Svetochka peeked into the private room where her mother was mopping the floors.
“Mom, I’m scared to sit there alone,” she said.
Olga turned sharply and whispered:
“Svet, you can’t be here. We had an agreement. Do you want them to fire me?”
“Mom, I’ll just stand here quietly.”
“You can’t, go away.”
“Let her stay,” intervened a man around thirty-five who was occupying the room. “Come here, Svetlana, while your mom works, we can talk.”
Olga sighed. It wasn’t ideal, but Svetochka had entered the elite room where some businessman or important boss lay. The man had serious health problems, and Olga heard he was due for surgery soon.
“Please, she won’t be in the way, will she?” she asked.
“Of course not. Do you think it’s easy for me to lie here alone? It makes one want to howl. I’d rather be in a regular ward, where there are people.”
Olga smiled and continued cleaning. It turns out there are decent people among the rich, although she had every reason to think otherwise.
One of such rich men had taken everything from her, including her husband.
Things were once good. Almost immediately after Olga left the orphanage, she met Ivan. He was also an orphan, and they had a lot in common. They became friends, and then got married. They had many plans for life. Ivan drove goods by truck, and Olga went to school and worked part-time. Then Svetochka was born, and Olga had to take an academic leave.
But when their daughter was born, everything happened. Ivan was sent on a trip right after his shift ended. Olga was very worried; her husband was tired, but he had to go. The truck lost control and slid into a ditch. Ivan was almost unharmed, but a huge debt was pinned on him for the cargo.
They had nothing to pay with. And when Ivan decided to go to the police, he was supposedly attacked by hooligans, and just like that… Olga no longer had a husband.
The hooligans were never found, and she sold everything she could. She only begged for one thing – for them not to touch Svetochka. She gave all the money, moved to another city, rented a room, and had been living there for several years, working as a cleaner. In addition, she cleaned stairwells and worked for two old women from their homes, who sometimes looked after Svetlana.
One of the grandmothers caught a cold and told her not to bring the child for a few days to avoid infection. Svetlana was in daycare during the day, but in the evenings there was nowhere to take her.
Olga finished cleaning and looked at her daughter.
“Well, Svet, let’s go, I’m done.”
The man looked at her:
“Let her sit a little longer.”
Svetlana turned to her mother:
“Just a little bit, please.”
Olga hesitated. On one hand, it was against all the rules, but on the other, Svetlana found it interesting with this patient. And it seemed like she wasn’t bothering him, perhaps even helping. Maybe.
“Well, I don’t know. Okay, I’ll check in. Svet, if anything, go straight to the storeroom, and please, don’t tire the uncle.”
Olga had no relatives. Or perhaps she did, but she knew no one and didn’t even want to search because who would want a rolling stone like her in their family?
All she knew about her past fit into a single photograph: a woman holding a tiny girl, with a man on one side and a boy about ten years old on the other. Olga knew that the little girl was her. And she also knew that her entire family had died in a fire. The photo, as the caretakers told her, was brought to the orphanage by some woman almost immediately after the fire.
Who was the woman? Why did she come? No one knew or remembered anymore…
She took Svetochka after cleaning. The man smiled:
“Come visit me again.”
“I will, Uncle Valera. Well, if mom allows.”
Olga smiled:
“Oh, she must have bored you by now.”
“Not at all, of course not. You bring her. I really find it interesting and it’s less boring. She is smart and perceptive.”
Svetochka asked hopefully:
“Will we go to the hospital together again?”
“Well, I don’t know, I’ll ask today how Grandma Katya is.”
Grandma hadn’t recovered. In fact, she got worse. Olga called an ambulance, and they took her to the hospital, and the doctor said that it wouldn’t have been anything serious if not for her age. So, it’s better she stays under medical supervision.
Olga understood that she would have to bring her daughter to work again and again. Well, it’s not forever.
That evening Svetochka was again at Uncle Valera’s. Olga half-listened to their conversation.
“Have you already ordered a gift from Santa Claus?”
“No, mom says it’s not nice to ask. Santa Claus will see how I’ve behaved and will bring the gift I deserve.”
“I see. Well, what would you really want to get for New Year? But tell me secretly, and I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
“I’d like a phone. That way I can call everyone, take pictures, play games. But mom says I’m too young. Once I grow up a bit, then we can think about a phone. Almost everyone in my group already has phones. It’s so interesting. I wouldn’t be on it all the time, all the time it’s harmful. Just sometimes.”
The patient smiled:
“I agree with your mom, phones are a bit early at your age. But kids these days are so perceptive.”
The next day, when there was nowhere else to go, the daughter went to Uncle Valera’s, but almost immediately came back:
“Mom, let’s go quickly, Uncle Valera is feeling bad.”
Olga rushed to the room. The patient really was in bad shape, so much so that he didn’t see them. Olga dashed out of the room and into the nurse’s station:
“Hurry, the patient in the private room is in bad shape.”
Chaos ensued. Svetochka peeked out from under the table and watched everything with frightened eyes. The patient was taken to surgery. Olga heard a nurse making excuses:
“I was just in there fifteen minutes ago, everything was fine. Wow, it changed so quickly.”
“Yeah, lucky he made friends with the little girl,” the doctor replied. “There’s no round at this time, and the nurse checks every hour. By the time someone reached him, he could have been dead.”
Olga herself was so distressed!
