Before the start of classes remained about ten minutes. Two girls could afford to stand on the street for a few minutes. At first glance, the young people were struck by their complete opposite. They were united only by ten minutes, which both were ready to spend on idle talk.
'If a girl goes in high heels, then she is on full alert,' said Katerina, an unusually beautiful fairy with sapphire eyes, with hair to the waist, who covered her as well as a mink coat, and glittered so skillfully that it was clear that the master stylist worked on them. She looked at the girls passing by her and probably, therefore, made her statement.
- Katerina, you better say what you wash your hair? They shine and sparkle! - Tamara asked her question, a fairy with gray eyes, white, dyed hair that did not flow anywhere, but simply stuck out from any wind in all directions. She was standing in old sneakers, and her heels didn't bother her at all.
'Tamara, I'm talking to you about heels, and you ask me questions about your hair,' Katerina complained, who wasted her time, time and gold coins on complex hair coloring and used shampoos from the best companies in the human world, but considered it to be unnecessary. Katerina towered ten centimeters above Tamara at the expense of heels on shoes worthy of a podium, and not a tile in front of the school.
Opposite them there were two pumped up guys, they talked about it is not known about what, but they measured the eyes up and down the girls. Judging by the frequency of views, the guys in their sympathies for the girls safely divided.
- Cyril, why don't you keep your eyes on Katerina's heels? Do you like shoes? And you look at her tomorrow! Our first pair will be physical education, so both of them will come in sneakers! There will be no difference between girlfriends at all! - Feofan remarked.
'I know Katerina will hide her hair in a ponytail and become modest, but today she looks great. I would have approached her, 'said Kirill dreamily, and tore off a leaf from a hydrangea,' otherwise we stand here with you, like two palm trees in the desert. '
- You like heels and drawn to the lyrics. Kirill, you come to Katerina, tell me that you did your homework ahead of time, she will immediately be interested in you, 'said Feofan.
A group of students passed by two couples, who immediately went into the building. Following the band, the guys are gone. Katerina, seeing that Kirill had disappeared with the crowd, wanted to go after him, but could not move. She wanted to complain about the situation to Tamara, but she disappeared after the others.
Katerina lifted one leg above the ground, but the second leg did not follow the first. Gorgeous shoe stuck tightly to the asphalt. A cascade of hair sank to the ground with her. She stood on one leg on a huge heel without an additional point of support, portraying a heron, trying to pull her shoe off the ground with her hands.
Suddenly, she felt that an unknown force lifts her from the ground. She thought that Kirill had returned. But it was not him. It was a robot, which ended the ladder, hanging from a flying saucer, where she was a minute later with one shoe.
Inside the flying saucer was a semicircular control panel and three chairs, tightly bolted to the bottom or floor. Behind the backs of the chairs was a semicircular wall, behind which was another semicircular cabin. In one chair sat an imposing young man with long ears-antennas. In the second chair sat a gray-haired old man with a beard and with laughing eyes. It was Afanasy Afanasyevich himself.
Looking closely at him, Katerina calmed down.
The voice of the announcer came from above:
- Katerina, take the third chair, it is yours at the moment. Calm down! With you everything will be fine! You are on board a flying saucer 08. Wear golden boots on your feet, they stand next to your seat. Put on a golden jacket and the same pants, they lie on the chair. Your mini dress will go down for a T-shirt. Everything. Yes, get acquainted, Prince Afanasy Afanasyevich, the owner of the Copper Triangle, is sitting next to you. My name is Theophanes. Cyril sits in the cockpit. In front of you is the control panel. Changed clothes? Sit in a chair.
Katerina complied with all orders and sat next to the prince. Before the old man was a control panel with a smaller number of touch buttons than before Theophan. The girl looked at the inscriptions on the buttons. And she felt sad because of her own awkwardness. She had a feeling that she was not at ease. She looked around at her golden outfit hiding the figure, and stood waiting. She felt the flying object pick up speed.
Afanasy Afanasyevich spoke in a raspy voice, he told Feofan how he understood the purpose of the flight. Catherine shuddered at the raspy voice. She was scared. She realized that they fly away into the past of people. My head flashed the thought that it was not dressed in the fashion of past centuries, and in general could be prepared in advance for the flight, at least morally and financially.
'Katerina,' said Theophan, 'we could not warn you about the flight for many reasons. The motive of the flight you would perceive pathetically. We decided to check out one fairy tale. Smile We fly to the area of the Copper Mountains. Your task is to become a lady of the Earth. Remember the movie of people, where the mistress of Copper Mountain portrayed a great actress? You have a triangle eyebrow, and that is what bribed us. Your appearance and asks for a big screen.
- I understand, you send me five hundred years into the past. Then I will plait the braid, otherwise I have a suit unfit for the Lady of the Bottom. What time of year will we get?
- The most painful question. For a hundred years I can guess, but I cannot predict the time of year. I know you can sew and knit. Do it yourself. My father, Afanasy Afanasyevich and I, will definitely find you. The three of us will go into the past, but we still know from experience that we can end up in different places. You will be served by lizards. Afanasy Afanasyevich with lizards will find a common language.
- And you could not just make the scenery and make a film in our bright world?
- We need historical accuracy. Katerina, the girl you are hardened. Nothing, get out of the situation. Are you ready to fly? Attention: minute readiness. We fly over the Copper Mountains. Katerina and Cyril catapult. I will leave the ship in a secret place. See you in the past!
Everything is nothing, but something did not work out in Theophan's calculations. Katerina felt that the time around her had changed dramatically. She ejected and regained consciousness in the snow. The people of the Brown-eyed Khan drove past her and took her like golden prey. The girl was tied up and laid on a horse. She did not moan, but only tightly clenched her lips and teeth so that she could not be heard. Katerina thought that it would be necessary to fall off her horse on the next ascent. She found it difficult to escape with her legs tied. She wanted to be found, which means that the best way to escape is to take place on the outskirts of the village.
With tied arms and legs, Katerina woke up on the outskirts of the village. The girl looked up and saw a strange village in front of her. Smoke billowed over the pipes of the houses. A man was riding a sleigh pulled by one horse through the village. Suddenly he perked up when he saw a golden log on the snow.
Having approached closer, the man saw a strange girl. The guy jumped off a wooden sled and walked over to Catherine. He looks, and in the snow lies a beautiful girl with golden hair in golden clothes, but with her arms and legs tied. A man put it in a sleigh and brought it home.
