I ran into the store yesterday. There was a woman and her daughter in line in front of me. The girl is about five years old.
«Mom, can I put out the groceries myself? » she asks.
She really wants to help. Mom is nervous, maybe she’s late, maybe she just didn’t get enough sleep.
«Come on, just hurry up.» she says to her daughter absent-mindedly.
The girl with all her passion begins to get the groceries out of the cart. In a hurry. Mom trusted such a thing! She has to live up to her mother’s expectations!!! And suddenly…
The bag of millet falls to the floor and bursts. Millet almost did not fall out, but the bag is torn. The girl froze in horror. What did she do!
«There you go,» the mother sighs. «I knew it! I shouldn’t have trusted you with this! You can’t do anything right! We’ve got to get a new bag of millet now!»
The girl is crying silently. She doesn’t want to do anything else. She’s inept. That’s what her mother said.
«Give it to me, it’s hardly scattered, I’ll put it in a bag and you can take it back, you tore it,» says the cashier.
«We didn’t tear it, we dropped it. It tore itself. I need a whole bag of millet!» says the mother irritably.
She pulled out the rest of the groceries herself. And, to the displeasure of the entire queue, she left to get a new bag of millet.
«Give me the bag,» I ask the cashier, taking the bag and asking the girl, frozen like a mummy at the register. «Help me pick up the millet, please.»
The girl’s mother notices my persuasive look. And, as if coming to her senses, she says:
«Yes, Anna, help the woman … Her arm hurts.»
I, so the girl doesn’t see, show «Cool!» with my perfectly healthy hand. Anna begins to carefully lay out my groceries. She tries. She looks at her mother.
«What a helper you have growing up!» I say to Anna’s mom loud enough for the girl to hear.
«Yes. She knows how to mop the floors at my place, too. And run the laundry!»
«Wow! A real bride!» says the man behind us.
«And I helped you roll dumplings, too,» reminds an embarrassed Anna.
«Oooh, dumplingseeeeeni, it’s just a miracle, not a child! When she grows up, there will be no shortage of suitors. I myself would marry your Anna right today, but married for twenty-four years. But if it wasn’t for my wife…»
Everyone in the queue laughs. I quickly pack my groceries into bags. Anna, her mother, and I leave the store at the same time.
«Anna, have you ever been to Venice?» I ask.
«No.»
«You know, I haven’t been either. But I read that there’s a square with lots and lots of pigeons on it. And they’re almost tame. They sit on people’s shoulders. And on their heads. And people take pictures with them. Can you imagine?»
«That’s great!»
«Do you want to be in Venice right now?»
«Here? Now?» surprised Anna.
«Yes!» I pull out a bag of millet. «Here and now.»
We walk away from the store to a patch of space where no one is in the way, and I say:
«Anna, you dropped the millet very boringly. It didn’t even crumble. Drop it so that BAMS!!! So that the everything crumbles.»
Anna looks back at her mother. She understands everything, smiles and nods.
Anna takes a bag of wheat from me.
«Right on the ground???»
«Right on the ground!!!»
Anna happily plops the millet on the floor, it scatters yellow tangerine salute and immediately…
The sky turned black!!! As they say in fairy tales!!! From the rooftops, from the wires, from out of nowhere, a huge horde of hungry pigeons swiftly dives to the feet of the shrieking Anna.
«Mama Mama! Look how many of them there are!!! They’re eating our millet! Mama Mama, we’re in Venice!!!»
Her mother and I are laughing.
«That’s great. Thank you. That’s really nice. Because I’m having a bad day…» says Anna’s mom.
«A bad day can become a good day every minute. Even a small town can become Venice every minute.»
«Yes, I already figured that out,» laughs Mom. «It already has.»
She holds a galloping Anna close to her.
«I will not let anyone offend my daughter,» she says.
And the girl claps her hands…
That’s it, I’m no longer needed here.
The fairy of scattered millet, hungry pigeons and happy girls flew on. Remember, please: every minute things can change for the better.
