Svetlana Alekseevna, the kind head of a small warehouse of a private factory on the outskirts of the city. The entire department consisted of a pair of constantly changing movers, a storekeeper Masha and, as indicated in the production order, a “responsible person in the warehouse”, in fact, Svetochka herself, or, as she jokingly called herself, “ladies with mileage.”

The factory is small, but seasonal orders required her attention and constant monitoring, so Svetlana worked almost seven days a week, taking the work process as responsibly as possible, often forgetting about herself.

The woman has long been accustomed to her loneliness, she was not tormented by insomnia, but lately at night, plunging into sweet dreams, she increasingly saw a rural childhood, where colored images of happy moments of the distant past surfaced like stills from a movie.

Nature woke up, the night handed over the rights to the dawn, taking away the pictures of timid youth, kind memories caused a smile, and after such a joyful awakening, Sveta at work requested a week’s leave from her superiors.

The woman made a small raid into a local supermarket and now a small red fiat, the pride of our heroine, was in a hurry to leave the scorching heat of the city.

Sveta carefully and lovingly packed large bags with gifts for village relatives in the trunk, rare family meetings were always a joy for a woman.

Somewhere halfway down the road, the tired air conditioner begged for mercy, and the hostess opened the windows, hot air rushed into the salon like a whirlwind, bringing with it summer smells, and meadow aromas gently enveloped the fragile body.

Competing with the buzzing of a bumblebee that had arrived from nowhere, the engine hummed steadily, and Svetlana, hiding behind huge glasses and a blue hat, indulged in memories.

Decades ago, after receiving a certificate of eight years of schooling, a young girl left parental care and went to a new world, to a distant city.

Svetlana was the adopted daughter of a modest village couple - a three-year-old baby girl who was rescued during a fire, the kind local authorities handed over to wonderful people who raised her as their own.

After the death of her real parents, who somehow found themselves in an ill-fated hour in a collective farm barn, destroyed overnight by lightning, the baby spent a cloudless childhood among the same barefoot village children.

Her foster parents, modest collective farmers, ordinary people, happy in their spiritual selflessness, not cherished by fate, but friendly with each other, worked from dawn to dusk, raised belated children and raised, loved as best they could, without pampering or indulging.

Svetochka was strikingly different from her noisy stepsisters and brothers, the girl studied at school, was dreamy and thoughtful, often sat with a stub of pencil in her hands and drew, drew, drew ... In her pictures, chickens, horses and dogs came to life - the whole simple farmyard of a collective farmer, the eyes were especially beautiful - they were wide open, slightly clouded, with a surprised look at the eyes of the living world.

Dad often bought his daughter a sketchbook, mom secretly admired the elegant thin profile, sighed, pitied the Light - still, the city girl grew up, and tried not to overload her with village worries.

Svetochka generously distributed her drawings to neighbors and friends, friends, at home, of course, admired her talent, but ... black and white sketches often heated the stove.

The lovers met the dawn, and only the fleet-footed river witnessed their first timid kiss, yesterday’s schoolchildren grew up overnight.

There was silence around, barely broken by the splashing of water and the light rustle of leaves waking up under the rays of the sun, everything seemed so new and vibrant — as if nature itself held its breath so as not to scare away their tenderness and the invisible thread that bound their hearts.

The warm, still weak sun touched their faces, coloring everything around in soft, golden-pink tones, yesterday’s children looked at each other, not daring to look away, in these first, timid moments there was a whole universe filled with joy and excitement, worried that happiness might dissolve into river fog, the children held hands.

Years flew by, barefoot childhood ran down meadow paths, Svetlana grew into a blonde beauty, blue eyes hidden in silk eyelashes seemed to reflect the sky itself, the same color were the cotton dresses that her needlewoman mother sewed, and in the family the girl was jokingly called “mermaid”, she was very she looked like Ariel, the heroine of a cartoon beloved by children, the daughter of the sea lord Poseidon, because Sveta, seizing a free moment, often ran to the outskirts of the village, painted, secluded behind a branch of a weeping willow on the gentle bank of a deep river.

Svetlana did not take offense at her family, the girl dreamed of a large canvas and paints, like a “real” artist, her family loved her, but the villagers treated her work as an empty fantasy, frivolous, not bringing money, as her father said - “you will not be satisfied with a picture of bread.”

Grisha, head over heels in love with a blonde beauty, accompanied the little girl everywhere, a boy classmate, whose chiseled profile she drew daily with sketches of Light for memory, closing her eyes - a clear image appeared in front of the girl’s inner eye, and strokes fell on the paper.