The peasant's wife ran for the healer. Katerina woke up in a house where, instead of glasses, bullish bubbles were strung on the windows. The girl slowly came to life in the hut of the local healer, smelling of dried herbs. She was physically healed, but could not answer at all the questions about who she was and where she came from.
What did people live at the time? What fed? There is a fish in the river - they will catch it. There is a beast in the forest - they will be trapped or killed with a spear, an arrow. There is a glade - sow rye. Here are fed. And whoever had a cow or a goat were those rich people. Who knew how to be friends with the bees, those who led the honey. To live in the village, you had to work in the field or keep animals.
Katerina quickly realized that she had to work in the village to live.
She remembered the lessons of home economics at school, the most simple lessons of cutting and sewing. She sewed herself a long dress made of white canvas like a nightgown, expanded it with patterns. But this dress wanted to take the wife of the village rich man. She sold the dress for groceries. She took the bag and went through the mountains, down the valleys, and in the evening she returned home. So she began to walk on the Copper Mountains.
When Katerina's food ended, she sewed a dress, gave it away for groceries, and again went to the mountains. They dragged her mountains indescribably. She found a large cave in the mountains. And as if the light in the cave was. But in the place where the light went, it could rain. She went to the dungeon, mica found. She fixed mica in places where the light penetrated into the cave. And the rain to her in the cave is no longer falling. The temperature in the cave was more constant than on the ground, which attracted the girl.
Katerina decorated the cave. She made herself a bed of a bag of straw, and the heat began to lie in her cave. The girl in the dungeon found sapphires, exchanged them for the bear's skin from the hunters. So she began to live in a cave. He will find what is inside the mountains - he will exchange in the village for the necessary thing in her household. And Katerina herself was called the Lady of the Subsoil.
The girl increasingly learned the secrets of the mountains. She possessed vision like in cats and saw everything well in the dark. The mountains are used to her and she to them.
People in the villages that were located near the mountains were accustomed to the fact that the Lady of the Minerals lives in the mountains, who began to understand what the mountains are rich with, and kept people in touch with clever people about this.
She knew where the copper ore was, where the iron was, where the coal for the furnace could be found. She no longer wore firewood from the ground to the cave, but coal also burned hotter, and it was needed less than firewood. People themselves products she carried in exchange for copper or coal. Once a girl found shiny streaks in the rock, she found gems.
She began to sew beautiful clothes, to sheathe stones. People from the villages began to respect the lady of the Subsoil even more, they bowed to her in the belt, when they went with a request, or she was carried as a gift. Katerina tamed lizards to serve themselves, many of them at that time in the mountains ran around, she fed them. And then the lizards began to bring to her what she asked. People came to visit her, they all understood.
The cave Katerina adorned the palace, everything glistened and shone in her, shined with light through mica. The Lady of the Subsoil has reached the well-being of her labor and has become bored in a cave. She wanted people to appreciate the beauty of her and her home, or maybe she wanted human love.
The girl was growing up. Once a guy came, he seemed familiar to Catherine. She called herself Katerina. In his head like a lightning bolt passed and went out. And Katerina tried to remember how she knew a guy named Cyril, but she could not. At the desire of her as if by fairy-tale decree, this beautiful guy appeared in the cave opening.
Their eyes met with astonishment, love was born and lit up in gems on the clothes of the ladies of the Subsoil. The guy in sandals, in a long shirt, embroidered in the throat, and could not move from the spot. Cyril, and this was his own person, he stood and looked at Katerina, dressed in a dress dazzling with gems. He noticed the beauty of the cave palace. The guy turned out to be by nature the same as the Lady of the Hinterlands: he did not want to feed the cows, did not want to sow rye, did not want to catch fish and go hunting.
He stayed with the ladies bowels. They began to work together inside the mountains. Cyril got accustomed in the cave, as if he got home. Lizards recognized him. Revived the dungeon. Kirill improved the life of the Lady of the Subsurface by the fact that he himself made her household utensils and decorated them with gems. The presence of the young man did not irritate the Lady of the Subsoil for the time being, but one day she was bored with the bustle of Cyril, and she began to leave the underground palace more and more often.
For a long time, semi-precious, precious stones, dark blue sapphires were valued among women. At the time of the Brown-eyed Khan, many of those stones were found in the Copper Mountains. And those mountains from north to south stretched. Many people from his troops left in the mountains, became the indigenous people, tried to find all the gems for the Khan and their women.
People with gray eyes and brown-eyed people from the Khan's army gradually intertwined. Over the five or six centuries, many black-faced people were born. In many families, the mother's eyes are brown and his father's gray.
And why did all this happen?
Gray-eyed people were brown-haired, but for three hundred years a brown-eyed yoke did not pass for nothing. There are few families left in the country in which there would be fair-haired, gray-eyed people in several generations. The Khan's troops did not reach the city of ancient Novgorod, maybe gray-eyed and brown-haired people live in those places?
In the mountains, people from the Khan's army excavated for a long time. In the mountains they searched for copper ore and docile ore, they almost believed it was gold, copper arrows were made of it, coins were minted and gem stones were found in the mountains.
Were in the army of Khan connoisseurs of semiprecious stones. Khan left his people in the mountains so that they looked for pebbles that please their eyes and protect their health. For a long time the people of the Khan worked in the mountains, with the best local craftsmen they kept the council.
They mined stones on two chests of all colors of the rainbow.
The pebbles are heavy, the pebbles are good, even on their cap, even on women's jewelry. Those pebbles agreed with the good, and parted with malice.
The stones are all tricky, though inanimate, but there is an incomprehensible power in them. I found out about the brown-eyed khan chests, was delighted. And the stones learned about that and did not want to go to the khan.
People with chests in the mountains got lost. They dragged chests, they were tired, their legs were knocked down, their hands were covered with calluses from the handles, they began to fall from hunger, and they could not find a way out of the mountains, so their bones were twisted around the chests. Lizards ran alongside the chests, they saw the bones of the servants of the khan. They lifted the lid of the chest with gems, they were overjoyed, in the other chest they looked in and danced for joy, and well, they ran to the Lady of the Subsoil.
The lizards were those servants, to please the lady of the Subsoil - they were happy, but she loved them, and did not offend them, and did not confuse them with the roads in the mountains. The chests came to see the lady of Nedra herself, the lizards ran after her like a train. The lizards, headed by Katerina, everyone knew what was being done in the mountains, and Cyril reported everything to Kirill. The lady of the Minerals rejoiced when she saw a set of semi-precious stones, she felt an unprecedented power in them, she realized that they picked up stones with great intelligence, and their dark value was to ensure the health of the person whom they recognize as their master or mistress.
