Аннотация: I believe you've never read a story like this. I recommend reading it. It's very interesting, an exciting story. It is also easy to read.
Holder Volcano
Member of the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan
The apricot grove (Story)
They say that you know real friends in tough times. So, although I quit my job a long time ago, for health reasons, I decided to visit my former boss, who was ill.
I went to the hospital room where the Director of our factory , which produces dangerous poisonous drugs, such as pesticide and herbicides lay. When the Director saw me, he wanted to get up, but I stopped him:
No, no, stay down, Sotkin Sattarovich .
I greeted him and asked about his health.
How nice of you to come, Bazarkul Baltabayevich. I got sick, But my illness is not related to the toxic chemicals that we produce - said the Director comrade Salafanov Sotkin Sattarovich, wheezing and moaning.
Don't worry too much, Sotkin Sattarovich. Everything will be alright. God created man from clay, not from iron. That is, a person can sometimes get sick. This is natural. Illness is like a guest, coming and going , I encouraged him.
-Thank you, Bazarkul Baltabayevich. I was just about to tell you my top secret before I left this beautiful world. Only, for this you must take an oath of loyalty, putting your hand on the sacred bread, so that you will never reveal this secret to anyone - Sotkin Sattarovich said .
I promised that I would never say a word to anyone. Continued Salafanov.
The fact is that I live in two phases, waking and sleeping. Once I dreamed of beautiful valleys, big rivers that spring from the emerald mountain peaks. The clear waters of these rivers glistened in the sun like a mirror among the spruce forests and green meadows, where a sea of white daisies bloomed, rippling in the wind. Walking through the meadow, singing in the tall grass, I waded through shallow rivers, ancient coniferous forests where woodpeckers crackle, and stopped at the mountain peaks.
Under the high granite rocks, powerful streams of water bubbled. A suspension bridge was built over the mountain river. A lone eagle soared in the sky, calling majestically with its beak wide open. I crossed that suspension bridge. On the other side of the bridge, a grove of apricots rustled in the wind. In the sunlight, ripe yellow apricot berries with a red-pink tint sparkled like Bukhara gold of the highest quality. There I met an old man with a white beard, a white turban on his head, and white clothes. We said hello. Then the old man said: -Taste the ripe apricot, my son. If you like it, take it home to the children.
I thanked him, plucked some ripe apricots, rinsed them in the spring water, and ate.
The apricot was as sweet as the honey of wild bees. I collected some dried apricots into his worn skull-cap and saying goodbye to the old man, came back through pine forests, through the fir woods, passing the shallow waters of rivers, rippling and sparkling like silver in the sun among the meadows, where wild flowers grew and bloomed, over which larks sang, bursting trills. Suddenly, from the direction of the spruce forest, red army horsemen appeared with military hats "budenovka" on their heads. They were armed with rifles and sabers. When the red Commissar saw me, he shouted:
-Here he is, one of the warriors of basmachi comanders Ibragimbek Lakai! I order it on behalf of the revkom! Kill, comrades of the red army, this worst enemy of the proletariat! Forward to the victory of communism under the red banner of the workers and peasants! Long live the world revolution, the hammer and sickle, and the leader of the proletariat, comrade Lenin! Down with the bourgeoisie and the minions of world imperialism! Uraaaaaa! With these words, he, sitting on the saddle of his horse, blew a bugle, as if inspiring the Komsomol members to the feat.
Waving their sabres left and right, firing rifles with long bayonets, inspired red army soldiers with battle cries of " Hurrah! " they sent their horses in my direction. I clutched my skullcap to my chest so as not to drop the apricots, and ran across the meadow as fast as I could. Firing their rifles, a squad of Komsomol members in a greatcoat and with military hat"budenovka" on their heads, all approached.
Bullets whizzed past me. One of the bullets pierced through the hem of my cotton chopan coat. I ran no matter what and I managed finally to escape in the midst of the forest.
The red army soldiers stopped at the cordon, as it was impossible to ride in the forest. They left their horses and began to run after me.
I kept running, gasping and stumbling. Suddenly the ground gave out from under my feet, and I rolled down the slope and went down like a broken wheel of an old creaking cart. I stopped by a girl who was rinsing her underwear in the river.
