The young man was simply in a hopeless situation, with no one to turn to. Relatives had turned away, and he had no friends left. So a distant relative, a good-natured but naive man, thought that since the familiar old lady lived alone in a large apartment, why not let her take in a lodger — she would be less lonely, and he would have a safe place to sleep under a roof.
The young man was about twenty-five; he came to the old lady with a small rucksack in which barely fit a couple of shirts, a notebook and an old photograph of his parents. He looked quiet, modest, even shy. When the grandmother saw him something stirred in her heart — she felt pity, as if he were her own.
She immediately brought the young man into the house, hurriedly asked if he had eaten that day, whether he wanted some potatoes with onions, and promised porridge in the morning. She even allowed him to wear the old clothes of her son, who had long since moved away and rarely called. In the evening the old lady made up a bed for him in her son’s room, straightened the pillow, crossed herself and quietly wished him a good night.
She herself went to her bedroom smiling — for the first time in a long while someone had been a guest in the house and had spoken with her. It seemed to her that God had sent this young man to brighten her loneliness a little. The woman lay for a long time in the dark, listening to the floorboards creak somewhere in the next room; insomnia tormented her.
And when she finally began to fall asleep, she suddenly heard a light rustle from the neighboring room. The woman opened her eyes and, through the half-darkness, saw the door of her bedroom slowly open. The young man stood in the doorway.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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