It was bitterly cold outside, and I could barely make it from the bus stop to the entrance. And there I saw a familiar picture: the neighborhood kids in their old seasonal jackets couldn’t get into their apartment.
– Mom, open up, we’re freezing...
– What, she fell asleep again, she can’t hear?
Eight-year-old Barbara sighed heavily and nodded. Her four-year-old brother was covered in tears and was sobbing.
– Let’s go to my place. You’ll get warm, and we’ll find something to eat.
The boys followed me up the stairs to the floor above.
This was not the first time that a drunken mother had sent her children out to make love to her roommate in a one-room apartment. And it all ended the same way: the tipsy couple would fall asleep in a warm bed, and the kids would stay in the entryway.
Once, I even had to keep them overnight because we couldn’t get through. So in the morning I also got a scolding from the wretched mother, that, you see, I took her children away without warning.
I guess it was time to complain before something terrible happened. All right in summer, but here in winter, the children do not have normal warm clothes, they are still frozen…
That evening the children and I again could not reach the apartment, although Barbara said that she had seen from afar, when she and her brother were still out walking, that Uncle Robert, her mother’s roommate, had left the staircase and gone somewhere. It seemed strange to me, but I thought the girl might have been mistaken, since she had seen him from afar.
The mother didn’t answer the door in the morning either. I had to call the police, and at work I had to ask for administrative assistance. It took the police a long time to get there. When they arrived, they had to break down the door. Margaret, Barbara and David’s mother, was lying in bed and not moving, but she was alive. The police called an ambulance.
When the doctor arrived, Margaret was diagnosed with either a stroke or a heart attack. It was obvious that something had happened to the woman the night before, but since medical care had not been provided in time, there was very little chance of saving the mother of the children by now.
The woman was taken to the hospital, but the children were allowed to stay with me for the time being. I had to testify for a long time, sign some papers, and help draw up a sketch of Margaret’s roommate.
The police needed to find this man to see if he had done any harm to his common-law wife that caused her to be in this condition.
– Auntie Tanya, if Mom passes away, will you keep us with you forever? I don’t want to go to an orphanage… I saw on TV that the children there are very bad…
Barbara looked at me with pitying eyes, and I didn’t know what to say to her. I felt sorry for those children, but I wasn’t very well off myself. All my life I had raised my only son alone, I only recently took a breath when my son graduated from college and got a job.
Although he now lives in another city, and supports itself, but soon, perhaps, get married and will need to help him with the apartment and future grandchildren.
These were all the thoughts I expressed to the investigator, who suggested that I get custody when he brought the news that my neighbor Margaret was gone.
– Tatiana Petrovna, the state will help you in this good cause. You will receive a survivor’s pension for each child, and the allowance for children in custody is not bad, you will cope.
I was still afraid, I needed to consult with my son. That evening I called him and told him what had happened.
– Mom, it’s up to you, but if I were you I would agree. Knowing you, I suspect that if you do otherwise, you will torment yourself with doubts about what you did wrong. Your nerves will give out, you’ll get sick, and I want a healthy mother!
– You convinced me! Come and meet your new relatives, then.
Barbara and David stayed with me. The state assistance is really enough to support them, and my life has become more interesting and varied with these guys, it was as if I returned to the days when my adult son was still a baby.
