War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 779

On the morning of the second day of Christmas, two trucks and two vans left the holiday farm in a mighty way, took a ferry back to the city on the other side of the Volga River, and finally stopped at the gate of the travel agency.

From a long distance, Wei Ran saw the door of the bookstore run by Mr. Nicholas, and the restored milky white station wagon was parked.

However, even though the car was there, the bookstore still had a closed sign, and even the shutter doors were tightly locked.

"let's go out"

Before Wei Ran jumped out of the cab of the truck, Sui Sui had already greeted her in advance, and then she personally drove the van belonging to the travel agency, pulling the Katenka sisters, Lola and Korava for a ride The run disappeared.

"Auntie, I'm going out too."

Wei Ran stretched out his hand while speaking, and asked with a playful smile, "How about lending me your car?"

"You guys are all mysterious." Zhou Shujin rolled her eyes, took out the car keys and handed them over, "Remember to come back for dinner tonight."

"Come back for sure!"

Wei Ran responded, bent down and got into the car belonging to my aunt at the door, and ran away in a flash.

However, he did not drive directly to the address recorded in the metal book, but instead drove into the parking lot of a large supermarket. After going in for some shopping, he came out from another door with a few things and waved to stop him. A taxi got in.

When there was only one street left from the address recorded in the metal book, Wei Ran took his shopping bag and got into a small park in the middle of the street. An unremarkable gray coat, and a black mask and a baseball cap of the same color on his head.

Following the address, Wei Ran, dressed in disguise, walked into a community that looked very old.

Just from the red brick tube building and the cracked concrete pavement under your feet, you can tell that this community has been built for many years.

Even, on the roof of one of the tube buildings, you can see a tuft of dead grass flying wildly with the cold wind.But at the same time, when entering the district, the row of old-fashioned garages tens of meters long with iron gates hinted that this place might have been a high-end community back then.

Pressing the baseball cap on top of his head, Wei Ran lowered his head and got into the unit door of a tube building. Under the flickering corridor lights, he climbed up to the third floor step by step on the not-so-clean stairs, along the long The corridor came to the door of the room at the end.

Taking a last look at the address copied on the paper, and comparing it with the house number sprayed with red paint on the dusty door, Wei Ran took out a can of chemical cleaning agent from his shopping bag. He sprayed lightly on the keyhole, then took out the lockpicking tool, and easily opened the rusty lock of the anti-theft door.

Before entering the door, Wei Ran took out another pair of shoe covers from his shopping bag and put them on, then walked into the room carefully, and closed the anti-theft door and the wooden door inside.

He tried to flip the switch, but what he didn't expect was that the day view lights above his head flickered a few times, and then turned on.

Decisively turning off the light, Wei Ran turned on the flashlight function of his mobile phone, stepped on the thick dust on the floor, and walked into the living room step by step.

The slightly moldy floor, the windows tightly covered by iron sheets and wooden boards, the severely peeling wall, and the shaky electric fan above the head, all of these seem to indicate that this house has not been lived in for a long time.

But even so, the posters of Soviet-era drivers on the wall are still clearly identifiable, and even some slightly exaggerated signatures can be seen on the corners of some of the posters in photo frames.

Different from the cars seen in various rallies and circle races today, the cars shown in these Soviet-era posters are cleaner and cleaner, and there is no such thing as a psoriasis-like advertisement on any car.

Thanks to the trend of the times, even the drivers on the posters are subconsciously imitating the classic photo poses of their space hero, Comrade Yuri Gagarin.

Having seen enough of those distinctive posters, Wei Ran also noticed the most decorations in this room, all kinds of car models—or tin car toys.

From the famous GAZ car of the Soviet Union to the three-eyed monster of Eastern Europe, and all kinds of muscle cars of the same era in the United States, this small living room has everything that one expects to find, and without exception, these are only two cigarette cases Tin car models, large and small, are kept in apparently custom-made glass showcases.

After a little hesitation, Wei Ran didn't move those iron car models, stretched out his hand with rubber gloves, and carefully pushed open the door of a bedroom.

When the light of the mobile phone swept into the room, Wei Ran saw at a glance the trophies placed everywhere, as well as various Soviet medals kept in a glass showcase in the center of the room!
Of course, what attracted his attention the most was the Soviet pilot's one-piece flight suit worn on a wooden dummy in another glass display case next to it, and the brown leather flying suit inlaid with various trophies on its head. cap!
Gently touching the hardened glue at the joints of the glass display cabinet and the remaining tape, Wei Ran did not open the cabinet rashly, but carefully admired the medals and trophies kept in this room.

Those medals undoubtedly came from Ninel, and those trophies were mostly the trophies and medals of various racing competitions won by a man named Felix Ninelnovich Bondu.

