The family lived in the suburbs, and its members could safely be called hereditary tailors. Their clients were all the city’s wealthy, and so they lived quite well. Nobody knew where they could get such quality fabrics in times of deficit, as they did not tell their secrets to anyone. It was clear from the start that only people who were not poor could afford to use the services of such craftsmen.
A girl with a small child came to the family in the hungry post-war years… The woman was absolutely exhausted and asked the owners to feed her. Naturally, it was not a status to communicate with beggars, so they threw the beggar out the door. The girl sat down by their fence, and her baby began to cry more and more quietly, and then completely hushed forever.
The girl sat under the fence until evening, and not for a second did she let the breathless body of her baby out of her hands. No one knows where she went, but after that the family was in such trouble that no fairy tale can describe it.
People in the village said that God punished them for not helping that wretch. All the women of the family had stillborn children. Even if the child survived, it was very sickly afterwards.
The mother and father loved their daughter, Anna, more than anything else in the world. They had three children in all, but their sons died in infancy. They always paid close attention to all their daughter’s suitors, because she might bring home a ragamuffin.
After Anna began to flirt with the paramedic from the ambulance, the parents immediately ceased these relations, they did not like the mathematics teacher. They longed for their daughter to find a suitor from elsewhere, as the legend of their family relentlessly haunted them.
Anna’s grandfather would have been satisfied if his granddaughter had married a lawyer or a judge or some other important man.
– But what about love? – the girl joked.
– A man only loves money, and he can get used to everything else!
– Did you love your grandmother?
– My wife was from a rich family: money goes to money!
Anna was married off to the son of a high-ranking official from a neighboring district.
All the girl’s relatives were happy about this marriage. The young couple began to live in a new house. They had everything, but no children. The young woman was examined by numerous luminaries, but they all said nothing.
Once a woman advised Anna to go to the monastery, where the elder lives, which helps childless couples. Even though they did not believe in miracles, they still decided to try. The girl, her mother and father told the old man with what trouble they had come to him. Monk listened so that it was obvious that he understands that not all the truth told him his guests, as they are hiding this sin even from themselves. He listened and then said:
– You need to make a donation.
– Tell me, how much should we pay? – Anna’s father asked the elder.
A smile appeared on the monk’s face.
– It is not money, the sacrifice is not material.
– We agree to any expenditure,” replied the father of the family to the elder.
– You adopt an orphan, you’ll get one of your own, but you’ll never chase a stepchild out of your home!
The monk somehow looked sadly at his guests, he was worried whether he was right to give them such advice.
They thought for a long time about whether they should do as the old man said, but then they made up their minds and adopted the two-year-old boy.
After the baby turned five, Anna became pregnant, and they began to insist that they take the boy back to the orphanage. Anna’s husband was against it and asked that the boy be left to live with them, but his wife was adamant.
Anna was about to give birth, so she told her husband that while she was in the maternity hospital her father would take the baby back to the orphanage. Her husband was against it and persuaded his beloved not to.
The next morning, Anna went into labor, began to walk down the stairs, fell, and lost her baby.
She blamed her foster son and told her husband to get rid of him immediately. She screamed that she hated the child because he had taken her baby boy from her. However, it did not take long for her husband to pack up his and the boy’s belongings and move in with his parents. Later he married a girl who gave him two boys. The adoptive son is much loved by his parents and called their “guardian angel.”
Now they blame their former son-in-law for all their misfortunes, since he left their girl in such hard times for her, and took their son with him. Anna grieved, but no one felt pity for her…
