Nazim’s bakery was known throughout the district and always enjoyed high demand among customers. Both adults and children loved the delicious baked goods. For his little fans, Nazim always had a discount, which brought a pleasant smile and gratitude from their parents.
Nazim, along with his family, came to Russia many years ago when, following the collapse of a great power, mass unrest and total unemployment escalated in his home country. The hardworking man spent many years working as a road worker and janitor until one day he accidentally entered a cafe specializing in Eastern cuisine. There, he was surprised to find that the bakery offered by the baker was nothing like what he was used to from his childhood. This was due to the very few qualified specialists in the industry.
That’s when Nazim got the idea of a mini-bakery, where together with his wife Fatima, he could delight customers with delicious Eastern baked goods. Of course, the path to his dream was difficult and thorny, but still, thanks to his perseverance and determination, he achieved his goal. Many years have passed since the first bun he baked himself, during which time Nazim has become a father and grandfather.
The kind and responsive man loved children and often treated little ones for free, rightly believing that children are the flowers of life. Also, Nazim always fed homeless animals and helped the city shelter for abandoned pets. The wise man rightfully considered dogs and cats as friends of man, and if he managed to save even one small life, then the day was not wasted for Nazim. Today, the morning for the compassionate baker began with feeding a couple of street dogs and a scruffy old British cat that cruel owners had thrown out onto the street.
While Fatima was busy at the stove, turning over crispy buns and pastries, the owner brought out a tray with leftovers from yesterday’s baking to feed the hungry animals.
«Just a moment, just a moment… Don’t rush, darlings! There’s enough for everyone!,» Nazim said, patiently waiting for the poor creatures to be fed.
Suddenly, someone gently touched his shoulder and asked in a quiet voice:
«May I have a piece of bread too?»
Nazim turned around and, to his great surprise, saw a ten-year-old girl extending her small hand toward him.
«What, little one… Why do you need yesterday’s stale pastry? I’ll give you a fresh bun right now! Want one!?» Nazim asked excitedly, his heart painfully squeezing at the sight of the skinny, pale girl.
«Sorry, uncle… But I don’t have enough money to buy anything from you…,» the girl said guiltily, looking down and counting the coins clenched in her fist.
«What! What money? Just take it, you hear? I have a grandchild your age… Why would I take money from you?,» Nazim passionately replied and opening the door, he went into the kitchen.
There, he took a paper bag and filled it with fresh pastries and buns. Then, after thinking, Nazim added a couple of peaches and a sweet apple from himself.
«Here, take this… If you’re really hungry, you can sit on the bench and eat right here… take your time,» the baker suggested.
«Thank you so much for the treat, uncle, but I need to go,» the girl said with a guilty smile, clutching the bag of pastries to her chest, and walked towards the city square.
«Look at that, such a little one, and already walking the streets alone… It’s not good,» Fatima said, tears welling up in her eyes.
At that moment, Nazim caught himself feeling an inexplicable inner anxiety about this little girl. Yielding to an inner impulse, the man decisively took off his apron and promised his wife he would return soon. Then, waving goodbye to Fatima, he hurried after the slowly departing girl.
Despite her being just a child, Nazim only managed to catch up with her at the square. The baker had just inhaled deeply to call out to the girl when suddenly, he saw a huge dog of an unknown breed running towards her.
«Lucky, Lucky, come here my boy! Look what I have for you,» the girl said excitedly and took a fresh bun out of the bag.
Running up to his little mistress, the dog obediently froze and began to wag its tail.
«Missed you, my good boy… I told you I’d be back soon!» the girl said, running her fingers through the pet’s thick coarse fur.
After the dog ate the bun, the little girl approached a folding chair under a tree, next to which lay a shoe box and a small rubber ball.
Apparently, just a little earlier, the girl had left the dog to guard these belongings while she went to get food for him.
Though, judging by her appearance, the girl was no less hungry than the dog.
«So, Lucky… Are you ready? If yes, then let’s start!» commanded the girl and, picking up the rubber ball from the asphalt, tossed it upwards.
In that instant, the dog gracefully jumped and caught it mid-air. Then, standing on its hind legs, it elegantly returned the ball to its owner. After that, the pair began to perform various tricks and stunts, which instantly drew the attention of passers-by. Watching this scene, Nazim whistled in surprise and nodded approvingly.
Meanwhile, a crowd gathered around the girl and her pet, expressing their admiration for the performance of the little artists, clapping their hands and laughing joyfully. It seemed that the girl and her dog understood each other with half a word and acted like a unified, cohesive team trained over years. The street performance lasted about ten minutes, during which the joyful laughter of the audience never ceased.
At the end of the performance, the girl and her pet bowed to their admirers and then walked around with the shoe box. The act performed by the little girl left no one indifferent, causing shiny coins and crumpled small denomination bills to fly into the box.
