Homeless is a stigma. Little bum. And immediately an associative chain: dirty rags - stations and entrances - glue "Moment" - alcoholic parents - and "cop". “These kids don’t have a future, that’s why they are being treated like this… Well, you…

B

a homeless child is a stigma. Little bum. And immediately an associative chain: dirty rags - stations and entrances - glue "Moment" - alcoholic parents - and "cop".

“These children have no future, that’s why they are treated like this… Well, you understand, they rarely grow up as people… And in general they rarely grow up,” one young sergeant told me. Apparently a man.

R

Uslan came into my life all of a sudden. Like the wind. He always ran into everyone. Do you know boat rental at Chistye Prudy? You feel like you are in the 19th century here. Calmly. Measured movements with oars, ducks, beautiful couples on neighboring boats. And suddenly - whack! whack! - someone rushed past. My first thought is pirates. Then the fool! If you turn the boat over, I'll bite off your ear.

- Hello!!! Let's race?! - a swarthy face, shaggy red hair and devils in the eyes.

As a child, I came up with exactly the same friend. And here is a live, impudent little pirate. Incarnated. Realized. It's so weird, I even want to pinch myself.

- Just don't splash!

But, of course, he not only doused me all over, but also wet the bag, and dropped the oar, and even climbed into my boat and back - well, just a pirate.

- The third boat! Time is over!

— Do you hear? Will you wait for me? Well, sorry, huh? I'll ride one more time, while Styopka is kind, okay?

He looks about 11 years old, maximum, but he smokes, although he is “not in love”, but he smokes. Even the maternal instinct woke up in me - so I wanted to scold.

- And where do you live? - he smiles slyly. Cunningly cunningly.

- Nowhere ... Can I stay with you? And it's cold outside...

- Well, you and impudent!

- I have to ... Let's go, I'll show you the sharks?

Inventor. Like me. Maybe it doesn't exist at all? Maybe I came up with it myself? Well…

But he showed me the sharks. Little ones. At a neat pet shop. And yellow fish that "fall like leaves."

We walked along the autumn street. Little rain. Ruslan was hiding a cigarette in his fist, which, of course, he “shot” from a kind uncle with a big mustache.

- I don't have parents! Died. When I was still very young.

- Che are you lying? I'm not a cop.

— Who knows you? Hehe. Good something.

- Well, how is it?

- Well, okay ... You see, my parents and I arrived in Moscow and ... you know, there is a flow of people here ... Well, I didn’t have time to look back - there are no parents. Lost. They're not looking for me, I know. They drink heavily...

- You're lying again?

“Again…” he agreed, and the thought to tell the truth seemed to flash, but he is a breeze, and a light one at that.

— Alina!!! - with a wild cry, he rushed to the girl in the Mila Schok sweater, which I so wanted to buy ... Jealousy began to wake up in me. Another "mom". He also pulls his hand, jumps around and quickly tells something.

- Uh-uh ... Well, pack! Pack! Uh-uh... Well... I'll go, huh? Alina is going to McDonald's, I'm with her, can I? Bye then.

That's it, that means ... Just a childish dream about such a friend - Peter Pan, and the real Ruslan is like that. And he has no attachments. And now I, like a Fox, will look at the ears of wheat and remember his steps. Tamed.

For two months I could not forgive such a betrayal. Of course I forgot. But in my soul I lived, moaning, resentment ... That's it. The little prince, me too. Little traitor, that's who!

Anka and I agreed to meet at Griboyedov's. She was late, as usual. At least, the bastard (Anechka, I love you!), Called. Having nothing to do, I decided to walk to the ponds. Bench near the "White Swan". Small crumpled figurine. Familiar faces! Of course, it was a traitor - Ruslan. Even from afar, it seemed to me that he somehow suddenly grew a lot. He even got older than me.

- Hey, defector! - she said, smiling, and broke off under the stern look of another completely human. - What's the matter, Ruslan?

— Hi… I'm leaving tomorrow. Home. in Saratov. To Mom. - Gloomy face. It was as if his shadow had been cut off. Or I don't know, as if he had already agreed on everything with a small snake that lives in the desert and whose poison is deadly. Remember Exupery?

- Father died. I have to go to my mother.

- How? How do you know? What's happened? What are you? “I suddenly got lost. I forgot all the words. And what can you say to a child who is older than you for eternity?

Called home to see how they were. Heart attack. They were worried about me... Because of me, you know...

Fragile shoulders twitch, no, I know he won't cry, so I want to hug, say something... Such an adult... What can I say? How? After all, he is a total stranger...

They have been looking for me for a long time. I just wanted to show them that I'm an adult. What can I do. I am already 14 years old!!! And they only let me walk until 10. Both lessons and grades are always wrong. I hate school, because of it I am bad at home. I am there everywhere (!) always (!) as if on an x-ray. Infuriates! And once I said that I would go for bread, and I took the first train to Moscow ... I'm an adult, hehe ...

Smiling. But it's not like that anymore. Somehow pulled. Tomorrow I will wake up, and he will already fly away, dissolve in the morning sky, return to his distant star, where there was a rose with broken thorns - his real mother.

We just sat in silence until evening.

Like an adult.