"Aha, kid, what's the matter?

"Let your grandmother support you!"

"Let me keep it, I will keep it. How hard do you think it is! "

"Then you can raise it!"

Grandpa shouted.

Suddenly there was silence in the room. Grandpa said to me:

"She and I go our separate ways now, and everything is separated ..."

Grandma is sitting under the window, knitting lace quickly, the spool is beating happily, and the copper needle is shining.

Grandma hasn't changed, and grandpa is thinner. Brown-red hair has turned gray, and green eyes are always looking around suspiciously.

Grandma talked about her separation from grandpa in a sarcastic tone.

He gave her all the broken pots, bowls and jars and said:

"It's all yours. Don't ask me anything! "

He took almost all her old things-old clothes, all kinds of things, fox fur coats and sold them for 700 rubles.

He gave all his money to his adopted son to eat interest. His godson is a Jew in the fruit business.

He lost the last bit of shame, stingy to madness and degree:

He searched almost every old friend before, complaining and begging to them one by one, saying that the child had left him penniless. Please, give some money!

He took advantage of people's respect for him and made a lot of money. He took this big ticket and wandered around grandma's nose like a child:

"Fool, look, what is this? People don't give you a penny! "

He gave all the money to a cobbler and his sister, who was the boss of Little Uranium, and he had to pay interest.

Spending money at home is strictly separated. Today grandma buys food and cooks, and tomorrow is grandpa.

When it was grandpa's turn to cook, he ate badly. Grandma always buys the best meat.

Tea and sugar are also separated, but tea is cooked in a teapot. At this time, grandpa will panic and say:

"Slow down, let me see, how much tea have you put in?"

He carefully counted the tea leaves, and then said:

"Your tea is a little smaller than mine. My tea is big. I want to put less!"

He also paid special attention to the brown color and concentration of the tea poured in two bowls, and the weight was certainly more worthy of careful investigation.

"Can I give you one last glass of wine?"

Grandma said, and then she emptied the tea.

Grandpa said:

"All right!"

The oil of the ever-burning lamp in front of the icon is also bought separately.

I have lived with * * * for 50 years and come to this step!

Looking at grandpa's behavior, I feel funny and boring, while grandma just feels funny.

"The older people get, the more confused they become!"

"An 80-year-old man will go back to 80 years ago. Let him go on like this and see who is unlucky! "

"I want to earn our bread!"

I started making money, too.

On holidays, I walk the streets to pick up cattle bones, rags, rotten paper and nails.

Selling a Pute rag to a junk dealer can get 20 kopecks, and the price of iron is the same. A Putt bone is 10 Gaby or 8 Gaby.

I usually pick it up after school and sell it every Sunday. I can get 30 to 50 kopecks in a basket, and I can get more if I'm lucky.

Every time my grandmother takes my money, she quickly puts it in the pocket of her skirt and praises her.

"Really capable, good boy!

"Both species can feed themselves completely!"

Once, I saw her crying with my 50 kopecks, with a muddy tear hanging on her big nose.

More promising than selling secondhand goods is stealing firewood and boards from the piles of wood on the banks of the Oka River or Piski Island.

During the fair, people built many shacks on the island, and the boards removed after the fair were piled up until the spring overflowed.

A good board, the ordinary citizen owner can pay 10 kopeck, and I can get two or three pieces a day!

But it must be bad weather, and the night watchman can only succeed if he is forced to hide by snowstorm or rainstorm.

My partner is Shanka Viahel, the son of a beggar woman in Moldova. He always laughs and is very gentle.

And Costello, with curly hair. Later, at the age of 13, he was sent to the juvenile detention center, where he was hanged.

Habib, a Tatar, 12 years old, is extremely powerful.

And yazi, the son of the grave keeper. He is a 9-year-old child with epilepsy and is very quiet.

Among us, the oldest is Grisha calka, the widow's tailor's son. He has always been very reasonable and his fists are fierce.

In our neighborhood, stealing has become an ethos, and it has almost become our only means of making a living when we are hungry and cold.

The goal of adults is cargo ships, looking for opportunities on the Volga and Oka rivers.

Every time they have a rest, they will talk about their experiences and praise their achievements, and the children will learn while listening.

Drunk people's wallets can be searched by children in public, and no one interferes.

They steal carpenters' tools, spare axles of trucks, whips of drivers ... we don't do these things.

