I hope you don't think I'm dead yet. As usual, sorry for the incorrect translation and enjoy your reading!
When I looked out the window, I was blinded by the rising sun. I see her. She's smiling, weaving a wreath of young willow branches, silly. Who else would choose to weave willow wreaths?
I think she's calling me, waving her hand. I don't want to go out and spoil the fun, but something is starting to worry me. I take another look at her. Her feet. Why are they all muddy? Did she go down to the river?
Stepping out the door, all I could see was a willow tree. The spreading branches of the weeper cast a shadow on the murky water of the river. Where are you, sister? You were here only a moment ago. Where have you gone? Not to the village?
An early morning reddish haze covered the village. No one. Almost no one. By one yellow-roofed house stood an old man and a girl.
- Uncle Zhenya! - I called out to him, coming closer. - Hello. Have you seen Sashenka? She was playing by the willow tree, but she's gone somewhere. Probably playing hide-and-seek.
- By the willow tree, you say? - sighed the old man - The devil is calling you to the willow again, and you're still looking for Sasha. Go back home and go back to sleep
- But how can there be a devil if I've seen my sister?! - Uncle Zhenya grinned bitterly - So what if you have seen her? The willow is fooling you, the blind weeper. Do you want to know the history of this curse again?
- Again? Why "again"? I never asked about it, I never cared. Now you do, since you call my sister a devil. -The old man crossed himself - God be with you, you wretch. Listen to your story!
And the old man began his story:
"About eleven years ago a family came to our village. A family like a family. Father, mother and two children. The girl was five years old, the boy nine. They settled in the house where you live now. But the willow tree was very young then... I should have cut it down back then... It doesn't matter now.
At first they lived as they usually lived here, even better. Quiet, peaceful, friendly to everyone. Especially their youngest daughter - frisky, cheerful. Just an angel. We helped them as much as we could, and they helped us. Only on one of the godparents' evenings the women predicted bad luck to Marina, the mother of the family. It always happens when people are careless about the Conduct. True, in time everyone forgot about the prediction, but, apparently, Marina did not forget her fate......
When did it all start? Oh, on the fourth year after they came to us. The quarrels became almost constant, and why? Grigory, the father of the family, told me that his wife behaves more and more strangely. She is afraid of something and looks at the willow tree. And he gets angry and asks: "What are you hiding from me? What's bothering you?" He swore and swore, but he never found out.
The day began as usual, but there was silence in the house, a rare silence. It was a holiday, people were busy all day. And then their son came up and asked: "What is that willow tree growing on the shore? Has anyone seen my little sister?"
The people replied, "No one has seen your sister," but they were worried. The boy seemed strange to them. They asked him where his father was and where his mother was. He replied that his father had gone to a neighbouring village to get presents, and he had not seen his mother, only his sister. They went to look round the house - there was no one there.
And then Grigory appeared. What a fuss!
It turned out that Marinka completely lost her mind and threw herself and her daughter into the river. From the very place where the willow tree grew. They didn't even bury them, because that's a terrible sin! Time passed, the father died, and the son.....
But what is there to say about him?"
Grandpa finished his story. The guy standing in front of us turned pale and walked away.
- Grandpa, Grandpa, tell me, is the story true? And what happened to the son? - Wrapping my arms around the hand of a dear man begged me. Grandpa shook his head. - There is no fiction in the story, because the son was standing in front of you. So he did not accept the death of his sister, Sashenka. God knows he knew what the women had predicted to Marinka....
- What did they predict, Grandpa?
- That she and her son would drown by carelessness. And Marinka decided to give her daughter to Providence instead of her son. The girl was terribly ill anyway. I don't think she'd have lived to be your age. But you can't cheat fate.
