Funny Children's Stories. Bilingual Edition [Slava Brodsky] (fb2) читать постранично, страница - 62

спасает. Ветер всё дует и дует в лицо, и нос начинает мёрзнуть. А потом начинают мёрзнуть щёки. И жёсткий колючий снег бьёт в глаза.

И я уже забываю, что вокруг темно. Я только думаю о ветре и снеге и уже плохо соображаю, куда иду. Но поскольку я иду туда почти каждый день, то ноги сами знают, куда надо идти. И я иногда только спрашиваю кого-то, есть ли на свете что-нибудь хуже, чем когда темно, холодно, снег, ветер, тебе двенадцать лет и ты идёшь рано утром в школу.

А сегодня, когда я шёл в школу, мне вдруг вспомнились лето и речка. И вспомнилось мне, как я лежу на тёплом песке.

Я лежу на животе. Голова — на моих руках. И мне немного холодно, потому что я плавал очень долго, а вода в речке холодная. И с носа капает вода. А потом с носа перестаёт капать. Я весь просыхаю от воды. И мне становится совсем тепло. А потом всё жарче и жарче. И когда мне становится совсем жарко, я встаю и бегу опять к реке.

Когда я об этом вспоминал сегодня по дороге в школу, я решил, что в следующий раз я не побегу к реке, даже когда мне будет совсем жарко. Я буду лежать на тёплом песке под жарким солнцем долго-долго. И пусть это солнце пропечёт меня всего насквозь. Пусть его жар заполнит меня всего. И я буду лежать столько, сколько смогу вытерпеть.

А когда я почувствую, что не могу уже впитать больше никакого тепла, я полежу ещё немного. Потому что я хочу, чтобы мне было жарко. И я очень хочу, чтобы мне было жарко всегда.

Ещё я стал думать сегодня о далёких жарких странах, где не бывает зимы и где всегда тепло. И, главное, нам говорили в школе, что такие жаркие страны есть. Нам в школе говорили, что там никогда не бывает холодно, только жизнь там не такая счастливая.

А я бы всё равно туда поехал. Мне ничего. Потому что я не могу себе представить, как может быть плохо там, где никогда не бывает холодно. Ну, а то, что там жизнь не такая счастливая, так я бы потерпел.

Hot Countries

Today it is real winter outside and it is very cold. And I do not like it when it is cold. I especially do not like it when it is cold and windy.

In the winter, as soon as I wake up, I already know that it is cold and windy outside. That is why I hate to wake up in the winter. And when I wake up, I think only about one thing: that very soon I will have to go outside, where it is cold and windy. And I can think of nothing else.

In the morning, I drink a cup of tea and eat what Mom gives me. I listen to how she rushes me and says that I will be late for school again and that she wonders why I move so slowly. And she often tells me that it seems like I am fully frozen.

And so, I go out onto the staircase; I slowly crawl downstairs from our fourth floor and approach the double doors out onto the street. I open the inner door and right away, I hear the wind howling. And almost every time that I come between the inside and the outside doors, I am surprised at how cold it is there. And I am afraid even to think about how cold it must be there, outside the door.

I have to push the outside door open with my entire body. Either because its spring is too tight, or because of the wind, or maybe because of both.

And then, when I have already squeezed through the door, I still need to hold it with my foot. And when I let go of it, I need to dodge the door and make sure that it does not slam on me. And when the door closes, only then, at that moment, do I fully realize how bad things really are.

And worst of all is that it is still very dark outside. But when it is cold and dark, it is much worse than when it is cold and light. And while I am still inside our yard, it is not that cold. Because I still have my heat inside of me. But when I go out into the street, the wind starts to blow into my face hard and, most importantly, without stopping.

Of course I lower the earflaps of my hat and raise up my collar. But that does not help. The wind keeps blowing into my face, and my nose starts to freeze. Then come my cheeks. They start to freeze too. And the harsh and bristly snow flies right into my eyes.

And I forget that it is dark outside. I think only about the wind and the snow and do not even realize where I am going. But since I go there almost every day, my legs carry me where I have to go. And sometimes I ask someone, “Is there anything in the world that is worse than when it is dark, cold, snowing, windy, you are only twelve, and you are on your way to school early in the morning?”

But today, as I was going to school, I suddenly remembered the summertime and the river. And I remembered lying on the hot sand.

I lie on my stomach, with my head resting on my arms. I feel a little cold because I swam for too long and the water in the river was cold. And the water is dripping down from my nose. But then it stops dripping and I am fully dry. And I start feeling hotter and hotter. And when I get too hot, I get up and run to the river again.

As I was remembering all that today on my way to school, I thought that next time I will not run to the river, even when I become really hot. I will lie on the hot sand under the hot sun for a long, long time. I will bake myself under the sun. I will let its heat fill me completely. And I will lie for as long as I can stand it.

And when I feel that I can no longer be under the sun, I will still lie a little longer. Because I want to be hot. I want to be hot all the time.

Also today I was thinking about far away hot countries where there is no winter and it is always warm. And most importantly, we were told in school that such hot countries do exist. We were told that it is never cold in those countries but that life is not very happy there.

But I would go there anyway. I do not care. Because I cannot imagine how it could be bad where it is never cold. As for life being not very happy there — I would learn to live with that.

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