there are always differences between the poor and the rich, the kind and the wicked, the educated and the uneducated. All of this becomes unimportant when a person arrives at the emergency room. Ambulance service is open to everyone. There, everyone is just a patient.
Yet even here, some manage to secure better conditions.
Lev Alexandrovich Bessonov was one such person. His room was private and equipped with the highest amenities. He had his own sink, a bathroom with a shower, a refrigerator, an electric kettle, and a television. The nursing care in his room was also of the highest standard.
However, despite the comfort, Lev Alexandrovich felt no joy, as he knew his days were numbered. His illness had reached its final stage and was steadily depleting his health. More painful for him was the realization that all he had earned through hard work and knowledge might end up in the hands of strangers.
He planned to leave part of his estate to the local orphanage and the remainder to his second cousins. He had almost no contact with them, but they were still relatives. He also planned to leave a piece to his household staff and driver. Lev Alexandrovich had no closer heirs left. His wife had passed away three years ago.
They had endured a severe tragedy. The grief was so intense that she could not recover after the disappearance of their only daughter.
This occurred more than twenty years ago. At that time, Lev, his wife Lena, and their six-year-old daughter Yulia were returning from their country house. They spent not only their weekends there but also managed a small garden that fed them and even brought in a little income.
They were traveling home by train. They were so tired that they didn’t notice how they fell asleep. When they woke up, Yulia was no longer there. Naturally, they raised an alarm and contacted the police, but all efforts were in vain. The girl had vanished.
For several years, Lev Alexandrovich tried to convince his wife to have another child. Lena always said she already had a child and didn’t want another. She couldn’t find the strength for it. Lena continued to live in the past and didn’t care about the present, much less dream about the future.
Lev tried to drown his inner pain by immersing himself in work. He was a physicist by training, knew several languages, and was engaged in teaching and translating technical texts, which also brought in a decent income. After a few years, he became the head of a department and then the director of one of the institutes. He often traveled abroad for conferences, interacting with scientists from different countries. All this became a salvation from the turmoil at home.
But Lena did the opposite. She quit her job, and the household chores were handled by the staff. She immersed herself in religion and spent a lot of time on it. Unfortunately, it brought her no consolation. Her heart couldn’t take it, and she passed away.
After her death, Lev Alexandrovich continued his scientific work and lived on as best he could. That would have continued if not for one «but.»
Years passed, he worked a lot and earned a lot. His wealth multiplied, and he never thought about why he needed it. It all seemed to him just the necessary attributes of status.
But a series of events eventually made him think about a will. After all, he had plenty of wealth. After two heart attacks, he was left disabled. Only after losing his health did he realize that he had almost no time left to live. He began to understand the futility of everything accumulated. The second heart attack was particularly serious…
«Hello, how’s our patient?» asked his nurse, entering the room with a duty smile. «Ready for breakfast? We have a delicious cottage cheese casserole with fruit and braised fish with mashed potatoes today.»
Lev Alexandrovich gazed out the window sadly.
«What the hell, breakfast. Just let me die,» he thought, but aloud he said something else:
«Thank you, Natasha. I think I’ll just have some tea, if you don’t mind.»
«No, you can’t do that,» replied Natalia with a gentle reproach. «You need to build up strength, you definitely need to eat something.»
Lev Sergeyevich felt embarrassed and, not wanting to appear like a spoiled rich man, quickly said:
«Let it be the casserole then.»
The nurse was pleased that she managed to convince him to eat, and hurried away.
Bessonov sighed heavily again, pondering why all these years mattered if there were no heirs. This thought haunted him.
«Too bad you can’t die ahead of time,» he thought.
To distract himself, he asked the nurse to turn on the TV. The news only deepened his melancholy.
«Why can’t you sleep?» asked Natalia. «You need rest, but you keep thinking about something.»
By the end of the day, Lev Alexandrovich finally fell asleep. In his dream, he saw his wife walking through a blooming field and calling him to follow her.
«Perhaps it’s time to join her,» he thought in his dream.
But then, at the edge of the field, his daughter Yulia appeared, reaching out to him and trying to pull him towards her. He bent down, took her hand, and felt the warmth of her little palm.
Opening his eyes, Lev Alexandrovich discovered that a nightlight was on in the room, and a little girl was standing next to him, holding his hand. He clutched his heart:
«Yulia?»
«No,» replied the little girl. «I’m Lena. There are many rooms here, and I got lost.»
