Читать книгу KHATUNA. THE GIRL WITH THE DOLL - Владимир Гречинов - Страница 5

In the morning, the whole family gathered at the table for breakfast.

«Mom, did you hear how loudly and close the wolves howled last night? Vasilisa and I became scared, we even locked our door on the hook,» said Ulyana.

«Yes, I heard. It’s really too close. Probably, there is little game in the hills and steppe. They want to eat. It’s right that you and Vasilisa locked yourself in just in case. From now on, lock the door on the hook every night,» Galina answered, casting a glance at Pelageya, who was sitting with tousled hair and eating a bagel, washing it down with milk, while clumsily and childishly staining her mouth and clothes.

«A child is a child,» thought Galina, smiling slightly, trying to extinguish her anxiety and doubts.

«Mommy, can we go to the village to Nikolka with Varya today? Their father was supposed to arrive from Stavropol yesterday with a wagon train. He promised them goodies and gifts of all kinds from there to bring. Ulyana and I are very curious to look at them. And we will take Pelageyushka with us, let her also be friends with our friends,» Vasilisa turned to her mother.

Galina, seeing Nazar’s approving look, allowed the girls to visit the village, but first asked to help her with the household – to milk the goats and feed the chickens. When the children went out into the yard and walked towards the goat pen, the animals began to behave unexpectedly agitated. As if frightened of something, they ran into a heap on the opposite side at the wall of the barn and began to watch Pelageya warily.

«Strangely. This is not good,» Galina thought to herself. «How many times have people been here, but they have never looked at anyone so frightened before… Well, come on,» she said to the girls, «go to Nikolka and Varya now. I’ll milk the goats myself.»

…Having invited guests to the house, Varya’s and Nikolka’s mother sat all the children at the table, gave them tea with cheesecakes and distributed colorful lollipops brought by her husband from Stavropol, cast in the shape of fir-trees, towers and figures of various animals.

«Well, let’s see what else your father brought you from Stavropol,» Ulyana said with interest, examining a transparent orange lollipop in the form of a bunny that glittered in the sun.

«He brought me some toy soldiers,» Nikolka said before his sister could answer, and, bending down under the bench, took out a wooden box. Opening it, he placed on the table in a battle formation painted and varnished figures of hussars, who seemed to immediately rush on horseback to attack directly at the samovar standing in front.

«Come on, I’ll show you something else,» Varya said, calling everyone, and pulled Ulyana by the hand into the next room.

There, on a table by the window, stood a metal box, decorated with patterns and mother-of-pearl. Varya pressed the lock lever – and another smaller lid opened from the top of her lid, from which a mechanical bird, similar to a nightingale, jumped out. She was turning in directions, flapping her wings and spilling into trills. The inside of the box was trimmed with wood and upholstered in red velvet. Amazed by the little thing and full of childish envy, Vasilisa suddenly blurted out, «Just think, a box with a bird! But we have such a beautiful doll that no one else in the village has ever seen. Isn’t that so, Pelageyushka?»

Pelageya, in response with a grim face, said in a quiet displeased voice, «What are you talking about? There is no doll.»

«Well, how is that not?» Vasilisa did not calm down. «We saw her at your place lately. You hid it in mother’s empty linen chest in your room.»

Hearing this, Pelageya turned white with anger and was almost ready to pounce on Vasilisa.

«Don’t quarrel over nothing!» Nikolka intervened. «Let’s better all of us now climb Mount Kutsay together. Let’s look at our village and its surroundings from above.»

«Oh, this is so amusing! Why not really climb the mountain?» Ulyana was delighted. «They say that sometimes the great Elbrus is visible from there.»

Vasilisa and Varya also happily supported this idea. Only Pelageya silently looked out the window, plunged into her thoughts.

Having gathered, the children set off on a long journey, making their way up the rocky slope through dense thickets of hazel, rose hips and wild plums. At the top of the mountain, they really had an amazing view of the village and its surroundings. With its white huts, yellow thatched roofs, haystacks, a river and green gardens in the rays of the sun and against the background of a clear blue sky, it looked like a huge cake from above, miraculously concocted by some unknown but skillful magician.

