– You can’t envy me,” the fat man said, “That’s because I have something to eat. My mother feeds me good food. Cakes and dumplings, and your grandmother only gives you bones to chew on,” the boy added, and burst into loud laughter. Sam squeezed his lips tightly together from the resentment, and they turned white at once. The boy grew up with his grandmother, didn’t know his mother. He opened his mouth. You don’t have one and you never will! You bastard! You yawner!” – The fat kid started teasing, twirling his new car in his hands.
– And you, and you… you’re fat! There! – Sam said, and squinted his eyes dismissively. They lived on his grandmother’s meager pension, and, understandably, they could barely make ends meet. Grandma was old and could barely walk, so Sam had to carry everything on his frail shoulders.
– And when your grandmother was finished, they’d put you in an orphanage. That’s where you’ll find out,” said the fat man, irritating the boy more and more.
– How do you know? – Sam was taken aback and blinked his eyes.
– My mother told me,” the fat man blurted out dryly, taking a candy from his pocket and rustling the wrapper loudly.
Sam didn’t hear what else the boy was saying; he was shocked by the news. Grabbing the scotch-taped toy dump truck he had found in the trash, the boy ran home. On the way home, he thought of how he would be alone, without his grandmother, wanted and understood by no one.
– Grandma, you just live, okay? – the boy ran into the house, tears streaming down his face. The old woman got up from the bed and sat down on its edge:
– What are you doing, grandson? Where am I going to go? – the grandmother added, and coughed loudly.
– Jack said, and his mother said.
– Don’t listen to him, he’s bad. I’m going to lie down,” she said, barely audible, and went back to bed. The grandson looked at her and realized that grandmother was very bad. She began to cough a lot, she almost did not get out of bed. But there was no money for medicine, in addition, they still owed in a nearby store. He stopped in front of the old mirror in the hallway and said loudly:
– I can do it! In a couple of minutes he was already standing outside the drugstore. – Auntie, let me mop the floor for you. Grandma really needs medicine. She’ll die without it, and they’ll put me in an orphanage,” Sam lamented, barely able to hold back his tears.
– There’s your way, pauper! Get out of here! – The pharmacist swung her arm angrily.
– Who told you to talk to the child like that? – A young girl, who had been standing in front of the window, intervened.
The pharmacist was immediately embarrassed and began to make excuses.
– What’s wrong with Grandma? – The stranger asked.
– She is sick, coughing,” the boy answered, pouting his lips.
– Now we’ll buy everything she needs. – The girl answered and began to call the pharmacist the words Sam did not know.
The old lady was on the mend, the girl visited them very often. When the grandmother was gone, the stranger adopted a child, who became very accustomed to her during that time. That stranger was me. Sam is now twenty-five years old. He’s trained as a doctor and takes great care of the elderly.