Snowman.
Snowman(aka - snow woman) - a simple snow sculpture. Making a snowman is a winter pastime that originated in ancient times.
Story
Snowmen have been known for a very long time, although the first evidence of them dates back to the 14th-15th centuries. According to historians, snowmen appeared in prehistoric times, since from the very beginning of fine art, any available material was used for it, and snow was available and easily processed.
Picture of a snowman in a book from 1380
The most ancient depiction of a snowman dates back to the end of the 14th century, in the Book of Hours (manuscript KA 36, around 1380, p. 78v) in the margin there is a snowman roasting on a fire. Eckstein believes that the strange hat on the snowman's head should symbolize a Jew, and attributes the image to manifestations of anti-Semitism.
Snowmen were quite popular in the Middle Ages, usually taking the form of realistic snow sculptures. Eckstein notes the lack of early written evidence, attributing this to both the onset of the Little Ice Age in the 14th century and the absence of newspapers before the invention of printing in the 15th century. The earliest record of a snowman dates back to 1408, when the Florentine wine merchant Bartolomeo del Corazza (Italian: Bartolomeo del Corazza) wrote in his diary about an unforgettable snow sculpture two braccia high (about 120 cm).
Design
Snowman in Germany
A classic snowman consists of three snow globes (balls), obtained by making snowballs and rolling the lying snow onto them. The largest lump becomes the snowman's belly, the smaller one becomes the chest, and the smallest one becomes the head. The implementation of the rest of the body may vary, but there is a canonical idea of a snowman. Real snowmen may not live up to it, but it is common in fairy tales and cartoons.
The snowman's hands can be represented by two branches, but symbolic hands are sometimes made from two small lumps of snow. The snowman is often given a shovel or broom, which is stuck into the snow next to the figure. Sometimes the snowman is equipped with two feet made of snowballs, as if peeking out from under the skirt of his fur coat. The canon requires that the snowman's nose be made of carrots (carrots were well preserved until winter in old Russian peasant farms), but in the reality of modern conditions, more accessible materials at hand (pebbles, sticks, coals) are often used, which denote other facial features. Sometimes a bucket is placed on the snowman's head.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the typical snowman was a realistic snow sculpture.
In the 21st century, store-bought inflatable snowmen are used as holiday decorations instead of rolled-up snow. Stores also sell ready-made kits (hats, buttons, imitation coal and carrots), and the snowmen start to look alike.
The image of a snowman is also used in design and as souvenirs. As a decorative element, a snowman is made from paper, fabric, or thread.
In culture
At least two famous sculptors became famous for their (realistic) snowmen: Larkin Mead (English)Russian, whose career began with "The Snow Angel", and Alexandre Falguière, who on December 8, 1870, as a soldier during the Franco-Prussian War, created the statue "The Resistance" (French: La Resistance) as part of the "Museum of Snow on Bastion 84" ( Many other artists and sculptors served in the 17th company of the 19th battalion).
Michelin Bibendum 2012
The snowman is actively used in advertising. Unlike other winter characters, it is convenient because it does not evoke religious associations (although in 2015 one of the imams in Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from making snowmen) and therefore expands the demographic reach of advertising. Its whiteness allows you to advertise a lot of products that resemble snow: salt, flour, sugar, toothpaste, etc. The snowman evokes a feeling of novelty, cleanliness, freshness - and allows you to sell not only laundry and personal hygiene products, but even cigarettes (after all, he exhales “fresh air”). The figure of a snowman is associated with brands such as English. Snoboy and Michelin.
Frosty the snowman gained the greatest popularity in the English-speaking world - first in the song of the same name (English)Russian in 1949, then in the film The Adventures of Frosty the Snowman, and in dozens of books and short films.
The image of the snowman has proven popular in films, from obvious successes like The Snowman (English)Russian» R. Briggs (English)Russian and nominated for an Oscar in 1965. Help! My Snowman's Burning Down to the disastrous "Jack Frost" (which even Michael Keaton could not save). The Adventures of Frosty the Snowman received four sequels. Frosty, the creators of whose graphic image were inspired by the creations of P. Cocker (English)Russian, a cartoonist for Mad magazine, gave birth to the modern unified figure of a snowman, familiar to residents of Western Europe and America from gift shops and cartoons.
