– Well, Mary, pack your things, we’ve put the house on the market, you’re a big girl now, you can take care of yourself.
– But where will I go, Auntie?
– Go to your father. Your mother and grandmother hid everything from you. He lives in the capital, and they say he’s a big businessman. You’ll thank me later, – smiled my aunt – and there are seven of us, feed, clothe, and shoe them all…
The woman put on the table a pile of faded old sheets and a black and white photograph. On it a young mother stood in the arms of a handsome tall guy.
– They are our lovebirds, your father served in the local military unit, and your mother lost her head when she saw him. – Why did they part? – Mary asked.
– He went to town, but his parents were unhappy that he was going to marry a country girl, so he did not come back for your mother. He kept writing and writing letters, and then he stopped… Soon you were born.
– So Dad doesn’t know anything about me?
– Yes, your mother was proud of us, she gave birth to you and carried you alone. At least she could have sent word, asked for some help…
Mary grew up with her mother and grandmother, she knew nothing about her father, and it was not customary in their family to talk about him. All attempts, her mother was strictly silent. Her grandmother passed away five years ago. And my mother passed away quite recently, she had been ill for a long time, there was no money for medicine, there was no place to wait for help… If only her aunt had told her about her father earlier… but what was there to think about? The day after that conversation, the girl gathered her things, took her mother’s handkerchief and grandmother’s ring, a stack of letters with an old photograph of her parents, and left for the train station.
The capital greeted the girl with a cold pouring rain, the old coat did not protect her from the piercing wind. She walked past the bright windows, beautiful signs, the capital’s life, which she still had to get used to, was boiling all around her. As she stood near one of them, she discovered that her bag, which contained money and personal belongings, was missing… She had put her documents in a secret breast pocket, as her aunt had advised, and she thanked her for it. But what to do now, she did not remember the address, and it was just in the pocket of the missing bag… The girl sat down on the suitcase and cried.
– What is the matter with you? Are you ill? – She heard someone’s voice and looked up. The voice belonged to a young man of twenty-five.
– No, I’m fine, I’m just… a little tired.
– And yet maybe I could take you to your house, you don’t look too good.
– I don’t have a home here. I arrived a few hours ago…
She could no longer speak, she suddenly realized that she had nowhere else to go, after all the girl had counted on her father to at least help her first, naive… In the meantime the man helped her up, took the suitcase and led her to the car.
– Come on, I do not live far, at least you will get warm, have tea, and then we will think how to help you.
– My name is Alex, – he smiled.
– I’m Mary. How do you do? Why are you helping me? I am a complete stranger to you.
Alex looked at her silently and then said:
– You look a lot like my sister, she died a few years ago… Already at home Alex gave the girl some hot tea, she told him why she had come such a long way, about her lost purse and her home, which would soon belong to strangers. Suddenly an old photograph in a beautifully carved frame on the bookcase caught her eye.
– Who is it? – she asked the man as she came closer.
– That’s my stepfather. Why? Do you two know each other?
– Wait! Mary rushed to the suitcase, unpacked the bundle of letters. She took her father’s old photograph, her father looked so much like the man in the picture.
– Here, look.
– So it is him! He was still in the army. After her father returned, he married for the first time, but a year later their marriage broke up. Five years later he met my mother, I was three at the time, my stepfather gave me his last name and raised me as his own son. So he’s your father?
– Yes, that’s right, his signature is also on the letters…
– That’s it … Yes, – Alex smiled – so you’re my half-sister, well, nice to meet you. Go ahead and drink your tea, you’re tired from the road…
– Louisa… When I first saw her in the local store, I couldn’t take my eyes off her, how beautiful she was. – So you are her daughter?
Mary stood shifting from foot to foot, she had not slept all night the night before, wondering what he was like, how he would meet her. Would he send her away? The door was opened to them by a tall man with thick gray hair, but who still looked young enough.
– Father, this is Mary. We have something important to talk to you about,” Alex began.
– Good afternoon, come inside. While Mary looked around, Alex put a stack of letters and a photograph on the table. Her stepfather’s hands trembled; no one knew how dear Louise was to his heart, what it had cost him to break off their relationship for the sake of a profitable marriage for her father’s business.
No one knew that he had come several times to see Louise, but she would not let him in the doorway, would not listen, and everything could still be changed.
– Well hello daughter! Welcome home, – he hugged Mary, – I loved your mother very much, well do not cry, everything will be fine, believe me, if I had known about you before…
A few years passed, Mary and Alex became friends; his stepfather, retired from business, passed the management of the company into the hands of his son and daughter. And his large, empty house was filled with the stomping of children’s feet and ringing laughter of little grandchildren.
