Fifteenth chapter of the book:

DEATH OF THE GRANDMOTHER

  But I didn't manage to tell. At first we moved. I lived without the grandmother and only came to her on a visit. I was captured by new imaginations, new life. And then the grandfather died, and the grandmother moved to us, but I already was different.

Once the grandmother told me: "Granddaughter, tomorrow I will die, I saw an Angel, he came to me and told that he takes me away on the sky. Will you come to my grave and bring some flowers?" I thought that the grandmother jokes. – "Gran, you will live much longer. How will you leave me alone on the earth? If you are going to die and depart for the sky, tell the angel to take me also".

- "No, granddaughter, I am tired to live, it is time for me. And you only begin. So, will you come to my grave?"

I felt such a pain. I didn't want to separate with the grandmother, but I understood that it is necessary. I didn't show that I feel very bitter, and a melancholy inexplicable with words as a sharp needle pierced me through. – "Grandma, you don't worry, die peacefully. I will always carry flowers to your grave".

With a great effort I managed to smile as though everything is all right with me. I didn't want to upset her. At this moment I loved my dear grandmother so much that was ready to burn down on fire if only she lived. A cry from my lips was ready to tear outside: "No! I don't want!" But I restrained and have bitten the lip through so it bled. The lip pain relieved the soul's pain, and I escaped in the wood. There I fell in grass and cried, cried, wailed, complained and swore until fell asleep.

I came home in the evening. The mother attacked the grandmother and hurled at her with a potato. The potato got under the eye of the grandmother, forming a big bruise. As I saw the bruise a hatred to the mother flashed in me, but I hid it. A more strong feeling about death of the grandmother tonight removed my hatred.

I wanted to catch this angel that will come after her and not fall asleep. I thought that I will catch him and kill. I went to bed together with the grandmother on the stove.

I watched, watched - and suddenly everything floated before my eyes, and I fell in a dream. I stirred in the early morning, a fright took all my being. "I overslept. How could I oversleep?!" I looked at the grandmother. She slept and smiled in her dream. "What a beautiful smile she has!" So, the angel didn't take her away?! Even the bruise suited her. There was a shining coming from the grandmother, more precise - from her smile.

I couldn't take my eyes off, looked and looked. Then I took her by hand and jumped aside in horror. The hand was cold and not alive. I began to squeal. With speed of a bullet I flew away from the stove. "Granny is died! Grandmother is died!" And I rushed away from the house.

The next day my grandmother was buried, and I, as deafened, stood at a freshly made hillock. I looked at the hillock of earth and thought with a fright: "Is that all what remained from my grandmother?"