not think about anything, except urgent things, and every person has some kind of task, which he is obliged to solve, work that he has to do. He can’t live his whole life like a cow or a wolf.”
“Granny, do you have such a task, too?”
“Yes, my task is to protect our planet and make everyone happy on it.”
“All?! How can you do that?”
“It’s necessary, Milochka! Sometimes I felt that I was doing my work well. But now it doesn’t seem to me so. I’m old; it’s time for me to leave. And grandfather Pahom calls me,” Go,” he says. “It’s already the time.”
“Where will you go?”
“Where everyone goes after death.”
“What about me?”
“That’s why I called you. I want to give my work to you.”
“How am I going to cope if even you didn’t?”
“But what else should I do? There is no other human capable of doing it. You needn’t start your work right away. You need to grow up, learn a lot. Maybe I might help you a little bit after my death as well as a planet will prompt and help you in difficult situations. Our planet is called Terra like me!”
“Terra! Terra! Take my deputy!”
“If you don’t mind, Milochka, she’ll always be with you. You can always consult with her and get the help you need.”
“Okay, Granny, let it be!”
“Now I’m always with you!” a loud voice rang through my head.
I shuddered:
“Who are you?”
“I am the planet, Terra. Now I will see everything with your eyes and help you in everything.”
“Terra can do a lot,” Granny added. “She can even teach you to fly. But don’t wait for her help on how to make people happy. You have to invent and try! I couldn’t do this. Perhaps you’ll succeed in this.”
“Why didn’t it work? What’s wrong with our planet?”
“A lot of things are wrong! For example, I could go around the whole planet mentally before, I could see all, repair something if I couldn’t do this, I would ask for help. But now many lands are hidden from me. Even my little helpers can’t get there.”
“What kind of helpers?”
“They’re spinning at the top! You’ve seen them once before. Now they’re going to help you!”
I looked up and saw the little laughing men over the crowns of the trees.
“Let’s fly! Let’s fly with us! Let’s sing and dance!”
“Don’t think about it! These mins will mess you around! You’ll forget all your work and live your life for nothing. But they can still help you, you should not quarrel with them. Remember the main thing: there is sadness, hopeless sadness going on all over the earth now. It seems that people live well, but for some reason, they do not want to live. It’s a sadness which you need to fight with, and you have to defeat it and bring back joy to people.”
“How can I fight something I can’t see or know?”
“No one will answer this question. You’ll have to think about yourself.”
We were walking with Granny all day. It was so great in the autumn forest. Yellow leaves were rustling underneath our feet. We found some boletuses – they will be good for soup. I fell asleep like a dog after walking. I saw Granny in my dream, but she wasn’t old, she was young. She was so funny! She’s flying, laughing… It’s so great!
The morning met me with the tears of my grandmother Bella. “You know, granddaughter,” she said, “Grandfather Pahom and granny Terra died tonight.” Tomorrow we need to bury them. All household is now on us. So now we are not guests in this house, but the owners. You will help me as much as you can and Petka also will help until his parents take him.”
Chapter 3. My school
The last clumps of ground fell on the tomb of Pahom and Terra.
“So my Granny left,” Mila thought, “I had no time to solve all my pressing problems with her.”
“You have enough helpers without me,” the young voice of beloved Granny rang in her head.
“Granny, where are you?” the girl screamed.
“Take it easy, grandma is gone,” granny Bella hugged granddaughter. “Don’t scream, your Granny won’t hear you again!”
“She’ll hear! Hear!”
Bella hugged her sobbing granddaughter by the shoulders and led her to the exit of the cemetery.
“Now we need to clean up and start a new life! You’re going to help me, aren’t you?”
“Of course I will, grandmother Bella! We’re going to live here for a long time.”
“I’m going to stay here forever, but you need to be given to your parents. They’re going to come for Petka, and you’re going to have to come back, too.”
“I’m not going anywhere! I won’t let Petka go! I will be bored without him, because there are no children here, only old people.”
“Don’t play pranks, Milochka, we can’t command! How adults decide, so it will be. However, they will not be able to do differently, because in that case you will be taken away from them.”
“Who will take me?”
“Well, those who make sure that the rights of the child are respected. That he lives in prosperity goes to school in time. And here – what prosperity is there? There are no shops in the village, no refrigerators in the house, only one cellar with potatoes and sauerkraut. And there is no school at all!”
“Bella, could you be a teacher?”
“I could be a granddaughter! I even worked at a junior school in my younger years.”
“Well, can you organize the school here?”
“What a dreamer you are, my girl! Who’s going to let me do this?”
“Why would you need someone’s permission for it?”
“You can’t do this without permission! Clumsy people or, even worse, bad people can take up teaching.”
“But you’re not a bad person! Let them come, make sure you teach correctly, and they will permit you!”
“You’re funny, Milochka! Will they come to us? It’s we who need to go to them for permission.”
“No, you adults are funny! And the rules you have are strange…”
A week passed. Petka and I ran into the forest for mushrooms. Granny Bella frightened us that we can get lost, that the bear can attack us. But I didn’t afraid of no one because my little invisible friends were always with me – little airy men who always tell me the way to my home. And we saw the bear once. It went far from us burying nose into the ground, perhaps he was searching for a den. Petka was very scared but I wasn’t afraid at all! After that, Petka started to respect me and he stopped teasing me since then.
Free life has finished when Petka’s parents arrived and ordered us to collect things. I must go with them too… My parents have written that I was already accepted to the boarding school and they are waiting for me there in a week.
“What am I going to do?” I asked my new friends, “I don’t want to leave this place!”
The air flickered with their dancing and laughter above me:
“What a funny girl