The next time her shift was due in three days, Svetochka had to come along again. When the girl was taking off her coat, the head nurse peeked in:
“Hello, Svetochka. Your friend from the seventh room asked you to come visit.”
The girl perked up:
“Mom, may I?”
Olga asked the head nurse:
“How is he? Will Svetochka not bother him?”
“He’s better now. You can go. Not for long, of course, as he gets tired quickly.”
Olga decided to start right from Uncle Valera’s room. They entered, greeted, the man smiled:
“Well, finally, I’ve been waiting. How are you, Svet? It turns out, you saved my life.”
Svetochka was embarrassed:
“It wasn’t me, it was the doctors. I just called mom.”
“Well, then everyone did well. Come here.”
Uncle Valera reached under the pillow, took out his expensive phone, pulled out the SIM card, and handed it to Svetochka:
“Here, keep it. Let this be your gift from Santa Claus.”
Olga said:
“What, this is a very expensive gift.”
“Nothing is more expensive than life. Take it, buddy, so you won’t be bored waiting for mom in the storeroom, since I’m no good as a conversationalist right now.”
He closed his eyes, and Svetochka looked questioningly at her mom.
“Let’s go, I’ll set it up for you in the storeroom.”
They quietly left the room. Olga inserted her SIM card into the phone so Svetochka could watch cartoons, and was about to leave when her daughter called out:
“Mom, look!”
Olga returned to her. The girl opened the phone’s gallery and showed a photo of an old snapshot. Parents with baby Olga in their arms, and her older brother beside them… Her relatives, who died in the fire.
Olga gasped:
“Where did he get this? This is my photo!”
She was utterly puzzled. One could assume that somewhere in the world, there exists another such photo with someone else, but then it turned out that Valeriy was some kind of relative!
Svetochka zoomed in on the image and suddenly asked:
“Is that Uncle Valera as a little boy?”
Olga looked at the snapshot. My God, the boy really did look like him!
She slumped into a chair, exhausted. What now?
She was out of sorts for two days. On the third, when she came to clean Valera’s room, he was already sitting up in bed.
“Ol, did Svetochka come with you?”
“No, the neighbor recovered, so Svetochka is staying with her.”
“Too bad… but, probably, it’s hard for the child here, gets tired. Are you alright? You seem upset.”
Olga sighed and suddenly decided. She wasn’t going to impose, just ask:
“Tell me… Svetochka showed me an old snapshot that you have in your phone.”
“Ah, forgot to delete. Can you manage to clean it all up? Delete everything to the trash.”
“Of course. But that’s not the point. Here… this is all I know about my family.” Olga handed the patient the same photograph and pointed to the little girl in a woman’s arms. “This is me.”
“And this is me.” He pointed to the boy. “They told me my sister died with the parents!”
“And they told me my brother died with the parents.”
Valeriy wiped sweat from his forehead.
“So, I need to make a call… Olga, it turns out you’re my sister, but that can’t be! They couldn’t have lied to me all my life! Okay, you go, I’ll find you.”
Olga rushed out of the room. She didn’t know whom Valeriy was planning to call, and she didn’t want to know right now. She even regretted mentioning it.
An hour later, a whole delegation entered the room: an elderly woman and man, a young woman, and the head doctor.
The head nurse peeked into the storeroom:
“Olka, come on, something happened. I don’t know what, but our patient even called the chief and asked for you.”
Olga’s hands trembled. She stood up:
“Alright, let’s go.”
In the room, they awaited her. The elderly woman looked at her and immediately burst into tears. Valera was grim. The girl sat next to him and held his hand. The head doctor seated Olga on a chair and left.
The elderly man spoke:
“Forgive us, girl. Forgive us, if you can. We are your uncle and aunt. Your father was Natasha’s brother, my wife. When they died, the question arose of what to do with you two. We couldn’t leave Valerka in an orphanage, because he understood everything, knew us, and we loved him. And we couldn’t take both of you, because we simply couldn’t afford it. We saw you once, realized you wouldn’t have any memories of the family, and younger children are adopted more often. So we told Valera that everyone had died, especially since he was in the hospital and didn’t attend the funeral. Then we moved to this city so that no one would slip up. Natasha did go to the orphanage to see you, left a photo so that there could be some connection.
“I have nothing to forgive you for,” said Olga. “You weren’t obligated to take me, nor even Valeriy. Thank you for taking him… I’m very glad I’m not completely alone in this world.”
Olga felt her heart fill with warmth.
Events began to unfold at an incredible pace. The newfound grandparents and Valeriy’s fiancée came to visit them that same evening. Svetochka was thrilled with the gifts they brought. They talked for a long time, discussing everything that had happened.
When Rita, Valery’s fiancée, heard the story of Olga’s husband, she exclaimed:
“What is this! Olga, write down the names of all those involved in that case. I’ll find out everything.”
Valery’s mother nodded:
“Rita is a criminal journalist, everyone is afraid of her.”
Thanks to her efforts, the killers of Olga’s husband were quickly found and imprisoned. As Olga suspected, they were mercenaries of the same businessman her husband worked for.
At her brother’s wedding, she met his friend Volodya, who fell in love with her at first sight and didn’t leave her side all wedding long, saying that if he turned away, someone would surely take her away.
Olga was able to continue her education with the help of her well-off brother, and now a new happy life awaited her. Not just hers, but everyone who was now by her side.