Waited for my love

I know that my story will seem implausible to many. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if someone else had told it to me. But, as one famous TV presenter likes to say, life is more amazing than we think...

First meeting

Seryozha and I studied at the same school, but in different classes; he is five years older than me. We met under very unusual circumstances. At that time there was a magnificent apple orchard growing near our school. Among the fifty trees I had a favorite. The watchman, Uncle Grisha, said that the apples on “my” tree were called Orlik - they were red, sweet and incredibly fragrant. And they hung on the branches until almost mid-October. My memorable flight from the apple tree happened at this time.

I don’t remember exactly what came over me then, why I climbed the tree. Or rather, not why, but why. For what, I remember clearly - for the last apple remaining in the crown.

It was incredibly red, alluring and seductive. And it hung at the very top, at the tip of a thin flexible branch. In general, not caring about the entreaties of my classmate Svetka and recklessly spitting on my palms, I began to “climb”. There was just a little distance left to reach the goal, literally just a stone's throw away, when the branch broke with a crunch, and I found myself on the ground. The first impulse was to jump to my feet and fight until the watchman appeared. But that was not the case. Let alone jump up, I couldn’t even move my leg. When the first fear passed, pain appeared, so much so that you could almost scream.

I was afraid to scream so as not to scare my friend. And she didn’t dare send Svetka to fetch her parents either. In general, I don’t know how it would have ended if, after some time, a group of eleventh graders had not appeared at the end of the kindergarten, among whom was my Seryozha.

However, then I didn’t know his name. I clearly remember how the guys approached, slowly and laughing, I remember how he leaned towards me, touched my leg and how his face instantly changed. I remember how I took off my jacket and how he and the guys carefully laid me on it. I remember the smell of the jacket - spicy and slightly sweet, his incredible blue eyes and velvety baritone, with which he kept repeating: “Nothing, astronaut, hold on. Everything will be fine…"

In general, I fell in love. As funny and strange as it may be, given the circumstances and my age, I was 12 at the time. I fell desperately, piercingly, completely in love. It is impossible to describe all my hopes, ordeals and sufferings. I lost my appetite and sleep, then shriveled into a skeleton, then, eating depressive buns, I myself became rounded into the semblance of a donut. I wrote poetry to him, stole his notebooks, openly confessed my love, but, alas, all my attempts were in vain - Seryoga did not take me seriously. His classmates made fun of him, but he stoically endured all the ridicule, always smiled warmly, patted me on the cheek, took out the traditional Duchess caramel from his pocket (that’s what his jacket smelled so sweet of back then) and said something like: don’t dust, astronaut, everything will be fine... And I knew, desperately and hopelessly, that I wouldn’t be fine without him. Never.

“... yes, and Seryozhka got married...”

Then my father was transferred to Germany, and we left. I cried, wrote five letters a day, and abandoned my studies. Seryozha did not answer letters. And at the end of the summer, I received a letter from Svetka, in which, among a report about excellent completion of school and gossip about my former classmates, there was a killer phrase. It stood before my eyes for a long time - a purple line blurred under the bombardment of salty drops: “... yes, and Seryozhka got married. On Lenochka, remember, the redhead from the tenth "B".

Another redhead

I promised myself to forget Seryozha and practically kept it. Five years later we returned to Russia, I finished school and received a higher education. In my fourth year, I got married, defended myself, gave birth, and got a job. A banal story: one day, having returned home with a migraine earlier than usual, I found my husband in bed with a red-haired beauty. I remember just coldly thinking: “Another redhead, probably also from “B.”

I came to the city of my childhood by chance - on a business trip. Having finished with her business, she returned to the hotel in the evening. The transition is long and dark. Despite the endless revelations on the radio, in newspapers and in the mail, saying that they all work for the mafia, I could never calmly pass by a disabled person. And then, having caught up with the man without a leg, she poured coins into a blue baseball cap.

She was already straightening up, already walking, when suddenly, like a shot in the back: “Thank you, little sister.” I would recognize this voice in a million.

My other half

I know many people don't understand me. What to say about strangers, even my mother couldn’t understand me: to marry a disabled person, an asocial element, a person without a fixed place of residence or any type of occupation... What’s the point in explaining that sometimes circumstances are stronger and greater than human capabilities, that sometimes trouble does not come alone and a person alone, no matter how strong and whole he may be, cannot cope with it, cannot withstand it. I could not explain to my mother the main thing, that a person has only one soulmate in life, and happiness to the one who finds it. Earring is my soul mate, together we are an apple, the same one for which I so diligently climbed to the very top then, in October, 24 years ago...

Elena, Krasnodar