It was getting dark. Red and white clouds slowly melted into the sharp tops of the dark green forest. Silence. Only a rare breath of wind will tickle the old birch tree, which in response will scold the quiet whisper of the foliage. A lone mosquito, clearly overslept, flew with a dissatisfied buzz in search of a victim, and disappeared into the distance to no avail.
-Alexei! Go and have some tea!” came like a bolt from the blue.
A cheerful girl with fluffy curly golden hair appeared from the open window.
“Again on your search?” she asked, frowning her black eyebrows with a serious look. Alyoshka knew that look. A look that will make any adult feel like a student in front of a teacher.
-Yes. I'm running errands before it gets dark. – Alyoshka answered, putting on an old work uniform with the inscription “Rostelecom”.
Alyoshka ran into the house, filled a small plastic bottle with water and, taking the keys, just as quickly ran out into the street, almost colliding with his father-in-law along the way.
-Well, are you as always? “To the same place?” asked the father-in-law, smiling.
-Yes. I'll dig around there too. I think I'll find something anyway. Moreover, there is no need to go far, it will soon get dark,” answered Alyoshka, putting on black galoshes as he walked.
The trunk of the old Accent clicked open and an olive-colored Chinese backpack appeared in its shallow space. Nearby lay a shovel with a wooden handle, on which, on the opposite side of the bayonet, there was a metal handle welded by Alyoshka himself. It was unsightly in appearance, but shone like a mirror from frequent use.
The detector was assembled in just over a minute. The batteries and swag quickly migrated to the few pockets that were still intact. An old dirty green bag from a Soviet gas mask is slung over his shoulder. Alyoshka looked at her at the beginning of summer in his father-in-law's garage.
-Convenient bag for a shmurdyak. – he thought. As it turned out, it was not entirely comfortable, often making it difficult to sit down for the next find. But he needed it, since some finds, such as the spout from a samovar, lay very awkwardly in his pocket.
-Well, let's go! – Alyoshka said to himself, pulling on dirty blue rubberized gloves, not yet washed from the last cop.
The “path” was said too loudly. Just climb over the fence and walk about 200 meters along a mown field. This took about 10 minutes at most, but even such a short time seemed like an eternity to Alyoshka. These two weeks in the city were so difficult for him. A city where there is constant bustle, where there is always not enough time and an eternally monotonous life. Finally, he broke free, first of all, freedom from his thoughts, which did not give him peace for a minute.
He quickly crossed the old wooden fence made of poles. True, the lower pole flew off the groove and Alyoshka, losing his balance, almost fell into the nettles growing nearby. Cursing quietly, he moved on, towards his little adventure.
The path, trodden by him over the past two months, ran along a river with a steep bank. The nimble swallows, hearing the steps, flew out like a bullet from their nests in the sandy cliff. And chirping something, they pirouetted in the air. Below, the river flowed its waters calmly and measuredly. Here she was not big at all. But somewhere there, many hundreds of miles away, it turned into the formidable White Sea. Fishermen sitting on the rocky shore waited for the evening bite. And they were happily discussing something, without noticing a man with a device passing by.
Having made friends with the cop, Alyoshka completely forgot about fishing. And before that you won’t be able to pull him away from the fishing rods by the ears. And in these two hobbies, he found something in common, an activity close to his heart, when intrigue is created about what is there at the end of a fishing line or in a piece of land.
Here is a small ravine overgrown with wormwood and nettles. Most likely, in ancient times, a stream flowed here.
— The stream probably disappeared under Soviet rule, when they built the road and drained the swamp. At least my father-in-law knows nothing about this stream. – thought Alyoshka, and walked through the thickets of nettles. He had already checked this ravine, but apart from black metal ringing every centimeter of wiring, he found nothing.
Rising from the ravine, Alyoshka turned on the device. It was a good old “grater” model 30. He took it from his hands, for a small price. Captivated by the video from the cop, Alyoshka did not take the expensive device, deciding that the cop might not like it. But I was very wrong. Almost every entry into this field brought him a small but ancient trophy. Nothing from Soviet times came across. Well, maybe a couple of early Soviet kopecks lost in haymaking.
The signal did not take long to arrive. A silvery piece of metal fell out of the black earth. “This infection again,” Alyoshka swore and lifted the cap from the bottle of penicillin. There was a lot of this stuff lying around here.
“But what can you do, you have to dig.” – thought Alyoshka and moved on, hoping that the next find would be much more interesting. But for the next 15 minutes, the finds were such that they belonged in that same gas mask bag.