In Russian New Year's fairy tales and cartoons, he often appears as a companion of Father Frost.
Record-breaking snowmen
One of the largest snowmen was rolled up in February 1999 in Bethel, Maine. He was named "Angus, King of the Hill" in honor of Angus King, then governor of Maine. The snowman was 35 meters tall and weighed more than 4,000 tons.
In 2008, they made a snowman even larger there: 37 meters high and weighing 6,000 tons. The snow woman listed in the Guinness Book was named after Olympia Snowe, a senator from Maine.
In anticipation of Christmas 2010, English scientist David Cox, a member of the Quantum Division of the National Physical Laboratory in London, together with colleagues created a snowman symbol from two peas of a 0.01 mm tin alloy. The snowman's nose is made of platinum, its diameter is only 0.001 mm. The snowman's face and smile were carved using a focused ion beam.
Festivals
Six-ring
There are hundreds of snowman-related festivals around the world every year, from a golf tournament in Pennsylvania that ends with golf balls being shot at a snowwoman on the ice of Lake Wallenpaupack (English)Russian before the grand holidays in Harbin and Sapporo.
In Russia, the most famous is the Siberian Snow Sculpture Festival, which has been taking place since 2000 in Novosibirsk.
The life of a snow woman ends unusually during the Six Bells in Zurich: a snowman stuffed with explosives (made of cotton wool) is placed in a fire. According to legend, the faster it explodes, the hotter the summer will be.
Snow Maiden
It is assumed that in Rus' snowmen were revered as the spirits of winter, and that they were asked for help, mercy and to reduce the duration of cold weather. Perhaps that is why the snowman was given a broom in his “hands” - so that he could fly into the sky. It is possible that in Rus' they once believed that the air was inhabited by heavenly maidens who commanded fogs, clouds, and snow, and therefore solemn rituals were organized in their honor, including the sculpting of snow women. Most likely, the snowman (snow woman) represents an ambivalent figure in the archetypal structure of myth. A deep comparative analysis of Slavic legends and beliefs in connection with the mythological tales of other peoples by A. N. Afanasyev suggests that the snowman is a heavenly nymph created by man from snow, who fell dead to the ground as a result of a mythical battle between the gods of thunder (lightning, cold) and clouds Having melted in the spring, the heavenly nymph came to life, ascending as steam into the sky, and could again bring rain to the earth, which was required for the germination of the crop. That's why people made snowmen in the winter, hoping for a good harvest in the fall.
Unicode
Unicode snowman character: U+2603.(☃ )
see also
- - fairy tale by H. C. Andersen
Notes
- , With. 146.
- , With. 141.
- , With. 130-131.
- , With. 129-130.
- , With. 128.
- , With. 120-121.
- , With. 13-14.
- Sheila A. Bergner. Snowman crafts. Publications International, 2004. 64 p. (English)
- , With. 98.
- , With. 92-93.
- , With. 38.
- Saudi imam bans Muslims from making snowmen - Russian Wikinews
Based on a fairy tale
Galina Vladimirovna Lebedeva (b. 1938)
SNOW MAN
Snow Maiden's story
How grateful I was to you guys for sculpting me, Otherwise I would have been lying there like a simple, useless snowdrift. And they sculpted it with such generosity and love! I had everything I needed, even a muffler and a headdress...
They looked after me very much, and when Yurka, the robber from the neighboring yard, almost broke me by running over me with all his might with a sleigh, they almost molded me back together. After that I began to look even more beautiful. I became the center of everyone's attention!
I really loved watching how you frolicked, played snowballs, screamed cheerfully, slid down the ice slide, and even, holding hands, danced around me with cheerful songs! I just wanted to sing, hold hands and dance with you, or dash down the ice slide...
One day this holiday suddenly ended because spring came. Slides, snow fortresses, in a word, all the beauty that you built with such diligence has turned into continuous streams...
I felt so sorry for the past winter that at first I cried bitter tears, but I came to my senses in time, because I didn’t want to turn into these streams...
And then this old grumpy crow began to croak that all our people had long since melted, evaporated and were flying in white clouds high above the earth It was so sad for me to listen to her, but she did not let up, she said that some people had already fallen with snow again somewhere far in the North, and they were again turned into snowmen and snowmen.