Svetlana, trusting only the sky, poured out her feelings on the album sheet, and the excellent student Grigory, the only child of the school principal, a literature teacher, watched her admiringly, only a special notebook kept timid attempts to declare love, the boy secretly dedicated poems to the chosen one.

Courtship alerted astute adults - Grisha’s parents, local intellectuals in the third generation were not enthusiastic about their son’s hobby, the boy was prophesied to be the bride of the daughter of the chairman of the collective farm.

A burly girl, an obedient excellent student Arina, who was madly in love with young Grishan, was the pride of her father and mother, and by all accounts she was suitable to marry the future school principal.

Before the final exam, a difficult conversation took place in the village club between the teacher and Svetlana’s foster father.

The adults decided unanimously that the first youthful love can be fleeting, and Grisha, the only heir of the school principal, is obliged to continue his parental business, so he will stay in the village, graduate and also become a director like his father, and Sveta, she is a city girl, who, by a whim of fate, grew up in the village, but you can’t argue with nature She needs to leave and really get back on her feet in her environment, it will be better for each of them, and teenagers will someday be grateful to them for making the right decisions.

The large family did not resist Svetlana’s departure to the city, because three more children remained dependent on their parents, they released the eldest with a light heart after graduating from junior school “into the people”, and Grigory had to graduate from high school to enter the institute.

Summer came, the exams were left behind, a solemn school line was held, at which graduates were awarded certificates.

The village boys descended to the river in a restless flock of birds, and, seizing the moment, Grisha and Svetlana ran away to a weeping willow.

The river murmured nearby, singing a secret eternal song, one that preserves memories of similar morning meetings, which she had witnessed more than once, but for Grisha and Svetochka it was the first dawn, their little miracle, filled with embarrassment and shining hope, like this young sun.

June in the village was always a time when everything around came to life and required attention, these days the work was not only for themselves, but also for the whole family, for future harvesting, for the harvest, which was not just a matter, but part of village life, so Svetlana was busy with her mother on the farm, from the very beginning In the morning they worked tirelessly: sometimes in the garden, then in the barnyard.

At sunset, the family was getting ready for bed, and the girl was enjoying a cup of tea on the porch, waiting for the moment to leave for the weeping willow, where her beloved Grishenka was already waiting.

The lovers sat on the shore and naively made adult plans like a child: Sveta promised to write a letter and tell her her city address, and Grisha vowed to respond to her messages. On a warm July morning, the grown-up Svetlana was leaving her beloved village, the eldest daughter was blessed by her parents to lead an independent life.

The family provided the girl with groceries for a month, her mother gave her a crimplene dress for the weekend, and her father handed her a yellowed envelope - it contained a good stack of money, it was an allowance accumulated over the years from the state, which wise parents saved for the eldest daughter.

Separately in the envelope was a certificate stating that Svetlana Alekseevna Kuznetsova was an orphan, the girl’s real parents were children from an orphanage, freelance artists in search of earnings wandered through the villages and towns of the great Soviet homeland, took jobs decorating clubs and cinemas, and on that ill-fated night they burned down in a big fire from a lightning strike, that’s why didn’t the relatives of the blonde baby look for her.

After the fire, all this information was collected by the chairman of the collective farm and then the childless Petrunin family decided to keep the baby for themselves, the adults took custody, and the girl found parents, but with the appearance of crumbs, fate brought surprises, a couple of years later Alya and Galya were born in a friendly family, and a year later the youngest son Vanya.

The girl heard from the neighbors more than once that she was adopted, but her parents treated all the children equally with love, so Svetochka did not attach much importance to village gossip, only snuggled closer to her mother in the evenings, and hugged all the younger children.

The shining baby, as her foster family called her, became a happy mascot for the new dad and mom.

Her father told the story of her short life before the big road to the new world, wisely noting that it had been the way since ancient times, and children sooner or later grow up and fly out of the family nest.

A hot breeze blew over Svetlana Alekseevna’s face, the tear tracks dried out, the tired bumblebee quieted down on the windshield, and only the measured hum of the engine returned our heroine to childhood.

After Svetochka’s departure, Grisha was haunted by a heavy dream for a long time: a dusty bus trail on the hot asphalt, taking a little girl in blue into the unknown, and he silently shouted after her ... Strict parents watched over their son, because the boy had two more school years ahead of him and had to prepare for exams at the capital’s university, so Grigory continued to work as a counselor at the school camp, and trusted the desires of his youth with a secret notebook at night.