Feather six. Yakov

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s not crowd,” the caretaker of the hall shouted, “boy, why are you up? Your group has already gone to the next room!

“I lost my sister,” the boy whispered in confusion, “I just can’t find it!”

- Follow the group, - the caretaker pushed the baby, - your sister is probably there!

The boy looked at the old woman with tear-filled eyes, but did not dare to disobey. He trudged dejectedly into another room and indeed found his sister there.

Katarina had already noticed the disappearance of her brother and energetically pushed her classmates aside, trying to get out of the crowd and rush in search of her brother. However, when she saw that her brother Yakov followed her into the hall, she immediately calmed down and grabbed her brother by his trembling, sweaty palm, pulled the boy to her and hugged him.

- Why are you?

- Kata, I'm afraid!

- What is my Yashka afraid of?

I'm afraid to get lost again!

"Don't go far from me!"

- I'm not leaving. It's the big boys and girls that push me away from you.

"Ah, that's the point!" Is the little coward afraid of losing his big sister?

— Yes, I'm afraid!

“Katarina,” the teacher interrupted the conversation, “you are preventing the guide from talking!” If you're going to be outrageous, I won't accept your report on this topic. You'll have to spend Sunday revisiting the museum.

“Excuse me,” the girl was frightened, “I won’t talk anymore!”

Indeed, while the tour was going on, Katharina did not utter a single word. Yakov was also silent. He grabbed Katya with both hands and was more than anything afraid that big boys or girls would come up to Katharina, and Katharina would leave with them. But the girl did not pay attention to her classmates. She thought about Yasha. And I was afraid for him.
 Most recently, Yashka got lost. He went out for milk and did not return. Strangers found him and wanted to adopt him. If this happened, she would never see Yasha again. And now the older sister held the baby tightly by the palm.

Returning home, Kata called her father, but the conversation only upset her.

- Well, - brother ran up to his sister, - are we moving to a new apartment?

- No, Yashenka, we will live in this old house, with the owner, Aunt Marta. And now big Jacob will go to sleep.

“No,” the boy burst into tears, “sister Kata, don’t make me sleep!”

- All right, Yashenka, you won't sleep. We will tell each other stories.

Who will be the first to speak? Little Kata or big Yasha?

Big Yasha! - the boy laughed sleepily, - I, big Yasha, and I will be the first to tell.

“All right,” the little sister agreed with slight anxiety, “but what will Jacob the Giant tell the tale about?”

- About the cow! laughed my brother, “about Aunt Martha's red cow.

“Okay,” Katarina took a breath, “so let’s start our fairy tale from the beginning. I was at school that day, my mother rocked Radmila and asked you to go to Aunt Marta for milk. Aunt Martha's red cow had a lot of milk, and the neighbor was happy to share this milk with our family.

“Yes, Katachka,” the boy yawned, “that’s how it was!” Aunt Marta lives nearby, on the other side of the house, and I ran quickly, quickly, to bring milk to Radmila.

“It was in December,” the girl continued her story in a whisper, “before Christmas. It was snowing outside. Mom, having rocked Radmila, also fell asleep. When I returned from school, the house was quiet. Nobody came out to me. Am I confusing anything, Yasha? Yasha? Asleep!

Katharina hugged her brother and closed her eyes too. She didn't want to remember the events of that December day, but the memories kept creeping into her head. Yasha was a curious, restless boy. The child had no sense of fear at all. The kid trustingly went to everyone who called him, and with dignity accepted punishment for misconduct from his parents. The offenses were small, but spoiled a lot of blood relatives. Yasha loved to sing loudly. He also liked to be the center of attention.

One day he disappeared from the yard. While Kata was putting on sandals, Yasha ran ahead. Jumping out after her brother, Katarina discovered that Yasha was not in the yard. The windows of the house where the family of Yasha and Kata lived overlooked a noisy street. There were no cars on the road that day. The road was blocked. But the street was noisy and cheerful crowd. It was a celebratory demonstration. Yasha settled down at the head of the column, he walked along with everyone and sang a song. Someone gave Yasha a flag, and then a balloon, and Yasha merrily waved both in time with the singing.

Katarina received her portion of censure for missing her brother, and the whole family rushed to the police. The police accepted the statement and promised to find Yasha as soon as possible, however, already leaving the police station, Kata glanced at the TV screen, which worked day and night. The TV was silent, its volume control broken, but that didn't stop Katharina from recognizing her brother. There was a live broadcast of the demonstration, and it was clearly visible how cheerfully her brother was walking and silently opening his mouth, deducing some song along with everyone.

