no one to drink tea with. She’ll be happy to see you, too.»
«Oh! And you say, you do not know who was flying away»
«It’s about the bale of hay, Uncle Venya.»
«Oh, I see.»
«Well, will you come with me for tea, or not?»
«Why wouldn’t I, if that’s the case? Let’s go, of course, Maryanushka, let’s go, dear.»
* * *
Lyudmila Strogina was a very beautiful woman. she had black wavy hair, large expressive light-brown eyes, straight facial features, and a chiseled figure. What is more valuable, in addition to a beautiful appearance, she had a strong character and a surprisingly meek disposition. For many years she was considered the greatest beauty in the village, and many men would not mind hitting on her, if not for a very serious obstacle of her husband, whom Luda simply adored. He was a retired military officer due to a severe head injury sustained in an exercise. Yuri Fedorovich soon recovered from his injury, but could only continue to serve as a warehouse manager. However, he was a man of extraordinary strength, and rightfully could be called a Russian bogatyr, a short, large man, there were legends about him. From real stories, if he needed to change a wheel on his Fiat, he simply unscrewed the nuts with his fingers, without the help of a wrench, and removed and put on the wheel without using a jack, simply lifting the car with his hand. He could lift, without visible effort, two adult men each weighing one hundred kilograms, in outstretched arms, and once, on a dare, he raised a horse above himself. But, despite such strength, he was a kind-hearted man, with kind blue eyes, a disarming smile that immediately wins anybody over, and a voice that was not at all expressed in military intonation. However, the residents in Yuri’s village, of course, were afraid of him, and Lyudmila was bypassed by the tenth road.
Yuri Strogin died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 48, either because of the same injury, or for some other reason, but after his death, his wife did not want to marry a second time, although she was still very pretty, and to everyone who tried to look after her, she gave a firm, decisive and unequivocal rebuff.
The tea at Lyudmila was notable. What she mixed in there, and what seasonings she added were unknown, but the taste and aroma were such that the whole village dreamed of learning the recipe from her. However, Lyudmila Sergeevna knew how to keep a secret, and did not tell anyone how she made such a delicious drink.
Sitting at her table, and savoring every sip, the hunter Venya slowly began to tell what he had come with and why he was trying to catch up with the helicopter.
«Yesterday morning I woke up in Matveevka, where I spent the night after a hunt, with Mikhalych, the headman there. Well, so… I went to the edge of the forest to check the snares, I placed them there for hazel grouses. So, to say… Well… and so, I passed by the field and there my friend, a tractor driver, is working. Already a quarter of the field has been removed. Well, I told him: „how are you“, and he is like: „I’m great, Pavlovich, how are you.“ And… he made the tractor shut down in order to rest a little. He took out some tobacco, and we sat down there on a log, and talked a bit.»
Veniamin Pavlovich paused and sipped fragrant tea from a cup, smacking his lips with pleasure. «He told me «You know: this is a lucky day, this morning I almost hit two teens, a brother and sister. The tractor stopped five centimeters from her head. If,» he said: «the girl had not screamed, I would have killed them for sure.»
«I started asking him about details, and then, you know, I understand from the description, after all, that he is talking about your kids. And I think: «How did they end up in Matveevka?» And he says here: «they got lost,» and then: «Because of exhaustion they fell on a broken bale of hay and fell asleep.»
«Then I say to him: „Can you show me this… bale of hay.“ And he replied: „No, how can I show it to you? I removed it out already and mixed it with others at the very edge of the field.“ And I said, „But you still can show me the place, it’s painfully interesting to me how they ended up there.“ You know, I love all sorts of stories like that. And… well, my heart skipped a beat when he told me that. It was as if something unusual had happened.»
Venya paused to drink from the cup again and continued.
«Well, in general, he brought me to that place, and… I’m an old hunter. I started carefully looking all around, you know. In case that I would see something. I don’t know but for some reason I did not like the story. It’s like some kind of a bad feeling came from it. I walked there and thought: „I wonder how they fell down on a bale exhausted and did not reach the village?“ One can see the lights of it at night from that field. So… and a bale of hay, it’s not a downy feather bed. In short terms, I was looking and looking, but there were no traces of the guys around the place, none at all. You know, such a thing does not happen. If a person is walking even through the forest, there will definitely be a trace. But almost to the very place there was another trail… and you know what it was? It’s some kind of horror! The trace, it seems like a wolf. But only this size! I’ll tell you!» Veniamin opened his fist and showed with his fingers what the size of the footprint was. Judging by his story, the footprint was at least two, if not three times larger than that of an ordinary wolf, such that Lyudmila Strogina, the mother of the above-mentioned children, groaned and rolled her eyes. If it had not been for her neighbor Veniamin Pavlovich, a man of exceptional honesty, in the place of the narrator, she simply would not have believed the story.
«No, not really, Venya, do such wolves exist?» Mariana asked with doubt in her voice.
«No! The fact of the matter is that they can’t exist!» Veniamin exclaimed hotly. «If it’s not a kind of an evil scum.»
«O, my God!» Mariana crossed herself.
«What is this you are doing? Do you really think that crossing will help in such a case? Only God can help, but He must first really be in your heart», Veniamin waved at her.
«His is in my heart,» Mariana began to justify herself.
«Wait a minute,» Luda interrupted her, and asked the old hunter, «Would you please continue?»
«Well… you know… I started to follow the trails, and it was visible from the very field. And… there were no traces of the kids anywhere at all. But this one is deep. It’s a heavy animal. And kind of strange, as if he sometimes got up on two paws. And I thought: «What kind of a wolf is that then with such paws?»
«This is not a wolf, but a whole calf!» Lyudmila expressed her assumption.
«That’s what I’m talking about! But… you know… I mean, I follow the trail, and here it is ups… suddenly and completely breaks off!»
After a short pause, Veniamin took a sip of tea and said, «Well… I again started to walk back and forth, and there were no traces anywhere, yet only, at the place where the trail stopped, there were three other traces. Barely noticeable, really. Only the grass was crushed a little and… maybe barely the earth was crushed as well. I even filmed them on my cell phone. Look!»
With these words, Veniamin Pavlovich took out his rather large smartphone and showed a photo on it, in which three identical rectangular prints were not very clearly visible in the middle of the forest grass, located in relation to each other, as if they were at the corners of an equilateral triangle. Everyone listening began to look at the photos, passing the hunter’s smartphone to each other.
«But that’s not all. I also found something in the trees. Traces, like from a propeller, or from a spinning body. Apparently, when this thing landed, it somehow went with its sheathing through some places. Well, the fact is that if you don’t specifically look for something, you by no means will notice anything. But I am… a seasoned hunter. I know how to look.»
«And what kind of thing is this, Pavlovich?» the women