Pahom looked back and saw that he was already flying high above the village, and his hut was smaller and smaller. And the last light disappeared in the fog.
“Wife! Where are you?”
“I’m sorry, Pahomushka! Fly! I’ll catch up with you later! I still have some things to do here.”
“Did you change your mind about dying? Did you leave me alone?”
“I didn’t change my mind!”
Pahom saw his wife very close to him.
“Are you seeing, I’m flying too! But I can’t leave my granddaughter, she’s small yet! When she grows up, I’ll catch you up! Fly! Fly! Build a house for yourself and me somewhere.”
He could build houses and liked to do it. But where to build?
“Look for it! His wife instructed him. “Look for it!”
And Pahom flew higher and higher…
Chapter 2. Mila
“Oh! Finally, I broke out!”
The cart swayed gently on the bumps. Grandmother Bella dozed near me.
Everything was decided at the last moment. Father and mother grappled because of my father’s fate. My mother wanted me to go to the special school but my father insisted on a boarding school for defectives. I didn’t like any of these opportunities. My grandmother Bella saved me, as usual.
“While you’re sorting out here, let her come with me to grandfather!”
I clung to her skirt. It was there, to my beloved Granny – I called the wife of our great grandfather in such a way when I was a child. Granny, Granny my dear!… I wish I could live my whole life with you! My parents again were engaged in mutual reproaches… Let them do it! Grandmother Bella got into the cart, and I sat there. Petka was already sitting on the high-bench. By the way, he upset me a lot when he teased me in childhood. But now I’m seven, and his teasers are not so frightening for me!
I remember my childhood. I was always shown to one doctor or another. They treated me with bitter medicines and talked, talked… When I was a child, I didn’t understand why people talk, because I have already knew the thoughts of all the people around me. I supposed that my thoughts are open to everyone, so why is it necessary to make some incomprehensible sounds? So I would be “dragged” from one doctor to another, one of them even advised me to undergone surgery – not simple, but according to alien’s technologies. If I had fallen into his hands I would have turned into an alien sapiens… My beloved Granny saved me. One time she came and asked my parents to leave me with her for five minutes. She looked into my eyes and said to me mentally:
“Open your mouth and say, “Ah!”
“Why?” I thought.
“That’s the way it should be! Your parents can’t do it any other way!”
“What can’t they do?”
“They can’t understand you!”
“Ah-ah!”
“Good girl! Now: “Mom.”
“Mom!”
“All right, go and repeat what everyone says! It’s very important.”
“Why?”
“And that’s why! Once there was a beautiful young girl and an extraordinary story happened to her!”
Then my Granny closed her thoughts from me and continued the fairy tale with words that I did not understand at that time.
“What happened with the girl?”
“When you learn to speak, I’ll tell you everything!”
I cried with resentment. Then when my mother opened the door of the room.
“Mom! Mom!” All I could say was, pointing my finger at Granny. “U-u-u!”
“Now she’s going to speak,” Granny told to mother.
So it happened. Gradually I learned to understand words, which people pronounced around me although these words contradicted people’s thoughts. I tried to speak but did not turn out good. And here is neighbors’ boy Petka. When he heard what I said, he laughed and repeated it, twisting in every possible way, so that not only him, but all the guys laugh at me in the street.
A year later, Bella took me with her for a trip to her great-grandfather. That’s where I saw Granny again. Then she told me a fairy tale about a girl who received a magic flower with seven colorful petals… And many other fairy tales were told to me by my beloved Granny. I especially liked the fairy tale about the little flying men.
“I would like to meet them too!”
“You can meet them,” Granny replied, “But it’s too early for you to play with them! First you have to get smarter, otherwise, you will fly away to unknown distances and forget that you must be a human.”
Granny mentally called someone, and the air sparkled above us… Looking closely, I realized that there are small translucent men who are playing in the air.
“You’ve seen enough! Go away, minxes! Until my granddaughter grows up, don’t get close to her!”
“Why I have to be a human?” I asked.
“It’s too early for you to know! I promise, in a few years I’ll tell you everything! But now, listen to the fairy tale about the princess who found a little wounded dragon and cured him…”
That’s a way how our rare meetings with Granny took place. Now I went to her and dreamed of the new fairy tales, to which I would listen for long autumn evenings… I had no idea that this meeting might be the last. I also had to discuss with her the problems with my parents. I didn’t want to go to a special school or boarding school. I didn’t want to stay among the kids who can only tease me for bad pronunciation. After all, I have not learned how to speak correctly! At night I dreamed that Granny would take me to her…
And here we are. Running to my dear!
“Granny! Granny!” I burrowed my face into the knees of my beloved grandmother.
Granny stroked my head:
“Well, that’s enough, that’s enough! Let’s go to help grandmother Bella!”
“Don’t go! Petka helps her there! Granny, I have trouble. My parents want to send me to some school or the boarding school, but I do not want to go there!..”
“Well, don’t be upset! You won’t be sent anywhere!”
It’s not a trouble, it’s just some anxieties!
“You don’t understand, Granny, everyone laughs at me that I do not say in the right way… I can’t speak at all due to it; I even started to stutter…”
“It’s because you’re thinking too seriously about it. Is it real trouble? You have real troubles ahead of you! Okay, now run, have rest after the drive! Take a watermelon! Can you cut it? Regale Bella and Petka.”
That’s how I spent my first day with Granny. I also climbed the stove and greeted my grandfather. This time my grandfather was not joking and seemed very sad. Maybe he quarreled with Granny. Maybe, they are like my parents who quarrel every day, and then go to the opposite and keep silent like little ones. Everyone waits for the other to speak first… I have already grown up and understand that they do not hear each other’s thoughts; otherwise, they would not quarrel so often.
“Yes, honey, that’s it!” Granny thought for me. “But I didn’t quarrel with grandfather! We have an important business tomorrow, so he’s excited.”
“What, Granny?”
“I’ll