– I will go to my son soon, – Elizabeth proudly told her friends on the bench, – here, I bought some presents.
If it was about strangers, I would have thought that the grandmother was going to visit her son, who lives at least in another city. But I know that Elizabeth’s son and his family live just in another neighborhood. It takes 15 minutes by bus, and even less by taxi…
Elizabeth used to live with her son and grandson in the same apartment in our house. The boy’s mother died almost before little Adam went to kindergarten. Then the father with the help of his mother raised the child alone until he was almost 5 years old.
– He decided to marry, – Elizabeth bitterly told everyone that year, – decided to take a stepmother for the child. And even without her own home, and even with her own child.
Anna, the chosen one of Elizabeth’s son, had a son, a year older than Adam. She rented an apartment, worked. Then our elderly neighbors were divided into two camps. Some sympathized with the “boy” who had to live with his stepmother, while others said that Elizabeth’s son was lucky that there was a woman who was not afraid to take a man with a child.
– They are in equal position, – Camilla said, – he has a son, she has one too. The boys will be brothers. I know Anna, my daughter-in-law works with her. She is a good woman, no bad words can be said.
A young family with two children started life in the apartment rented by Anna, and then they took a mortgage. The boys surprisingly became friends, and the parents were wise and tried not to divide the children into friends and foes.
– Grandma came, – Adam said, – she brought toys, sweets, she brought me a T-shirt and jeans, and Robert brought me.
And Elizabeth was even greener:
– This is Robert’s grandmother, not yours. I am your grandmother!
And then she told everyone that Anna’s mother greases herself for her son-in-law and someone else’s child, buys love with gifts.
– And what is there to buy, – kept her friend Camilla besieged, – well done your matchmaker; if they live together, then the grandchildren should be the same. You can’t single out anyone in such a family.
And Elizabeth did. As much as she could. And she brought gifts only to Adam, and did not listen to her son, although he came to her several times alone to explain that Adam Anna calls her mother, the relations in the family are good; you can’t see the discord between the boys. But the grandmother stubbornly bent her line. And it was embarrassing for the son to besiege his mother harder: for several years, when Adam was left without a mother, it was the grandmother who took on the main cares.
The neighbors shook their heads, and Robert did not understand, especially when his grandmother took Adam alone to the amusement park or the zoo.
– Well, Robert, don’t worry, – Anna said one day, – let Adam stay with grandma, and you and I will go to the circus.
– And I’m with you, – Adam’s father chimed in.
Adam looked doubtfully at his grandmother, but she did not notice her grandson’s look. In the evening Robert told how wonderful he had a rest with his mom and dad. Soon the situation repeated itself. And the third time Adam refused to go with his grandmother and said that he would go with his dad, mom and brother.
Elizabeth left her son’s family slightly embarrassed. But she did not change her position. She was going, carrying: one apple, one orange, one banana, one chocolate bar. Just for Adam. But one day she saw her grandson armed with a knife and cut everything into four pieces.
– A piece for everyone – he said – so that no one would be offended.
– Did Adam make a present for the naughty one again? – Camilla sneered, – all for him alone?
– Why is it one by one – Elizabeth is offended, – two by two. And parents will do without. It’s a holiday for them anyway: they will stay alone, and we will go to the cat theater with the boys.
Sometimes children are smarter than adults. And they educate us, the foolish ones. Thanks to them, small and wise, who know how to open in us what is hidden somewhere in the depths, which we sometimes forget: kindness, participation, love.