From fright, she first screamed in horror and jumped back. When I got up and started asking for forgiveness, she came to her senses and started hitting me with a wet sheet. I told her:
Stop! What are you doing, Mademoiselle? I didn't mean to! I am an alien from a world called "Reality". I'm being chased by a gang of communists!
At my words, she stopped and looked at me in surprise. I say to her,
- What are you standing for, Madame?" Hide me quickly. Otherwise, these red bandits will come, catch and shoot me without trial, and then cut off your head with a saber, accusing you of aiding a particularly dangerous kulak, harmful to the bourgeois, that is, me.
Just at this time, the voices of the Reds were beginning to be heard on the top and shots were being fired. They were shouting:
He couldn't have gone far, comrade Commissar! Basmach is here somewhere! - said one pot-bellied red army man with a hat on his head. - Maybe he went down! Did this bastard get away?!
After that, the girl grabbed me by the hand as if I were a small child and led me into a dense thicket.
We fled the scene. A mounted detachment of red army soldiers went in the other direction in search of me. Then I sincerely thanked my savior for helping me in a difficult moment. She was so beautiful that I fell head over heels in love with her, as they say at first sight. Her thick and delicate hair was like black silk, swaying in the wind. Her big eyes like a deer's, thick and long lashes, soft lips like rose petals, smooth as white marble chin, neck, arms and legs like ivory, just drove me crazy. We met.
It turns out that her name is Malika, and she was born here in the dream world.
I Salafanov Sotkin Sattarovich. I live in reality. I am the Director of a large factory that produces chemicals that are used in agriculture in our vast country - I said.
I'm glad to meet you, Mr. Sotkin Sattarovich. I'm sorry that I hit you on the head with a wet rag, " Malika apologized, smiling prettily, showing her teeth like white pearls.
No it's okay, it could have been worse. Where I'm from, wives sometimes hit their drunken husbands on the head with a rolling pin and a frying pan when they return home on all fours. But their husbands still drink, not drying out for weeks, or even months. They even drink kerosene if it gives them a high. Once I was hit on the head with a bag of flour. I still thank God that this bag didn't contain some heavy object, such as a stone boulder or, say, a dumbbell - I said.
Hearing my words, Malika laughed merrily:
-Are you also a humorist? That's great! - she said. Then asked:
Will you sleep over in our world tonight?
No, I must go home before my wife wakes up.You know, a rolling pin, a frying pan, and all that - I sighed sadly.
-Sorry - she said. Then she asked again,
Can I come with you?
No, Mrs. Malika, it is impossible, because our air is polluted with carbon dioxide from smoking chemical plants and factories, and the environment is contaminated with radiation. There you can suffocate and die like a fish in a broken aquarium. A gas mask won't even protect you, that's how bad the pollution has gotten, and I want you to live in this world for a long time, even forever, but don't worry, I will come again, I will definitely come, believe me! - I said, preparing to leave.
Take care of yourself! Be careful, Sotkin Sattarovich! There are ruthless red thugs out there -Malika warned me as she walked me home.
I was kicking, and I woke up next to my wife, who was lying like a crocodile on the banks of the raging Nile river in Egypt. When she woke up, she started scolding me:
What's wrong with you? Drunk again, or what? Hair like a stork's nest, clothes covered in mud! Oops! What about your old cotton coat?! What's the hole? Burned a cigarette what?! Oh, My God! What's in the skullcap? Apricots? What is it? - she asked.
Yes - I say - this is for you, my love, try it. You know, I was in a dream. I walk in short across the summer meadow, singing in the tall grass, like a lone mower with a scythe, whistling merrily. Larks sing over the meadow, filling with a ringing trill. White butterflies roam silently in a swarm, gently kissing each other in the air, not shy of me. They fly, quietly and weightlessly, as if in Paradise. From far away where swaying in the wind birch grove, I heard the sad voice of a lone hoopoe. The air was light and smelled of meadow flowers. You would want to lie down on the grass and die, looking at the endless blue sky, where white clouds float! I stopped on a path in the middle of the meadows to listen to the distant voice of the cuckoo, which came from the direction of the ravine. Suddenly there was a cavalry unit of the red army. The Reds in military hat "budenovka" and with sabres in their hands, firing rifles, chased me, and one of the bullets pierced the hem of my cotton chopan.