If we are really telling the truth, then these lizards on the orders of Prince Athanasius Afanasyevich were led astray by the servants of the khan. He knew about the work of finding the gems, but decided to give them the opportunity to create a complete collection of stones, and now the Lady of Minerals was the mistress of two chests, giving health and well-being to their master.
The greedy lady of the Subsoil was not, and she understood: to take too much is bad. So those who collected these gems died, their radiance was stronger than what was permitted. You can not collect more than one collection of stones. One collection helps, and from two collections die.
The lady of the subsoil ordered the lizards to hide one chest where it stands, and each lizard to throw one regular stone on the chest. She knew how the khan considered his troops. Hid the chest under a mountain of stones. With the help of Cyril, the lizards placed the second chest on the bear's skin, grabbed it from all sides and dragged it to the rooms of the Lady of the Subsoil.
This chest was always with her, she did not tell anyone about it. The lizards regularly served the Lady of the Subsurface, food was brought from the ground too. She looked at the gems from the chest, but for a long time the chest could not be opened, the soul did not allow. The lizards did not advise her to keep the chest open.
After some time, a peasant wandered into the mountains to the lady of Nedra, who found her in the snow and took him to his house in the snow. I liked the peasant Lady Nedr. She clouded his thoughts and let go with God. At parting, she put a yellow stone in the peasant's hand, a gem of unprecedented beauty, unheard of.
A peasant rose to the ground, lay down on a grass-ants, lay for a long time, could not remember anything, but he felt that the heroes came to him. A man jumped to his feet and, well, he ran towards the village. Where he was, where he found the stone - the man did not remember.
He remembered that he was wandering in the mountain caves, saw the light, went to him, and then everything seemed to disappear - and woke up with a stone in his hand. The stone is beautiful and shining, the sun is bright. The man decided about the fact that he does not remember, people do not speak, they say, he found a semi-precious stone, that's all.
The Brown-eyed Khan could not calm down, that two chests with gems in the mountains remained, he sent his people after them, but the people returned without chests. People did not find Khan's chests, did not allow them to find their way. The Lady of Nedur kept her chest with stones well. Finding her or her chest was impossible. The chest under the stones was the same, but something in it was superfluous.
Strange things were going on in that dungeon. The beasts that lived nearby died early and a strange death. From the trunk of the ladies of the Subsoil, goodness and health went, but from the buried trunk, the power was evil and people at that time were incomprehensible. None of the people knew and did not know about that chest. But people felt that the place where the chest was buried was not dug there, but they found different bodies of beasts. The people themselves in this damned place tried not to happen, but rumors were coming.
When Khan's servants collected gems, one little man threw a pebble into that chest not semiprecious, but strange, which he wore in his clothes. The little man was a healthy man until he found this pebble.
He could not throw a pebble just on the ground, he wore it with him for a long time, and found it far from the mountains, when with the army of the Khan he walked along a strange steppe, in the Steppe country, where the locals sang songs and cumbersome.
In those steppes there was one enchanted place, the locals were afraid to go there.
One inhabitant of the steppes dug the land there and died soon, and no one understood why. Strong man was. The birds, the animals died there, their corpses decayed, and the crows did not touch their meat.
'Very bad place,' the residents said about him.
Unexpectedly for Catherine, her journey came to an end. Next to her was the owner of the Copper Triangle - Afanasy Afanasyevich. They came out of the cave of the Lady of Nedra, where a flying saucer and Theophan were waiting for them.
- Katerina, so why did one chest bring a lot of grief, and the other brought a lot of health? You now know the answer to this question.
She strained her convolutions and replied:
- In the second chest lay a radioactive stone.
- Right. You will follow his fate in the next flight, and now jump to your heel shoe.
Katerina came down the rope ladder from the flying saucer to the tiled courtyard. Her foot went into a forgotten shoe. She raised her leg. The foot rose with the shoe. Everything was OK. Students left the building. They surrounded Katerina. They looked at her admiringly.
- What's the matter? - Catherine was surprised.
- Katerina, you are our hero. The country is proud of your sapphire flight.
And here a miracle happened.
Katerina was pushed into the past, which was with her ancestors in the house of the woman Tanya. Katerina could not move quickly from the past to the present, she was slowly sliding along virtual time.
Katerina was invited to the Marble Palace as the Queen's maid of honor for a completely different reason. For her time, she was perfectly educated, had amazing beauty, pleasant in all respects - all of these factors became components of the reasons why she appeared in the Marble Palace. Queen maids of honor were most often girls from ancient Slavic clans.
At the responsible royal receptions, all the maid of honor should have been present and depict the crowd, through which the royal couple passed. Against the backdrop of beautiful maid of honor, the importance of the queen increased dramatically. Ambassadors stare at the maid of honor, and this played a positive role in business negotiations - they became more generous and accommodating.
Katerina came satin shoe on the edge of the dress.
- Oh, I almost spoiled the dress, and today is the reception in the palace! - she exclaimed.
Another reception in the Marble Palace was prepared fascinating: the ambassadors were entertained by an auction at which they sold new jewelry. The queen played with the ambassadors in the giveaway, and the ambassadors received gifts for nothing.
An ambassador liked so much the maid of honor of Queen Katerina, a gray-eyed, stately beauty that he gave her a yellow sapphire. Sapphire was fixed in a gold openwork disk, and the rim in its contour was in contact with a round straw box and held tightly in the box, as if someone had hidden the sun in the box.
'Sapphire" The Straw Widow, "said Ambassador Catherine. For security reasons, he decided not to accept the gift of the queen, or his premonition of danger was well developed.
Katerina put the casket with sapphire in the table secretary and locked it.
There was a knock at the door:
- Katerina, Katerina, open the door!
- Mr. Ambassador, I'm already sleeping.
- Sleep with me!
- Not! Not!
- Katerina, I will tell the queen that you are against peace between our countries!
- The Lord is with you, Mr. Ambassador!
The ambassador is gone. Soon came with the queen.
- Katerina, my mother, why do not you listen to Mr. Ambassador? - shouted through the queen's door.
'Mother Queen, he demands love.'
- Katerina, open the door! Take peace between our countries for your soul!
The queen is gone. Katerina opened the door. Ambassador rushed into the room.
- Katerina, you are lovely! I am yours, my soul!
The ambassador, a thin man, somewhat thinner than the beautiful Katerina, was already dropping ball gowns. Katerina slowly took off her dress. The room was a wide and strong bed. Only now she realized all her mission in the palace. She was taken care of for a long time. But the ambassador was important. The maid of honor screamed, jumped up and ran out of the room.
