***
Everything in the perfect bundle, Aunt Fira!
Anna Schusterman
Alexei was disliked by his classmates, awarded the nickname "Puchok"(Bundle) and never called him by his first name again. Despite his young age his face was forever frozen in one expression: a dull squeamish expression, and every passing boy considered it his duty to flog or push him.
Accustomed to pain, covered with scars on his back from beatings with a belt inflicted by his drunken father, Lyosha did not pay attention to those around him, showing as much as he could that he did not care about the whole bunch!
Lyosha suffered from dyslexia; reading and memorizing text was difficult for him.
His father would teach him with a belt so that "he wouldn't be lazy.
He often ran away from home, got mixed up with a bad crowd.
- How was it going? - his criminal friends would ask him.
-everything in the perfect bundle! - Alexei answered them, sniffing his nose.
It was fun and rewarding with the criminals. A noisy group would pile into the stores... They shared everything equally.
One day, on his way home, he saw an old lady next door. Patched up, crying, covered in mud, she was sitting in a puddle and made no effort to get up...
- Everything will be in the , perfect bundle, Aunt Fira! - Lyosha muttered confusedly as he helped the old woman up. Barely fumbled for the switch...
A gasp! The room was filled with paintings, brushes and paints
lying on the floor...
- Lyoshenka, sweetheart, how can I pay you for your kindness? Maybe I can teach you to paint? - affectionately asked the artist.
Lyosha didn't sleep all night. He dreamed of brushes, gripped in a bundle, tied with a silver ribbon!
The paints themselves were laying on the canvas, the outlines of the abusers in gray-brown tones revealed their nasty essence...
Lyosha jumped out of bed, in a cold sweat! His heart was beating fast and fast, tears spurted from his eyes.
Without even having breakfast he ran to the neighbor's house!
The door was open...
Aunt Fira was waiting for Alyoshenka, oh how she was waiting for the sunny boy! There was a plate of cheese pancakes on the kitchen table.
The cheese pancakes are gave off a sweet and intoxicating smell, begging: Eat us, eat us!
- More sour cream? - the neighbor cooed affectionately.
When Alexei was full, Auntie Fira cleared the table, put a large sheet of white paper and a pencil and ordered:
- Draw what you want, that's what's fussing in your head, draw!
The big circle looked like a frying pan, and out of it popped cheese circles...
And in the circles... The angry faces of his classmates, fried in the frying pan!
"Talent!" - thought to herself, the artist.
Selecting bright, iridescent tones of paint,
mixed them on a palette and handed them to the boy!
- Now draw your dream," Aunt Fira asked affectionately. -
Remember, the dream has a good heart and a cheerful face!
Alexei didn't finish school, didn't get his high school diploma...
He was not admitted to the art school and got a job on a painting crew.
Opening a can of fresh, pleasant-smelling paint, spreading it on the wall with a brush, he imagined himself an artist!
Aunt Fira gave him a palette and paints. And he painted, painted kind hearts and cheerful faces!
Years went by... Fifty-year-old Alexei Mikhailovich Puchkov, (mister Bundle) a famous self-taught artist, owner of an art gallery and an art school for gifted children, was having a hard time fending off yet another art dealer. He wouldn't sell a portrait of an old, smiling woman for any price!
The title of the painting: "Everything in the perfect bundle, Aunt Fira.
Tретий Экспериментальный Конкурс
"СОРОК ЛЕТ СПУСТЯ".
Предлагаем вашему вниманию ИТОГИ конкурсного соревнования.
I РАЗДЕЛ: ПРОЗА.
ЛАУРЕАТЫ:
1 место. Анна ШУСТЕРМАН. 10,10,10,9,9,9,8,8,8,7. Суммарная оценка 88.
Приз 13000 баллов.
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- 16.11.2021. ***