"Mom won't let me steal, I won't do it!"

This is calka.

Habib said:

"I dare not!"

Costello hates the word thief very much. When he sees other children stealing drunks, he will drive them away.

He thinks he is an adult. He walks like a porter, his voice is very low and thick, and his every move is posturing.

And Viahel also thinks that stealing is a sin.

However, it is not a sin to take the board from Piski Island, and we are all willing to do it.

In bad weather or at night, Viahel and Yaz swaggered down to Piski Island.

The four of us touched it from the side, seized the opportunity of the keeper to chase Viahel and artistry, dragged it on the wooden counter and ran back!

The night watchman never found us, and even if he did, he couldn't catch up.

After the things I get are sold, the money will be divided into six parts, and each person will get 5 kopecks or even 7 kopecks.

With this money, it is no problem to have a full meal all day. However, everyone has his own use.

Viahel must buy four and a half bottles of vodka for her mother every day, or she will be beaten.

Cortes Rome wants to save money to buy pigeons.

Calka earns money to see his mother.

Herbie saved money to go home. His uncle brought him here from his hometown and died. Habib doesn't know the place name of his hometown, only that it is on the Kama River, not far from the Volga River.

We made up a song to amuse the squinting Tatar child:

A city on the Kama River.

I don't know where it is

Feet can't walk, hands can't stretch!

Habib was very angry at first, and Viahull said:

"Don't, don't do this! Good brothers are still angry? "

My husband was a little embarrassed and sang this song with him.

We prefer picking up rubbish to stealing boards. It's more interesting to pick up garbage after melting or pouring rain in Chun Xue.

In the ditches of the market, we can always find nails, scrap metal and sometimes money!

But we have to show it to the two Gaby in the compartment, or we will beg his permission for a long time.

It's not easy to make money, but we have a good relationship. We occasionally have a small fight, but we have never had a fight.

Weiyaher often says when others quarrel:

"Is this necessary?"

Think about it, it's really unnecessary.

He called his mother "my Moldovan woman", but we didn't find it ridiculous.

"Yesterday, when my Moldovan woman came home, she was drunk again!

"She snapped the door open, sat on the threshold and sang like a rooster!"

Calka asked:

"What did you sing?" Via hull learn to his mother shrill pointed gas sings:

The adopted boy walked down the street with a whip in his hand; Whip the children in the street from house to house.

Hey, hey, look at the sunset glow, the flute of the adopted son is long, and the dream in the village is sweet and long.

He can sing many such warm and happy songs. He went on to say:

"Later, she fell asleep sitting on the threshold. The room was so cold that I couldn't pull her and almost froze us to death ... "This morning, I said," You are so drunk! " She said,' Nothing, you wait a little longer, I'm going to die soon!' "

Calka said:

"Yes, she's dying. She's swollen all over!"

"Do you pity her?" I asked.

"Why not? She is my good mother ... "Viahel said.

We know that his mother often beats him, but we all believe that she is a good person!

Bad luck, calka will also propose:

"Come on, let's each give a Gaby to buy Viahel's mother a bar, or she will be beaten!"

Viahel envies Culka and me very much, because we can read.

He grabbed his pointed ears and whispered:

"After burying my Moldovan woman, I also went to school. I bowed to the teacher and asked him to accept me.

"After finishing my studies, I will go to the Bishop and ask him to accept me as a gardener. Otherwise, I will go directly to the Tsar ..."

This Moldovan woman died in the spring.

Calka said to via hull:

"Go to our house, my mother will teach you to read ..."

It wasn't long before Viagra raised her head and read the words on the sign:

"Grocery store ..."

"Grocery store, idiot!"

Kurka said.

"Hey, I read the letters backwards!"

"That's not right!"

"Oh, look, these letters are alive and kicking. They like others to read them! "

Viahel's love for mountains, rivers, trees, flowers, birds and plants makes us laugh and surprise.

If one of us sits on the grass, Viahel will say:

"Don't trample on the grass. Isn't it different to sit in the sand?"

No one dares to fold a Bai Liu in front of him. If he saw it, he would shrug:

"What the hell are you doing?"

Every Sunday, we will play a game: at night, a group of Tatar porters come home from Xibeida pier and pass by our intersection. We will throw straw sandals at them.

