“And the doctors don’t allow me to eat ice cream,” sighed the bed next to Yarik.
“But then again, you’re nice and slim!” said Alla, finding a way out of an awkward situation.
While Alla read, some sort of magic took effect. Children, who throughout the story could not part with their Ipads, cameras and phones, suddenly found themselves transported to the early twentieth century, when ice cream was a real luxury item and in short supply, (even if doctors did allow it) and a kopeck was a lot of money for a six-year like Minki. The magic continued further, when an illusionist entered the room.
“What happens to a dream when you think about it a lot?” asked the magician.
“It becomes even more than a dream! It turns into a fairy tale! It comes true!” the kids answered in a rush.
On that day, almost all the dreams of all our children came true. A wooden table took off miraculously ("Love gives you wings," said the magician), and real snow came from paper napkins.
After the reading was over, everyone went to plant sunflowers; intelligence had reported that within the hospital grounds there were as many as two empty flower beds. Before getting down to the gardening, the kids had to gain some strength, and so they helped us bake «Wetzel's Pretzels». Having been fed and watered on «Wetzel's» cakes and lemonade, everyone then went to plant the sunflowers.
The sunflowers had come to Moscow from the Netherlands and had wilted a little during the journey. Sasha Shirokov is a real Tom Sawyer. It seems that Mark Twain was personally acquainted with him, and wrote his "Adventure" about Sasha.
Sawyer Shirokov immediately undertook to control the process: where to drop, where to dig and where to plant the sunflowers. A fierce debate raged over who would get the honour of planting the sunflowers into the ground. Magic appeared even here: drooping because of the long journey from Holland the flowers opened, just like that, having felt the sunshine and warmth of the earth.
Our sunflowers have blossomed too, all thanks to the warmth, which the friends of the Fund constantly give us. "Moszelenstroy" provided us with flowers, so thank you, Taisa Silkin and Fatiyev Mirashraf Mirdzhafar Oghli! To the bakery "Wetzel's Pretzels" we give thanks for the balloons and treats and special thanks to the magician, Victor Kapralova! Many thanks to the team of "Wetzel's Pretzels": Mira Brooman, Mary Weber, Olga Perlova, Ekaterina Klimova and Irina Arkhipova. For the photographs, we thank Ivan Tenchinskogo. And thank you for the wonderful reading, Alla Dovlatova.