Sometimes it seemed to Catherine that the moonlight was coming from the secretary. Especially he was clearly visible on winter nights. The light of a sapphire did not frighten her, there was some mystery in it. She lit candles in the candelabra and wrote poems under the glow of sapphire. At such moments, she opened the box and enjoyed the beauty of the stone - and fell asleep with strange fatigue.
Svetlitsa windows facing the embankment of the river. The view from the window was wonderful: the waves were splashing on the granite of the embankment and were lulled at night. If the wind was blowing from the river, it was getting a little cool in the room.
The marble palace was so large and beautiful that Katerina had no need to leave it. Yes, the maid of honor and not allowed to leave the palace. The summer garden was the summer joy of the maid of honor; sometimes they were allowed to go there for a walk. Walks were rare, but the joy of the maid of honor was great.
Parents rarely visited their daughter, such a condition put the queen. But no matter how well the maid of honor fenced off from the outside world, life itself came to the palace. Katerina once saw a magnificent officer in the form of a lancer.
Oh, this form of Ulan with a high headdress and white ribbon over his shoulder made the officer even higher and more attractive for a young girl. Ulan's gray eyes began to pursue her dreams day and night.
Nobleman Cyril served in light cavalry. The meetings of Catherine and Cyril were unusually short, or so it seemed to them, and therefore completely memorable. Both were in the service of the king and fatherland.
A great joy brought them to the meeting at the ball, where the lancer got for military merits. Katerina bloomed at the sight of the gray eyes of her hero heart. How beautiful to slide on the magnificent parquet of the palace with your favorite lancer!
Life at such moments seemed great.
She knew that life in the palace was full of hidden dangers, it was impossible to say too much here, it was impossible to condemn the actions of the queen.
In order to survive in the palace, it was necessary to cheat, flatter the queen through any ears, whose tongues immediately all reported to the queen's ears.
Chapter 2
The vicissitudes of fate in the palace could be fully understood. Katerina accepted the fate and decided to wait for a free life after serving in the Marble Palace.
The fact that it can substitute any person on the orders of the queen, she has already learned well. It could have been worse if the king himself or the queen's favorite paid attention to her. Katerina from the maid cleaning in her room, knew that in such cases the maid of honor did not survive. They are stretched with a smile to a glass of drink, and after that no one sees them.
The queen is jealous for her own good and for the good of the whole country. The grandmother, who was with the queen of another country shortly before a terrible night, taught her to cook poisons.
Grandma Queen came to the wedding of the Prince of Navarre, and learned from the experience of the Queen herself. Cunning and poison - these are two components of her reign, and her sons were sick. The blood came from their pores, and the mother ruled behind them. The tsarina absorbed these stories from her grandmother and did not yield to power in the palace, even though her husband, the king, was sitting on the throne.
The maids of honor met all her requirements. The ambassadors knew who was in charge of the palace, and they gave the Queen all the necessary honors. And yet Katerina did not escape the plight of a beautiful woman. The ambassador told the tsar himself about the failed love with the maid of honor Katerina. The king was very interested in his story. He wanted to be the first, until the queen to the maid of honor Catherine someone slipped.
The king himself came to the maid of honor.
Katerina unwittingly opened the door for the king. She felt a chill of horror at her fate. Fear bound her, but she could not let the king in. The king was tipsy, the sea was knee-deep. He spoke merrily to the maid of honor. She slowly became involved in the conversation. She did not dare to repel the gentle movements of the king. The king was a master of love without love. The tenderness of his hands replaced any love.
He insinuatingly brought Katerina to an absolute understanding of the importance of the moment when she herself was ready to rush into the arms of the king. She took off her dress and helped the king undress. Love with the king so swallowed maid of honor that she simply forgot about everything. The king left, and the maid of honor waited for the Queen's revenge.
Soon Katerina realized that she was getting harder from the king day by day. The maid of honor decided to marry Ulan Cyril, but he was sent to the army on the orders of the king and fatherland. For many years the maid of honor did not serve the tsarina, therefore their composition was constantly changing. Catherine had to leave the prestigious service at the court of Her Majesty.
For the service she received the title of princess and the village of Bronze dipper. By this time, Katerina's parents had moved to the northern capital, living in a three-story stone house near Nevsky Prospect. The young princess in an interesting position moved to her parents and moved from the Marble Palace.
Katerina's soul breathed freedom of movement, freedom of choice of dress. Now she could change her dress! The maid of honor walked, resembling each other with their palace outfits, like uhlans in uniform. Katerina and Mama went to the Gostiny Dvor shop to choose fabrics and ribbons.
She bought everything that she modestly requested.
Katerina began to write poetry, which did not please her parents very much, but they were so happy about her daughter's return that they forgave her everything! She began to attend evenings of poets, read her poems in the evenings, but women were rarely indulged in praise, and she became bored with injustice. She went deep into domestic affairs and wrote on the table if she really wanted to write poetry.
Sometimes Katerina attended balls, but rather modest and not in the Marble Palace. She went to the theater with mamma. Life was calm and streamlined. Katerina read newspapers and books. Her parents tried to find her a fiancé, but she rejected everyone, which did not prevent her from continuing to be a beautiful, flourishing girl.
Pregnancy gradually increased. Hidden deadlines quickly passed. Katherine was noticed by the master Yakov Timofeevich, who lived next door. He had an estate, and not one. Due to the income of the village, he quietly lived in the capital, without bad habits. The pair they are good. Parents began to smile to their neighbor, they already dreamed of their future grandchildren ...
Ulan Kirill did not arrive in the Northern Capital by the time. Barin Yakov Timofeevich came to a state of despair. Cyril came from the war, nervous and wounded, dissatisfied with everything on this earth. Catherine's parents for anxiety did not know what to do.
But Cyril accidentally met a woman on the avenue and often came to her house, very strange for decent people. Katerina nervously experienced the changes that had happened to Cyril. Between them it was as if a ray of yellow sapphire light had passed, so it seemed to her. Their relationship became cool. She understood by her feminine sense that now she had better get married. Parents constantly hinted at Katerina about Yakov Timofeyevich.
Barin Yakov Timofeevich sighed freely when he realized that the girl began to treat him well and suggested that Katerina get married. She agreed. The wedding went well, with good taste. Soon, by mutual agreement, new relatives in the same wall hacked the door and two apartments connected.