Katarina screamed, urging her parents to pay attention to what was being broadcast from the TV screen. When they figured out what the matter was, the policeman at first laughed and then lectured edifyingly on what happens when a child is not brought up properly. Yasha was found and scolded. They scolded Katya, then they scolded Yasha again, and this was the end of the upbringing process.

It was in May, and in December Yasha disappeared again. Aunt Marta's cow fell ill, and that day Yakov was not given any milk. The milk canister was empty. Yasha had cash, a few coins from a piggy bank, and he decided to surprise his parents. He decided to buy milk from Aunt Anna's milkmaid, who sold milk from a large milk barrel. However, Yasha was again unlucky. There was a lock on the barrel, but Aunt Anya was not near the barrel. Yasha was seized with slight anxiety. The boy did not have a watch on his hand. Dad promised to explain to him how the clock works, but he still hasn't. However, Yasha felt that a lot of time had already passed. Probably Radmila has already woken up and is crying, but he, the elder brother Yakov, has not yet found milk. There was also a barrel near the store, where they always sold fresh bread. However, a lot of snow had already covered it, and it was clear that they would no longer pour milk from it today. Yasha remembered that he had seen another milk barrel on the next street and quickly moved across the road.

Somehow it happened that the boy got lost. Probably the reason was that the city in which Yasha now lived was not the boy's hometown. His family moved to this town only six months ago. The blizzard started. The wind whirled the little chippers out of the snow and sang its blizzard song. Yasha wanted to sing along to the blizzards, but unexpectedly ... burst into tears. Jacob wanted to go home, but he couldn't remember how to get back there. He stood near a small one-story house and cried. An old man came out of the house. Having warmed the frightened boy, grandfather began to question him. But Yasha was so frightened that he could not really explain anything. Finally, the grandfather concluded that the child, a small, lonely boy, was driven out by evil people into the cold for milk. It is today, on such a day when a storm warning was announced in the morning.
 Grandfather put Yasha by the stove, warmed him up, fed him and announced to Yasha that he was going to adopt him.

Either the grandfather was joking, or Yasha didn’t understand something, but the kid suddenly realized that he urgently needed to go home. When grandfather went out on some business to the next room, Yashka grabbed his fur coat, put his feet in his boots and went out of the yard, not forgetting to grab his can. The blizzard howled, the blizzard was chalk, and Yasha went no one knows where. The road took him to the sea. Seeing the waves up to the sky, Yasha was even more frightened, he wanted to turn to one of the adults, but there was no one on the shore. The storm warning was announced for a reason. Schools and kindergartens sent their pupils home at 12 o'clock. Other institutions were closed one after another. Yasha decided that if he walked along the path that winds over the sea, he would definitely come out to people. The path wound between the rocks, and it was a miracle that Yasha did not fall down onto the rocks. On one of the most dangerous sites, he dropped a can. To hold on, he clung to a stone, and that's when the can and flew down.

Finally, Yasha got upstairs. Soon he was already standing near the house mirror-like to the one in which the kind grandfather lived. The boy even thought that somehow he made a circle and went back to his grandfather's house. However, Yasha didn't care anymore. He just wanted to be with people, in warmth. However, when he knocked on the door, a woman came out onto the porch. The woman was the mother of three children, but was not averse to having a fourth, such as Yasha, a child. She had three daughters, but she and her husband dreamed of a son. While the blizzard raged, and it raged for two days, the boy was fed, watered, played with, consoled. In fact, there were two children in the house. The third child was in the hospital with Botkin's disease.



The woman dressed Yakov in a new suit, which she had long ago bought for the boy whom she had baptized the previous summer, ordered two of her own children to dress, and went with the children to the hospital. There she introduced her third child to Yasha. The child was almost healthy. His discharge was scheduled for tomorrow. Therefore, the woman was allowed to talk to him, although the rules in this hospital were strict. The third child did not show his emotions. It was not clear whether he was happy about the addition to the family or not, but the mother considered her duty fulfilled and sent the child back to the ward. The father of the family worked in the north and it was decided to inform him about the joyful event by letter.

