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That was why Gleb suggested that the boy play with us. But the boy refused to play. He stood there and just looked at us playing. And the whole time he kept talking.

It was very strange and unusual to hear the boy talk all the time. In our yard, nobody likes it when someone talks a lot. No one talks a lot in our yard.

That was why it seemed very strange and unusual to me that this boy kept saying things all the time. And I could feel that everyone, absolutely everyone, was set against him.

Gleb again asked this boy to play Catch Up with us. But the boy said that, first, he did not have his coin on him and, second, he liked to play other games.

Then Gleb asked him what other games he liked to play. And the boy said that he was very good at knives. Well, then I suggested that we all play knives.

I am pretty good at playing knives. “Grandma,” “Grandpa,” “First Finger,” “Second Finger” — that I learned quickly. So now I do not lose in this game. I mean, I am never the last one, the loser.

I lost only once. It was a long time ago. I was lucky that back then none of the older boys played with us. And since there were no older boys, the match was not pounded in too deeply. And to get it out of the sand with my teeth was not that difficult. But when older boys are involved, everything becomes much harder.

Usually we play knives in the kids’ sandbox. But the sand, if it was even there, had been mixed in with soil and dirt long time ago. So we use this mix of soil and dirt to make a pile that we throw our knives into.

When the game is over, whoever finished first pounds a match into the pile with three hits. Usually, the first hit is enough to fully pound the match into the pile. After the second hit, it sinks deep into the middle of the pile. The third hit is made not on the match itself but right onto the pile, from the side. Which makes it very difficult to tell where the match actually is. The loser has to get the match out with his teeth. He is allowed to help himself only with his chin. And to look at someone who is trying to get the match out with his teeth is, at times, just pitiful.

When I proposed for everyone to go and play knives and looked at the boy inquiringly, Gleb waved his hand and said, “This one can’t do anything.” And thus the boy had no other choice but to follow us to the sandbox.

The sandbox was still half covered in snow. But we managed to make the pile somehow and started to play “Grandma-Grandpa.” And the boy began to play “Grandma-Grandpa” with us. And of course he lost.

And after he lost, he began to hop around the sandbox on one leg. Apparently, where he lived, that was the punishment for those who lost playing knives — to jump around the sandbox on one leg.

At this point we started to laugh so hard that we could not stop. The boy started to laugh with us. And because of that, it was even funnier. Some of us even fell to the ground from laughing so hard. When we finally stopped laughing, we explained to him what he had to do.

And then he was very scared and wanted to run away. But we caught him and started to force him to do what he had to do. When he realized that he would not be able to wiggle out of doing it, he tried to find the match with his teeth. We felt sorry for him and told him that he could help himself with his chin. So in the end, he found the match.

He found the match and ran away. And we just stood there, laughing and remembering how he hopped on one leg around the sandbox. Why we found it so funny, I cannot explain. But nothing funnier has happened in my life so far.

Чернильный карандаш

В этот раз перед праздником все только и говорили о том, будут ли давать муку или нет. Говорили об этом все потому, что прошёл слух, что давать муку не будут. И только несколько дней тому назад прошёл другой слух, что давать муку всё-таки будут. И все очень обрадовались.

Папа, когда услышал об этом, сказал: «Чтобы ещё веселее было». И мама, конечно, тут же бросила на папу выразительный взгляд, но ничего ему не сказала. А мне она сообщила, что давать муку будут только по одному пакету и поэтому она собирается взять меня с собой в очередь, чтобы нам дали два пакета муки.

Я ужасно не люблю с мамой в очереди стоять. Поэтому я попытался сказать маме, что нам, наверное, и одного пакета хватит. Но мама мне ответила строго, что я должен с ней пойти в очередь, и чтобы я перестал ныть по этому поводу, и что она постарается меня долго там не мучить.

Она сказала, что мне надо будет пойти с ней в магазин утром, встать в очередь и дождаться, когда мне дадут номер. И потом я свободен. А мама останется там стоять. И когда очередь будет подходить, она за мной сбегает, и мне только надо будет тогда прийти за этой мукой.