The autumn gray sky was replaced by a frosty clear sky. Rare cirrus clouds did not prevent the sun from illuminating the first ice on the reservoirs of the city. The people and gentlemen with pleasure changed coats with capes on fur coats and casings, if they were. Long skirts swayed under fur jackets. Furs spread the smell of snuff, which poured clothes against moths. Snuff was kept in snuffboxes, it was considered supremely chic to sniff tobacco and sneeze for health. Smoke streamed from the chimneys of the houses. On the avenue rolled carriages and horses.
On a frosty morning Katerina gave birth to a boy Ilya. Jacob Timofeevich was overwhelmingly pleased with the heir. The son of the king did not know who his real father was. For the child prepared a children's room, in which hung a crib attached to the ceiling. The boy's parents brought him up according to all the rules and started learning to read early. Five years later, God sent them a girl, Masha.
Katerina walked with the children herself. She liked to raise children. At home, her parents and servants from the village helped her, but she did not trust anyone to raise her children while they were small. Yakov Timofeevich dreamed that Ilya would become a lawyer. And the boy met his hopes. He studied well and entered the law faculty of the university. Yakov Timofeevich and Katerina were a quiet couple, without great needs and costs. Everything went well with them. Their villages flourished.
And the yields were good. Their parents lived long and were tactful enough not to disturb them, but only to help. Ilya and Masha grew up under the supervision of parents, grandparents and servants. Everything good sometimes changes dramatically. The parents of Jacob and Katerina died one by one.
Their homesteads were left unattended. And immediately incomes from villages became less, and expenses in the Northern capital increased very quickly, and children grew rapidly. Barin Yakov Timofeevich had to go through the villages and bring relative order to them. He fell ill from an unusual job and died in one of the villages called the Copper Bucket, before reaching the northern capital.
Katerina tried to connect with the villages. The villages brought less and less means to its existence. She did not dare to leave the children to the servants for a long time, but she had to. Arriving in the village Copper Bucket, she realized that in the city they no longer live, will have to lead a rural lifestyle. She decided to take her daughter Masha to her and send money to her son to study. So she did. The door between the apartments in the house was walled up. One apartment rented. The houses required repairs and were not very expensive.
For some time, Katerina has adjusted the village life. One day she looked at the yellow sapphire, and it seemed to her that he was not satisfied with her life. Or sapphire did not like life in the village. Sometimes she perceived the radiance of a stone as a lively response to her troubles. How could a queen of honor, a lady from the royal retinue, live in the village? Could not. And she remembered Ulana Cyril. She thought that if ulan is alive, he still loves her.
Katerina appointed a new manager of all the villages and went to the Northern capital, taking with her the means of subsistence in the city.
First of all, she started repairing her house, then updated her wardrobe, then found Kirill. Forget the first love he could not yet. By this time he had become a beautiful and docile man. Life has taught him a lot. Katerina and Kirill got married and restored the second apartment.
Catherine's daughter Masha grew up, but did not look like her mother. She was not distinguished by her mother's beauty and stateliness, so there was no hope that she would become the Queen's maid of honor. Masha looked like her father, Yakov Timofeevich, in everything. She had no bad habits, but there were few good ones. Masha was married to an equally calm guy who had no particular desires. Previously, his desire was dictated by his mother, now Masha, if she herself was not lazy to desire anything.
Both were melancholic.
The kids have grown up. Katerina could calmly read books again. She read the book The History of the Clans of the Russian Nobility with great interest. Katerina took herself to the nobles, but she really wanted to find ancestors in the book! One was a pity that all the nobles were counted in the male line from the rulers of the ancient clan.
And if you trace all the boyars and princes to the nineteenth century, in which Katherine lived, it turned out that the princes destroyed themselves from generation to generation.
How? With great chic they married and married almost relatives in different generations. Of course, there were newcomers from other clans, but people tried to keep their clan along the line of the ancient clan.
The women who married people from another kind disappeared from the lists of princely families. It turned out that the more and more I looked through Katerina's book, the more I met stories about barren men, sons of great clans.
Some of the princely family survived, but it was very clear that the story now and then turned back to find the ancestors of the omnipotent at other times. The surnames were constantly changing in a somewhat strange way: the name of the whole clan was obtained from the nickname. Katerina came to the conclusion that she definitely did not have direct ancestors from the ancient race, but she did not exclude lateral branches.
Cyril did not condemn Katerina's addiction to books; he knew one thing: if the wife reads, it means that the house is quiet. And he was at peace with her. They lived quite well. Cyril had no children of his own.
Daughter Masha surprised her relatives by going to live in the village, to the estate of her mother. Her husband Anton Ivanovich left with Masha. In parting, Katerina presented Masha the Sapphire Straw Widow.
The son of Katerina Ilya graduated from the university. He became a handsome and intelligent man. Outwardly, he looked like Katerina. Ilya took the personal lawyer Prince Voronov, who often visited the court. The prince's daughter, Lizonka, fell in love with the handsome gray-eyed Ilya. The prince himself was not against the marriage of his daughter.
He perfectly understood that such an Ilya, a hardworking and decent person, can save and replenish the wealth accumulated by the ancestors. And Ilya looked like a king ...
The love of the young princess was hot-tempered. All her houses were called Lizonkoy. She was a flying moth. Her knobs hovered over the piano keys. Her skirts flew over the grand palace of the prince. Thin and light, graceful and beautiful girl enveloped with their fluids noble Ilya. Next to her, he seemed to be an even taller and stronger man. Lysonka had a pronounced temperament. Live and agile girl. For a long time she was not angry. Not a lot worried. In life, she had everything, in terms of income and wealth.
Wedding Lizonka asked to make a magnificent, but without a lot of people. They collected an entire sleigh train and drove around the central streets of the Northern capital with bells. Sable fur coat with an ermine collar perfectly kept Lizonka warm during the trip. To live young remained in the palace of the prince.
Ilya calmly endured his wife's quirks and fit well into his father-in-law's palace. The love of the young was dictated by Lizonkoy herself. Her irrepressible temperament. But they had no children for a long time. Smart wife, as a noble noblewoman, to protect against pregnancy used a gold ring. Ilya mentally experienced the absence of children, not knowing about the golden ring.
But they were young. He had a lot of work, as the prince, Lizonka's father, had his own factories in the city. The workers were not always submissive. Yes, and suppliers had relative decency. Masha did not visit her brother. Home to his mother, Ilya almost did not go. Masha and Ilya did not find a common language. Brother was further separated from his sister.
