At the Fingertips

— Sleep, son, sleep ... — A woman in an old dress and a candle in her hand was gently stroking my hair. — You’re scared, aren’t you? Nasty boys! It is necessary to come up with such a thing — to take and push my boy off a bridge! We thought you’d drowned...If your sister hadn’t come running and Martin didn’t get you out of the river in time...She covered her face with her hands and cried. But then, abruptly, she wiped off her tears. But you survived, and that’s all that matters!

I’m tired. I want to know who this woman is, but I can’t move... And I’m falling into a dream so deep, I don’t even know how to get out of it...

— Fool—fool, show the tongue! Be-e!

A nasty freckled big man, teasing and throwing small stones, suddenly takes a bigger cobblestone and, swinging, makes a deceptive movement. I dodge and squat. They laugh at me. A girl of about ten years, runs and screams:

— Don’t touch him! You don’t have to touch it! He’s good!

But the crowd of bullying boys pays absolutely no attention to the worried girl. And only stronger begins to throw small stones raised from under his feet.

— You are bad! Koti, run fast! — The girl sharply pulls my hand, trying to pull me out of the vicious circle. And she succeeds! We start with all legs rushing along the stone pavement away from this city!

— Come on, Koti! Quick! Don’t look back!

But I don’t listen and look back... My legs are tangled, and I’m falling...

The boyish pack that has caught up with us begins to kick me with their feet, saying:

— What a fool, did not run away through the bridge? You were told not to come to the town again! We don’t need mute freaks here!

The little girl bravely throws herself with her fists at the angry boys. But they ruthlessly push her away. I understand that I am on a bridge, and at the bottom there is a spring river with a fairly fast flow. The escape routes are blocked. I jump on the flimsy railing and, balancing on these weak handrails, I walk back and forth. The boys, leaving the girl alone, completely switch to me.

— I told you he was a fool. Who in their right mind would go there! — the freckled ringleader pushes the speech. And he starts to scare me with her big rock. I’m not afraid. But having swung once again, this freak did not keep his cobblestone in his hand. Having flown about three meters, the cobblestone hits me right in the face. The bubbling spring water draws me into its cold embrace. I feel like I’m being swept by an icy stream, like boiling water...

But suddenly a completely different picture floats before my eyes...

Such a beautiful and majestic, heart-sweet woman, with reverence looks straight into my eyes. Then everything circled around, and I fly under the high vaults of the strange room. And like a bolt out of the blue!

— To the health of the King’s son! — Hundreds of tinned throats are tearing the space apart with their loud screams, the echo of which is reflected from the stone vaults, and ends with my loud, ah-ah-ah! It sounds an irresistible desire to return to her, to my mother!

And then, darkness and a strange, hissing sound.

— Shh. Hush. S-strange... Why is he alive? This cannot be!

— If he was left life, it’s not for us to argue with that!

— But he saw everything! He will tell everything! He will not tell... If he cannot speak... Never...

I opened my eyes. Stretched ... No, guys, where does it fit! Looks like they put me to sleep in a barn! Yes, and next to the pigs and goats. Or rather, one goat. Tiredly hatched creature, half a meter away from me. Hoping, apparently, to hypnotize me with his dull, goat—like gaze.

— Classmates are called! They themselves probably sleep in clean beds, but they threw me into this pigsty. And, no matter how, I paid for almost the entire party at the Merry Tavern. And here it is, gratitude. Senior! By the way, the manager was taken and thrown into a smelly barn! Definitely, everyone has already lined up and is waiting for me to leave here, and they will meet me with shouts, — SURPRISE!

— What is this! I looked at my hands, hidden behind long, dirty sleeves. — They also dressed me in rags. Well, they did it in vain. How they stink, it’s just unbearable! For a week, it definitely does not come out ...

— Well, okay, what can you do now ... I’m already leaving, I’m leaving ... And now I’ll arrange such a surprise for you ...

Before my eyes, everything was still blurry. As I staggered, I went out, barely opening the creaky doors.

No screaming classmates were observed. But the unclean mud was observed, simply unbelievable in its consistency! I once again glanced at my legs. It was a pathetic semblance of leather tights, and on top of it was a rag wrapped in rope.

Across the street was a small shack of rock and straw. It was old, worn out, and somehow covered in clay on the seams, or the same mud from under the feet. Windows were not at all.

— Yes, everything looks too authentic ... — I thought. Okay, time to get out of this shit.

Home shower, bath, TV again — great! And here — only cold and mud! You won’t get another penny from me! Cursed fiends! — I cursed everything in the world, stepping almost barefoot in the spring muck.

While I jumped to the threshold of the next hut, I almost got frostbite on my legs. For this, in general, you need to beat in the face!

Before I had time, teeth chattering from the cold, to step over the threshold of a miserable shack and think about who to punish for such jokes, I myself got hit in that very face ...