The first feather of the white angel

 KATIA
PROLOGUE

Angels have no power over themselves. They do the lessons. Angels do not reason or ask questions. This angel appeared where the child was in danger. It was an angel who guarded the children. There are billions of children on earth, but the angel flew where his wings carried. The angel was inquisitive. He had long been worried about one question: why did the wings carry him to the west on Monday, and to the east on Wednesday? Why should he rescue a seventeen-year-old boy on Tuesday and a three-year-old girl on Friday? The angel kept asking himself questions, but never expected to get an answer.

The wings of an angel consisted of feathers. Soft feathers were so pleasant to the touch, but it was they who controlled the flight of the angel. The feathers knew that today they would have to part. The feather will fall to the ground. The child will pick up the pen. The angel will descend to the earth and during the day will be inseparably next to the child. For the child has been marked! The angel did not know by whom the child was marked, for what merits and for how long. The angel only knew that his time had come. The angel didn't do anything special. The feather controlled events. The angel was only watching to see that His will was done. The angel has never seen the one who appoints the Lessons. There must have been angels who saw and heard more than he, the Angel of Falling Feathers, however...

Suddenly, the smooth thoughts of the angel were in turmoil. The girl who was supposed to pick up the feather was so upset that she passed by. The little girl just started school a few months ago. The angel saw all her thoughts and felt all her feelings. The little girl's name was Katya. The child had a complete family. The girl was loved at home, but hated at school. Katenka's first teacher was a well-deserved teacher. She taught many, many children.

Katenka was a trusting little girl. A smart girl, but, unfortunately, a little unkempt. The teacher disliked the girl. It happens. The teacher herself could not understand what irritated her so much in Katya. At first she scolded the girl, then she began to yell at her. All this happened in front of the entire class. Week after week went by, but the situation in the classroom did not change. Rather, it has changed, but for the worse. Today the teacher hit Katya with a pointer. The girls from the class began to shun Katya.

The teacher was careful. She didn't want trouble. The woman ordered to put her hands on the desk with her palms up, and beat Katya on her palms. Katyusha was in pain, but she bravely endured. The girl knew that if she started screaming and crying, it would hurt even more. The teacher will leave her after class and continue to torture her. I just had to be patient! It was the last lesson, and Katyusha hoped that her torment was over for today. The children were lined up in pairs and led out of the schoolyard. The students were greeted by their parents.

Nobody met Katya. The older sister was busy and did not have time to meet the baby. Everyone had already left for a long time, only Katya stood near the wall of the school and patiently waited. When half an hour passed, the girl realized that no one would come for her. This turned out to be the last straw. Katyusha walked along the road and talked aloud. The little girl was crying and complaining that no one was playing with her. About the teacher, who was so undeservedly strict, Katya did not remember. Or rather, forced myself not to remember.

There was a playground near the house Katya passed by. Throwing the briefcase on the ground, the girl sat on the swing, but she immediately got hit. A stone was thrown at her. The blow was so strong that Katyusha flew off the swing to the ground. The stone was thrown by the hand of Katenka's classmate. The boy believed that only the children of his yard could ride on a swing. Katya did not live in this yard. Katya was beaten by a teacher. So, the boy had every right to expel a classmate. The shocked girl slowly got up from the ground and wandered wherever her eyes looked. She even forgot about the briefcase. The boy who threw the stone liked Katyusha. Katya secretly peered into the boy's brown eyes and tarry curls. It seemed to her that he was not like everyone else. The boy turned out to be the most ordinary. Katya found out about this only now, and her world has turned into ruins.

The baby walked without choosing a path. Her path passed by the park. The park was old and very large. The alleys of the park were strewn with leaves. Mothers with prams walked sedately along the alleys. The feather lay near a large oak tree. It was Katyusha's favorite tree. Returning home, Katya knew that a surprise awaited her in the hollow of a tree. Beloved sister loved to make surprises.

Today Katya went home alone and did not hope for a surprise. She stepped on the feather with her foot and wanted to go further. However, pain shot through his leg. The girl thought she had stepped on a nail, but she didn't even slow down. The pain was far, far away, but the thoughts of the boy who offended her were close! Katerina finally came home. The girl's father was strict. The girl tried to sneak past her dad into her room, but nothing came of it. Dad was not only strict, he was also attentive. Dad loved his children and was always afraid that the children would be offended. However, dad tried to hide his fear behind a mask of severity.

Seeing that Katya came not herself, dad demanded a diary. There was no diary, not even a briefcase. The angel was worried. The girl had less and less time. The angel could not influence the minds of people. He could only touch the wing. The soft wind from the wings ruffled Dad's hair, and Dad made up his mind. When he conveyed his decision to Katya, the girl put on a jacket and went outside again. The briefcase was still where she had left it.

There was no one in the yard, but Katya did not dare to sit on the swing anymore. She returned back again through the park. And again her path passed by a tree. The feather was so white that light even streamed from it, but the girl walked like a somnambulist, moving her legs mechanically.

And the same thing happened again. Katerina stepped on a feather. Pain shot through my leg. The little girl thought she stepped on a nail. She even took off her shoe. There was no nail, but next to the shoe lay a white, fluffy feather. Slightly hesitating, the little girl picked up the pen. The world spun before my eyes, but it did not last long. The girl wanted to play pranks, and she blew on a feather. Once again! And further! Each time the sadness receded further and further.

A small ball of down separated from the feather and floated in an unknown direction. However, Katyusha did not even notice this. She was happy and good. She entered the entrance and rang the doorbell of her native apartment. The feather was in the pocket of the jacket. And the pocket was carefully fastened. Nothing else depended on Katya. She did what the angel wanted her to do.