At these moments, I imagined how great it would be to be among the dry cold wind, diamond snowflakes and white drifts of sparkling snow!But I didn’t give free rein to my imagination, because even thinking about it would simply not be fair, almost a betrayal towards you. I firmly decided, no matter what, to survive until the cold weather!Now for me there was only this small garden, so beautiful when it snows, and the memories of my beloved winter.
At times I was so sad that I wanted to cry, but I held on with all my might, tears would simply destroy me. And then, as if sensing my suffering, the old ice cream man appeared. He sat down opposite me on the bench, calmed me down and handed me a popsicle on a stick, taking it out of his chest. When he lifted the lid, frosty dry steam poured out of the chest, which, much more than words, gave me hope that everything would be as wonderful as it was, and that winter would definitely come, you just need to wait...I ate a popsicle and smiled, life seemed wonderful, and winter was very close!
I then remembered a fairy tale that one of the guys told. It was about how the Snow Queen tried to make the boy’s heart icy and leave him to live in her beautiful palace, but one girl with her faith and love warmed his heart and returned him to his former life... Somehow the ice cream man reminded me of that girl, though he helped me not to warm up, but quite the opposite... I was so grateful to him!
Often a crow would fly in and continue to croak that all my efforts were in vain, that I wouldn’t make it to winter anyway, that I would melt or burst into tears... Even a fragment of a mirror somewhereshe picked it up and brought it to my eyes, maliciously mocking: “Look, what have you turned into? There are dark circles under my eyes, and I’ve lost so much weight that I even have a waist!”
But then I didn’t look in the mirror, through the tears that appeared, my gaze was turned to the sky: there, somewhere far away, cold winds must already be swirling, driving the clouds into large dark clouds.
Soon the crow appeared again and again began to caw incessantly... but already flying away, she announced that the cranes were going south... I couldn’t believe my ears, my whole being was simply rejoicing at such joyful news! After all, this meant that the cold would come very soon and my suffering would come to an end!
And indeed, it soon began to snow and fell all night, and in the morning the red, frosty sun rose. It was happiness, and I cried with unbridled joy, now no longer afraid of my tears!
An old crow, who was nearby, said in surprise that my eyes became blue and shining, and a white braid appeared to the waist. Such miracles, I thought!
Thus ended the story about her extraordinary transformation, with the greatest interest to the children who listened to her, Snow Maiden...
In the depths of the square, near an old wooden bench, stood the Snow Woman. Baba is like Baba - a carrot nose, a bucket on her head - but either the snow from which she was made was too soft, or there was some other reason for this, but this Baba turned out to be especially romantic and dreamy. This character trait extremely irritated her friend Vorona, who often scolded and croaked.
You're dreaming! You don't know life, fool! Life is not your r-romance!
Baba sighed and tried to timidly object. The crow went wild. Sometimes such conversations ended in a quarrel. But time passed, and the friends made up. It would have continued like this, but one day... In fairy tales, all the interesting things begin this way, right?
One day the Aspiring Poet appeared in the park. To be absolutely precise, he was a genius, but no one knew about it except him. He said about himself: “I am an unrecognized Genius.” But for some reason many did not believe it. Strange: The poet was young, handsome, walked bareheaded in winter and wore a long black coat, just like Pushkin’s. Moreover, he even wrote poetry. What else do you need? He wandered here completely by accident, in a very bad mood. His poems (once again!) were considered unfit for publication. Can you imagine?
They envy me, that’s why they squeeze me, the Aspiring Poet thought gloomily. - True talents die unrecognized, everyone knows this. Although, perhaps they just haven’t grown up to my lyrics? What's bad about this:
My life is prose, dreams and tears!
White roses wither in the cold...
And the editor, this mediocrity, said: “It’s hackneyed.” So you have to feel it! "There is no point". How does this make no sense? He escapes, we must catch him! And in general, there was one, I don’t remember his last name, but he was also a genius: “Oh, close your pale legs!” The man joked, how long have they been looking for this very meaning?
Sighing, he lowered his head, brushed the snow off the bench with a suede glove, and sat down, thinking for a long time.
It’s hard to be an Unrecognized genius,” he finally complained. - I'm so alone in this world...
