My parents had me very early in life – they hadn’t even finished college yet. In addition, they worked hard to pull the family dormitory, and when nursing time passed, my mother gave me to be raised by my parents in the village.
I was a little girl and could not resent my parents, but when I got older, I even understood them. My grandparents were great, too. Grandpa went through the war and saw a lot of things in his lifetime.
My grandparents loved me a lot and pampered me all my childhood, and when my parents got back on their feet, I went back to their place in town, so that I could go to school there. I always came to visit my grandparents during the summer vacations. And then my grandmother would teach me everything she knew and could do.
One summer that I spent in the village, I went out with the local kids. I was about twelve years old, running around in the fields, chasing cattle, swimming in the river, and not worrying about anything. And then we went to the only store in the neighborhood that had everything: gum, candy water, crayons, and ice cream, and I saw a cosmetics kit on the counter. I couldn’t afford it, not even in cooperation with the other girls, because no one gave the boys much pocket money, and neither could I, in general. And I really wanted this makeup.
I was afraid to ask my grandfather for it, so I asked my grandmother. I told her in confidence, starting from afar, that this set was the only one in the store, that it was cheaper than in town. And Grandpa, it turns out, was doing housework under the kitchen window and heard everything.
He challenged me to a conversation and asked me to tell him what cosmetics were and why I needed them at such a young age. I described a set of colorful lipsticks and shadows, and the reasons why I needed them so badly. Grandpa listened, then grinned thoughtfully, and led me to the cellar. He rummaged among the jars and pulled out a big tin bucket of raw fish, caught by the neighborhood boys yesterday, put it in front of me, and made a condition that if I cleaned all the fish, he would give me money for cosmetics.
At first I was excited, even though I was scared of the scale of the job. I thought I could do it in two hours and still have time in the evening to go swimming on the dam with the guys. But when I started, I realized that I couldn’t do it fast enough. I sat over a dozen fish till the evening, I cut my fingers, I was in agony till I cried, but I still hadn’t made a bucket.
I gave up, deciding that the makeup wasn’t worth it. The next morning I tried it again, and decided to call my friends to help, because together they would have more fun, and the work would go faster, and we would try makeup together. But when I noticed that my grandfather was chopping wood nearby, I changed my mind. He’d think I was lazy if I used someone else.
I wondered if I needed the makeup so much that I could sit and clean karas and bullheads instead of playing with my friends, and I thought about it and re-did all the work. I did a good job, and when I was done, I called my grandparents in for joy.
They checked the work and were both pleased. After taking away the bucket, Grandpa gave me money for cosmetics in return and said that he would have given me money even without work, but then I would have had a completely different attitude toward the set I had bought, I would not have treated it so carefully if I had not earned it by hard work.
