Funny Children's Stories. Bilingual Edition

А мы с Лизой разговариваем иногда. Поэтому всякие насмешливые разговоры о нас с Лизой продолжаются.

Из-за этого я стал о Лизе всё время думать. Я начинаю о ней думать, как только просыпаюсь. И в школе я только о ней и думаю. И когда прихожу из школы домой — думаю. И думаю о ней только из-за всех этих насмешливых дурацких разговоров. И когда я засыпаю, я тоже думаю о Лизе. Хотя мне совершенно не хочется о ней думать.

И вот вчера вечером, когда я увидел, что Лиза пошла к остановке троллейбуса, я тоже выкатил на улицу и поехал за троллейбусом. Потому что мне хотелось её удивить, как я могу далеко от дома уехать.

Когда Лиза вышла из троллейбуса, я проехал мимо неё и спросил: «Работаешь?» А Лиза ничего не ответила и только как-то неодобрительно пожала плечами. И когда Лиза пожала плечами, мне стало очень стыдно. И я стал сам себя ругать за то, что я всё это затеял.

Настроение у меня испортилось на всё воскресенье. В понедельник я старался не сталкиваться с Лизой. Потому что мне казалось, что она опять пожмёт плечами и ещё скажет мне что-нибудь неприятное.

А во вторник я всё-таки столкнулся с ней на школьной лестнице. И она мне вдруг сказала: «А вот я скажу твоей маме, как ты далеко ездишь на велосипеде».

Я не знал, что мне ей на это ответить. И только пожал безразлично плечами. Но всё равно — как только она мне это сказала, настроение у меня стало просто прекрасное. У меня никогда, наверное, в жизни не было настроения лучше. И я ужасно удивился, что оно может так сильно измениться из-за какой-то ерунды. То есть, чтобы оно стало таким хорошим, каким никогда в жизни не было. Ну, может быть, один только раз настроение у меня было лучше. Когда мне велосипед купили.

Lisa

On Sunday evening, I went for a ride on my bike. And I saw Lisa coming out of her building. She had a bag in her hand. And while I was riding around the yard, she passed my building, turned right at the corner, and then turned right again. By that time, I already knew for sure that she was going to the trolley bus stop. And I knew exactly what store her parents had sent her to.

And Lisa and I had a strange thing happen to us. Two years ago we were merged with the girls in school. The first time we heard a rumor about that, everyone started saying how bad it would be. Not one of our boys wanted to be merged with them. And since everyone said that, I also had to say the same thing.

Though I would not be the first to say that it would be really bad. But if someone else said so and asked me to confirm that it would be very bad, I was just forced to say that it would be very bad.

But really, I wanted to have girls in our school. And right up to the beginning of the school year, I thought it would be too good to be true. And I now think that everyone perhaps wanted to be merged with them at that time. But nobody wanted to acknowledge it.

My friend, Gleb Paramonov, once told me that if any girl, even if she was not pretty, approached him and told him that she wanted to be friends, he would be very happy. But after that, he still told everyone that he was against being together with the girls. And when I reminded him of our conversation about “any girl, even if she was not pretty,” he told me a story.

Gleb told me about a time when he and his mother stopped by their friends’ apartment. At that moment, their friends were having dinner and invited Gleb and his mother to join them. Gleb was just about to sit down at the table when his mother suddenly and unexpectedly for Gleb said that they had just eaten and did not want to eat.

When Gleb later asked his mother why she had refused to eat, his mom replied that well-mannered people should always refuse a meal. Only ill-mannered people can say, “All right, now we will eat everything that you have here.” And Gleb asked me whether I knew about such a rule. I replied that I knew certainly about it.

And here Gleb asked me not to tell anyone about this story[22]. When I replied that I did not see anything wrong with it, Gleb said that I did not understand anything. And that I should not tell anyone about it. Gleb said, “I am not worried about myself, I am worried about my mom.”

I asked Gleb how it all was related to girls. Then Gleb said that people did not always say what they thought. And although Gleb's example did not convince me, I stopped arguing with him. Although I did agree with him about the meals.

One time it so happened that I ate at someone’s home. And as I helped myself to the food, everyone watched what I took and how much. I did not feel comfortable there and ate almost nothing.