Snow Baba shuddered and woke up from her dreams. “How?! He’s also lonely! Maybe Fate itself brought us together here, in this park? How handsome and talented he is! Only... Will he recognize a kindred spirit in me?” - conflicting feelings overwhelmed her, life was filled with meaning and sparkled with bright colors. The poet got up and left. Snow Baba realized that she had fallen in love completely and irrevocably. In the evening she told Raven about what had happened.
She ruffled her feathers, stared at her suspiciously to see if she was mocking her, and then fell into the snow with a hoarse croak, rolling with laughter.
You're a fool, you're a fool! Just think - I'm in love! Give her love! Look at you - Baba, she is Baba!
Snow Baba proudly raised her head, crowned with a bucket:
“I may not be beautiful,” she said with self-esteem, “but it seems to me that appearance is not the main thing.” The beauty of the soul is more important.
Oh, God bless you! - Crow did not let up, - where did you pick up such words?
You... You are just a stupid bird! - Snow Baba flared up and burst into tears.
They quarreled and didn't speak for a week. This is the first time this has happened. On Sunday, the Aspiring Poet came again, but this time he was in a lyrical mood and thirsty for creativity. Staring at the Snow Woman, he said:
I'll turn into an alley
I'll meet you by chance.
Hello, my Snow Maiden,
My dear miracle!
"Is he talking about me? Does that mean he cares about me?" - Snow Baba felt happy. She wanted to throw herself on his neck and tell him that his feeling was mutual! But... she was so shy.
When the Poet left, Snow Baba simply could not find a place for herself. The crow noticed this immediately.
What, yours came? - she croaked grumpily, cleaning her beak.
He loves me! - the happy Snow Woman exultantly proclaimed. The crow chuckled incredulously.
Where did you get the idea?
He said it himself! He read me poems and called me a miracle and the Snow Maiden.
And you made your ears open. Oh, girl, it hurts, don’t listen. Guys - they are all talkative when they need something. I had one... roar! He also said all the words, and then left alone with the children.
This fun winter activity has been known to people for centuries. But not many people know what supernatural meaning the snowman had in the past...
The hero of another good German fairy tale Mandy Vogel "Der Wunsh des braunen Schneemannes"("The Brown Snowman's Dream") - a chocolate snowman. He dreams of seeing snow, and his friend, the boy Tim, takes him outside. The snowman is delighted with the white winter day and children playing snowballs. In the end, the chocolate snowman himself becomes covered in snow, he sincerely rejoices at this, thinking that now he is as white as everyone else. But Tim, seeing that his fabulous brown friend is still far from perfect whiteness, does not dare to disturb his happiness.
In Rus', snowmen have been sculpted since ancient pagan times and were revered as spirits of winter. Any child knew perfectly well how to make a snowman with his own hands; after the first snowfall, a bunch of kids poured out onto the street and started rolling snowballs. The molded figures, like Frost, were treated with due respect and asked for help and to reduce the duration of severe frosts.
By the way, snow women And Snow Maiden- this is ours, Russian. Our ancestors believed that winter natural phenomena (fog, snow, blizzards) were controlled by female spirits. Therefore, to show them their respect, they sculpted snow women.
It’s not for nothing that the expression “mother winter” or “father frost” exists. And the month of January was sometimes even called that way - “snowman”. For our people, the snowman is also one of the favorite New Year's characters. In glorious Soviet cartoons "Snowman Postman", "When the Christmas trees are lit" the snowman appears as faithful assistant Santa Claus doing housework. In the Soviet Union, snowmen were artfully painted on greeting cards.
Today, in our civilized world, creating snow figures remains not only a favorite pastime for children, but also a socially organized holiday. Records are being set all over the world for sculpting the tallest snowmen. :
- Highest in Europe A snowman flaunts on the slopes of a ski resort in Austria, in the city of Galtür: its height has reached 16 meters 70 centimeters.
- And the record for creating tallest snowman in the world was installed in the United States of America in 1999, its height is 37 meters 20 centimeters, and its weight is 6 thousand tons of snow.
We are not lagging behind in this matter either! In Moscow, for several years in a row, an annual competition has been held at the estate of Father Frost in Kuzminsky Park. "Parade of Snowmen". Our snow figures may only be as tall as a person, but their number (several dozen) is very impressive!