The ball of fluff that had separated from the feather floated slowly through the air. The angel was running around in circles and urging the lump. Air currents prevented the angel from controlling the fluff, but the lump still moved in the right direction. At last the down reached the harbour. He sat down on a crimson bow, and then moved to the top of the little girl's blond head.

The girl was a classmate of Katerina. She felt sorry for Katenka, but was afraid to somehow show her feelings. Several times she wanted to go up to Katya at recess, but at the last moment she did not dare. The girl's name was Love. Lyubonka stood with her mother near a long rack. The rack was in the store. The eighth of March was approaching, and my mother decided to take her daughter with her to choose a gift for the girl. The gifts had already been bought, but Lyuba still did not agree to leave the store.

Mom was perplexed, she didn’t understand why her daughter was so divorced today?

- Mom, mom, - Lyuba once again pulled her mother by the sleeve, - come on, let's go to this window!

- Yes, what do you want? - Mom began to get angry, - there are only hairpins here! You don't like to wear hairpins! Or did you finally decide to give up your favorite bows?

“Mom…” the girl hesitated, “I…

— Yes, what is it? - Mom was alarmed, - what happened? Don't hide anything from your mom! Listen, Love!

“Mom, I’m not for myself,” the girl struggled to find words, “this is for Katya.

“Well, what’s next,” my mother took a breath, “what are you making secrets out of nothing ?! I even got scared! Who is Katya? And why did she need a hairpin?

“Mom,” Lyuba looked seriously into the eyes of the closest person in the world, “promise that you won’t tell anyone about what I’m going to tell!”

— Yes, what is it? Do you already have some secrets? Okay, I promise!

- If you tell someone, then Katya will be very bad! She said that if we blabbed to someone that she was beating Katya, then it would be bad for our parents!

- Lord, - Svetlana Ivanovna threw up her hands, - who said? What did you say? And what about the parents?

From Lyuba's rather confused and emotional story, it soon became clear to Svetlana that the situation in the class in which her daughter studies leaves much to be desired. The teacher insults Lyuba's classmate, yells at her and beats her. And all this in front of other children.

- Good. I understood everything, - Svetlana Ivanovna stroked Lyuba on the head, - well, what does the hairpin have to do with it?

- Mom, how are you listening? - Lyuba stamped her foot in annoyance - I already told you everything! Sometimes, mommy, you are so careless! We will buy a hairpin. I will give this hairpin to Katya. Katya will clean up and pin up her hair, and the teacher will stop scolding and beating her. She swears because Katya comes to class without braids. Of course, you can still make ponytails, but Katya’s hair is so soft and naughty ... They don’t stay in ponytails, we already tried it with her!

“Okay,” mom frowned a little, but then she decided that she shouldn’t show her daughter that this story hooked her so much, “now we’ll ask the seller,” after a little hesitation, she turned to a sweet girl who was bored behind the counter, “sorry, we need a hairpin! And not just a hairpin, but a hairpin for soft, thin and unruly hair!

The hairpin was chosen for a long time. Finally, Lyuba hid the cherished gift in her purse, and mother and daughter recovered home. Svetlana mechanically nodded, listening to her daughter's cheerful chatter and thought painfully. She did not know whether to interfere in the relationship between the teacher and Katya, unknown to her. The woman did not know that regardless of her decision, the outcome was already predetermined.



Having cooled down, he will make another decision. He will buy a tiny voice recorder and put it in Katenka's favorite toy. First graders were allowed to wear toys to class. Dad will open the toy, put in a voice recorder, and rudely sew up the seam. In the evening of the next day, dad will pull out the recorder and make sure that his daughter told him the truth. How dad will behave the day after tomorrow, you can already guess.

And where does the angel, you ask?

Yes, in general, and nothing to do with it.

Katya, of course, had a mother. Mom, unlike dad, did not like to analyze and doubt. She was a person of action. If not for the intervention of the angel, Katya would have brought one in her diary the day after tomorrow. Mom would have discovered one and punished her daughter. Thereafter…

In general, this is what would have been written in a note that Katya would have left to her parents.

"Mother and father. I don't want to live anymore. I get called names and beaten at school every day. Nobody plays with me. Everyone calls me stinky and dirty. The teacher hits my palms. My fingers hurt so much that I can't sleep at night. Mommy, I'm so afraid to go to school in the morning. I want it all to end."

If not for the angel, Katya would have gone to school. The note would have been found later under the pillow. Katya would sit by the open window. It was un-autumn hot outside, and the window had only recently been opened. Lyudmila Viktorovna, Katerina's first teacher, checked notebooks.

A dirty finger print left in a homework notebook would have made her raise her head and look at the girl point-blank. At that moment, when the teacher got up and picked up a pointer, Katenka would have realized that she had nothing to breathe. The teacher walked to the desk where Katya was sitting, and at this time the girl would start to rise from her chair. Katya would not wait until the teacher came close to her. She would have risen from her seat, climbed onto the windowsill and stepped from the third floor. That's all. The angel would have tried to stop the fall, but that would have been out of his control.

Fortunately, our story ended differently. Katya was transferred to another school. The teacher escaped with a slight fright, she was only threatened with a finger. It didn't even help that Svetlana Ivanovna, Lyubonka's mother, was a witness at the trial. However, it didn't matter anymore. The angel did his job. Katya survived.

The teacher continues to teach the children. Well, God be her judge!

The conclusion of this story is simple: do not pass by the feathers that fall at your feet. What if this is the feather of an angel who descended from heaven to save your life, or the life of your child?!