A child appeared in Ilya's family. This Lisa finally decided to become a mother and gave birth to a girl. Ilya was very happy with her daughter, and she most of all loved to climb her big dad. Her mom was constantly in business and very often absent from home. With the child sat nurse-nanny. Little girl again fluttered in search of adventure in the northern capital. She often spent time with her friends than with a child.
The granddaughter of the king lived not far from the palace, on the channel with golden sphinxes. But the king did not know about his granddaughter and about his son, who lived practically next to him, even by the standards of the nineteenth century.
Elapsed time, two or three hundred years. One day, people came to mine copper in carts, and even stumbled upon a chest, which the gnomes pelted with earth, and next to the skeletons lay the servants of the khan-eyed khan. People took the chest and carried it to freedom, the Queen was immediately informed to the northern capital.
The queen ordered to deliver a chest to her, but some of the stones along the road disappeared along with the people. Not without it. She did not know, she did not know that it was impossible to distribute these gems, it was impossible to look at them for a long time.
The queen died from the radiance of stones. In place of the queen, the king came. He knew about the misfortune with the queen, so he kept the chest closed in his chambers. The king called the fortuneteller to himself and asked him what the power of the stones was. She was a great inventor, but she foresaw a lot.
The fortune teller said that the stones have tremendous energy, incomprehensible to her, and it is better to remove them from the king's chambers. I obeyed the king fortuneteller. Removed gems from the king. He ordered one of them to make jewelry, so that all of them were beautiful and different in taste.
The king decided to give away all the gems for the benefit of himself and his fatherland. Jewelers, who made the jewelry, died more often than other jewelers. And they made jewels for ambassadors out of those stones, decided to give them away at holidays, assemblies. One jewelery made of yellow sapphire, the king himself called the "Straw widow."
Katerina's granddaughter, Varvara, grew up as a beautiful, stately gray-eyed girl with a large light brown braid, and a satin bow was adorned at the top of the braid. From the age of 14, they sent matchmakers to her. To her grandmother, the girl only once went to the banks of the Neva. Grandma was pleased with her granddaughter and was very sorry that she lived in the village, but Varvara's mother, Marya Yakovlevna, refused to go to the city.
Varvara's father, Anton Ivanovich, was transformed in the village. Here, no one considered him as lullaby, as in a city. Here he was revered as a smart and strong man. In the village he was in his place. Most often, Anton Ivanovich could be seen in the forge. He liked to work with a heavy hammer. Blacksmith he was excellent. In the village with him, the people began to build stout houses.
They built a good mill for everyone. Anton Ivanovich was the father of his family for all villagers. Marya Yakovlevna, in moments of sadness, took out a gift from her mother - the Sapphire 'Straw Widow'. Sapphire was not very fond of life in the village, but he approved of the actions of Anton Ivanovich and meekly endured the sad glances of Marya Yakovlevna. Sapphire lay in his golden frame and sad with his mistress.
In the village a tragic event occurred. One rebellious horse kicked Anton Ivanovich so hard when she was shod, that he fell down and soon died. Marya Yakovlevna was numb from grief and practically did not move herself. Barbara bothered around her mother. Mother solemnly, as far as was possible in her situation, gave the sapphire "The Straw Widow" to Barbara and died.
The girl was 15 years old. In memory of her mother, she had a sapphire, but her daughter considered him mom's trinket and put it behind the stove. Without sapphire, she felt better, he mysteriously acted on her badly, he interfered with her yellow eye. In a word, sapphire and Varvara did not like. She was left alone. She endured the sad state of losing her father and mother with great difficulty.
Near the village grew forest. She was unknown to shyness, she was born near the forest. Barbara began to walk in the woods for strawberries, for raspberries, for mushrooms. Her friends took little interest; she preferred solitude in the forest. Instead of a gun, she took with her a light bow and arrows.
A neighbor, at her request, made arrowheads. Bow for her bent master, who knew the properties of the tree, but more often for people he wove baskets. Barbara shot well at a small target. She did not hope to kill the archery bear, and she needed her for complacency. From the bow Varvara could shoot a duck on the fly.
A friend of the girl showed up the most unexpected - an elk. This marvelous animal with branchy horns always went on the path when Barbara went into the forest. The first time the girl was frightened by an elk and turned back to the house. The elk stopped and began to beat his hoof on the ground, as if he asked: come back, do not go.
Barbara stopped, turned to the moose, and approached him, as if he were a simple horse. Barbara knew how to handle horses, but preferred to walk, not ride a horse. And elk? Barbara did not know what to expect from an elk. In the bag she had a piece of bread. She broke off half and stretched the elk. Elk with huge soft lips took the bread from the palm of Barbara.
Barbara began to talk to him, and then said a simple phrase:
- Elk, come with me.
And the elk went with her. Varvara patted his withers. Elk shook his head. Barbara did not collect anything that day, but she was calm in her heart. She walked a little with the elk, with this slim and proud animal from the forest world. And again she said:
- Elk, let's go home.
The elk turned and went to accompany her home. When the hut began to shine through the trees, the elk stopped. Barbara understood him and said:
- Elk, go to the forest. We'll meet Again.
Elk obediently went to the forest. Elk met Barbarian several times in the forest. The meetings of Varvara with the elk were noticed by Andrew, the son of the manager, who was once appointed by Maria Yakovlevna. Andrei asked:
- Barbara, what kind of friendship do you have with a wild moose?
'I don't know, but the elk is waiting for me constantly on the path when I go into the forest.'
'Did you feed him bread?'
- Yes.
- Barbara, friendship with a moose is interesting, are you not afraid? Why do you carry a bow?
- I like to hit the mark.
- Barbara, marry me! I understand it's hard for you to live alone.
- Let's get married, but in a year.
Barbara married handsome Andrew, but he was soon called to the army. He returned as a completely sick person, and yet they had a daughter, Masha, when Varvara turned 25 years old.
Six months after the death of Andrei Varvara Antonovna married a second time, for the widowed man Artem Ivanovich, his son Mitya left his wife. The life of Barbara became poorer and more difficult. Artem Ivanovich and Barbara decided to go to Siberia, to look for happiness. They stopped in a village, put a house with a roof over his head.
Artem Ivanovich met with a political exile, helped him. The exile was literate, he began to teach literacy Mitya, and mother was not allowed to teach Masha. The girl's neighbors fed rye bread with milk, and it was very tasty, went for a treat. In Siberia, the sticks did not grow on trees, happiness did not smile, but the cold was harsh.
