04/01/1992
The bright, daytime white sun dazzled on the clean, almost January snow. For March, or rather April, the picture was quite unusual. At least, Tolik had never seen anything like this in his ten-plus years of life. The cheerful dripping, puddles, even the dull grayness on particularly slushy days had long since become habitual, and then this! Not only was the snow that had fallen overnight so white, but it also creaked – it was colder than usual.
It would seem that one should only rejoice at such beauty, especially realizing that there was still not a long winter ahead, but spring and summer, but no! Yesterday March had ended, and with it the holidays.
Now he had to sit over dull books and notebooks again, week after week. And also constantly listen to the fact that the notebooks were dirty.
The bus, its insides clanking as usual, bounced every now and then. Tolik, as often happened, stood in a nook fenced off with pipe-handrails, located right behind the back door. When the bus was packed to the brim, the handrails reliably protected him from the crushing mass of people.
These buses also had this property that all the bounces were especially felt from the back, but this was good when there were few people. Then you could jump around a lot, especially if you were riding with someone. In the nook opposite, you had to hold on tightly so as not to hit yourself. Nevertheless, it was a very good place.
The second favorite place was a seat similar to a sofa and turned along the cabin - it was in the front. It was always easier to get out from there, even if the bus was overcrowded. This time, a creepy guy was sitting there, apparently a drug addict. Well, at least he looked like a drug addict - a black fur hat, bulging eyes, a huge nose and an unshaven mug. Grandma, however, would most likely have said that he was a "ch...mek"//shovinist russian name of non-slavic asian or сaucasian people//, but what is certain is that she would have said that you should stay away from such people. Or maybe he was a racketeer, a criminal offender. In general, it was obvious that such people love everything bad, and they look at everything good as... as sissy-pussy, that's how they look.
A small area with a row of stalls flashed past the window. Above one of them there was an advertisement - a huge plastic bottle of "Royal" alcohol mounted on a pole.
- I wonder, can a drug addict be an alcoholic at the same time? Or does one interfere with the other?
Out of boredom, he suddenly imagined how scientists conduct an experiment - they force a drug addict to drink a glass, "like Uncle Seryozha." What would happen to the drug addict?
Tolik loved science. He loved them for real, not like some fat, bespectacled, straight-A pioneer from the old Soviet magazines and cartoons. It all started when a couple of years ago he got his hands on books on physics, chemistry, and other things that were lying around in the closet. They were left over from the time when either Dad or Uncle Seryozha were studying, some at a technical school, some at the institute. They wanted to use the books for household needs - to put frying pans on or for kindling, but Tolik saved them. The pictures depicted something smart and often immediately understandable - for example, serious scales that could be used to weigh a bundle of logs. There were also scales with gears - he liked that right away. Most of the chemistry was still unclear, but there were all these symbols that looked like something magical and it was simply beautiful. Some other lines of writing were still understandable, so everything was fine with chemistry. And with all that, there was this school. Of course, it taught us to read and write – there was no arguing with that. Without that, books would have remained coasters for frying pans, but then the school went somewhere wrong… In the fourth year, not only did they change all the rules, forcing us to go from class to class to different, often idiotic teachers, but they also added ancient history, which could easily have been heard on the radio. They made us multiply in a column, although that was already there, and the most important thing – this damn English appeared. Previously, it was from some senior class, but then they decided to change it.
The school that had once started well and had fallen into hopeless stupidity in its fourth year is, on the one hand, the creepy faces on the streets on the other. As adults would say, the country is definitely going somewhere wrong. Maybe not going, but rolling. You could shout like in the song - Hey, boss!
Meanwhile, long one-story sausage-shaped houses appeared outside the window, there were five apartments and five courtyards in each. It was time to go out.
Once outside, Tolik glanced at the cheerfully shining sun, then turned around and, hanging his head, wandered towards the school building towering among the bare poplars. Or rather, not quite towards it - now he was simply wandering along the side of the road, waiting for the departing bus to speed up, and for a line of cars to stretch out with it. First, a "Volga" with its characteristic exhaust fumes drove by, then a couple of "Lada 2101" and a "ZIL", which, as usual, was emitting some kind of buzzing fart every now and then.
- Your face is covered in pen ink, - Tolik greeted Andryukha, the first of his classmates he met after the holidays. This was happening at the very bottom, in the lobby. Most of the class, one would think, was already there, on the second floor.
Having unbuttoned his coat all the way, Andryukha began to rub it with his palm and had already turned around to head for the mirror hanging nearby.
- Happy April Fools' Day! - Tolik declared in a satisfied voice.
- Very funny! - Andryukha answered with adult disdain, - Found the time, - he continued, shaking off his coat, - Well, that's right, April Fools' Day. Congratulations just to you!
- Should I punch you in the eye? - Tolik answered good-naturedly.
- What your parents think about that... About America? - Andryukha asked with some businesslike impatience, as if he wanted to ask this from the very beginning.
- What should they think about it? And why are you asking this now?
