Vavila was rushing to load the old man Lipa with a big barrel car, and he was not driving fast in another car. The Vavila car was ahead.

My son tortured for a day. Lipa said that staring at a pair of small eyes without saying anything, she wanted to say no, but I was so miserable that I always fell to the ground and fell on his bedside. Grandpa, what do you think the dolls should suffer before they die? If adults or women suffer, they can be forgiven for their sins. Why should dolls suffer? They have no sins. Why?
Who knows the old man said
Then three people walked silently for half an hour.
Why do you suffer? Why don’t you know everything? The old man said that birds don’t have four wings, but people can fly because of two wings. So do people. It’s enough to know half or half, and it’s enough to know that living is enough.
Grandpa, I’m still walking steadily, and my heart is jammed at the moment.
It’s okay. Sit tight.
The old man yawned and crossed his mouth.
It’s okay. He added that your share of the crime is not too big. In the future, there will be good things and bad things in the future. Everything will happen in Russia. The old man said that he looked at both sides of the road. I have never seen anything in Russia. You have to believe me. Good girl, good things and bad things will happen to me. I have been to Siberia and I have been to Altai, Heilongjiang Province. I once settled in Siberia and reclaimed wasteland there. Later, I returned to my hometown because I missed my Russian mother. We walked back with our feet. I remember once we took a ferry. Ba was thin, ragged, and barefoot, and people were frozen, eating bread crust and passing by the boat. May the Lord look at me in heaven after his death. Tears poured down his eyes, and he said, alas, you are eating black bread, and you are going to live in black. When I got home, I was a poor woman, but I can stay in Siberia and be buried there. Tell you what? I can live by working long hours, but I don’t want to die. Good girl, I still want to live for another 20 years. Generally speaking, it’s better. How big is Russia?
Grandpa Lipa asked how long his soul could live after death.
Who knows? Let’s ask Vavila. He taught Vavila everything in this school. Cried the old man.
What’s up?
How long can a person’s soul stay alive after death?
Vavila reined in the horse and replied.
Nine days after my uncle Chirila died, his soul stayed in our cabin for thirteen days.
How do you know it
The furnace banged for thirteen days.
Come on, you go, the old man said. Obviously, he doesn’t believe what Vavila said at all
As we approached Kuzminok, the bus turned to the highway, and Lipa went straight ahead. When it was dawn, the church of Ukleyevo farmhouse was still hidden in the fog, and Lipa seemed to think that the cuckoo was still crowing.
Lipa came home, the animals were still in the pen, and the family were sleeping. She waited on the steps, and the first one came, the master. He could see at a glance what had happened, and he kept licking his lips for a long time without saying a word.
Well, Lipa, he finally talked. You didn’t protect my grandson.
Varvara was awakened. She clapped her hands and cried. She immediately washed and changed clothes for the child.
What a good child, she said, alas, hey, hey, how stupid it is for such a child to fail to protect you.
A prayer of crossing over was held in the morning and evening, and the child was buried the next day. After the funeral, the guests and clergy ate a lot, as if they had been hungry for a long time, like Lipa serving everyone. The priest raised his fork with pickled mushrooms and said to her
Don’t be sad for the doll, so the doll will go to heaven.
When the guests left, Lipa was completely white. Nichifor was gone and could never come back. Thought of this, she began to cry. She didn’t know which room she should go to cry because she felt that there was no place for her in this family after the child died. She was insignificant and redundant here, and others felt the same way.
I said, what’s your name? Aksiniya suddenly yelled at her at the door now. She was wearing a new dress and powdered her face at the funeral. Shut up.
Lipa didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t stop crying, but she cried even louder.
Did you hear that? Aksiniya shouted and stamped his feet in anger. Who am I talking about? Get out of my house. Don’t step into our house, prisoner. Get out.
Come on, come on, come on. The master said, Akesusa, stop yelling. Good man, it’s human nature for her to cry. Is it dead after all?
It’s human nature for Aksiniya to tell her to spend another night today. It’s human nature for her to stay here without her. She added and smiled and went to the shop.
The next morning, Lipa went to Torguyevo village to find her mother.
nine
Now, the doors of the roofing shops are all painted and shiny, and there are gorgeous geraniums on the windowsill as before. What happened in Chubkin’s yard three years ago is almost forgotten.