War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1076 Another Survivor and the Truth About the Box

On the morning of the second day after visiting Galina and Zurab's old couple's house, Wei Ran and others rushed to the Osinowitz Cemetery and found Kona and the children, as well as Mrs. Via, Lydia and the breeder. Matvey's tombstone.

After carefully cleaning up the not-so-dirty tombstones, everyone placed the flowers they brought in front of the tombstones, but Wei Ran took out a bottle of honey from his bag and unscrewed it among the bouquets.

"Why did you put a bottle of honey?" Sui Sui asked puzzled.

"Because honey is sweet enough"

Wei Ran embraced the girl, staring at the ceramic photo inlaid on one of the tombstones.

In that group photo, there are a full 35 children, 23 of them are wearing Budyonny hats. In addition, there are Kona and Kailelo in that group photo. Their young or young faces They were all smiling—but they didn't know that it was the last group photo they had left in this world.

Looking at the names on the surrounding tombstones, they are still the same as before, protecting the children with their not strong bodies, and their tombstones also intentionally or unintentionally surround the children's tomb in the middle.

After a moment of preparation, Olena hugged the bayanqin in her arms, and her sister Olga took out a violin from the violin case.

Soon, thinking of the music, the rest of the girls also sang the unnamed song they learned yesterday.

Wei Ran, who sang out of tune, stood on the side, silently raised his camera, and took a photo.

Putting away the camera, he also noticed that not far away, a man in his 60s looked at him, using a wheelchair, pushing an old lady covered with a blanket with a bouquet of flowers on it, and stopped slowly. , and the old lady and the man pushing the wheelchair seemed to be singing this song too.

After thinking for a while, Wei Ran walked to the side of the old man's wheelchair amidst the singing, and became more and more sure that she and the man pushing the wheelchair were indeed singing the song without a name.

Could this be that Anastasia who likes to eat her fingers?

Wei Ran looked uncertainly at the old lady sitting in the wheelchair, but the other party just sang the song very seriously, neither stopping nor looking at him.

Seeing this, Wei Ran simply waited patiently until the end of the ensemble music and the end of the girls' chorus, then squatted down and asked politely, "Grandma, will you sing that song too?"

"Did Galina teach you?" The old lady asked kindly, but did not answer Wei Ran's question.

"Yes, we visited her yesterday." Wei Ran paused, "Excuse me."

"Keeper of this cemetery"

The old lady said with a smile, "Of course, this is before I retire, young man, do you want to come to my house?"

"Just invite myself?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"Just one is enough to satisfy my curiosity," the old lady joked, "My house is not too big, but it can't accommodate so many people."

"I'm honored to be invited by you," Wei Ran responded very seriously.

"Then help me put this bouquet of flowers in front of the tombstone of the Bogdan couple." The old lady paused, "I'll wait for you at the gate of the cemetery, Alyosha, let's go."

Bogdan?Alyosha?
After Wei Ran heard the name, he was sure that the man named Alyosha should be Bogdan's son, and the old lady in the wheelchair was Alyosha's adoptive mother. Fingers the little girl Anastasia.

Putting the bouquet handed by the other party in front of the joint tomb of the Bogdan couple, Wei Ran bid farewell to Suisui and the others for the time being, and quickly caught up with the wheelchair that was still going out.

Taking a leisurely glance at Wei Ran, Anastasia said in a soft voice, "Since I retired, I have come here every Saturday to visit, but all I met were Galina and her friends. Children, I have never seen you children before."

"We found a wooden box by accident." Wei Ran followed the other party, and at the same time told the story of the incident in detail, and also made a self-introduction by the way.

Almost at the same time as he finished telling the story, the wheelchair beside him also stopped in a wooden house with a small garden only two streets away from the cemetery just now.

The garden of this house is not too big, but there are no flowers in it. Instead, there is only an apple tree full of fruits, and a sweet potato that seems to have been harvested but has not had time to clean the seedlings. field.

"Come in and sit down"

The old lady extended the invitation slowly, and then said to the middle-aged man behind her, "Alyosha, go ahead and let this little guy accompany me this morning."

"Call me if you don't feel well"

Alyosha looked at Wei Ran apologetically, "My mother will trouble you, she has a heart condition, so don't let her get too excited, if she is not feeling well, there is Medicine, one tablet at a time is enough, and there is me in it.”