She didn't believe me. But still, after trying the apricot, she said:
Unbelievable! Is this really true? I can't believe it!. What an apricot, my God! I've never eaten anything like this. Just honey! Why did you take so little? You should have taken more. Now I'll give you a huge cardboard box and you will immediately go back to the world of dreams, and get a lot of dried apricots, you stupid director of a large factory that produces deadly, toxic chemicals! Try to bring as many apricots as possible, so that I can trade them smartly in the market. We'll use the leftovers to make sweet and thick jam for the winter - my wife said greedily. Then ask:
Can we go together?
I tell her:
No, don't. What are you, my white rose, covered with morning dew, full of red ones, armed to the teeth. Dangerous! How can I go on living without you in this world if they shoot you like a partridge?! No, I'd rather go alone.
After this conversation, my wife dressed me in a soldier's uniform, which I brought from the army, and before going to bed gave me a huge cardboard box in my hands. After a while I fell asleep again and again I began to dream of those gardens of Paradise. I walked through an uncut rye field, singing in the rye, and around me fluttered, as before, white, silent, harmless butterflies, some of them even touching me with their delicate wings. Then I was startled to see a man in a battered panama hat and an old patched jacket walking straight toward me, his arms wide open like a friend I hadn't seen in years. When I recognized him, I smiled. It turns out there was a scarecrow. Red cross-eyed dragonflies with transparent wings fluttered above the rye. A cuckoo was crying across the river, which was overgrown on both sides with tall reeds, which rustled in the wind like a green wave. Wading through shallow water with a huge cardboard box in my hands, I stopped at the foot of snow-capped mountain peaks, where a powerful stream of water bubbled under high granite rocks and foamed eddies, like the mustache of a man drinking Bovary, frothy, golden beer.
There was a steel-rope suspension bridge over a mountain river. I walked over the creaking, swaying bridge carefully, looking down in horror at the seething water. On the other side of the bridge, a grove of apricots rustled in the wind. A lone eagle soared high in the sky, circling majestically over the mountain gorge and shouting proudly. His cry, like a loud whistle, echoed. I see that old man with a white beard and white clothes, with a white turban on his head, sitting on the prayer carpet. Sitting on this carpet, he prayed. Without interrupting his prayer, I went cautiously towards the apricot grove.
At first, he ate the apricot himself, and then began to collect it in a cardboard box. After filling it with dried apricots and closing it securely, I went back across the suspension bridge, where the river was rushing in powerful streams under the high granite rocks of the mountain peaks, deafening the surrounding area with its noise. When I reached a meadow where a sea of daisies, melons, cornflowers and other meadow flowers were swaying in the wind, I suddenly saw a horse squadron of the national liberation army of kurbashi-commander of basmach Ibragimbek Lakai. Bearded warriors in striped robes were armed with machine guns, British-made Mausers, and bent Isfahan swords.
Warriors in striped clothing and hairy chests spurred their mounts and shot an arrow in my direction.
One of them shouted:
O warriors of Almighty Allah, strike this infidel, the red Satan! See his uniform, clothes, and shoulder straps?! Judging by the five-pointed red star on the cap, we can assume that he is a great chief of the communist army! This is the famous General, commander of the red army, for whose head Sheikh Abu Gibran Ibn Abdelrahman himself promised to pay thousands of gold coins! Having cut off the head of this godless communist with a sword, we will present it to the Sheikh!
Hearing this, my heart sank and I ran as fast as I could. How could it be otherwise? It's scary. I run recklessly with a huge cardboard box in my hands, filled to the brim with ripe sweet as honey apricots. A mounted squadron of bloodthirsty basmachs chased me in unison, waving razor-sharp Isfahan bent swords and firing randomly at me with British-made Mauser pistols. It was at this time that one stray bullet whistled and pierced through the cardboard box. I kept running, no matter what, and I think it's a good thing I didn't bring my wife. If they saw a woman without a burqa, they would be completely enraged. Besides, my wife is Russian. They would have cut me into small, small pieces with their bent sabers.
