“I see you have become friends,” Nadya smiled, leaning towards the bag of gifts she had brought. – What is your name?
– Peter. And Aunt Nadya, Varya told me about you. Is it true that you are not her mother?
– Is it true. I’m not related to her, I’m just helping her while her mom is… busy.
– When will mom arrive? – Varya immediately became sad.
“He’ll come, he’ll definitely come…” Nadya stammered, afraid to even add “soon” and thereby deceive the girl once again. But to tell her that mom is nowhere to be found and it is not known whether she will appear – this would be too cruel to the child’s psyche.
Varya still burst into tears from such uncertainty, and Petya began to console her:
– Do not Cry. My mother actually went to America, to the other side of the world, can you imagine?
Varya stopped crying and stared at him with wide eyes:
– And how will she return to you from there?
– He will arrive by plane. But only in a week.
Varya’s eyes almost popped out of her sockets:
– It will take a week to fly on a plane!
Petya laughed:
– Not really! It’s just that she bought the tickets a long time ago, she didn’t change them because of me, because it’s very expensive.
Then Varya also burst into tears for Petya: waiting a whole week for mom is too long!
Nadya did her best to distract the children from gloomy thoughts, treating them to yoghurts and fruits:
“But your dad is here,” she tried to console Petya, and at the same time Varya, who sympathized with him.
But the guy shook his head negatively:
– I don’t have a father. More precisely, there is, but he lives in another city. We hardly see each other.
– How? But yesterday…
“This is my uncle, my mother’s brother,” Petya muttered, expressing his attitude towards his relative in a tone. “Mom asked him to take me to the hospital when I felt sick with my stomach.
– So what, you live alone while your mother is in America?!
– No, with my grandmother. More precisely, with my great-grandmother. But she is very old and sick.
Nadya sighed sadly. Poor kids! It seemed to her that she would never have left her people for so long and so far. And even more so, she would not have disappeared without communication.
She wanted to stay longer in the hospital, but she still needed to prepare for going to the theater with Anatoly, and the nurses were already looking at their cheerful company with disapproval.