He has a half-face scar !!!
... and the "mother", almost frightened, pulled out a teddy bear from Slavkin’s hands ...