Characters:

Vita - this is me at the age of five

Babushka Vita - this is me now, 82 years old

V.Yu. - Viktorina Yurievna - this is me as an independent observer.

A. - my guardian Angel.

 

Introduction from Viktorina Yurievna.

Our wonderful writing group facilitator, Gail Taylor, made me two important notes, and I am including some explanations because the reader also would need them:

-          - Gail Taylor: “…intriguing is the dialogue with the angel, but I’m less certain that you need the Observing Vita since it seems as if your present, remembering self is also interpreting the past as you review it.”  V.Yu: “The matter is, that as I think each of us has a lot of personalities which are dominating in us at different circumstances and at different periods of our lives. In this piece of memoir Vita-girl and Vita-babushka – are just two of these personalities. V. Yu is a collective image, a kind of supervisor, organizer and judge, since sometimes the behavior of the characters that make up this image requires censure and correction. Angel just helps her to make up her mind.

-          - Gail rightly noted that at the very beginning you need to explain to the reader where the action takes place. This is a particularly good point, but in this case, it is difficult. I do not know any author who was able to explain North Americans what Second World War 2 for Soviet Union was. In this case, it is better to read the article just with the bare facts. Here it is - Taganrog in 1943

 

5-year-old Vita shares her memories and invites Babushka Vita to return to 1943, to the city of Taganrog on the shores of the Azov Gulf of the Black Sea. Babushka Vita is amazed by the brightness and vividness of the images that appeared, a clear sequence of events and a range of surging emotions. There are two of them: Vita - babushka and Vita-girl. Are they similar? Viktorina Yuryevna will evaluate this as an independent judge. After, after... Now she is an observer. No, she is Vita. Everything got mixed up. Somewhere inside: or in the heart, or in the head, or somehow in a written file they exist together, so similar and, at the same time, so different.

One episode from Vita's life

The Germans left just recently. The bay is mined. Famine. A huge line for food rations in exchange for food stamps. Vita remembers the words "food stamps". "Ration" ... it seems  that's what the food was called, which Aunt Pasha was giving inside the store, cutting off one "food stamp".

Vita is sitting on a large stone. It must be an autumn. She is wearing a brown jacket with a hood. What else? Ribbed cotton stockings (In Russian - chulki v rezinochku) are fastened to a children's bra.
Green flannel leggings like underwear - just above the knees. Skirt? Vita doesn't remember, maybe. Boots with laces. She clutches food stamps in a fist hidden in her pocket. Vova, her older brother said - they can't be lost. He also said, "Don't miss the line".  Vita does not know exactly what "Don't miss the line" means. She tries, and people pass and pass. Babushka Vita’s comment: “Pathetic, frightened, huddled up little sparrow.”

The doctor diagnosed Vita with tuberculosis. Mom left for Moscow and soon will bring a lot of money to buy food and save her. Vita knows the words: week, month, year, but she does not know exactly how much time "soon" means.  Before the war all of them, mom, dad, Vova and Vita, lived in the center of Moscow in a large apartment with expensive furniture and other things. Vita knows this from conversations in the family, but she hardly remembers. Her tall, strong and beloved dad was sent here to work to quickly drive the Germans away. He comes home very late.

Vova, Vita's 11-year-old brother, is responsible for everything: for Vita, for rations and for all the household. Vova is very busy, a lot of things to do. Recently, he and his friends tried to defuse one of the mines in the bay. They succeeded, but one boy was killed. Vova is terribly upset when dad, instead of seeing him as a hero, beat him.
 ... Vita sits on a stone and dreams of late evening, of Dad's strong hands, of his soft voice telling her long, long tales or verses, many of which he knows. People pass and pass by. Suddenly someone touches her shoulder. Vita raises her head. Aunt Pasha: "Come with me. You will sit here until you die."

Having received the ration, Vita walks home. Again - fuss with the keys. Finally she is in the apartment. It is better to put the ration on the shelf to keep it until the evening.
Very high, you need to pull up. A shelf with tableware and other heavy things collapses, burying Vita under it. She regains consciousness in the arms of her father caressing her.

Was my childhood happy?