A photo from open sources
This story was told by the mother of my good friend. She was born and grew up in a small village that was in a terrible off the beaten path. There were not even roads laid in the 1950s It was. Communication with the “big land” was carried out by a helicopter. He once in a week sat on a field outside the village, bringing the necessary goods to village shop and doing the work of a shuttle bus.
The heroine of this story then lived with mom and grandmother. Because there were no men in the house, care for the family lay on the shoulders of the mother. Almost all the time she disappeared in the fields and meadows of the collective farm, earning workdays in order to somehow feed their relatives. Well, and the grandmother was engaged in housekeeping. When a girl grew up, she became an old assistant to the old woman, performing feasible homework.
One summer, in the midst of haymaking, my mother worked in distant meadows, Well, grandmother and granddaughter started a big wash. At that time about washing machines and have not heard. The linen was soaked in large basins, and then rubbed on ribbed boards. Then the washed items were carried to a small pond in the middle of a village grazing where it was arranged special lava (rinse walkways). By the way, about this unpleasant rumors have long circulated around the village.
By lunchtime, the laundry was washed and laid in a wide basin with handles. Grandmother, tired after hard work, lay down to rest and asked granddaughter rinse clean things.
“Don’t go to the lake at noon,” she warned for some reason. she. -And then everything can happen there! ..
However, the girl wanted to finish work as soon as possible, so that later with clear conscience to go play with the guys. Yes, just drag a ten-year-old girl couldn’t do it alone on the lake’s heavy basin therefore, she invited a girlfriend with her. The girls got to the lake quickly. Conveniently laying out the laundry on the lava, they became fun while talking, rinse it in warm water.
And suddenly a strange movement attracted the attention of the girls opposite shore. Of course, it could be assumed that this someone is swimming, but everyone in the village knew that to go in that place impossible in the water – the whole shore there is overgrown with a dense talnik, and the bottom thick nasty mud covered.
The girls tried for a long time to consider what was going on opposite shore. But the sun was shining too bright, water sparkled and blinded her eyes. Yet for a moment they thought that a woman with long hair flickered near the bushes, and then everything calmed down.
The girls decided that it seemed to them, and again went to work. They pulled a large duvet cover from the basin, sewn from a rough canvas, and lowered it into the water. What happened next, mom my friend still recalls with horror. Duvet Cover Canvas immediately disappeared into the water and as if rooted to the bottom. It seemed that someone holds it under water with terrible power.
Girls clung to the end of the duvet cover with both hands, trying to pull him to the lava. Useless! Fabric was impossible budge. Not understanding what was happening, the girls began to cry and ask with tears:
– Release our duvet cover! You are welcome! Us at home will hit …
Apparently, the creature that was at the bottom (most likely, it was mermaid) took pity on the babies. The duvet cover came off the bottom and easily removed from the water. Without risking continuing work, girls quickly threw not rinsed linen into the basin and quickly left with the pond.
It turns out that it was not for nothing that the old-timers said that at noon they would go to the pond not allowed!
Elena Lyakina
Water Mermaid Time
