9785005528667
ISBN :Возрастное ограничение : 16
Дата обновления : 14.06.2023
The Girl and the Dark Corner
Daniel Vice
Ela woke up during the night because the water in the pipes started making loud noises, and gurgled and bubbled in the stinking black hole.“Oh, no! Now that terrible Zid will come and drag me into the water like he dragged my stick under before,” she thought, shaking with fear…
The Girl and the Dark Corner
Daniel Vice
Translator Vice Daniel
© Daniel Vice, 2021
© Vice Daniel, translation, 2021
ISBNВ 978-5-0055-2866-7
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
The Girl and the Dark Corner
Dedicated to all the homeless children around the world…
She was eight years old. AВ very thin girl, and always dirty. When her mother was sober and kind, she called her Ela, stroked her head, and fed her with rusks and sausage scraps. When her mother was drunk, she smelled bad and swore like aВ sailor, kicked her and called herВ Ida.
One day her mother came home, her face beaten and bruised. Her mouth was bleeding.
В«Oh Mom, does it hurt?В» Ela-Ida asked fearfully. В«Why are you bleeding?В»
But her mother said nothing. She sat down in the corner of their little room and began to sob under her breath. The little girl started to crawl around her, tried to peer into her mother’s eyes. The woman stopped sobbing and stared at her angrily.
В«What do you want from me?В» she asked through clenched teeth.
В«IВ want toВ eat,В» answered Ela-Ida inВ aВ quiet, frightened voice.
«Again?!» screamed the woman, erupting in a hysterical fit. «You’re always hungry, huh? Do you think I don’t get hungry?!»
Out of habit, the girl hid shrank into a dark corner under the table. She didn’t want to anger Mom. She was afraid that her mother would start beating her again.
«Get out, you devil seed!» Her mother didn’t want to calm down. «You’re an adult already. Leave, and go look for your food yourself!»
Ela shook her head desperately. But her mother still pulled her out from under the table. Then she dragged her toВ the subway station and pushed her into the first car they came across.
Ela-Ida had never been inВ the subway before. She got very scared when everything around her suddenly began toВ rumble. She screamed and screamed, but the roaring did not stop. AВ random man took her byВ the scruff ofВ her neck and slapped her sharply inВ the face. Ela fell silent. She was afraid that the man would hit her again, but it turned out he meant well and soon pulled her out into the streets.
It was already dark, but Ela-Ida still bumped into aВ passer-by on the street, reeking ofВ the familiar smell ofВ alcohol.
«Where’s home?» Ida asked him.
В«There!В» answered the stranger and, belching loudly, waved inВ the first direction that took his fancy.
And so, Ela tried toВ go home. As she stumbled along the dimly lit streets, she grew colder and more tired. InВ the darkness, she could not see aВ thing, and bumping into the concrete slabs ofВ the heating mains, she almost fell into an open manhole. The white steam billowed from the opening.
В«It is warm over there!В» Ela thought toВ herself and, finding aВ metal ladder, climbed down the hole toВ warm herself up and rest aВ little.
***
Ela never found the way back home. Not knowing where toВ go, she returned toВ the manhole. At least it was warmer than outside inВ the cold streets.
InВ the light ofВ day, Ela-Ida discovered that one ofВ the corners ofВ her new dwelling had an old and tattered mattress, jammed between the pipes. She dragged it out and spread it next toВ aВ hot pipe, which she covered with wet cardboard and fragments ofВ old plywood, so she would not burn herself. The cardboard dried quickly and became warm. Now she could sit on the mattress, pressing her back against the heated cardboard wall. It felt good.
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