The bearded horsemen were still chasing me. But when I reached the forest, like the reds, they stopped their horses at the cordon, deciding to continue the chase on foot. Now I knew the road well and took advantage of the descent, similar to the slide of a playground for kids.
I went down, sitting like a little boy, who goes down a slide on a sled in winter. I started down the hill at a breakneck speed, holding a cardboard box filled with ripe apricots, sweet as honey. There, by the river, that girl was not there, and I, as before, hid in a dense thicket, so that I could come out carefully when the danger was over. But then, the basmach warriors caught me. Seeing a box of apricots one of the basmachs went crazy: -You bastard, did you steal the apricots from our sacred gardens? Well, that's it, you're finished, red pig! I'll skin you alive and stretch it over a tambourine. With these words, he wanted to smash my head with the butt of an British-made rifle, but he was stopped.
-No, Osman Ibn Nigman, wait! You'll ruin the face of that red godless Satan. I'm going to decapitate him carefully myself - said a thin and tall warrior, wearing a striped coat and a turban on his head. Then, drawing his sharp, tinkling steel dagger from its scabbard and licking its blade, he began to decapitate me, and then I woke up with a wild cry, covered in cold sweat. My wife also woke up from my scream and was happy to see a cardboard box with apricots. Still, she did not forget to reproach me for not protecting a cardboard box that had been pierced through by an enemy bullet during the firefight. After that, she rewarded me, that is, finally gave me a two-day break, so that I didn't have to sleep during these days. To be honest, I myself was afraid to fall asleep and find myself in a dream world where day and night fighting is going on, between warring parties, shots are fired and explosions are thundering. Fields and forests are burning, cities are Smoking, every day hundreds and sometimes thousands of young soldiers die on the battlefields, as well as innocent people, especially helpless children who are afraid to go to school to study.
Two days later, in the evening, when I came home from work, my wife again ordered me to go to the world of dreams for apricots. I say, my love, there's a full-scale civil war going on there. Seeing me in the national cotton chopan, the communists didn't hesitate and shot at close range, just riddled with machine guns, taking the Basmach. And the soldier's uniform that I brought from the army, on the contrary, will crush a gang of basmachs and they will catch me and kill me like a sheep! - I explained.
-Oh, you miserable coward! Also called the Director of a large factory that produces deadly toxic substances such as pesticides and herbicides! Such a big man, and afraid of bullets! Let the bullets be afraid of you! Come on, let's move faster and into the world of dreams, now! - she said. I had no choice but to obey and go to bed with a huge cardboard box in my hands, drinking a solid dose of sleeping pills with vodka, which my wife gave me. After a while, I fell asleep and found myself in a dream world with a huge cardboard box in my hands. I see the cities are Smoking, the rye fields are burning! Well I think about things. Then an armed fighter plane flew over me with such a roar that my ears were deafened by the noise. Bombers also flew, deafening the entire neighborhood. Blackened birch groves and pine forests burned to the ground. Residential buildings with low huts of villages turned into ashes and ruins. Only the stoves were left from the burned huts. A tired crowd of scowling people rode creaking carts to where the hills smoked. And the mobilized recruits went to the front on cargo half-trucks, saying goodbye to their beloved wives and other loved ones. Just at this time a young lieutenant came up to me and asked: - You also decided to go to war? I was confused by this unexpected question, and didn't know what to say.The young Lieutenant continued: - You're doing the right thing, comrade. After all, the Fatherland is in danger! The German-fascist invaders treacherously invaded the territory of our country! At such a time, every citizen of our country, whether they are Uzbek or Russian, Tatar or Tajic, Kazakh or Kyrgyz, Georgian or Jew, Armenian or Azerbaijan, Estonian or Latvian, Ukrainian or Belarusian, must voluntarily go to the defense of the Fatherland. The USSR is our common home. Let's hurry up, comrade. until the half-breed war caravan left. Get in the back of the truck now! - he said. After the fiery speech of the young Lieutenant, I had no choice but to obey, and I climbed into the back of the half-truck with a cardboard box in my hands. The half-truck started. I see a beautiful girl running down the lane, stumbling and crying in the direction of the semi-truck, in the back of which I was sitting. Good - Bye, Sotkin Sattarovich! I'll be waiting for you! Write me love triangle letters! O cursed war! You damned Hitler! She wept, wiping her burning tears on the edge of her Orenburg scarf. I recognized her and said good-bye to her. Goodbye, Malika! I love you! Wait for me and I will return, having defeated the fascist.
