Elena Sergeevna Kameneva in the forties - sixties of the last century worked as a teacher and then director of the Barabinsk orphanage. Those times were very difficult. The post-war devastation and hunger left their dark imprint on the life of the inmates, and the staff of the orphanage did everything possible to brighten up the lives of children whose parents had perished in a military meat grinder. The main part of the orphanage pupils in those years were children evacuated from the western regions of the USSR, which had undergone occupation - Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states. Having survived the horrors of bombing and the loss of loved ones, they demanded special attention to themselves
In 1946, a boy who looked like six or seven years old fell into the group of Elena Sergeevna, who, as it followed from the accompanying documents, was found by the NKVD in the forests of Western Bukovina. The child not only did not know anything about his parents, but did not even remember his name. Therefore, upon arrival at the orphanage, he was named Dima Ivanov and assigned to Kameneva in the younger group.
Even the inexperienced then Elena Sergeevna saw how her pet was different from its peers. The first thing that Kameneva noticed was an unusually large vocabulary for a seven-year-old boy and clear speech. Sometimes it seemed to the teacher that she was
communicating with an adult educated person. Dima Ivanov willingly made contact with the staff of the shelter, but for some reason avoided children.
The boy loved animals, he was happy to retell the books of Stevenson, Verne, Wells, he drew surprisingly well, sculpted from clay and even embroidered. But most of all Dima was interested in space. He eagerly listened to stories about the planets and the structure of the solar system and could gaze into the night sky for hours. However, no matter how Elena Sergeevna tried to ask Dima about his past life, the child could not answer anything intelligible. He immediately withdrew into himself, and this state of his, happened, lasted for several days.
A case by the river
Somehow, after another attempt of the teacher to learn more about him, Dima disappeared. How a seven-year-old child was able to leave the orphanage surrounded by a high fence, no one could understand. A search for the boy was immediately organized, in which, in addition to the employees and senior pupils of the orphanage, policemen took part.
It was getting dark when a vast area of a copse adjoining the orphanage was examined, behind which a shallow river flowed, and then the rye fields of the local collective farm followed. Suddenly, an obsessive thought, as if someone suggested by someone, to go to the west, to where the river goes beyond the slope, as if someone invisible was driving her to that place, arose in Elena Sergeevna's head. Having run from half a kilometer, Kameneva found herself above a low sandy precipice. She looked down and was stunned: at the very edge of the water on a stone stood Dima, his hands up. Above him revolved a circle glowing with a yellowish moonlight.
Recovering in a couple of seconds, Elena Sergeevna called out to the boy several times. Dima did not react in any way to Kameneva's voice, and then the teacher, quickly running down the slope, went to the boy. As she approached, the circle above Dima's head flashed brightly and went out, scattering like fireworks around the boy. Kameneva touched the shoulder of her pupil and realized that the child was asleep.
Carefully taking the boy, who turned out to be surprisingly light, in her arms, Elena Sergeevna carried him to where the voices of people continued to search came from …
Ivanov is hanging in the air
At that time, Kameneva did not tell anyone about the circumstances under which she discovered Dima. The next morning, the boy himself could not remember everything that happened to him the day before. The child looked cheerful, even showed excessive activity, despite the fact that his temperature rose.
And soon the pupils of the orphanage began to gossip about the boy's oddities. From their stories, Kameneva learned that sometimes at night a golden light shines from a mysterious child, and Dima himself sometimes mutters in a dream in a strange and funny, as it seemed to Ivanov's roommates, language. Remaining on duty, Elena Sergeevna often went to the sleeping Dima, but did not notice anything unusual.
But one day after lights out, one of Dima's neighbors ran to Kameneva and, breathless with excitement, said that Ivanov was hanging in the air above his bed. Elena Sergeevna, witnessing this unusual phenomenon, came into the bedroom and found Dima standing next to the bed. The boy was asleep, and over his head a radiance played, reminiscent of the pale moonlight …
A wonderful resurrection
One day in the zoo corner, where Dima often visited, a common favorite, a guinea pig named Sonya, died. The immovable body was first discovered by the caretaker, who reported this to the orphanage's management. The news of the death of the animal quickly spread around all the pupils, who soon, crowded at the doors of the zoological corner, began to make plans for how to bury their beloved animal. Suddenly Dima squeezed through the crowd of children. He entered the zoo-lock, closed the door behind him, and a couple of minutes later returned to the children. In his arms, clutching to his chest, he carried Sonya, who looked frightened around with the black beads of her eyes and drove her small nose, eagerly sucking in air. The joy of the kids knew no bounds.
The miraculously revived guinea pig was not let go until evening.
Since this event, the attitude of the pupils to Dima Ivanov has radically changed. The children stopped shying away from him, began to call Dima in their games and even gave him an unusual name: Sunny Boy.
Miracles continue
In the meantime, Dima's unusual abilities were manifested more and more every day. So, if he “drove” in the game of hide and seek, he could, without opening his eyes, name the place where the other participants in the game were hiding. One day one of the teachers lost a wallet, which contained bread cards for a whole month. To a grief-stricken woman, Dima suddenly said that she should look for the lost thing in her house under the table. In the evening, this information was confirmed. Most likely, getting ready for work, the teacher accidentally dropped a precious purse, which calmly waited for its mistress, hidden by the long floors of the tablecloth.
Another time, when one of the pupils twisted his leg, Dima cured the boy with just the touch of his hands to his swollen ankle. Later, the pupil, healed in this way, told everyone how hot Dima's palms were then, and how quickly the pain in the damaged part of the leg passed after the touch of the Sunny Boy …
Yuri will fly first … The
summer of 1946 flew by imperceptibly and a mild warm autumn came. At the school at the orphanage, classes began, and Dima Ivanov was initially assigned to the first grade. However, after the first lesson, the surprised and perplexed teacher told Kameneva that her pupil was far superior in knowledge to her peers, and therefore would study immediately in the third grade.
No one has ever seen Dima sit at his textbooks and, despite this, the boy brilliantly answered in the classroom, amazing both the older children and the teachers themselves with his knowledge.
Once he began to talk about how very soon - after a decade and a half - people will begin to fly into space, and many metal balls will revolve around the Earth. The schoolchildren laughed at Ivanov. When the teacher asked who would be the first to fly into space, Dima answered with a short word: "Yuri" …
Traces are lost
In early December, three people arrived at the orphanage: two employees of the district NKVD Directorate and one in civilian clothes, who did not introduce himself. The guests explained to the director that Dima Ivanov had parents and therefore they should take the boy with them.
Dima went out to see off the whole orphanage. The children waved for a long time after the retreating car, until it disappeared behind a copse covered with frost. Since that sad day, no one has ever heard of Dima Ivanov.