At first, they chased us and scolded us, but later they found it interesting. They also prepared some sandals in advance and often stole the sandals we prepared, which made us very helpless and shouted:

"What kind of game is this?"

Finally, they gave us half sandals and the battle began.

Usually they defend and we attack. We shouted around them and threw straw sandals at them. If one of us stumbles over sandals, they will also shout and laugh loudly.

The game lasted for a long time, surrounded by ordinary citizens, who mumbled for a while as usual in order to safeguard their dignity.

After the battle, Tatar boys often invite us to eat horse meat, drink strong tea and butter walnut preserves.

There are some things in these tall and strong people that children can easily understand. Their honesty without any malice and their selfless help to each other deeply attracted us.

One of them is kasimov's crooked nose, which has fabulous power! On one occasion, he put a 27-pole clock on the shore from a cargo ship, and he shouted:

"Oh, oh!

"Young-rotten eggs!"

"Bullshit-bullshit!"

On another occasion, he put Viahel in his hand and held it up to say:

"Look, heaven!"

If the weather is bad, we will gather at Yazi's home, where his father looks after the grave.

Yazi's father is crooked and dirty.

He said happily squinting:

"God bless, don't let me lose sleep!"

We brought San Qian tea, four ounces of sugar, some bread and four ounces of vodka to Yazi's father, which is essential.

"Did you hear that the Trusov family will hold a memorial day for the dead the day after tomorrow, and there will be a banquet for one person. Let's go there! "

"Their chefs will all be locked up."

The omniscient calka said.

Via hull looked out of the window at the cemetery and said:

"I can go to the forest soon, great!"

Yazi silently took out the wooden horse, the broken copper piece, the detained horse and the horse with missing legs that he picked up from the garbage, and let us have a look.

When everyone was drinking tea, Yazi's father drank his share of the wine, climbed up the kang furnace and stared at us like an owl.

"Oh, why don't you die?"

"You thieves, it seems that you are no longer children!"

"God bless, don't let me lose sleep!"

Viahel said:

"We are not thieves!"

"Not a thief? That, is a thief Eva ... "

When he bothers us, calka will scold him:

"That's enough, punk!"

Because his topic is inseparable from who has a patient and which patient is dying, he deliberately teased us:

"Oh, boys, are you scared?"

"To tell you the truth, a fat man is going to die!"

"Oh, it will rot after a long time!"

We told him to shut up, but he kept saying:

"You also have to die ..."

"Die, die, be an angel after death ..."

Viahel said.

"You? Haha, are you still going to be angels? ! "

He smiled and talked about the dead.

"Ah, a woman was buried three days ago. I know her story, children. Listen, I tell you ... "

He likes talking about women, and he always swears. However, there is a thoughtful smell in his tone, which fascinates us.

"People asked her,' Who started the fire?' "

"She said,' I put it there! "

"Well, why did she say that! God bless, don't let me lose sleep ... "

He knows the history of almost all people lying in graves. He seems to have opened the door of every household in front of us, showing us how they all live.

He can talk about darkness, and then talk about dawn from darkness.

But just after dusk, calka will leave; "I must go home, or my mother will be afraid. Who will come with me? "

Everyone's gone.

Yates closed the door and said in a muffled voice:

"Farewell!"

"Farewell!"

We replied that leaving him in the cemetery always made us a little uneasy.

Costello said:

"When we come back tomorrow, he may be dead."

"Yazi is more bitter than us!"

"We are not bitter, not bitter at all!"

Via hull refuted Culka.

Yes, wandering the streets, free, why bother? On the contrary, I often have a great feeling in my heart. I love my partner very much and always want to do something good for them.

However, wandering the streets has brought me troubles in my school life. They called me a "garbage collector" and a "beggar" and said I smelled like garbage!

I feel greatly insulted because I always put on clean clothes before going to school.

After the third grade, the school gave me a Gospel, a fable poem by krylov, a Fada Molga and a certificate.

Grandpa was very excited when he saw these prizes. He wants to lock the book in his box.

Grandma had been ill for several days at that time. She has no money and almost no food, but grandpa still complains endlessly:

"You drank all of me and left me nothing ..."

I sold this book, got 55 kopecks and gave it to my grandmother.

I scribbled a few words on the certificate before giving it to you. He left it unopened, so he didn't find out what I was doing.

