Читать книгу The Secret Life of the Two-Faced Virgin. Part 1 - Группа авторов - Страница 10

When Natasha turned twelve, grandmother Pelageya suddenly passed away. That year, her sister Elena had a prophetic dream that their grandmother was about to die. Natasha told their parents about the dream, but they paid it no mind. A month and a half later, grandmother Pelageya died from gangrene. She had spent almost one and a half months in the hospital in the town of Vetka. Their parents constantly visited and cared for her. Grandmother Irina told Natasha that grandmother Pelageya really wanted to see her granddaughters, but the parents never took Natasha and her sister to the hospital because the sight of her illness would have been too much for their young minds. Once, the parents and brother went to the hospital when grandmother had surgery to amputate her leg. The brother returned alone from the hospital and asked Natasha and her sister to help him look for something in the attic. The three of them searched for something unusual but found nothing. Natasha asked her brother what they were looking for, but he did not say. Then he said the floors needed to be opened. Natasha said he had gone mad and refused to do it. Then grandmother Irina arrived, and the brother stopped searching. He told Natasha and her sister not to tell anyone about it. That evening, the parents returned and said that grandmother Pelageya had died. Natasha was deeply shaken – the prophetic dream of her sister Elena had completely come true. Natasha never saw her grandmother alive or spoke to her one last time. Afterwards came the funeral, grief, and sorrow. Natasha forgot about what her brother had been searching for in the grandmother’s house. Only many years later did she recall this incident. It had happened just before her grandmother’s death, and perhaps she could have told their father something important, and her brother might have overheard. But he did not find it.

After grandmother Pelageya’s death, Natasha and her sister visited and stayed in the village a few more times. But being alone in the house became even scarier. They seemed to sense someone’s presence. It was an inexplicable feeling. Natasha often dreamed of her grandmother, who seemed to want to tell her something in her dreams, but she could not hear her, as if something was preventing it. One day, an incident occurred that made Natasha and her sister not want to visit grandmother Irina in the village anymore. Natasha and her sister often liked to lie on the stove platform. That day they were lying there again. Grandmother Irina came with her best friend from the village. Apparently, she thought her granddaughters were somewhere in the garden or playing with friends. She started talking to her friend and said a phrase that shocked Natasha: “Why do they come here? They’re nobody to me. Not my blood, not my kin. Polka was alive, and they still came, but now who are they to me? Polka is gone, and they have no business here.” When Natasha heard this, she couldn’t believe her ears. She had always considered both grandmothers hers and had never distinguished who was more important. She thought both treated her and her sister equally. Natasha told her parents about this, but she never went back to the village. The parents continued to visit and help grandmother with household chores. After grandmother Polya’s death, grandmother Irina gave up the cows, no longer raised pigs, and kept only chickens. At that time, Natasha and her sister did not understand the meaning of grandmother Irina’s words. But many years later, circumstances emerged that revealed the full meaning of what was said – but that is another story from Natasha’s adult life.

After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the village where grandmother Irina lived was subject to mandatory evacuation. At that time, her brother had just returned from the army. Natasha’s parents decided to take grandmother Irina in with them. Her brother continued to travel to Sherstin and even lived in the house for some time. Although the authorities forbade taking furniture and many items from the house, her brother nevertheless took several things.