Several times it seemed to Yasha that he would recognize the familiar streets, and he tried to escape, but the eldest daughter, a portly and solid girl, was on the alert, and wrapped Yakov's long scarf around her arm . Such a composition in the police department and profits. Mom, two own children, and Yasha, hobbled by the older girl's firm hand. The policeman was surprised, but sent a friendly company to the appropriate office. A pleasant surprise awaited Yasha in the corridor. Near the office, the kind grandfather, from whom Yasha had so treacherously escaped, was waiting for his turn. Grandfather came with the firm intention of finding Yasha and adopting him. He waited out the blizzard and came to the police station. Seeing Jacob next to an outside woman, the grandfather began to claim his rights to the boy. The woman actively objected, her children supported her. Yasha at that moment was slowly moving towards the exit in order to slip away from the police, but again nothing happened. The mother of the family grabbed the boy by the hood with an unwavering hand. Grandfather took the baby by the hand and began to pull towards him, the woman, of course, insisted on her rights and pulled Yasha in her direction. The children were shouting something. There was noise in the corridor.

The office door opened and a police officer looked out at the noise. The woman and the grandfather began to explain their problem at the same time. Passions ran high. Another door opened and a tearful woman with a baby in her arms came out, as well as a man and a girl. These were Yashka's parents, with their sisters Katya and Radmila. The parents hardly waited for the blizzard to end, and also ran to the police station.
However, dad was here for the third time.

The blizzard did not prevent him from rushing in search of the baby at the same moment when it became clear that Yasha would not return home today. When nothing worked out for him, he connected the police. And today my mother insisted on going to the police station with my father. When the parents saw their son, there was silence for a moment, but then there were many emotions. There were tears, raised voices, even a threat to take off someone's pants and punish with a belt.

Grandfather and mother of many children were invited to visit. Grandfather accepted the invitation with dignity, but he never came to visit. Kata still hasn't forgiven Yasha to the end. And not at all because Yashka got lost. She's already used to this. Katya was offended by the fact that Yasha did not refuse when someone else's suit was put on him. Moreover, when the mother of many children, along with the whole family, came to visit, Yashka inquired about when the kind woman would give him, Yashka, shoes. The woman bought boots for her godson, but promised to give Yasha when summer comes. That's actually the whole story. Yes, I forgot to tell. Yakov nevertheless understood something and is now afraid to move away from Katya's sister even a few steps. However, how long such obedience will last, no one knows.

Sherlock Holmes slumbers in each of us. And many of us have powerful deduction. Do you want us to check now whether you personally have deduction? Want to? Well, let's get started then! As you understand, this story could not have done without an angel and his pen.

A tragedy was about to happen in the boy's family. The angel intervened in the events this time as well. Thanks to this intervention, the life of the family in which Yasha lived and was brought up, and the life of Yakov himself, did not change. What do you think the angel did to prevent events from turning the other way? Maybe he brought the boy to his grandfather's house? Or maybe the feather led the boy to the dwelling of a kind woman? Or maybe a small can fell and rolled onto the stones for a reason? No, no and NO. All these actions the boy did himself, of his own free will. What then did the angel do? Well? Give up? Don't know the answer?

Good. I'm ready to tell! The angel did not let the boy bring milk in a can home. The milk was spoiled, although, at first glance, everything was in order with it. Milk would give the whole family an upset stomach. However, adults would cope with this scourge easily, even without the intervention of a doctor. It's a completely different thing baby. The ambulance couldn't save her. After the death of his little sister, Jacob's life would have been different.

After the death of Radmila, Yakov's parents would withdraw into themselves. No one would have said a word to the boy, but it was clear that it was he who was considered to be to blame for the fact that Radmila drank bad milk that day. Unable to bear the suffering, the mother would end up in a mental hospital. After her return, her father would have left the family. What little things, you say. In many families there are events and more terrible. However, for a little boy, for whom his family is the whole world, the events that take place somewhere else do not matter. He does not understand that the world is huge, for him only the concept of here and now is important. The grief of a small child is an event that causes the world to collapse.

There is no crime in this little story. There are no evil adults ready to humiliate or destroy a little boy.
 This story happened a long time ago.
 However, the angels were always on guard. It was then when they went for milk with cans. And milk was sold in milk barrels. In those days, there were also evil people, but a little boy, lost and crying, could always hope that he would be fed, warmed up and even tried ... to adopt.

Listen, here's another mystery, but where was the spoiled milk? At Aunt Mart's cows? Or in one of the three barrels? What do you think?