out the white splinters of firewood on the stone floor. Oh, it’s not firewood, it’s the bones of the skeleton, scattered here and there. At first, the fear stopper tied the boy, he stood, as if stumped, not daring to move from his place. But gradually fear let go of him, numbness passed and, daring, he decided to shoot on the video of the Smartphone this picture with human bones on the floor in the dust of the cellar. During this occupation, suddenly, his Smartphone made a bell sound, frightened by an unexpected call.
Misha hesitated for a while to answer. Then a moment later he looked at the call screen. Sasha called. Masha accepted the call and saw Sasha’s laughing face on the screen.
– Oh, hi! – he said, – Why can not I see you? You, what’s in the castle, or something, in the basement with a skeleton, or what’s so dark, you can not be seen?
“How do you know where I am?”
– Yes, I’m joking. What do you think, I did not see how you put in your pants when you draped from the basement, eh? Sasha’s mocking laugh rang out.
“See for yourself what I’ll show you!” – Misha became a flashlight Smartphone to illuminate the remains of the skeleton, passing the image to Sasha. The friend was silent, without making a sound…
Sasha’s Smartphone lay on the kitchen table, behind which he sat, waiting for Mom to fill the plate with soup and put it on the table. When the bowl of soup set in front of Sasha, at this very time Misha began to broadcast the shooting of the basement remains of the skeleton of the castle. Sasha’s mom, seeing human bones on the image, grabbed the Smartphone in horror, and heard:
– Well, which of us is a coward, and Sashka?! – Misha’s voice shook Sasha’s mother to the depth of consciousness.
Misha continued to shoot a terrible picture, and, marveling at the silence of his friend, said:
– What, you there the boy, it is not terrible, and?!
“No, Misha, Sasha is not scared,” Natasha’s aunt’s voice drove Misha into a stop. He turned off the smart phone, and resolutely rushed to the exit from this eerie place. Misha knew for sure that Aunt Natasha would immediately call her mother, and Mom would immediately rush home, forget about work, and forget about everything and only to make sure that nothing happened to him. Misha, in the blink of an eye, found himself near the doorway of the tower, when suddenly a warning thought flashed through the depths of the subconscious: “We must close the basement so that there are no unnecessary questions.” And he ran down to the green ring, which had turned green from the old times, to install the torch. He grabbed the ring and struggled as best as he could, yanked. The cellar door creaked wildly with a wild screech. But Misha did not see this anymore, the terrible creaking and grinding of the sliding door, drove the boy away without looking back. A few minutes later, when Misha ran through the wasteland home, Mom called the Smartphone.
– Yes mom!
– You, what do you allow yourself, ah?! My sister calls me and says that you are now in the former prison for convicts, who were kept there for construction work, when Demidov rebuilt and started his plant. And if the wall collapsed?! A brick on his head would have fallen?! And in the basement would be overwhelmed? What do you think, woe is you mine?! – The mother’s voice rang in the phone.
– Mom, I’m already approaching the house, nothing happened to me.
– Wait for it! I’ll get home!
From these words, Misha was not so offended as for Sasha’s betrayal. Sasha passed it to his mother and now the friendship is over. A new call rang. A call from Sasha is indicated on the screen. Misha, with vexation, dialed several buttons, removing Sasha’s phone from the Smartphone database. Now he has neither a friend nor a cousin of a traitor. I did not want to go home, but pity for my mother took over and unwillingly, overcoming the inevitability of punishment, he wandered the weeds of the wasteland home…
Half an hour later, from the moment Misha entered the apartment, my mother came. The woman did not have a face. She, without taking off her shoes, rushed to her son:
“You know,” she turned to her son, breathless, “if it was not for Sasha, I would have poured you over the very outset.”
– And what did he tell you? Misha asked insinuatingly, putting off the textbook on Russian literature.
– He said that you promised him to show a horror movie that you could download from the Internet. And that you did not go anywhere. Natasha, too, then I apologized. Sashka said that in this horror film shootings were conducted in places similar to our ruins jail and that you walked looked at the similarity, when Sasha and his mother came to us.
From these words, Misha eased from the heart, and the mother in the meantime continued: “I did not believe a single word of it until I came home. You really did not go anywhere?!
– Of course not, Mom! – Misha answered smugly and confidently. About Sashka, he thought that what a cunning, how cleverly held our sisters, will go far right. And I thought about my sneakers that I was lying in the bathroom. Mother just washed there and, finding dirty shoes, left the bathroom, holding sneakers in her hand.
– And what’s that?! – looking with alarm at his son’s eyes, she asked anxiously, feeling that she was being led by the nose.
– There’s dirt since last time. – Without losing, coolness and, lazily, as if the evidence here is nothing to do with, in the mother’s investigative file on the concealed son with all her strength to sally…
“Is there fresh mud here?” – Mother did not give up.
– Well, I went out into the yard. – Lied Misha. – He hit the ball a couple of times, then returned, only the shoes got dirty. And when you called me, I was just approaching the house from the playground; I told you that I’m coming to the house.
“I have to cleanse myself; otherwise I will not be able to buy such expensive shoes so often.”
Having said this, she disappeared into the bathroom with sneakers. Misha felt more heartbroken again, and the treacherous thought that lying, nevertheless, is unpleasant, and how simple and easy it is to always tell the truth, sat in his brain, a thorny splinter. He decided that he would always tell the truth and never say an unpleasant lie. Mom washed the sneakers and carefully put them in the hallway to dry…
Chapter – 4.
From the worries experienced by the reaction of Misha’s mother, Misha concealed his secret of visiting abandoned ruins. And in this he helped Sasha. Now associated with one secret brothers tried not to mention this adventure at their rare meetings. They played football, watched video films, competed in computer video games, and, in general, tried hard to be obedient sons of their mothers.
Unexpectedly not fortune-telling mom Sasha married. Sasha had a stepfather who dragged the boy to a sports club, ran with him in the morning and became his stepfather and friend. Sasha finally forgot his cousin, every time Misha called him, inviting him to visit, he found thousands of reasons to refuse, referring to his employment. Misha’s mother began to envy the sister’s marriage, often set an example for Sasha, admiring his behavior, while rebuking Misha in disobedience, or for minor leprosy. Then, you’re doing bad lessons, then again moved to the top three, then for the teacher’s teacher called and asked to hold her son…
How it all got to Misha. Sometimes he could not even hear that he had such an ideal cousin. Nevertheless, time passed. Misha studied at an ordinary school in Nevyansk. Sasha attended a paid college with in-depth study of English and in the ninth grade he could speak fluent English. Misha, while studying at an ordinary school, received three in English lessons and was glad of it. Sacha paid his studies at a paid college for his stepfather. Sasha dressed in all the canons of fashion, like a teenager from a rich family. Misha went about what ordinary boys from not wealthy families go to. Mama Misha had something