Horde! Don't mention it with a vengeance! - I shouted good-bye to her, waving my hand. After that, the military truck drove for a long time along a bumpy country road to the West, and only in the evening we arrived at the designated point, where we were given food, uniforms and weapons with ammunition.
The next day, early at dawn, we were sent by train to the front line, where there were fierce and bloody battles. We were ordered to go forward, with a chorus of cheers, and we rushed forward. The fascist command, watching our movements from afar with binoculars, was terribly frightened and lifted military planes into the air, which began to attack us from the air. Shells began to fall directly on us, air bombs with an ominous whistle and exploded. Despite this meat grinder, the brave and valiant soldiers of our Fatherland did not run away, on the contrary, they rose to the attack, inspiring each other- Forward, fellow soldiers for the Motherland! For comrade Stalin! - I shouted, too, with a huge cardboard box in my hands. After the airstrikes, artillery fire from cannons and howitzers began. There were sounds of cannonade, the clang of tracks, and the rumble of tanks. We had PPSh sub-machine guns, pistols, rifles, daggers and sapper shovels. Anti-tank grenades hung in clusters from their belts. But they were all made of wood. Even the bullets were made of wood. This is a unique military trick that was invented by our top military leadership, talented generals of the shock army. This was not only a unique military strategy, but also an unheard-of tactic, a military art. Well, what should we do if our state was not ready for such an unexpected large-scale war, experiencing an acute shortage of ammunition and small arms? As they say in war, all means are good. Then it turned out that we, that is, recruits from Central Asia, were sent to the front line like cannon fodder. It may sound bitter, but this is a historical fact. The horrors of war cannot be described with a simple pen. I see someone calling for help. I crawled up to him and when I saw his laceration, I involuntarily covered my mouth with my hand, making a sound of " Umk!". I was sick. It turns out that the exploding shell tore off his leg. I struggled to lift my wounded fellow soldier, and then another survivor started shouting: - leg! Take his leg, too! With these words, he ran in my direction, with a severed leg in his hands. - Are you crazy? Drop that leg! Bury it for God's sake! - I shouted back, walking with my wounded countryman on my shoulders. Then an air bomb exploded with a bang not far from me. When I woke up, I saw the fascists, who were shouting nervously in their own language, kicking the bodies of wounded soldiers with their boots: Get up, Schwein Soldat!
Sneila, sneila! So I was captured. I was betrayed in the concentration camp. The Gestapo SS found out that I was a member of the Communist party of the Soviet Union and sentenced me to death by hanging. I walked with my head held high to the scaffold where the gallows were set up. Angry service dogs barked all around, ready to tear me to pieces. The sound of drums rattled the air, smelling of burning meat and hair. After that, I climbed on a stool and the traitorous policeman put a noose around my neck, carefully soaping it with household soap. After these procedures, the officer of national Germany started to speak, but I didn't understand until the traitorous policeman translated his words into Russian.
Ger standartenfuhrer SS Otto Klaus says that we, the zuldats und officigin of Nazi Germany, will hang and shoot all Communists and Jews! Strangle them in gas chambers and burn them alive in crematoriums! You are given the last word and your final wish will be fulfilled by the loyal and kind executioners of the third Reich! Then we'll hang you! What do you want?! Bread? Vodka? Speak quickly, Schweine Communist, we don't have much time! - translated by the traitorous policeman.
