A PUPPY
She was small and very skinny. Her classmates were taller and stronger and they rarely invited her to play together in the corridor or in the schoolyard. She had some dolls in her bag and often played with them during the breaks. And even during the lessons she dreamt of something nobody was aware of. When the names were called in the beginning, she replied in a low voice, almost whispering, and it was hard to recognize what she was saying.
‘Alyona’, teacher smiled, ’where are you?’
‘What?’ was her usual first reaction. ‘Eh, it’s me, Andrey Ivanovich’, she smiled disarmingly as a naïve child. And it was who she was indeed.
‘I know it’s you. Not a doll of yours, of course. Are you ready? Will you read the text?’ the teacher sighed because he foreknew she wouldn’t.
‘Excuse me’, Alyona sighed too, ‘I translated it but failed to read’, her open smile faded and big eyes began to fill in with dumb despair. It happened time and time again, and the teacher began to sink in despair too.
The school term was about to end and there was planned to hold a regular meeting with parents on a Friday evening. It finished quickly and Alyona’s mother has come up to Andrey Ivanovich.
‘I know, I know’, she said and dropped her eyes beneath his gaze. She sighed, ‘Alyona doesn’t do homework at all. I know. She ignores it. You know, as soon as she comes back home from school, she goes directly to the kitchen. We sit at the table, have dinner and chat. I always question her about school, girls, boys and lessons but from last year on she has stopped answering. You know, it’s as if she forgets what was at school as soon as she leaves it’.
‘I see’, nodded Andrey Ivanovich. ‘My wife also wonders every evening what interesting happened, and I can’t remember anything either. As if my brain is switched off upon coming back home’, he smiled and went on. ‘So, what do you think we should do with her? She’s little so far. And as far as I can judge she is easy to be hurt. And vulnerable’.
‘Right. She is. It’s partly because of her health. You know, a sound mind in a sound body. She’s weak and catches cold easily. So, she suffers from that a lot’, the woman was looking aside and was deep inside her thoughts. He stole a glance at his watch and decided to wait for a while. ‘Well, we’ve got not so convenient conditions for Alyona’s study at home, frankly speaking. I mean, our flat is very small. My mother occupies one room. My husband, Alyona, her younger brother and I are forced to be thwacked together in the second one. So, she makes her homework in the kitchen. But why I’m saying all this stuff is not because I want you to sympathize her or to have pity on her. Nothing of the kind! I think, she is not motivated yet,’ she made a pause and he nodded again.
‘I do understand you. But what’s your idea? Should we wait until something makes her interested in learning English? Hardly we should. Do you agree?’
‘Yes, I do’, the woman looked up at him the first time and he was surprised how similar her eyes were to her daughter’s. ‘But listen to me, please. Since January Alyona has been dreaming about a puppy’.
‘A puppy?’ Andrey Ivanovich was really stunned. ‘And does it have anything to do with English?’
‘I think, it does’, she said with a childish smile. ‘As I told you we’ve got no free space to have a rest. But Alyona tried to remind us about her dream different ways: she either bought the dolls with little dogs or cut dog’s pictures from some magazines and sort of. My husband got furious every time he spotted them on the walls.’
‘I can imagine!’ the teacher agreed. A few unpleasant rows with his own children came back to his memory. The woman continued her story meanwhile.
‘Eventually he had a serious talk to her and gave her a book. It says how to train and to care about the dogs. She read it and said she didn’t change her mind anyway, no matter how hard caring a dog was. Then he gave her an ultimatum: if she’s got only excellent marks for the next two months in her assignment book, he’ll think about her dream’.
‘Sounds that great!’ the teacher said sincerely. ‘But what should I do?’
‘Please, wait for her reaction. Just for two months only. Believe me. You had to see her eyes when farther promised her that. You had to…’
‘OK. There is not much left to me but wait, to tell the truth’, he agreed and smiled. ‘Live and learn’.
‘Yes, please’, the woman touched his elbow and looked into his eyes with gratitude. He nodded again and they said ‘Good bye’ then.
Next day was trifle busy and fussy. Andrey Ivanovich had a lot of job to do and by the late afternoon he entirely forgot that discussion. A month and a half passed by and he was asked to report to the headteacher. She needed the achievement sheets of his classes. It was then when he noticed the change in ‘5A’ class’. Andrey Ivanovich looked through all the pages in the class register. Of course, he was interested in Alyona’s results. They were stunning: she had no one ‘B’; there were only ‘A’ marks. ‘How come?’ he wondered. ‘Wasn’t it the puppy purchase motive that made her work so hard?’ Nobody could reply but the marks spoke for themselves.
Two weeks later another meeting was held and he deliberately met with Alyona’s mother over there.
‘Good evening’, he said first.
‘Good evening, Andrey Ivanovich’, Alyona’s mother shone as a brilliant. She simply radiated the beams of happiness.
‘I’ve seen a dramatic change in Alyona’s study’, he began from the important point.
‘Right. She took drastic steps, as her class teacher’s just said’, the woman patted her hair. She was obviously happy.
‘Does Alyona have a dog?’ the teacher wondered.
‘A puppy so far’, she laughed. ‘My husband is also a hard nut to crack. He bought a puppy. It is tiny. He told me he decided ‘to minimize the damage’, so to speak. So, he gave her a box from his old shoes to let the puppy live in. Now Alyona’s trying to arrange a neat and cute corner for the puppy beneath her bed’.
‘So, I can congratulate you, can’t I? Everybody loves somebody, doesn’t he?’ he smiled.
‘Not that easy’, the woman said. ‘Our granny is unhappy now. She doesn’t like the small hole in the toilet door and my husband said he would be keeping his eye on Alyona’s assignment book from now on. If she makes a mistake, the puppy will go to the dacha. That’s it’.
‘She won’t. No way. Now she’s motivated’, he repeated her words and nodded.
‘Let’s touch the wood and cross our fingers’, she smiled and they said ‘Good bye’.
Next day Andrey Ivanovich asked Alyona to prepare a short story about her puppy in English. Certainly, she did and a day later she showed her new friend’s photos to her classmates with a charming smile. She definitely enjoyed explaining to them all its habits and manners in short English sentences that had practically no mistakes.