- Of course, nothing, - Andrey answered with the traditional mockery that was a reaction to some kind of dense being "not in the know."
- Tell me normally, - Tolik answered coldly, stepping onto the stairs.
- Haven't you been watching TV this morning? We're joining the USA. Our entire region.
- Well, Happy April Fools' Day to you! Your prank is abstruse, but funnier than a face and inkpaste. Did you come up with that yourself?
- What April Fools' Day? People don't joke about things like that. Haven't you been watching TV? - Andrey repeated his question.
- No. We have no electricity. They have to turn it on. They're changing something. I myself saw the guys on the boom lift. There, near my street.
- Ah. Then I understand. If there were battery-powered TVs... Actually, they already exist abroad. Most likely Japanese ones, but they exist in America too, - Andrey said, clearly going into dreamy thoughts.
- You definitely need to be hit in the forehead. You're talking about something wrong, out of place. You're admiring your own prank. That's stupid.
- Now the whole class will tell you. And hit you in the forehead, - Andrey answered.
Then Tolik remembered that he had heard something on the bus. The word "America" itself was heard several times. It was heard from different corners of the cabin.
Entering the classroom and settling into his seat, in the third row behind the wall, Tolik looked around the almost full classroom. His neighbor Kolyan wasn't there yet - that was normal - he didn't mind showing up after the bell, apologizing and listening. The man has strong nerves...
In the hum of voices, both nearby and from the far first, girls' row, one thing was clearly heard every now and then - "America". It is unlikely that Andrei was such a master of practical jokes that he raised the ears of almost thirty people.
Tolik politely pushed the man sitting in front of him in the back with his fist, and when he turned around, asked:
- What America? Andrei told me, but I have no elecrticity since morning. I have not watched TV.
- What a grouse you are!
- Yourself is a grouse! Say it normally!
- This morning, on the "day by day" program, they reported that our region is separating from the Soviet... from Russia and joining the United States of America. America agrees. They need to sign documents, all that, and we become a new state. Do you know which one? Do you know how many states there are? There were fifty. We will be the fifty-first. First, we will be a federal territory, and then a state. By summer or next year. In general, soon.
- What is a federal territory? - Tolik reacted to the unnaturally clever expression.
- It's a federal territory, - followed the unperturbed answer.
- And does it matter that today is April 1st, - Tolik asked venomously.
- Who would joke about such things? - another one, who joined the conversation, answered reproachfully.
- Well, April 1st... - Tolik repeated without much persistence and confidence.
- By the way, America also has April Fools' Day, so you won't be left without your own holiday, without April Fools' Day, - a mocking voice sounded from behind.
- Yes, our power was cut off, - Tolik said, if not with anger, then with irritation.
- Hey, me too! - almost a shout was heard from the very last desk.
It was Antokha. He lived relatively close to the street where Tolik lived, but far enough away to cross paths with him outside of school. It was not without reason that he sat at the back desk. Sometimes he smelled of tobacco, but he said that he was just standing at the bus stop nearby.
It was not particularly clear where he was standing, because, most likely, he walked to school on foot - the tram line went neither from there nor there, and the bus that Tolik rode, the bus that passed under the windows of the school, also passed away from those parts.
- We also had no power, - Antokha continued, - I also only found out here. It turned out even more amazing this way. We'll start living new life soon!
Then he started swearing. Joyfully swearing, just like an adult, like Ivan-the-driver or like his father when he talked to his friends. A serious boy.
- Since he believed in America, then everything is more serious than a prank on the whole class, - Tolik began to think, - Although what class. They said it on TV. I'll assume that they said that it wasn't a lie about TV. But they can joke on TV too. And they did.
- Show him what they gave you, - Antokha's voice sounded.
Vasek came up to Tolik's desk and, not without pride, showed a «Snickers» wrapper.
- This is humanitarian aid. They were handing it out right on the street.
- And weren't they afraid that a crowd would come running and knock everything down? - Tolik gave the first argument that came to mind, remembering the scene from "Yeralash"//Russian-Soviet humoristic short movies for children audithory//, where children, having broken out of the boring theater hall, assaulted and destroyed the ice cream counter. Life showed that adults behaved in exactly the same way.
- They only gave out to children. And to everyone else - coupons for humanitarian aid. That would happen later, when everything else will be delivered.
- Did they give you a coupon?
- No. That was only for adults.
- I would have asked. For my own. They would have thanked me at home.
- Americans would have given aid to everyone later anyway.
- And where did they give out coupons?
- There, on the avenue. They set up a tent with an American flag. This was most likely not the only such place. Several of these were set up in the city. And you didn't believe me.
- I would have taken a coupon too, - declared Antokha, - Both a «Snickers» and a coupon. I would have asked for a coupon for my parents, and if I had received a coupon, I would have waited. Then, a little later, I would come up and ask for a «Snickers». No, the other way around. First I would take the «Snickers», and then the coupon... Everyone have to help parents.
- I wonder what the teacher will say about America, - said Tolik.
No one argued that it was interesting.