ISBN 978-5-0056-6314-6

      Created with Ridero smart publishing system

      Wheel of time

      – Dimka, let’s go with you tomorrow on bikes to the forest, we’ll collect mushrooms! They say there are a lot of them in our place this year!

      – I can’t! Mom asked for help. We’ll go another time!

      – So we’re after lunch!

      – I can’t do it anyway.

      – And then the city will come! There will be more of them than mushrooms hanging out in the forest – the ten-year-old Genka did not stop persuading his friend.

      – We collect more – we will finish the hut faster! – He persisted.

      The boys were building a hut on the edge of the forest, but it was slow because of the lack of building materials, which were not cheap at all.

      They had to earn money by selling forest gifts on the highway leading to the city, which they themselves collected in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

      – Take Petka! – Dimka decided to get out of an uncomfortable situation.

      – Petya is also busy. He and his sister will babysit tomorrow while his parents go to town.

      Igor, without losing hope, once again looked questioningly at his friend, but he only shrugged his shoulders in response.

      – Oh, you! Oh well! So be it. If no one agrees, I’ll go alone!

      – Then tell me how much you collected!

      – Yeah. Tell. And will you help me sell if there is a lot?

      – Yes! We’ll go to the highway together on Sunday, but I’ll do my homework first. Just after lunch, the townspeople will be going home.

      That’s what the guys decided. Mom had already cooked dinner when Igor returned home tired and hungry.

      – I was already thinking of going to look for you. Come on, son, we’ll have dinner soon.

      My father appeared from the next room.

      – Well, what a jerk! What are you doing at school?

      – Good, – Igor answered and disappeared behind the door where the washbasin was located.

      – I’m going fishing tomorrow! Do you want to come with me? His father shouted after him.

      – Of course I want to! – he answered happily, looking out from behind the door.

      – Will I have time for mushrooms later?

      Igor returned and sat down in front of a steaming plate of pancakes with aromas.

      – Why are you still running around on mushrooms? Mother has already dried them, rolled them, salted them for five years ahead.

      – Dad, the guys and I are building a hut! I told you so! We sell mushrooms to the city. They have no time to go to the forest for work, they are afraid, and they do not know the mushroom places, but we go there and back!

      – Oh, you builders! Maybe you need help?

      – No. We’ll manage on our own. The older guys are helping us.

      – You know what, don’t go into the woods alone, just with the guys!

      – Dad! What are you doing? I’m not small anymore, and I know the nearest forest well! We walk ten kilometers each. Dima has navigation on his phone. I even brought out the lost ones last week. They came from the city.

      – Don’t go late! It’s not summer anymore. The days are shorter and the nights are colder! Mom said. She was always the most worried.

      – Mom! Please don’t worry.

      – And when will you teach lessons?

      – On Sunday. I’ll get up early and learn!

      – Mom, give me the sour cream, please.

      – Are the pies delicious?

      – Yeah! Oh-very much!

      Igor ate his dinner with an appetite, thinking about plans for the next day. The next morning, he and his father were fishing in a nearby pond.

      Igor ate his dinner with an appetite, thinking about plans for the next day. The next morning, he and his father were fishing in a nearby pond.

      It was nice to watch the floats together in silence, interrupted only by the singing of birds and the whisper of a light breeze in the reeds.

      It was bad, so after fishing for a couple of hours, we went home.

      – It’s a pity we didn’t catch any fish! – my father lamented.

      – Only our Timoshka was lucky with lunch! – Igor laughed at today’s catch.

      The package contained a couple of small redheads, and three small crucians – just for the cat.

      – I hope there will be more mushrooms! He smiled at his father, who patted him lightly on the shoulder in response.

      After lunch, taking a large basket and attaching it to the trunk of a bicycle, Igor pedaled along the path towards the forest.

      When he reached the edge of the forest thicket, he left his vehicle under the canopy of an unfinished hut.

      The place there was secret, invisible to prying eyes, and there was no need to worry about an unattended bicycle.

      Making his way through the forest, saturated with the smell of pine needles and mushrooms, he once again looked back, admiring what he and the guys had managed to build in a short summer, and inspired by what he saw, went hunting for a harvest of mushrooms.

      It was getting dark when Igor’s mom was cooking dinner.

      Every now and then she dialed the mobile phone number of her ten-year-old son, experiencing intense anxiety, which she had never experienced before.

      Igor’s phone remained out of the network coverage area.

      Terrible thoughts and images of what had happened came to her mind, but she tried to drive them away.

      She understood that the phone could simply run out of battery. When it became completely dark, she was seized with horror.

      She dialed the number of her husband, who went out to the neighbors nearby.

      – Misha! – Almost crying, she said into the phone in a broken voice.

      – Our son is still not at home! I’ll go to the boys, ask around, and you run to the forest, just grab a flashlight!

      – He hasn’t come back yet! My father was alarmed.

      – No! I’m already exhausted! And he doesn’t answer the phone! Oh, and he’ll get it from me when he comes back! After all, I promised – before dark!

      – Okay. Don’t cry dear! Everything will be fine! There will be our vagrant mushroom picker. Maybe the boys got stuck – picking mushrooms and forgot about the time.

      After a telephone conversation with his wife, Mikhail, without hesitation, went in search of his son, while his mother interviewed all the boys she knew, hoping to find him at their house.

      Unfortunately, Igor was nowhere to be found. Some guys didn’t see him at all all day, only Dimka said that Igor persuaded him to go together.

      Suddenly there was a phone call, from which the soul froze. It was my husband who called.

      He said he found his son’s bicycle and a basket of mushrooms in the hut. When he found out that Igor was nowhere to be found, he gave instructions with alarm in his voice.

      – Raise the Andropovs, Demidovs and whoever else agrees.

      And I’ll go on my own, I’ll call. We will comb the forest.

      But, fortunately, the neighbors did not