Find time to enjoy winter and be sure to build your own snowman! Happy holiday!
Polinka went to bed like a princess. And I woke up like a snow woman. It just happened that way. Everyone is wondering where the queens go? Before the wedding, all the girls, as one, are queens. Because in love, they splash around like in warm water. They want to laugh. The eyes are sparkling. And after the wedding you look - the shine is gone, and the lips are folded into a horseshoe, with the horns down. He depresses his head, as if holding it with a bridle, weighs himself down with bags, and runs. The diagnosis is clear even without a doctor: cardiac dystrophy. Acute lack of love. And an unloved woman is, I tell you, a disaster. You go out into the city like this, and you look - there are only snow women all around. Solid North Pole. It's freezing cold. And suddenly, among this frozen snow, a fire will blaze. It looks like a woman is walking, like a woman, but she’s radiating heat. Love. A great rarity these days.
So Polinka walked like a queen. Until yesterday. Nature did not offend Polinka with the texture. Vitek just said: “You, Polinka, have both half-popia and hemispheres - they are a delight to the eye!” And that's true! Polinkin’s figure surpassed the world’s skinny standards by three times. But Nature is a big joker. And she also joked about Polinka. She held it, held it on her palm, and at the last moment she crushed it with her other palm. And Polinka came out after these playful hugs, like a loaf from the oven. All round, lush, all wide. But Polinka was not offended by Nature. Such as there is. And Vitek loved her just like that. And everything worked out well for him and Vitko. And Polinka believed that happiness was here. And I even decided to pamper myself. Victor's beloved. I bought white satin with embossed roses from my salary. Unprecedented beauty! And I sewed a robe. Royal! As soon as Vitek saw her in this robe, his face changed. And Polinka paces in front of him: she will turn this way and that way. We sat down to dinner - Polina stewed chicken navels with onions - and took the robe on her knee and left. The knee turns red like a summer apple and glows with heat. Polina is beaming. In a word, live and rejoice. And at night Vitek loved her with such fervor, with such ardor that Polinka realized: this is it! Surely he will invite you to get married.
In the morning she got up early, put on a new robe neatly folded on a chair and went to prepare breakfast. Like a real husband's wife. I warmed up yesterday's navels and made coffee. Smart girl! And Vitek sidled towards the door and gave out a patter from there. Polinka remembered his speech word for word. For a long time afterwards, she parsed this speech word by word, letter by letter, as if trying to understand where this terrible murderous meaning came from in seemingly harmless words. And Vitek said that he was already thirty, his mother had eaten all his baldness: get married and get married. And Vitek tapped the top of his head, where, apparently, there was a bald spot eaten by his mother. And he, Vitek, spat on his free single life and now gets married. This Saturday. He doesn't invite me to the wedding. You know, it’s not decent. Forgive me, Polinka, and goodbye! Of course, you are a good woman, but a wife is such a thing. Vitek waved his hand vaguely, as if explaining what a difficult matter this wife is. And left. And Polinka took off her new festive robe and carefully hung it on hangers in the closet. And she turned into a snow woman.
Of course she didn't go to the wedding. But from a distance she looked at who Vitek exchanged her for. So, nothing special. Against Polinka - Mouse Tail. “Well,” thought Polinka, “let him celebrate with Mouse Tail!” She folded her lips into a horseshoe, with her horns facing down, and began packing eggs into large boxes at her poultry farm. Because until that day, the main things in her life were Vitek and the egg warehouse. Vitka can now be crossed out. All that's left is work, work. Sometimes she was replaced by sorting chickens. She took the yellow fluffy lumps and watched with tenderness as the babies helplessly poked their weak beaks into her roughened palm.
Five years have passed. Polinka was still putting eggs in cardboard boxes. After work I went home. Lips - horseshoe, eyes - to the ground. Her large, uncomfortable body smelled of permafrost. And the men they met shied away. And she moved like a heavy truck at speed. Beware! At home I sat in front of the TV and watched the program “Let's get married!”
One day on such a dull evening there was a knock on the door. Vitek stood on the threshold. What an unexpected guest! Polinka looked at him with forgotten interest. He got older and somehow haggard. Somewhat unkempt. The collar over there is shiny. Why is Mouse Tail looking after her husband so poorly! And who is this? Two children, about three years old, were trampling at Vitka’s feet. Two Mice with big sad eyes.
