Rays of warmth
Rays of warmth, coming in between leaves, tingled my face. My eyes were closed, but I saw the bright flashes of light when they hit my eyelids. We were laying in the apple orchard of my grandma's neighbor. Us, that’s Yulia, her little cousin Tanya and my cousin Vladik.
"Hey, when do you think we'll marry?" I asked Yulia. "Dunno" she said while chewing on a freshly picked apple "maybe if we ask our parents, we may, like, when we're 15?". "Yeah, sounds about right. Let's ask them today." I answered and fell back into daydreaming. Right then and there I wanted to be exactly where I was. With Yulia, with the sun in my eyes.
I smelled grass, I smelled flowers and Yulia's hair shampoo. I took her hand, not knowing what more to do, except holding on tightly. "Have you heard that there's vampires in the old brick factory?" Vladik started -
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE! JUST WAIT UNTIL YOUR GRANDMA HEARS ABOUT THIS!" - the neighbour caught eye of us 'destroying her orchard'. We got up and ran as fast as we could. Panting, laughing, we stood upon the hill.
We were free.
Since the orchard was temporarily unavailable, we went to the old brick factory to investigate the vampires. None were to be found, but we spent the next hours climbing on decrepit wooden beams, playing catch and hide and seek. After, we found some wood and failed successfully setting fire to the factory "to drive out the vampires".
Once we heard swallows outside chirping, we made ourselves on our way back to our grandparents' homes. Borshch, fresh pampushky (garlic bread) and kompot awaited. A few steps down the road, my grandpa stood beside his ambulance (he was the driver), smiling at me.
"There you are, you sonofabitch" he said lovingly "Should I take you guys home? Come on, get in!". We nodded and got in the back of the van. As we rumbled on, my grandpa in the front turned the radio on. Ukrainian festive tunes played. Listening to them, we looked through the window at the sun leaving our village for the day. Dust behind the car, slowly setting, was illuminated in orange light. Days like these felt a minute long, but eternally wide.
We were free.
After dinner, I went into my grandparent’s room. My grandad was watching TV. It was a tiny monochrome screen. Football was on, Dynamo Kyiv against Vorskla Poltava. “Come, lie down, let’s watch together. Kyiv’s great this season!” grandpa said.
Peace.
I fell asleep instantly.