«What a beauty!» Varya exclaimed. «Oh, look! Over there you can see our hut with the yard.»

At that moment, to the surprise of the children, a frightened hare suddenly jumped out of a nearby large briar bush and rushed down the slope, quickly hiding in the thicket of plums.

«Look! And there is Elbrus!» said Nikolka, pointing with his hand in the direction opposite from the village, where a majestic mountain was visible on the horizon. Its two-humped snow-white peak resembled a sleeping white camel, which seemed to hover and soar in the blue sky.

While everyone was admiring the view of Elbrus, Vasilisa noticed a small cherry plum tree growing off to the side at the edge of a steep cliff. Deciding to feast on wild fruits, she stood on a stone right on the edge of the abyss and wanted to pick the fruits, but suddenly she felt that someone was standing behind her. The girl looked back and saw Pelageya, who was looking at her with some cold, frozen, repulsive gaze. Vasilisa got scared, recoiled back and, stumbling, almost fell down – only at the last moment did she manage to firmly grasp the branch and, resting her feet on the mountainside, hung on it. Pelageya approached the edge of the cliff and continued to look from above with her magical gaze, from which Vasilisa’s whole body was shackled. Vasilisa felt that she was about to unclench her fingers and fall. Some unknown force tied her throat and did not allow her to scream to call for help.

Suddenly, the swallows flying around were greatly alarmed in the sky. They gathered in a large flock and began to attack Pelageya, striking her head and face with their claws. Waving aside the birds and hiding behind her hands, she distracted herself from Vasilisa and backed away. Varya turned around at the noise.

«Look!» she shouted. «How many swallows! Strange, they attacked our Pelageyushka!»

«Where is Vasilisa?» Ulyana asked anxiously. The girl ran to the edge of the cliff and saw her little sister clinging to a tree branch, who was trying to climb up. Bending down, Ulyana began to pull Vasilisa, grabbing her clothes. But her strength was not enough. Nikolka saved the situation – he immediately rushed to the rescue of Ulyana and helped pull Vasilisa out of the cliff.

«How did you get there?» Ulyana asked her sister in a trembling voice.

«It’s all she! She scared me, and I fell down!» screamed Vasilisa in tears, pointing her finger at Pelageya, who was standing to the side.

«It’s your own fault! There is nothing to blame on others! Be cautious and careful next time! And do not go to such places without asking,» as if in an adult way, Ulyana scolded her younger sister, brushing off her clothes.

From below came the bell ringing of the village church.

«Okay, it’s time to go back! We are probably already being searched for,» said Nikolka and, once again taking a look at the village from a height, led everyone back.

The girls returned home quite late. Pelageya retired to her room, and Ulyana and Vasilisa sat in the kitchen and began vying to tell their mother about their visit to Nikolka and Varya – about the treats and gifts that their father had brought from Stavropol.

«Where did you scratch your feet so badly?» Mother asked Vasilisa in surprise.

In response, the girl told her about what had happened on the mountain. Whimpering, she again began to complain about Pelageya, that it was she who scared her and pushed her off the cliff, and then with her unusual gaze fettered her body and did not give the opportunity to call for help, and only the swallows at the last moment saved her by flying at Pelageya.

«Stop it, Vasilisa!» Ulyana intervened. «Pelageyushka has nothing to do with it. You were just scared, not expecting to see her behind your back, and you fell down yourself. The fear of falling into the abyss immobilized you and did not allow you to call for help. Although,» Ulyana thought for a second, «the swallows really behaved unusually when they pounced on Pelageyushka.»

Galina listened to her daughters and became wary, recalling the strange events that happened last night, and how much the goats in the yard were scared at the sight of Pelageya.

In the morning of the next day, Nazar got ready for business in the village. Galina asked him to stop by on the way to Granny Efrosinya – a longtime acquaintance, a local fortune-teller and sorceress – and invite her over for tea, and at the same time tell fortunes on the cards.