Vitek suddenly fell to his knees:
Polinka, don't drive me away! Sorry! But there is no one to help except you. I'm in trouble, Polinka!
The little mice frightenedly huddled close to their father, their bright sad eyes filled with tears.
From Vitka's incoherent story, Polinka somehow understood that something was wrong with Mouse Tail, and Vitka had to go on a flight tomorrow for a week. They transferred him to long-haul flights. And you can’t refuse - they’ll fire you. And he is the breadwinner. And you can’t go - who will you leave the kids with? Natalya won't look after them. “Natalya is a Mouse Tail,” Polinka thought, but didn’t say anything out loud. And Vitek continued to talk. While the mother was alive, she helped. But there is no mother, she died six months ago. And Natalya also has no relatives left. A neighbor helped look after the kids and Natalya. Yes, I came down with the flu myself. Help, Polinka! You are the only native person!
Polinka looked thoughtfully at the disheveled, almost crying Vitka, at the frightened Mice, and unexpectedly for herself agreed. She didn’t sleep all night, she kept replaying in her memory the conversation with Vitka and such important words for herself about her loved one. How these words warmed her!
In the morning she wrote a statement, asked for a week at her own expense and went to Vitka. The house struck her with its unkemptness. In a small bedroom, her homewrecker was sitting on the bed. Mouse Tail. The face is yellow. The look is lifeless. Polinka noticed how restlessly her hands moved. They were the only ones that seemed alive on this dried-out body. The homewrecker didn’t even turn her head towards the timid Polkino: “Hello!” On the window, on the floor, on the chairs - there were plastic multi-colored cubes everywhere. Neatly folded into pyramids according to color. Reds with reds, blues with blues.
“Just don’t touch the cubes,” said Vitek, “or she’ll get excited.” As long as the cubes are stacked, she is calm.
Polina became numb. She didn't expect this.
Don’t be afraid,” Vitek winced, “she’s harmless.” Only if the cubes are touched does she start screaming.
He paused.
She wasn't always like this. It started after giving birth. The birth was difficult. At first I started carrying the cubes home in nets. I thought it was for the boys. Then she stopped talking and fell silent. And he doesn’t recognize anyone: neither me nor the little ones. And she's harmless.
He walked up to his wife and stroked her dull hair, tied in a ponytail. The woman did not react in any way to her husband’s affection.
You, Polinka, look after her like a woman, well, change diapers and all that.
What do the doctors say? - Polinka finally found her speech.
Vitek shrugged his shoulders vaguely and left. But Polinka remained. She cautiously looked into the bedroom. Mouse Tail just sat on the bed, staring blankly at the wall. Only her hands seemed to live a separate restless life. Everyone was smoothing out an old flannel robe with red cherries on their thin, sharp knees. Polinka noticed that the cherries on her knees were almost worn off. She came and sat down next to Mouse Tail. She paused.
“But I wanted to kill you,” Polinka said quietly. - It happened. And you see how life has turned around.
Polinka was silent again and sighed:
Forgive me. Sorry for my stupid thoughts! Don't worry, I'll look after the boys.
The woman was still staring blankly at the wall, only her hands were trembling slightly.
In the evening Polinka took the Mice from kindergarten. All day she scraped, washed, washed, ironed. The house has changed beyond recognition. And now the Little Mice looked at Polinka incredulously and frightenedly huddled against the wall. Polinka fed them pancakes with milk, bathed them for the night, and dressed them in clean pajamas. The flushed faces still stared at her with sad eyes, but the fear disappeared. Polinka picked up the Mice in her arms and carried her to bed. She didn’t know lullabies and, after thinking, she sang in a low chest voice: “There are so many golden lights on the streets of Saratov, there are so many single guys, but I love a married man.” The Mice smelled so comfortably of milk and chicken fluff. Polinka closed her eyes and imagined as if the Mice were her children. Her, not Mouse Tail. And anyway, there is no Mouse Tail. And there is she, Vitek and their children. And let the one behind the wall not bother them. Let it disappear altogether. It would be good if she disappeared.
