Translated material
Grandfather
Tatka was sitting at the table in the kitchen and chewing a sausage. Her legs did not reach the floor, and she chatted with them, fidgeting on a stool. For some reason, aunt always had very tasty sausages-not like at home. And the potato puree with sour cream was much tastier. The aunt itself also smelled, but, despite all this, her tatka was afraid.
| | | --- | | 
- You, Lenka, are offended at me in vain, ”the aunt said to her father, putting Tatka on a plate of another sausage. - Grandfather needs to be fed, it is necessary to treat, but no one will give a pension to him himself. Okay, he has returned alive. Mother won, after the camp she did not last long, and her grandfather remained a little. You can't throw it out into the street ...
Father briefly matued and lit a cigarette.
And what am I to blame that he was stuck in the camps? Cho, should I feed him now, deprived?
You yourself know who is to blame! All of us in the camps ... - Then the aunt hesitated and sternly looked at the tatka: - What are you sitting, hanging your ears? Take the sausage and blow into the room!
For fidelity, she gently gave Tatka an acceleration by a slap.
The girl grabbed the remnants of the sausage in her hand and, slipping off the stool, ran into the corridor. Aunt tightly closed the door and began to say something quietly and angrily to pronounce her father.
Tatka looked into the room for grandfather. He sat by the window and smoked, there was a book in his hand.
- Grandfather, can I?
Grandfather looked up from the book, a semblance of a smile flashed on his face:
- Come here ...
Tatka jumped quickly and got to his knees, wagging yummy.
She loved her grandfather. Although it smelled from him with a flamery and something was still unimportant, acidified, the girl knew for sure that from the deliciously smelling food of aunt and from her father you can quickly get a slap on the back, and never from the grandfather.
What are you reading? She stroked her book.
Yes ... - But Tatka did not let the old man finish:
And I also know the letters and I can read a little! Anya taught me. - The girl was proud of her older sister, who had already studied at school and was “smarter than the uxy”, as her father said.
You are my squirrel ...-the grandfather squinted, attached a cigarette in an iron bank from under the stew and turned the book:-Well, but what is the letter?
Che! - the girl answered Boyko.
And this?
A!
This?
Rrrr ...-Tatka growled menacingly. Grandfather laughed. Then she called the letters herself, without waiting for grandfather's questions:
Lae, soft sign, Ze, and this is de, a, RE, VE, and, NE!
Beka you are mine ... - Grandfather smiled broadly, exposing the grayish gums with the remains of his teeth, - what kind of smart ... And how is everything together?
Cear ... - Tatka tried to put in syllables, but his tongue stubbornly did not want to pronounce it difficult to pronounce the word.
Charles, - suggested grandfather.
Darwin! - Further the girl read herself. - And who is it?
There was such a ... - the grandfather froze, seating the child's knees comfortable. - He thought that all people came from the monkeys.
Well ... ”Tatka said thoughtfully,“ maybe not all ... But Sasha from our kindergarten is just from the monkeys! ” He has such ears! - She set her hands on her ears, - and he makes her facing faces - well, like a monkey!
Grandfather smiled again and stroked her head.
- Grandfather ... - Tatka suddenly spoke with a whisper so that the aunt and father in the kitchen would not hear. - And the mother says that you were the elder with the Germans and then you were put in prison for it ...
He was serious.
True, my squirrel, really ...
So how is it, grandfather? - Tatka looked into his watery eyes with despair and hope: “The Germans are bad, and you are good!” - At heart, the girl really wanted the grandfather to be not of his own free will, but he would be forced, and she really wanted to hear it from him.
Society chose ... - the grandfather smiled guiltily. -Someone had to follow the order. And they respected me. So the society chose, but I did not go against it ...
“Exactly, forced!” Tatka thought in relief, and said aloud:
- It is evil, this is your society!
Grandfather sighed.
- No, not evil ... stupid ... nevertheless, they wanted the best life to be the order ... but how it happened.
He coughed, lowered the tatka to the floor from his knees, spat into a tin jar with cigarette butts with something gray-yellow.
The girl suddenly became sorry for his tears. She impulsively hugged his knees and buried her head in them. Then she raised her and seriously said:
- And I, grandfather, love you anyway! Let them say that they want!
The old man smiled silently and stroked her on a blond head. The hand was tough, he stroked ineptly, but this clumsy affection was more expensive than all the aunts of sausages.
Grandfather, how did you talk to the Germans? For them? - Tatka switched to a whisper again.
In German, he talked, but what about ...
And who taught you to the German?
So mother taught. Both German and French. Mother knew the languages well, I sang songs to us - I remembered ... And then they sent me to study in St. Petersburg, I already mastered the grammar in the gymnasium. And at the University, English was taught. - Grandfather reached for a glass with a Makhorka, but changed his mind.
We, my squirrel, the family was educated. I couldn’t learn this ... - he bitterly looked at the door, behind which the aunt and father were heard. - All Soviet power, whether it is wrong, has taken away, there is no life for a Russian man ... Only you, my squirrel, keep silent, do not repeat my words to anyone, or they will spoil your life. Understood?
I understood ...-Tatka was quiet, suddenly realizing that she had learned some terrible secret, because of which her life, already gloomy, could become even harder.
And what was your mother's mother? Is she from France? How did she know French songs?
Grandfather laughed. Coaked.
No, my squirrel, my mother, your great -grandmother, is a Russian woman. But you ask a lot of questions, but you will know a lot - you will sleep badly ...
Here you are, grandfather, you know a lot, but you sleep well! I heard you snoring ... - The girl sniffed her eyes incredulously.
Well, go, go already, ”her grandfather turned her toward the doors,“ there, Lenka is already calling you. ”
Behind the door, indeed, my father muttered displeasedly.
- Natasha! Where did you go? Go, get dressed ... Let's go home.
Tatka took a couple of uncertain steps to the door, then turned around and rushed to her grandfather:
- Grandfather, come to us! You are good, I will wait for you!
Grandfather took off his pens, turned away, cunning, brushed something with a clumsy finger from his eyes and, without looking at the girl, answered:
- Go, squirrel, go ... Lenka will swear.
He did not go out of the room with his son and his granddaughter.
- +
Grandfather died on January 1.
At the funeral, the harsh aunt was somehow very affectionate to Tatka and, wiping the tears with the tip of the scarf, told her mother:
- In the morning he called, asked for water ... I took the water to him, he said: “Everything, Masha, I won’t get up already, I will go away ...”, and I: “Dad, maybe a glass to you, not water?” “No,” grit, don’t need a glass, I want to stand up in front of God. ”
I left, the dinner warmed up, I shout from the kitchen: “Dad? Bring to bring? " - And he is silent ... looked to him - and he ended ...
And Tatka looked at the mound of frozen earth interspersed with snow and a concrete column dug into it, trying to read the inscription on it:
- BO-RO-WIK ... Borovik, al-Elek-Eve ...
And the middle name still could not read. Difficult patronymic - Konstantinovich.
Natalia Polyanskaya Tokareva