-No, gerr SS standartenfuhrer, I don't care about bread and vodka right now! Finally, please give me a big empty cardboard box! - I said. Hearing my last words, SS standartenfuhrer Otto Klaus said "Fool!" and began to laugh uncontrollably , shaking all over, the guards, and the executioners too. They laughed. I see that the prisoners, that is, my countrymen, are also laughing at me. After a long laugh, they finally satisfied my request by holding an empty cardboard box and started to hang me. Hundreds of drums thundered again, giving the event a vile backdrop. The traitorous policeman was about to kick the stool out from under my feet, when suddenly someone ran up to the fascist officer and whispered something in his ear.
The officer ordered the execution to be stopped. Then he began to speak, and the traitorous policeman began to translate his words.
Achtung, zoldat und officigin Deutschland! Wehrmacht headquarters has just received more detailed information from our military intelligence officers that this commie whom we are going to execute worked as the Director of a large factory that produced deadly toxic drugs such as pesticides and herbicides, which are sprayed by tons of aircraft on the cotton fields of Sunny Uzbekistan, where local violence, University students, schoolchildren and even small children work, collecting white gold, that is, cotton, almost for free, disappearing in a fog of toxic chemicals, which paralyze the brain and liver of a person, turning healthy people into disabled people, destroying the gene pool of rape. We will need such chemical weapons of mass destruction very much in the future, and this prisoner of our comfortable concentration camp will help us in this, and his people, who worked heroically, not disappearing from the face of the earth on cotton plantations without chemical protection suits and gas masks, when with the help of aviation they sprayed tons of toxic pesticides over them! From such hardened people who were used as guinea pigs in secret medical research, we will create an army of Legionnaires! In this regard, this Communist and Director of a large chemical plant, we decided to award the highest order of Nazi Germany-the iron cross! Heil Hitler! - translated by a traitor with a white police armband on his sleeve.
I was startled and shouted in confusion: - no, no, Gerr SS standartenfuhrer, don't give me the iron cross! If I go home wearing this medal, I'm finished! My wife will immediately file for divorce, and enraged Uzbek people themselves will cast kill me with rocks and stones, making a "toshboron" and the local authorities, accusing me of treason, shoot in the center of Tashkent, in downtown, where the shot of the great Uzbek writer Abdulla Kadiriy!..
With these words I again woke up with an empty cardboard box in my hands.
I was afraid that my wife would make a terrible scene when she saw an empty cardboard box, and would rush at me with a rolling pin or a frying pan in her hand, shouting: - Where are the apricots?! I'm asking you! Did you eat them yourself, you bastard! I'm going to hit you in the head with this rolling pin, you stupid! Come on, go back to sleep and don't come back here without the apricots!.. But no, she was sleeping sweetly, like a baby in a cradle! If she was very tired, then she also went to the world of dreams, looking for me. - Oh, thank God my wicked wife didn't Wake up this time! - I whispered a sigh of relief. But I shouldn't have been happy. It turns out that my wife fell into an eternal sleep! -My poor girl, how will I live in this pitiless world without you, alone! I'm sorry, my dear, I'm sorry that I couldn't bring the honey-sweet apricots you asked for from the dream world! I cried, hugging her frozen body and putting my hand over her eyes, which remained open like the Windows of an abandoned old house. At my wife's funeral, it was raining heavily in the autumn, and I caught a cold. It was as if the sky was mourning her, too. - Forgive me, my love, and good-bye for ever and ever! Let the earth rest you in peace! - I cried, not being shy of those present and coughing. That night, after the funeral, while dressing warmly, I took an empty cardboard box and went to the world of dreams for sweet apricots to please the soul of my deceased wife. I walked carefully along the bumpy road, disappearing in and out of the smoke. But at the foot of the snow-capped mountain peaks, I was stopped by soldiers, informing me that there is a drone unfair war, where drones are used to launch pinpoint strikes from the air on military and civilian objects of the parties. Fields and forests are burning, cities, towns and villages are smoking, where thousands of people are dying, not the children of the instigators of war, but the sons of poor people, very young soldiers.
I had to go back home. Since then, I can't sleep and I don't go to the dream world for apricots. They say that now there are no longer flying drones, but Intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads and hypersonic cruise missiles, that is, the third and last world war is underway.
finishing off his speech, Salafanov Sotkin Sattarovich, Director of chemical plant became silent.