Masha's parents decided to return to their homeland, to their native village, where their relatives helped them, and they stayed in the village. Artem Ivanovich worked as a tailor, went with his wife to the villages. Together they sewed clothes to the one who invited, they received mostly products for the work. So they kept and fed the family.
They had a sewing machine.
Varvara Antonovna helped her husband to sew clothes, but manually. She knew how to sew with her hands, like a sewing machine - such smooth stitches were obtained. During the raid of strange people in uniform, the family was confiscated from the family. Varvara began working as a cook and feeding combiners. Artem Ivanovich died.
Varvara was left alone with the children from Artem Ivanovich, - Volodya and Misha, they were helped by Masha, who at that time was already working along the party line. Mitya was already an adult, he studied, got married, but unsuccessfully, worked in the city finance department as an accountant, later as a teacher, died at the front.
A group of gamblers played cards; the group was headed by a woman Varya, Varvara Antonovna. The players behaved very excitedly, considering their age: Katerina was 5-6 years old, Sergey was 3, Tolya was 7. Baba Vary had a task: to sit on that day with the children of her two younger sons, who went out with their wives .
Cards tired, took the lotto. The grandmother called the numbers, and the children locked them on their cards with pennies or round metal plates, very much like pennies. The year was 1956-1957 ... The house in which the children and grandmother played was a small, wooden one. In this house lived Tolya with his mother and stepfather. Yes, the son of Baba Vari was a boy's stepfather, but a favorite, and the boy calmly called him dad.
Katerina with Baba Varya and her parents lived in a large brick house. This is probably where their parents were, while the children with their grandmother were in a wooden house. Did not relatively young parents celebrate New Year? For a very long time, the children played cards and then lotto. But the next New Year, Lena met in a large leather chair in Uncle Vasya's house. The receiver twisted two songs. Everything around was festive, and for the first time Katerina and Tolia danced something like a waltz 'On the hills ...' to the joyful cries of an adult generation.
Katerina was not loved by her mother when Baba Varya visited Tolya's mother.
Years passed quickly. She and her mother now lived in a brick house, next to the school where Katerina studied. Not only that, her teacher of Russian language was their neighbor.
The teacher was extremely beautiful and slim, with hair laid in the form of a cockscomb. In those days, they wrote feathers and dipped the pens of pens in the inkpots, which spilled ink well. Katerina, when she was on duty, went for a tray with inkpoints to the teacher, but there were no chance meetings with her half-cousin Tolya either.
Katerina's parents were taken to another country, probably because they were trying to make a clothes demonstrator out of her in a fashion house. The fashion house was across the street from the Toli house.
During the winter holidays, Katerina returned to her hometown. She went to her friend Tanya, and then to Tole and his mother. Tolya grew up, became a handsome guy and looked like an actor playing in a famous film. At that time, he was in high school. Katerina Tolya liked, but they just sat at the table, and she went home.
Lived woman Varya 90 years. She has never been to a doctor. All the teeth themselves fell out. All children were born outside the hospital. In 80 years, she had a single operation. After discharge, she herself ran out onto the porch of the hospital. Medicines did not drink. With coffee is not met. Read not learned. She was able to speak boils. She knew how not to clash with others. She went through many wars and hunger strikes, one of her favorite dishes was: boiling water, crackers, onions, salt ...
Theophanes continued to develop the theme of the two chests of the ladies of the Subsoil. He knew perfectly well that one chest with gems, collected by the Khan's people and containing a radioactive element, was distributed as souvenirs. This chest carried negatively charged elements.
The fate of the yellow sapphire "The Straw Widow," he represented and knew that the gem justified its name. Now he wanted to find a chest with a positive set of gems.
For further experiments, Feofan needed to wait for the birth of another heroine for Katerina. He traced the lives of people embedded in the computer system of the office of movement. Katerina had to be sent at the right time to a certain place on Earth.
The soul of Katerina and the soul of her heroine among the people would have to be combined without much discomfort. The difficulty was that the heroine changed the place of life, but he found a way to overcome this obstacle.
This time, Katerina was not abducted from the tile courtyard. She was already a recognized lady, capable of accepting assignments without youthful maximalism, and still young enough to enter the soul of a young girl.
The transfer of Katerina and her company in time was made, as usual, from a flying saucer, the dimensions of which for people were so small that it could be taken for a balloon, but not for an aircraft. The flying saucer hovered over the desired object, the landing force descended to the ground to meet in the image of ordinary people.
Katerina was studying in the sixth grade by this time. Not far from two-storey houses, a new microdistrict was built from five-storey houses. Happy people lived in them, but the children studied in the same school located in this new neighborhood. The neighborhood adjoined the red barracks.
The house was a two-story, of eight apartments. In the room of Katerina there was a stove, so big that it was rather part of the wall, but with its own corner, which came into the room, as if this corner was a stove. The stove was heated in the hallway, so the wall on the side of the room was just warm. A tortoise was constantly warming on the floor near the stove, which was attracted by the heat of the stove. She warmed herself at the stove, crawling around the room.
Turtle liked to eat cool cabbage leaves. She sat at the stove and gnawed cabbage leaves. If food delivery was delayed, the turtle crawled onto the bedside mat. So she said she wants to eat. Katerina woke up, lowered her legs ... and quickly lifted them in order not to step on her little girlfriend.
She took the turtle in her hands, twirled her in her hands, looked at the amazing eyes of the animal and the shell. Katerina brought food for the turtle. It was a turtle turtle. The furniture in the room was with high legs. The turtle was visible anywhere in the room, and the closet was so close to the floor that the turtle didn't crawl under it. Katerina found the turtle quickly.
Katerina waved her magic wand, but it did not hit at that time. The girl woke up in a train at the age of seven, she sat by the window and looked at her house, which they were driving slowly. Outside the window flashed her playground. She saw her woman Varia, who was sitting on her favorite stool. The girl wanted to cry, but her mother sat next to her, and on the table lay a newspaper for 1958.
Katerina was born in the maternity hospital, standing on a city street, parallel to which the river flowed. Those years are shrouded in time. The street of those times was very decent. On it stood vigorous houses of three-four floors of yellowish color. In the courtyard of the long brick house Katerina had the nickname Beauty. She did not know who gave her this nickname, but sometimes she was called that, at that time she was five or six years old. She was a big girl and was taller than her peers.
By the age of seven, Katerina had two long braids, but at four she still had a haircut with a four-sided bang. Her friend Tanechka also went with this hairdo. The girls were friends under the views of their grandmothers. The playground was quite large, it was located along the length of the house. On the one hand, it was bounded by a house, and on the other hand, by a picket fence, followed by the railway.