"Okay, go get busy, why are you more verbose than your sister Via."

The old lady in the wheelchair waved her hands helplessly, "Remember to send Galina some of the sweet potatoes and peanuts we planted, and check to see if they have finished digging their potatoes. If not, please help them."

"I'm going right now"

After Alyosha finished speaking, he took out a button-type mobile phone from the grocery bag and shook it, "It only stores my phone number in it."

"If there is a situation, I will call you." Wei Ran made a serious promise, and then watched the other party open the door and leave with a smile on his face. Only then did he have time to look at the room.

Contrary to his expectations, this room is almost the same as the house where Galina's old couple lived. The only difference is that there are no musical instruments and glass showcases.

Especially next to the fireplace in this house, there is an identical cast iron stove, and the charcoal-burning stove has the words "Casted by Putilov Military Factory".

"That's the stove we used for heating"

Anastasia, who had never introduced herself, followed Wei Ran's eyes and explained slowly, "It was left to me by Sister Laishia. I have been using it for so many years. Every time it When I was picked up, I was very happy, as if those partners were back again."

"I heard your stories from Grandma Galina"

"Grandma Galina?"

The old lady in a wheelchair pointed to the sofa by the fire to signal Wei Ran to sit down, and then said with emotion, "She was still a little baby who always wet the bed, what could she know?"

"So what she said"

"Those are what Ke Na's mother told her"

The old lady in the wheelchair smiled and gestured with her hands, "I remember it very clearly. At that time, Galina was only this big, and she was as thin as a little monkey. Everyone loved her very much. This youngest sister, everyone will pick out the shredded meat in the broth and put it in her mouth, otherwise, how could she survive."

Before Wei Ran could say anything, the old lady pointed outside, "Young man, how about chopping some firewood for me? I can tell you why the box you found appeared in the school warehouse."

"Do you know why?" Wei Ran asked in surprise, "I'd like to chop wood for you."

"Push me to the door"

The old lady who likes to make people order with a smile, let Wei Ran push her down to the door, and then pointed to the wooden box on the side of the door, "There is an ax in there, and there is firewood outside the corridor."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately dug out a Finnish ax from the wooden ammunition box that looked very old, walked to the door and started chopping wood.

At the same time, the old lady in the wheelchair explained slowly, "That was in 1980. After Mama Ke Na retired, she seemed to have lost her motivation. What a hardworking woman she is, that thin and thin woman The little woman has received four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor. You know that Galina Ulanova who dances the ballet? She has only received four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor."

"I remember that the one who has won the most Order of the Red Banner of Labor seems to be only six." After Wei Ran finished speaking, he swung his ax vigorously and split a log as thick as a thigh into two halves.

"Yeah, maybe"

The old lady in the wheelchair said with emotion, "Kona's mother suddenly had nothing to do after she retired, so she simply went back to the Conservatory of Music to audit and help clean up by the way."

"And then?" Wei Ran asked after splitting the firewood in two again.

"Then she saw that many musical instruments in the warehouse of the conservatory were forgotten, and some were even damaged by rats."

The old lady spread her hands helplessly, "Kona's mother was very angry, so she put the box there, she wanted to see how long it would take for someone to find those things, and see how those moths didn't cherish those things. Expensive instruments."

"then"

"From the moment that idiot Gorbachev came to power, until he buried the whole country, no one found that box."

The old lady spread her hands, "I was the one who accompanied her to put the things in. By the way, I took away a piano, but no one found out. That piano is still in the living room of Galina's house."

"That Lilycard piano?" Wei Ran asked in astonishment.

"right"

The old lady said helplessly, "Moreover, Ke Na's mother wrote a report letter on the day she stole the piano, anonymously reporting that she had stolen the piano herself.

It's a pity that the report letter was lying in the mailbox until she died, and she didn't wait for the police to arrest her until she died. "

"Then what do you do?"

"Then the USSR collapsed"

The old lady sighed, "Although disintegration did not happen overnight, but after Ke Na's mother passed away, when I remembered to pick up the box, I couldn't find it in the musical instrument warehouse. I thought someone finally found it. I didn't expect someone to find that box until today."

"Forehead"

Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, not to mention that the old lady in front of him didn't expect it, maybe even Ke Na didn't expect to wait so long.It was as if she hadn't expected that the country she had dedicated her life to would disintegrate in an instant.

(End of this chapter)