The reel rustled quietly, touching the sharp remains of mown grass. The device occasionally droned something about black metal. Alyoshka, who was thinking about something, was suddenly brought out of this state by a short and loud signal. Yes, this signal was like a breath of fresh air for him. First thought: “Coin!!!” Alyoshka tried to drive away this thought, afraid of jinxing it. More often than not it turned out to be a tin can. Half a minute, and a square lump of earth lay next to the hole. A few seconds, and the same signal rang in the fist along with the ground.
-Well, finally, the same one! – thought Alyoshka, sat down on the grass and lit a cigarette. He carefully wiped the copper round, where the letters “POLUSHKA” clearly appeared. This was already the third such coin in this field.
“The year is 1735. A man, exhausted from a long journey, hobbles on his right leg and wearily wanders towards the village. The caftan, faded with time and sweat, is pulled over a sash with an ax stuck in it. Over his right shoulder is slung a knapsack the color of withered leaves, into which more and more seeds of unmown grass are constantly stuffed. At some point, fatigue takes its toll, and the person, unable to resist, falls into the grass. All the good stuff flies head over heels to the ground, including the canvas bag, which rings pleasantly…”
This is how Alyoshka imagined the coins lost in those distant years. After smoking and examining the find, he stood up and slowly walked on. Again, a couple of finds in the form of wire cooled the ardor.
-Wire again! – a thought flashed through my head. But this “wire” could not be found. The find kept disappearing somewhere. And then an edge appeared that did not look like a coin. Having cleared away the soil and having a good look, Alyoshka realized that it was the shield of a ring. The depression in it meant that perhaps it had once contained a stone. Without attaching much importance to the find, Alyoshka moved on. Not even five steps later, the previous value appeared on the device. A little time, and the ring with symbols saw the light of day. He was not big at all, one might say child-sized. In a quarter of an hour, half a dozen rings from small to large were already lying in the swag bin.
– Either not one, then several at once! – Alyoshka was surprised. But I was very pleased with such interesting finds. Moreover, they were all intact, except for the first foundling.
“A small but very beautiful girl with golden hair runs merrily across a freshly mown field. There, in the distance, behind a small ravine, her older sisters and mother are working in the field. She brings them lunch in a bundle of what was once a white tablecloth, clumsily knitted with childish hands. Having reached her family, she cried bitterly.
-Mother! I lost the ring my father gave me! – the girl whispered, and large tears streamed from her beautiful blue eyes. This ring was very dear to her. The father gave his daughters a ring when he went to work in the city, but never returned. It reminded her of her father…”
Alyoshka walked on, trying to drive such strange, but very real thoughts out of his head. The ardor had already subsided and he turned towards the house. The sun had almost disappeared below the horizon, and a cool breeze from time to time swayed the remains of unmown grass. There were signals regularly, but all the finds flew straight into that same pale green bag, until finally Alyoshka pulled out an incomprehensible object from the ground that looked more like a stone. Only after clearing the earth did he realize that it was a figurine of an animal or bird made of metal. Even without enough experience, it became clear to Alyosha that this find was much older than those that had come across before. She looked more like a bird, decorated with a simple ornament.
“It looks like some kind of pendant,” thought Alyoshka and he was right.
“The duck is the progenitor of all things on earth. “The duck laid eggs on the lap of the Mother of Waters, and from them the world arises: The eggs did not perish in the mud; And pieces in the moisture of the sea; But they changed miraculously; And they underwent transformation: From the egg, from the lower part, Mother Earth came out raw; From the egg, from the upper part, the high vault of heaven rose; From the yolk, from the upper part, the white Sun appeared; From the white, from the upper part, a clear moon appeared; From the egg, from the motley part, the stars became in the sky; From the egg, from the dark part, Clouds appeared in the air.”
Our ancestors, from the Finno-Ugric tribes, when they settled these harsh lands, did not think that after many centuries, an ordinary guy from a small village would find traces of them. These traces are few in number, but they exist. You just have to look. And these finds will tell us about an interesting and mysterious ancient world, where people were on a par with nature…
Dusk slowly but inexorably crept into the forests and fields. Not so long ago they looked like something out of a fairy tale and were worthy of an artist’s brush. The river, which seemed quiet and calm, seemed to become deeper and faster. Alyoshka, quickening his pace, tried to stay away from the cliff.
And despite the fatigue, it was much easier to go home than to this successful cop. He couldn’t wait to show off his finds to his family, so his legs carried him on their own. He knew that the next day he would return here again, and there would be other, no less interesting finds. But that will be a completely different story…
PS A son was born. He called him Alexei. I dedicate this story to him. I really hope that my interests and hobbies will find a little place in his life.
Sent by comrade Evgeniy P.