Occasionally, there were paper bills, but mostly two and five ruble coins dominated. Seeing this scene, tears involuntarily welled up in Nazim’s eyes, and his hand reached for his wallet. Moved by respect for the girl and her dog, he approached closer and emptied his wallet of everything, including a couple of thousand-ruble bills and a handful of small change.
When the girl saw all this wealth, she looked up at the man and said in surprise:
«Uncle, you must be mistaken… There’s too much money here… You’ve already helped me and Lucky with food…»
«Take it, take it, dear… You’ve earned it… Look at the show you put on! Just like a real magician!» Nazim said admiringly and pushed away the girl’s hand, which was offering him back the large bills.
The girl responded to the man with a sweet smile and, in a theatrically polite manner, bowed her head slightly.
Then, she put the box in her backpack and folded up her chair.
«Well, it’s time for Lucky and me to go home,» the girl said seriously and, attaching the leash to the dog’s collar, headed towards the nearby high-rise buildings.
At the last moment, Nazim thought it would be good to walk the girl home. This way, he would feel more at ease, and the little girl would get home without any adventures. To his surprise, the girl happily agreed. On the way home, she told Nazim her story.
As it turned out, the girl’s name was Nastya, and she lived with her mother in a nearby high-rise.
«My God… What kind of mother would let her child do such a thing?» Nazim thought, deeply moved by the girl’s street performance.
But Nastya, it seemed, saw nothing shameful in it and told him how two years ago she found a small puppy in a canvas bag by the garbage bins. The puppy was no more than two weeks old and was plaintively crying, nudging its nose from side to side in search of its mother’s breast. If it weren’t for the loud squeak the puppy made, Nastya would have walked by without knowing that a little miracle with a wet black nose and beady eyes lay in the bag.
The girl took the puppy home and fed it milk from a bottle for over a month. Nastya named the dog Lucky, which translated from English means «Lucky One.»
From their conversation, Nazim understood that the girl did well in school and was an excellent student.
The man looked at Nastya with respect and a touch of envy, then thought about his own grandson Ruslan, who struggled with his studies.
«Well, here we are… If you want, you can come in for a visit… My mom will be happy to see you! She’s wonderful,» the girl said, pointing to the front door.
At first, Nazim was slightly taken aback by the invitation, but then, looking at Nastya’s smiling face, he could not refuse.
Approaching the apartment door on the ground floor, the girl turned the key in the lock and loudly announced her presence:
«Mom… I’m home! And we have a guest… It’s Uncle Nazim… He helped us a lot with Lucky today!»
The baker was momentarily embarrassed, but then, gathering courage, he stepped over the threshold. Lucky, impatiently squeaking, nudged the reluctant guest forward with his nose and paws.
«How was your day, daughter? You played outside for so long… I know it’s summer vacation, but still,» the woman asked with a tired voice, swaying slightly and holding onto the walls as she moved towards Nastya and Nazim.
«No… This can’t be! Is she drunk? How could she!? Forces her daughter to beg, and she’s an alcoholic!» an angry thought raced through the baker’s mind.
Instinctively, Nazim backed towards the door, but when Nastya’s mother stood under the light of the lamp in the hallway, his heart skipped a beat, and his eyes began to burn and sting, as if they were full of river sand…
The young, beautiful woman was blind and held onto the wall to prevent herself from falling.
Nazim barely held back his tears, especially after Nastya took her helpless mother by the hand and sat her down on a chair in the kitchen.
Then, the little girl skillfully poured aromatic tea into the cups, and after that, filled Lucky’s bowl with dog biscuits.
«How did this happen? Were you born this way?» Nazim stuttered with every word as he asked the blind woman, named Tatyana.
«No… not from birth… It was all because of a car accident we had with my husband seven years ago… Nastya was visiting her grandmother at the time, and that saved her… My Kolenka died, and now… for the rest of my days, I’m condemned to live in darkness,» the woman said sadly, trying to feel for her tea cup with her hand.
«But not for the rest of your days!!! Don’t curse yourself, mommy! You yourself told me that the consequences of such injuries are treated in foreign clinics!» Nastya exclaimed resolutely.
«They might treat them… But where would we get that kind of money? How much can I earn in the society for the blind, assembling clothespins and electrical switches?» Tatyana replied sadly, having long lost hope for healing.
Nazim painfully clenched his tea cup, then his gaze shifted to the old refrigerator, on which stood a three-liter jar one-third filled with small change.
Attached to the jar was a piece of paper, written in shaky, childish handwriting:
«For Mom’s Surgery» And then, the not-so-young baker understood everything. From the realization of this truth, Nazim wanted to scream at the top of his lungs… He understood that to raise money for her beloved mother’s surgery, Nastya secretly gave street performances with the dog Lucky. Nazim felt his heart being torn apart, and it made him very sad to learn about the girl’s and her mother’s plight so late. As he prepared to head home, Nazim promised Tatyana that he would do everything possible and look after Nastya.