The days flew by unnoticed. In trouble. Polinka took the Mice to kindergarten. They completely ceased to be afraid of her and merrily trotted after her, adapting to her long stride. At home she changed the clothes and fed Mouse Tail. And she got down to farming. Vitek should be back soon. For his arrival, Polinka fried the navels with onions and set the table. She was waiting for Vitka again, as if the past five years had never happened. Vitek clicked in admiration, turning his head, wondering how his house had changed. The little mice devoured their favorite pancakes. Well, why not family! If it weren't for that one! Behind the wall!
But Polinka understood that she was deceiving herself. Vitek - as soon as he entered the house - immediately rushed into her room, towards Mouse Tail. He strokes your shoulders and kisses your temple. And then I noticed Polinka. Of course, he thanked me and showered him with compliments. Just these words to Polinka! Words are just words. Emptiness. And his heart is there, behind the wall, with the homewrecker.
Why don't you send her to a boarding school? Why are you suffering?
It was Polinka who asked in the evening when the Mice had gone to bed. She couldn’t resist.
Vitek looked at her with a long, attentive gaze.
What will I tell my sons when they grow up? Why did I take their mother from her home to the orphanage? How can I justify myself to them? No, Polinka. Both in joy and in sorrow. Together.
And Polinka thought that she didn’t know such a Vitka. And she suddenly became acutely envious of the one behind the wall, who managed to tie a man to her so much that even she was sick and worthless, but he needed her. But Polinka was unable to hold on. And she felt so offended, so bitter. Polinka looked at Vitka’s tired face, at the harsh folds that lined his face, at the early wrinkles, at the gray temples and thought that she needed such a man. Here he is, serious and faithful. What did he say? Both in joy and in sorrow - together.
And Vitek asked her to sit with the Mice for another week until he finds a nurse. And she, hiding her burning joy, agreed. Life went on as usual and at the same time alarmingly joyful. Vitek was there all the time. And Polinka, while doing household chores, sometimes caught his thoughtful gaze. And she didn’t even know where to put him, how to please him. All her lonely, unsuccessful life, she could not even imagine what a joy it was to wait for her husband, to care for him. And Polinka enjoyed the unusual role for herself.
In the evening they sat with Vitka at the table. The tea in the cups had long since cooled, but they kept talking and talking. And it seemed to Polinka that something more than gratitude was splashing in Vitka’s brown eyes. And when Polinka went to the sink to rinse the cups, Vitek took her hand, rough from work, and pulled her towards him. He kissed her rough palms and whispered affectionately.
Polinka, Polinochka!
Oh, what a hot night it turned out to be! So hot, so sweet! Polinka has fallen out of love with Vitka during all the lonely cold years. And falling asleep on his chest in the morning, she thought that Vitka was not at all jealous of the one behind the wall. What to do if this happens? In the morning, Polinka habitually rushed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, wake up the boys and get them ready for kindergarten. Accompany Vitka to work. Then - to the bedroom. Wash Natalya, change diaper, comb her hair, sit her by the window. The morning sun peeked through the window, and the cubes glowed scarlet. Having finished, Polinka sat down next to Natalya.
Don't be afraid of me. I won't hurt you. And I already love your boys as much as I love my own. The bear broke a cup today. With a hedgehog. Got upset. I'll go buy him the same one. And Vanya brought a kitten yesterday. Funny! He is affectionate Vanya, compassionate. I'm sorry, Natasha, that I kind of replaced you. It happened. Not my fault. First you replaced me. Now here I am.
And everything went as usual. Vitek, leaving home, kissed his married wife, and then his unmarried wife. And Polinka understood: this is how it should be. This is how it should be in fairness. Polinka quit her job and moved in with Vitka. The friends gasped and twirled their fingers at their temples. And Polinka consoled herself: “Well, so what? You know, this is her fate. And if neighbors and friends scratch their tongues, so let them, since there is nothing to do. She, Polinka, doesn’t care. She is happy. She now has a husband. She has two sons! And they call her Mama Polya! And then there is Natalia. This is the family she has now. And thank Him!
Polinka takes out a white satin robe with embossed roses from the closet. She hadn't worn it for a long time. She looks at her reflection in the mirror with a smile. Nothing! The boys will grow up, go to school, and Polinka will give them a sister. But of course! Of course she will give birth! Vitek over there whispers to her every night how hot and insatiable she is. Of course! She's not a snow woman.
