A Piece of Bread
In 1942 Germans occupied Ukraine. At that time I was 10 years old.
My father fought in the war. My mother with my younger sister and me flew far away from the battle line. We lived in a small settlement. There was a sharp shortage of food. We were always hungry.
Once a day our teacher announced that beginning from the following day students would be granted with bread each day. That was good news and I proudly told it to my mother.
The next day, when the lessons were over, we didn't leave our class as usual and continued to stay until the bread would be given. A half hour later the teacher appeared at the door and called out a girl who was our class monitor. Soon she came back carrying a loaf of bread in her extended hands. It was cut into small pieces (nearly 50 grams each), and to hold them together she placed under it her kerchief.
I memorized forever the green-blue color of her kerchief as well as her last name-Savina.
Then she put the bread on the teacher's table, took out a list and began to hand out the bread simultaneously making marks on the list.
Suddenly a boy cried out, "Oh, you missed me!" Than he came up to the table and got his bread. Savina marked his name. After that other children started to move to the table and receive their pieces.
Savina barely had time to make the marks. A crowd of crying children surrounded the table.
I was sitting in the back of the class and waiting. After a while all the pieces were holed of. Only one of them continued to lie on the kerchief. I came up to Savina and said, "This is mine. Please, mark my name on the list."
"No,"she said , "this is mine. I am in the list too," and quickly put the bread in her bag.
"But where is mine?"I asked I. "I don't know. Somebody else has kept it. Why didn't you come up here before?" answered she.
I looked at her and she at me. The class was empty. There was nothing left to speak. I turned around and went home.
Having came from the school, I tried not to look at my mother, but she asked me, "Why are you so qviet today? How was the bread? Did you eat it completely, or you
bring part of it to share with your sister?"
"No,"I said ," and told her what happened. My mother only deeply sighed She didn't tell anybody about the incident in the class and neither did I.
Nevertheless, the next day, when the lessons were over, the bread was handed out by the teacher. Everybody got his share, but I was sitting near of the teacher's table. Just in case.
Mikhail Vaynshteyn
A Friendly Dog.
A big homeless dog lived in a small garden located on the crossing of my way to school. The dog liked children because they often played with it and sometimes brought it something tasty to eat.
On the first day after the summer vacation I went to school in a fresh suit which was thoroughly cleaned and ironed by my mother. I had to hurry up because there was to be a meeting before the regular lessons. At such meetings our principal usually read a speech and we handed flowers to our teachers.
To make my way shorter I decided to cross the garden instead of going around. I used to do that in the past entering through a hole in garden fence. When I came in the garden the dog was sitting at its usual place enjoying the sunlight of gorgeous morning after a cool rainy night. Recognizing me the dog stood up and began friendly fawn.
I wasn't in the mood to play with the dog, but the dog was. It was very happy to see me after the long summer interruption, such properly dressed with a bouquet of flowers.
I tried to pass it. Suddenly it jumped on me, trying to lick my face. I backed away several steps, stumbled over something and fell on the wet earth. When I stood up my pants were dirty, my white shirt was painted with dog traces, and the flowers were cowered with mud. It was absolutely impossible to give such bouquet to the teacher.
I ran home. My mother had just left it. She went to take my younger sister to the kindergarten. I quickly opened the door, washed the flowers, and put on another suit, which was however, not as pretty than the first one. Then I ran to school keeping the way around the garden fence.
When I came to school the meeting was almost over. I went straight to class, put the flowers on the teacher's table and took a seat. After a while other students and the teacher came too. Nobody asked me why I was so late.
This episode didn't spoil my friendship with he dog. I continued to cross the garden when I went home from school and to play with the dog, but I never went any more through it again, going to school.