Here is a place and raised Katerina to eight years. Tanya's father was a designer. They lived decently for those times. They had a two-room apartment in the next doorway. Tanya's grandmother was very intelligent and constantly made comments to Katerina because of her pimples or because of her nose. She Katerina fed several times with Tanya. Katerina, with her constant appetite, increased Tanya's ability to absorb food.
The girls played hide and seek in the designer's room several times and hid behind the closet, so that there was a free corner behind it. Most of all, Katerina liked yellow, sharply sharpened pencils and white sheets of paper on the table. The Tanechka family was soon given a three-room apartment in a brick house located on the same street, and they moved. Tanya was born with a sister. The ways of the girls diverged forever ...
Chapter 3
The train went north along the ridge of the ancient mountains, where Katerina was a lady of Nedra in her previous life, and the train turned towards the Northern capital. They arrived in the big city of Leningrad. At the station, Katerina saw yellow cars with checkered side doors, they were called "Victory". But they rode the subway to her mother's aunt, who was a couple of years older than her mother. They stopped at Aunt Ani. In the northern capital there were still houses destroyed by the war, but this did not prevent them from walking around the Hermitage and Petrodvorets, where not all the rooms had been restored.
Not far from the golden figures on the bridge, there lived the cousin of Baba Vari, Baba Tanya, with her brother Sergey Kirillovich, they lived on the bank of the canal, near Nevsky Prospect.
Aunt Ani's husband, Aunt's husband, introduced Katerina and her mother to the city. Aunt Anya didn't go on trips with them, she cooked food and drained pots to mirror cleanliness. Katerina forever remembered a tall, thin man who tirelessly showed the Northern capital and its environs. They then lived in the same room, in an apartment with their neighbors, in a very old area of the city.
The fairy tale has a long effect, and quickly people grow up and age. So Katerina returned her soul to the world of people, as if she had returned from a long business trip. Katerina is seven years old again. Katerina and her mother returned home from Leningrad, they had a penny in their pocket.
Children's joy at that time cost 4 kopecks. She was sold by Frosya the gazirovschitsa. She stood behind a metal stand under a striped fabric roof. On a metal counter two glass cylinders with syrup towered, sparkling water without syrup cost 1 kopeck. You could buy a box of matches for a penny, but the girl added three more and bought water with syrup.
Glasses were washed on a turntable with a fountain and turned upside down on trays. The second joy cost 9 or 11 kopecks, naturally, it was ice cream: a popsicle on a stick for 11 kopecks and milk ice cream for 9 kopecks. The country has changed money. Ten-year-old Katerina realized that 90 kopecks with old coins is 9 kopecks new or three 3 kopecks old. The girls regretted one thing: that they had not accumulated yellow coins, otherwise they would have been richer ten times. Katerina had another treat for 8 kopecks - a bag of pressed cocoa with sugar.
Katerina was given a two-room apartment in a two-story house without central heating batteries. In the square they won, in comfort they lost.
The house was wooden, plastered. This is where the first TV appeared. Neighbors came to Katerina's apartment and looked at the small screen together.
Katerina well remembers her second apartment without prompts. They had an apartment with stove heating. In the big room there was a sofa, on a shelf of a sofa there were seven elephant ivory. There was a painting on the wall where bears walked along a broken tree. Standing on a bedside table made of oak was one of the first TVs. All the neighbors went to them to watch TV.
Katerina had her first working day when the Fashion House opened. Needed a model. The school from the fashion house was across the road. Two women came to school and began to examine girls of twelve and older. Chose Katerina. She came to the Fashion House, where she was taught to walk on the catwalk. She began to sew trousers, skirts, jackets. She stood, and she was wrapped with cloth and cut off with needles. By nature, she is not a mannequin. For a long time it could not continue. The time has come to pay her money, but she could not take it. Catherine could not take the money and everything !!! And she left the fashion house. Came to her house, brought the money. She bought flippers, a mask, a tube for money. For a long time the flippers served her, and she never fell in love with diving.
Once a red-haired boy approached Katerina in school and said:
- Katerina, do you want to be a radio announcer?
Why not. Let's go to the audition. She read the text. Everyone came running to her: very much.
They say:
- Read again.
I read it. All fled. Everything is like with fashion - duplicates are not its elements.
Sometime in May, Katerina in twenty minutes decided to complete a control work in mathematics. She was released from class to the street. Spring fluttered fresh leaves. The school was one-storeyed, several classes were temporarily transferred here. But most of all in this school, she remembered the flight of the first cosmonaut.
There was a lesson in Russian, which was interrupted by a call. From all the classes, the schoolchildren ran out into the corridor with exclamations: "Man in space!"
Katerina invented newspapers on one sheet of a school notebook. With a classmate, they drew the first newspaper on the drawing paper. Katerina wrote the first lines of poetry under each picture.
The first trees were planted around the school in the spring, the school is new. Next to the school was a deli in a five-story building. The queue for soy bars was included in the list of receiving children's joy.
Katerina lived in a two-story house. On the ground floor, there was a friend at home, Valya. In her house they loved to make one potato dish: boiled potatoes were put on a large frying pan and fried. In the kitchen they cooked on the stove with cast-iron circles. They stoked coal in the apartment and in the kitchen where they cooked food. Next to the stove there was always a broom and a poker.
In the next two-story house lived the remaining girlfriends. Favorite game in the yard - 'Gardener', it was held on a bench against a neighboring house. Behind the bench was a table for table tennis, which was rarely empty. Volleyball is a game common to the whole yard. The yard limited the third house. The fourth house was demolished and built a brick, two-story. It settled family from the capital. In the summer they went in slaps. These shoes are called Muscovites.
The first enemies appeared simply: Katerina drew all the friends, and they didn't speak to her for half a year after the drawings. And she painted them beautifully! In lush skirts in the fashion of the early sixties.
Getting to know fiction was simple. In the apartment of Nadya's classmate there was a shelf, while rare books were then on the shelf - J. Verne. In this apartment, Katerina first saw and remembered the eggs.
Bath was a holy place once a week for Katerina and her mother. There was no shampoo at that time, but there was laundry soap and long hair. In the bath were long lines. At the end of the washing process, the mother poured Katerina on the head with a basin of cool water, with the words: "Water from the goose, thinness from Caterina." Perhaps that is why Katerina was never thin.
At home in the corner of the kitchen hung an icon. Through the yellow copper was visible face painted in colors on the tree. Icon when moving disappeared.