Book three. Invisible enemy
Andrey Prudkovskii
© Andrey Prudkovskii, 2019
ISBN 978-5-0050-8038-7 (т. 3)
ISBN 978-5-0050-6080-8
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Chapter 1. Where there’s the end, there’s a start
“Granny! Granny!” granddad Pahom called his wife out, getting off the stove. “We have to go!”
“Don’t call me granny, I am too young for you?” his wife said, “I am no more than two hundred. It’s too early for us! Here I’ll pickle cucumbers, make sour cabbage… And I have to wait for Milochka, I have to tell her everything… Get back to your stove bench and don’t get in the way!”
“All right,” granddad Pahom grumbled, “let’s wait a bit more. We’ve been living for too long. The angels are coming to me at night in my dreams, inviting me to the far, unknown way…”
“We have time,” his wife replied. “No one has ever been late there!”
There was a reason that Terra didn’t want to discuss it with the old one. He didn’t know much about his wife, and the main thing, he didn’t know how old she was. It’s been a long time ago, about one hundred and fifty years, at least. Pahom buried his first wife. She became ill with some unknown disease and burned down in three days The next day, Terra appeared, as if she knew where the patient was. She thought she could save her, but she was late.
“I’m sorry, Pahom, I didn’t help your wife….”
Therefore, she remained with an inconsolable man, watched so that he did not commit suicide. But then he could not let her go. So a woman with the strange name Terra settled in his house, she became his new wife. But they didn’t have children: Terrochka wasn’t young either. How old she was, no one asked, but everyone understood the fact that more than she was about half a century. Well, Pahom did not get discouraged, because he had daughters from the first wife, both of them were already married, and each of them had a couple of children: one daughter has sons, the other daughter has daughters, who have their children and grandchildren. Now Terra wanted to wait for the younger great-great-granddaughter Milochka before her last trip.
And Pahom was going through the cases of his life. There were a lot of different things… He is taken home on a cart – the leg was broken with a log on a felling. Terrochka prepares the steam bath, with kvass – she prepared it herself! She waters it with kvass. And then – to the bed, and she speaks whispering, and she strokes his leg… And the pain goes away, away… And Pahom falls asleep. He woke up in the morning – his leg doesn’t hurt. “How did that happen, wife? Is it your work?”
“Come on, come on! Everything’s alright! You’ve hurt a little bit! You took a steam bath – it was gone.”
And one night five men of a beastly kind fell into their hut…
“Get up host, feed us, and let your wife dancing and entertaining.”
Terrochka woke up and stared at their chief. And his legs stopped to hold him, he sat down on the floor and whined in a thin voice:
“I’m sorry, mistress! We’re not up to that! We just wanted to have fun!”
“Well, that’s enough! Go your way!”
The men moved back and disappeared behind the door, and their chief crawled out.
“What’s up to them, wife?”
“They’d lost not all of their conscience! So, they went home.”
And neighbors always went to his wife… If anyone in trouble, everyone went to Terra at once. Pahom didn’t understand how his wife could help them. Well, they’re going to talk to Terra, and what? And they left satisfied.
“Wife, how do you seduce them?” They don’t want to talk to me, but they’re turning to you!”
“What’s so amazing, a man needs affection! What is your caress?”
Pahom thought that anyone could hardly get caress from him. If something is needed to be made of wood – a table, a chest of drawers, a closet – everyone asks Pahom. But consoling sufferings – count him out. Let the wife console them!
But there were no troubles in the village. Where would the sufferings come from?… Except for their children, who flew around the world. Petka, the telepath, sent the post in good faith. And he stopped drinking. By the way, when did he stop drinking? At that time when Terra appeared in their village…
But it can’t be! Terra didn’t know Petka then. Why did she need to meet with him? His wife has never received any letters. When he asked, she said:
“I don’t have any relatives. I’m the only one in the world. That’s the only you whom God gave me at the end of my life.”
“What’s the end?” Pahom was surprised. “We’re both young, we’ve only lived half a century.”
Then I had to say that not half a century, but a century… And later it was a hundred and a half…
Pahom got already used to have many centenarians in the village by that time. Terra and he were not the oldest. But lately, something has broken down in Pahom. It’s not a disease; it’s some kind of fatigue. He saw everything, he had everything. And the neighbors were not cheerful either. They’re all right, but they’re not happy.
“We have been living for so long,” a hundred-and-eighty-year-old neighbor, whom he remembered as a little girl, once told him.
“Really, old woman,” Pahom thought. “Old woman! Is it time for us to go?
“It’s time! It’s time,” his wife said then. “But wait a little bit longer.”
“Grandfather! Stop napping! The guests are coming!”
Pahom got up and finally got off from the stove.
“How do you know?”
“Listen!” the quiet ringing of a distant bell broke through the sound of the wind in the crowns of the trees.
“They’re coming! Coming!”
Indeed, three-horse carriage flew into the yard. In a familiar covered cart – he did it himself – great-great-granddaughter Bella with his daughter Mila.
They came to visit the elderly more often than others. After all, it was Milocka whom his wife loved more than others. And the girl also always annoyed her mother:
“Let’s go! Let’s go to grandma Terra!”
What did they find in each other? But when she came – she ran to her beloved grandmother. She sat on a bench at her feet and asked:
“Granny, tell me a story!”
And grandma began to tell about unknown places, about unknown people. And she told in such a way as if she was in these places, she saw those people and knew everything about them.
And now Mila ran to Terra, and Pahom kissed Bella and began to help her unload the cart:
“It’s good that granddaughter is here! The old woman and I have already gathered, and there is no one whom I could leave the farm…”
“Don’t worry, grandpa, that’s why I’m here. My daughter got married, but I’m at odds with my son-in-law. It seems to me that he does everything wrong. When I tell my daughter she bristles: why would you defame my beloved? I decided to go far away. And Milka asked to go with me no matter how her mother dissuaded her… I’m going, she said, that’s all! She’s stubborn like me!
Three days passed, cabbage was fermented, cucumbers pickled. Grandmother went to the forest with her darling. They walked all day together, they just got back by night.
“And what? Said goodbye?”
“It’s all right,” the wife replied. “And you say goodbye to your granddaughter.”
“I’ve already told her everything! They will live in our house. We now