Anna and her friends were going to the cinema.
– Where did you get that shirt?
– Mum, Mia and I exchanged it for a while. I gave her my turquoise one with bows, and she gave me this one.
– Anna, how many times have I asked you not to take other people’s things!
– Mom, what’s the big deal? It’s not like we’ve exchanged something completely. I don’t have this style and Mia likes my blouse.
– Next weekend you will go to your grandmother, ask her to tell you what happened to her because of someone else’s thing, maybe you will listen to her.
– Grandma already knows my every move, tell her about the exchange!
Anna pouted her lips, quickly got ready and left the apartment.
– Well, she’s offended again. You wish her well, but she doesn’t listen to anything. How to explain to a fifteen-year-old girl that other people’s things can attract any trouble.
Lisa remembered the stories of her mother and learned forever that you can not take someone else’s things. Not from anyone! And not to give your own. But the daughter does not want to listen, what can you do with her. She constantly exchanges with each other. She did not want to tell her grandmother, but there was no other way to convince Anna.
On Friday evening Lisa took her daughter to her grandmother. Anna loved the old woman and went to her with pleasure, but this time she was sitting in the car quietly, showing with all her unhappy look that she was offended.
Lisa, looking at her gloomy daughter, just sighed.
– It’s nothing, it will pass. Age is such, everything must be done across.
The grandmother was very happy to see her daughter and granddaughter. Lisa will return to the city tomorrow, and Anna will stay with her grandmother, the summer holidays were just beginning. In the evening they made tea, and then Anna started a conversation with her grandmother.
Lisa realized that her daughter did not let her words pass by her ears, maybe her grandmother would listen and think.
– Grandma, my mother always scolds me for exchanging clothes with Mia. What’s wrong with that? Mom says we can’t, but why?
– And I will tell you, granddaughter, why! For example, your Mia will take offense at you, and can do you any evil because of the thing.
– Mia? You sound like a grandmother! She’s my best friend!
– Listen to you! You know Granny Sara, who lives two houses down? And if I tell you that we were friends with her, too, like blood from childhood, always together.
– Granny Sara? Grandma, you’re joking! She is evil, it’s scary to pass by her!
– She chose this life for herself, all the evil is outside. When she was young, she was completely different. Cheerful, singing! And then she began to do mischief, her grandmother, they said, was engaged in different things, so Sarah took over, began to arrange her life.
Well, listen! It started after school. One guy liked me, he was not from here, he came to visit his family, and he took a good look at me.
– It’s Grandpa Peter, right?
– Yes, Grandpa! He was still young then, but he was curly-haired. – Grandma laughed. – He was a good-looking guy, a city boy, once he came to my window, then again, then he invited me to the cinema for dancing. And all that!
He came to my parents, asked permission, they let him go, and we went with him. Surprisingly, our village boys did not arrange such things, they just tried to grab a girl by the hand or shoulders without asking. How many such hands were repelled!
And Peter was respectful, did not allow liberties, and that’s how he won me over. I fell in love! And you, granddaughter, do not laugh, I am not always like a baked apple, I was also once young, beautiful, with a long braid.
Sarah often went with us, sometimes I even resented her, we want to walk together, and she is always with us. But a girlfriend, we have been together since childhood, how can I drive her away? Just in the evening, Peter comes to me, and Sarah runs after. And so we walked like a goose. It was later that I found out that Sarah was also in love with Peter, so much so that she howled at night and hated me. But she did not show it. And he liked me.
So we walked with Peter until the wedding. Sarah was frowning more and more every day. And I was happy, I told her everything, shared how much I loved Peter. She listened silently, did not say anything, but dreamed of separating us.
But it did not work, we were stuck to each other. Sarah did not give up. On the wedding day we are ready to go to the wedding, but I can’t find my shoes. I can’t go in my boots! That’s when Sara suggested:
– “Why don’t you wear mine?
Although I did not like it very much, but what to do? I put on her shoes, she had prepared them in advance. I don’t know what she whispered on them, but we had just arrived from the registry office, we had to sit down at the festive table and receive congratulations, and my feet hurt, even scream.
I did not think about the shoes, I blamed it on the wedding excitement. Somehow I got through it, and then more. I lay down. Sarah would come to see me, bring milk and other gifts, but she never came empty-handed. And I feel worse and worse!
Even Peter, I see, has become desperate, we just got married, and the young one is lying, her face is terrible, black shadows lie under her eyes. I began to notice how Sarah was going home and Peter was here, as if to see her off! And why see him off, he won’t get lost, he has two houses to go! He would leave and be gone for a long time.
It didn’t end well, but my mother’s aunt Monika came to visit us, young people, and stay with us. When she looked at me, she sat down on the bench!
– Who did that to you? You, girl, will soon go to the next world!
She raised the whole house on its feet, they took me fifty kilometers away to my grandmother, she was treating me. And I could not even walk, they took me by the arms to her.
She just looked at me and immediately asked:
– What did you wear, whose gifts did you accept?
I told her, and I said that it was my girlfriend, my dear person, she could not wish me evil.
– Oh, girls, you are stupid and gullible! If she decided to take your husband away, she will do anything, you are in her way. It didn’t work out before the wedding, and now it’s better for him. She does not break the family, just a young woman will get weak and die. Then the way is open for her. She is also slandering my husband, he is already running after her, apparently.
And then I remembered all their farewells and burst into tears.
– Do not cry, I will help you! Grandma taught her something, but she did not do everything right, lazy student, and she was in a hurry to get rid of you. If she had been stronger, it would have been too late.
She treated me for a long time, and I took my husband to her. He was a smart man, we told him everything, and he told me once:
– I felt that something was wrong with me. She walked out of the door, and I felt like I was being pulled on a rope. She just laughed.
This grandmother scolded me not to take anything from her and not to let me into the house, gave me different instructions, told me where to put it in the house.
I began to notice that Sarah would come, but she could not enter the gate. She would shout to me:
– Olivia, I brought you milk, come out and take it.
Peter comes out and says:
– We don’t need anything! Go, Sarah, God be with you!
And he reads to himself. Sara was all twitchy, she realized that they helped me, she started to take care of Peter, now one thing to come and help her, now another. He kept refusing, saying that he would hire men to do it. Sarah’s hands would tremble with anger, so we parted with my friend.
Later she tried to annoy us through the children, but my grandmother, who helped us a lot, was only surprised how restless Sarah was. I already understood that she did not need Peter, but did not lag behind, for a long time, just from anger that we did not succumb to her! So she lived all her life alone. In the village, bad words about her have long been spread, no one married her, who needs such a wife?
So you, Anna, be careful, she knows that you are coming, do not even talk to her and do not take anything.
Anna listened to the whole story without breathing, the whole life of her grandmother was passing before her eyes.
– “Just don’t look at your girlfriends after my story, you are still young, and be careful with strangers, what you buy, then wear.
Anna did not sleep for a long time at night, that’s how it happens in life. Still, mom will not tell in vain. We need to make peace with her, to apologize.
And in the morning her grandmother sent her to the store. On the way back, Anna saw Granny Sarah from afar. She was obviously waiting for her.
– Have you come to visit? How beautiful you have become! Here, I’ll treat you with sweets, you probably like sweets?
Granny Sarah smiles, but her eyes are evil, burning through.
– Thanks, I don’t eat sweets!
Anna passed by. And Granny Sarah hissed after her:
– She’s turned into an old woman!
And scolded her badly. Anna did not tell her grandmother, why upset her, but thought to herself that there are many roads in the village, she would not go past Granny Sarah anymore. She took after her grandfather’s mind!