Telling his family about the problem of the lonely blind woman and her daughter, the baker saw understanding and tears in their eyes.
«Of course, we need to help the little girl… But what exactly can we do for her?» Fatima asked with empathy, wiping a tear with the hem of her apron.
«Well, to start with… we need to get her off the square… If she wants, she can perform at our bakery… At least she will always be fed and under supervision,» Nazim suggested, furrowing his brow in search of a way out of the situation.
After discussing it, the relatives decided to follow the family head’s suggestion.
The next day, thanks to Nazim’s initiative, Nastya and Lucky were already giving their circus performance by the walls of the bakery.
To the baker’s surprise, the street performance of the girl and her dog caused an unprecedented demand for the bakery’s goods, which enthusiastic customers cleared from the shelves in just ten minutes.
Nazim could not remember a day when his sales had been so high. Overwhelmed with emotion, the man cried and hugged Nastya, while Lucky was fed to his heart’s content with meat pies…
In addition to the funds Nastya raised from her performance, the man added several large bills of his own.
«You’re a real magician, dear,» Nazim whispered, stroking the girl’s head.
Nastya performed at her friend’s bakery for two more days, and on the third day, to her great surprise, she woke up famous.
The girl owed her sudden fame to the baker’s grandson Ruslan, who filmed her performance on his phone and posted the video on the Internet.
The video went viral within hours and quickly spread across the country’s news sites, and Ruslan, without intending to, provided excellent publicity for his grandfather’s bakery and brought fame to Nastya and her dog Lucky.
Now, to meet the demand for baked goods, Nazim had to expand his staff and work in two shifts.
But the dramatic changes affected not only the bakery… They also directly impacted Nastya, who was approached by thousands of advertisers with lucrative partnership offers. In no time at all, a photo of Nastya hugging Lucky became a brand that guaranteed successful sales for the country’s major industrial companies. The story of the girl and her ill mother caused a broad public outcry, and many charity funds offered their help.
The necessary amount was raised in just a few days, and Nazim, who had already established contact with an eye microsurgery clinic in Switzerland, shared the joyful news with Tatyana.
«Lord… It feels like this is all a dream… and as soon as I wake up, I will be back in dire poverty and darkness,» Tatyana whispered, feeling Nazim’s hand.
«No, mommy… This isn’t a dream… Now, they will perform the surgery, and your eyes will see again!» Nastya whispered, carefully picking out the fanciest clothes for her mother.
To ensure the little girl and her sick mother were not alone during the flight, Nazim sent his nephew who had recently arrived to help with the bakery expansion.
Timur turned out to be a kind and responsive young man who stayed close to Tatyana and Nastya, surrounding them with care and attention.
The only one upset by this fact was Lucky, who, due to the lack of necessary documents and vaccinations, Nastya couldn’t take on the flight. While Tatyana underwent treatment and post-operative rehabilitation abroad, the dog lived with Nazim, flinching at the slightest noise at the door. Lucky visibly pined, refusing food and walks with the baker’s grandson. The dog missed Nastya and Tatyana, having long considered them his family.
But, as it is known, nothing on Earth lasts forever, and this includes sadness too…
And when a smiling Tatyana, holding Nastya’s hand, walked down the airplane’s steps on her own, Lucky joyfully rushed to embrace them, squealing impatiently and trying to lick his beloved owners on the cheek.
«Easy, easy, my boy… Or you’ll knock us over,» Nastya laughed.
But the dog, longing for his owners’ attention, was simply unstoppable…
And behind this happy trio walked Timur, who during the two months he spent with Tatyana, had developed sincere, heartfelt feelings for her. The young man had fallen in love at first sight with the beautiful young woman with such a difficult fate. It was remarkable that Tatyana felt mutual feelings towards Timur, tinged with tenderness and love. This happens when people, involuntarily brought together by a common misfortune, become close and dear to each other.
Back home, Nastya and her mother were greeted as heroes. Inspired by their example, people facing difficult life situations believed in themselves and saw a light at the end of the tunnel, which became brighter with every step. Nazim’s business, from a modest bakery, grew into a chain of stores with branded baked goods and Eastern sweets.
Tatyana, now married to Timur, manages one of these stores.
Her beloved daughter Nastya no longer performs on the streets. Now, she is a straight-A student and, after finishing school, dreams of entering a theater college. And Lucky, as always, loves his owners and Nazim’s sweet pastries more than life itself, which the elderly baker always treats the smart and loyal dog with. Little could the compassionate man know that by helping a little girl, he would set off a chain of kindness that would ultimately make not only his family but every participant in this remarkable story happy.