After finishing school life, I began to wander the streets again, returning to the earth in spring, and the wild forest became our best place to go and came back late every day.

And this happy day didn't last long.

Stepfather was fired, and people disappeared, and I don't know where to go. My mother and brother moved back to my grandfather's house, and I became a nanny.

Grandma put an icon on the coffin of her hometown in the home of a wealthy businessman in the city.

Mother is thin, almost out of human form; My little brother is skinny with hunger, and unknown diseases afflict him, making him like a dying puppy.

Grandpa touched his head:

"He can't eat, but my feed is limited, not enough for all of you ..."

Mother leaned against the wall, sighed and said:

"He can't eat much ..."

"Not much, but you add up to not much, it's terrible ..."

Grandpa asked me to carry sand and bury my little brother in the sun.

Little brother is very happy and smiles sweetly.

I fell in love with him at once, as if he knew all my thoughts.

"Death, very easy! What you think should be alive! "

Grandpa's roar came from the window.

Mom coughed for a long time … I stayed there with my little brother. When he saw a cat or a dog in the distance, he would turn around and smile at me.

Oh, this little guy, does he already think I'm a little tired of being with him and want to run into the street?

At lunch, grandpa feeds the children himself. After the child took a few bites, he pressed his stomach and said to himself:

"Are you full?"

Mother's voice came from the dark corner:

"Didn't you see clearly that he was still reaching for it?"

"Son, don't understand!

Eat when you are full! "

Grandpa asked me to give the child to my mother. My mother stood up to meet me and stretched out her arms like a branch.

Mother became mute, lying in bed day after day and dying slowly.

What annoys me most is that grandpa talks about dying after dark every day. He lay in the dark, mumbling:

"Death has come! How dare you see God? "

"Well, I've been busy all my life, and this is the result ..."

Mother died at noon on a Sunday in August.

At that time, my stepfather had just returned from other places, my grandmother and little brother had moved to him, and my mother was about to move there.

In the morning, my mother whispered to me:

"Go find yevgeny vasilyevich!"

She propped herself up and added:

"Run!"

I felt a strange light flash in her eyes.

My stepfather was attending mass, and my grandmother asked me to buy cigarettes, which delayed me a little.

When I got home, I was surprised to see my mother sitting neatly at the table, behaving as before.

"Are you better?" I'm a little scared.

She gave me a cold look and said:

"Come here! Where have you been swinging? "

Before I could speak, she grabbed me and slapped me on the back with a knife, but the knife slipped out of her hand at once.

"Pick it up ..."

I looked at her in surprise: she slowly moved to the corner where she slept, lay down and said weakly:

"Water ..."

I quickly scooped up a bowl of cold water, and she only drank a little.

Pushing my hand away, her lips moved as if with a wry smile, and a shadow floated on her face, which quickly occupied her whole face. She seemed a little surprised to open her mouth ... I stood beside her with water, I don't know how long I stood.

Mu, you came in.

I said:

"Mom is dead!"

He glanced at the bed:

"Nonsense!"

He went to the kang furnace to get his bag, and the kang furnace made a dull noise.

Stepfather came in. He moved a chair and sat next to his mother.

Suddenly, he jumped up from his chair and shouted:

"She's dead!"

When everyone threw dirt at mother's coffin, grandma plunged into the cemetery like a blind man. She hit the cross and broke her head.

Yazi's father led her to his hut, and when grandma washed her face, he comforted me and said:

"Well, when people are born, there will be such a time ... whether rich or poor, they will go to the coffin sooner or later ..."

He ran out of the hut and immediately came back with Viahel.

"Look, what do you think this is?"

He handed me a broken bone spur. "This is what I gave you with via hull. I want to buy it from him. I will give him two gabions ... "

"Nonsense!"

Viahel said angrily.

"Oh, well, it wasn't me, it was him, and he gave it to you!"

Viahel tried his best to make me laugh: he hung the spurs around his neck and touched the small wheels with his tongue. Yazi's father laughed exaggeratedly.

See I have no reaction, he seriously said:

"Wake up, everyone will die. What is this? Isn't that bird dying, too? "

"Come on, let's go to your mother's grave, shall we?"

This made me very happy. We all set off.

A few days after burying his mother, grandpa said:

"Alexei, you are not a medal. I can't stand hanging you around my neck all the time! "

"Go, go, go, go to the earth ..."

So, I walked into this world.