Going to the side of the sealed window, Wei Ran went to the light-transmitting gap and looked out. The window of this room is almost facing the Mamayev Gang, and the rusted hole the size of a bottle cap is enough to Let him clearly see the whole picture of the statue of the motherland.

Turning around and leaving the room full of honors, Wei Ran tried his best to step on his own footprints back to the living room, and then pushed open the door of another room connected to the living room.

In this room, three walls are covered with large and small photo frames.

In these photo frames are basically two young men, one of whom looks exactly like a young Ninel.The young man is pictured holding a trophy, sitting in the cockpit of an airplane, sitting in a car, or hugging a blonde girl on the beach.But no matter where he is, he always has a vibrant smile on his face.

The other one looked at the older one with a perpetually simple and honest look on his face.On his head, he often wears a leather flying cap inlaid with various trophies.

Of course, in addition to the two brothers in the photo, there is also an old man with scars on his face, more than half of his right ear shrunken, and a very temperamental old lady.The lady wore brown sunglasses on her face most of the time, and a TT33 pistol was pinned to her waist.

Walking to the only table in this room, Wei Ran reached out and opened the only photo album on the table, which was already covered with dust.

In this photo album, Neva is growing up gradually, and beside him, there is also a baby who is also growing up slowly.

As time went by, the two brothers sometimes stood at the door covered in mud, and Sasha with his hips akimbo could be seen next to him, and sometimes each hugged a dog with a bright red tongue sticking out, and behind him could see Sasha A GAZ 21 station wagon.

Even in the background of some of the photos, Wei Ran also saw Red Square, Mamayev Gang, the statue of Mother Motherland in Kyiv, the blue ice of Lake Baikal, and a certain place in Sochi. Nursing home signboard.

In these old photos, the two brothers grew up a little bit, and Ninel and Sasha also got older a little bit.

Slowly, both Felix and Neva had their own girlfriends, and even Neva seemed to have a lovely daughter first.

In the end, in the only two photos on a certain page of the album, the old Niner was lying in a narrow coffin covered with a bright red Soviet flag, and the silver-haired Sasha was lying quietly in the same narrow coffin. In the small coffin, with eyes closed, it seems to be humming the Katyusha by the Volga River softly.

Taking a deep breath, Wei Ran continued to flip through the pages, only to find that the only photo on this page was a burnt and scorched formula car, and a racing driver wearing a helmet with his whole body on fire not far away. .

Sighing secretly, he continued to turn a page back, only to find that this thick photo album had ended here.

Gently closing the dusty photo album, Wei Ran left the room and closed the door, then pushed open the door of the last room connected to the living room.

Different from what I saw just now, this room is not that big. There is only one double bed, and there is a helmet with flame marks and a steering wheel that has also been burned by the fire. In addition, there is another Plastic folders, and a Paratrooper Gravity Knife—with Ninel's name outlined in gold wire!

Gently flipping through the folder, Wei Ran raised his eyebrows involuntarily. There was a thick stack of manuscript paper inside. Although the dark blue pen on it was slightly scribbled, it was enough for people to recognize what was written. .

"The eagle guarding the nest, author: Ninel Ustinovich Bondu" Wei Ran paused for a while, and continued to look down.

"Today, Comrade Neva, the political commissar of the Stalingrad Aviation School, came to me, hoping that I could write a memoir on the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, recalling everything about Stalingrad.

The young political commissar told me that a museum will be built on Mamayev's post, a museum commemorating that battle.If my memoir can be written before the museum is built, maybe it can be sent to the museum.

maybe?what!I don't care!
However, for the sake of this Comrade Commissar, who is also called Neva, and for the sake of the beautiful Sasha, I decided to give it a try.

Out of the pride of the Air Force, out of memory and respect for that battle and the compatriots and comrades who died in the Second World War, I decided to use the name of the eagle guarding the nest as the beginning of this memoir.For us at that time, Stalingrad was our nest, and the immature young eagles of the aviation school paid a heavy price in that war in order to protect their nests.

But the real beginning actually started in Lipetsk in 1933, when I was just a "

In the dark room, under the light beam of the mobile phone, Wei Ran sat on the dusty floor, carefully reading the memoir written by Ninel himself, and felt the friendship between him and the German pilot Felix between the lines .

It's just that all the good things started to fall apart with the memory of his parachute landing on the island of Goronid.

I don’t know how long it took, but there are only the last few pages of manuscript paper left in the file folder. Most of Niniel’s memories have become the hard work of rebuilding the Stalingrad Aviation School with his friends after the war, and Sasha’s love for him. His support and help.

However, when Wei Ran turned to the last page, he could still vaguely see the unevenness left by tears after wetting and drying up on the yellowed manuscript paper. On the only manuscript paper, there was also a crooked line, and even the letters were crooked. Overlapping Russian words: The eagle that protected its nest flew into the blue sky he loved so much not long ago.My dear pilot Ninel, left me and the children forever.

(End of this chapter)