In memory of Vasily Bugrov
Siege of Leningrad, 872 days of hell. A day like an endless nightmare. Nights filled with hunger and the sounds of air raid sirens - the sound that eats into your ears forever and make your blood run cold in your veins.
Wrapped in a sheepskin coat, the girl Masha ran into the house, shaking a skinny red cat in front of her.
- Moooom! Vaska caught a rat!
- Oh, what a fine fellow, our breadwinner! Give her here, let's cook.
There really was a strangled rat dangling from Vasily's teeth. Natalya, without any disgust, freed the cat from this burden and turned the prey over in her dry hands, disfigured by hard work.
- Good, fat. The goulash will be excellent. Oh, Vaska, we would be lost without you! - she turned to the cat and stroked his bony back, - my golden one, my golden one!
Vasily jumped on the bench. His yellow-green eyes matched the most ordinary wild, reddish colour. Once he had a muzzle and looked important, but that was a long time ago, before the blockade. Now everyone who lives in this house resembles walking dead. All who are left are his mother, the girl and the cat.
Masha woke up in a sweat, shouting: "Mom, run, there's an alarm!", but Mom answered her: "Daughter, you were dreaming, go back to sleep." But the sound was so clear, so loud, that Masha listened for a long time and hugged the cat tighter.
Will this hell ever end? Year after year, day after day... Hunger. Fear. And bombs. Here it is, a childhood without colours, life in the blackest tones.
If it weren't for Vaska, Masha and her mother would have been starving long ago. Every morning he went hunting and brought back mice or even, like yesterday, a well-fed rat. Mice were turned into soup, rats into goulash.
Vaska never ate his prey on the sly - he sat and waited for his portion. The best portion. Natalya always gave him the best piece, because he was the breadwinner, the provider, because he was their main hero.
At night, the three of them slept: Natalya with her daughter on either side of Vaska, warming them with his body heat.
Vasily felt that there would be a bombing long before it started.
- Masha, look! Vaska is worried, quickly grab your things and let's run!
Vasily was spinning around near the door and meowing pitifully.
Natalya grabbed the most essential; water, the girl Masha and the cat, and rushed headlong to the bomb shelter. Along the way, she took the utmost care of Vaska - so that, God forbid, he would not be taken and eaten.
The feeling of hunger was permanent, could not be turned off. The most excruciating moment was when the pitiful ration was terrifyingly quickly approaching the end.
Crumbs for the birds. Natalya collected each of them and kept them like pearls. They would come in handy in the spring, when the birds returned to their land. Having scattered them in a suitable place, Natalya hid in ambush with Vaska. Vasily's jump was always accurate.
There! The bird in his teeth, but he was unable to hold it for long, because, like everyone else, he was very weak and thin. At that moment, Natalya came to his aid. So, from spring until autumn, in addition to rats and mice, birds added variety to their diet.
After the blockade was lifted, when there was more food, and then when the war finally ended, Natalya always gave Vaska the best piece from the table and said: "Eat, eat, Vasenka! You are our breadwinner!"
Vaska the cat passed away in 1949. Natalya quietly buried him in the cemetery and, so that the place would not be trampled, put up a cross with the inscription «Vasily Bugrov».
Because he was not 'just a cat', but a real member of the family. Because they would have been long gone if not for this fluffy one with a wild red colour and sideburns on his cheeks.
Later, Natalya herself lay down next to Vasily, and then Mashenka was laid next to them.
So they all lie together, side by side, as in the terrible, endless days of the blockade, and dear Vasenka warms them with his love.