He gathered his strength and sat up in bed. In front of him stood a little girl, strikingly resembling his daughter.
«So, you’re Lenochka,» he whispered. «And how did you get here?»
«I woke up, and mom wasn’t there,» said the girl. «I took my markers and went looking for her.»
He noticed that she was holding colorful markers in her hands.
«Oh, do you like to draw?» he asked.
«Yes,» Lena smiled. «I draw well. Nurse Tanechka gave me the markers so I wouldn’t be sad.»
«Why were you crying?» he asked with concern.
«Because…,» the girl limped slightly as she walked across the room. «The doctor said it’s forever now.»
Lev Alexandrovich again felt his heart constrict.
«My God! Why did this happen?»
«The doctor said I needed a vaccination, but mom didn’t allow it,» she explained.
«I see…,» Bessonov said, changing the subject. «Can you draw something for me?»
«Sure!» Lena exclaimed. «But I only know how to draw my mom.»
She came to life, took a sheet of paper from the bedside table, turned it over, and began to draw her mom. Lev Alexandrovich watched with interest as a woman with indeterminate age, bright yellow hair, and blue eyes appeared on the paper. He couldn’t help but smile.
The girl looked up at him questioningly, and he hastened to compliment her.
«Your mom is very beautiful, so young.»
«That’s not all,» declared the girl, adding a necklace to the woman’s neck. She carefully drew oval after oval, sticking out her tongue in concentration and furrowing her light brows.
Bessonov smiled again.
«How long it’s been since I felt this way,» he thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Lena finished the pendant. When she turned the paper towards Bessonov, he suddenly exclaimed:
«Sister!» Panic seized him, his heart raced, and he feared another heart attack might be underway.
The nurse who rushed in immediately inserted a vial of medicine into the IV, connected the system to the needle, and started monitoring the equipment. Only then did she notice the girl in the room.
«What are you doing here?» she whispered sternly. «Go back to your department right now.»
Lena, limping a bit and almost crying, backed towards the door but dropped the markers and burst into tears.
«What’s going on here?» The nurse quickly picked everything up from the floor, lifted the girl in her arms, and carried her out of the room.
Crying, the girl quietly repeated:
«I don’t know, I don’t know…»
«What don’t you know, dear?»
«I don’t know where to go, I’m lost.»
The nurse wiped her tears, set her down on the floor, and said:
«Stay here. I’ll help the sick man and then I’ll take you back to your department.»
Meanwhile, panic reigned there — a little patient had disappeared. Lena’s mother, ignoring the nurses’ persuasions, was loudly yelling at someone, and other mothers anxiously peered out from the rooms. When the anxious woman saw her daughter in the nurse’s arms, she immediately calmed down, rushed over, and grabbed the child as if they didn’t want to return her. Lena, sobbing, clung to her mother’s shoulder.
The next morning, Natalia was pleasantly surprised by the change in her charge. He greeted her with a smile and sparkling eyes.
«I’m glad to see you in such a good mood, Lev Alexandrovich!» exclaimed the nurse. «Feeling relieved?»
«Natalia, I’ll tell you more: today is a real celebration for me. Just help me not to spoil it.»
«Lev Alexandrovich, what exactly needs to be done?» Natalia asked with barely noticeable uncertainty.
«Please find this woman in the children’s department,» he indicated the portrait drawn by Lena and continued. «Her daughter, Lenochka, visited me yesterday. She limped, got lost in the hallways, ended up in my room, and then drew a portrait of her mom. It’s very important for me to meet this woman.»
Natalia looked at the child’s drawing with surprise, where a woman was depicted as on all children’s pictures, but she took it and stepped towards the children’s department.
When Lena’s mother entered the room, holding her daughter in her arms, Lev Alexandrovich was already sitting up, propped up by pillows. She was wearing a colorful hospital gown, and no pendant was visible. She entered and stood silently. He too was silent, just staring at her face as if trying to remember something.
«Excuse me, could you show me your pendant?» he inquired.
She took off the necklace and came closer. Lev Alexandrovich looked at the pendant — a four-leaf clover made of onyx in a silver setting.
«It’s the one! Exactly! Yulia!»
The woman flinched.
«Actually, my name is Anastasia, but I used to be called Yulia,» she replied. «But that was a long time ago.»
«My girl,» he whispered softly, «you’ve been found!»
Not understanding what was happening, Nastya looked at her daughter, who was standing in the middle of the room. The girl pointed at Bessonov and said:
«That’s the grandpa I told you about yesterday.»
Anastasia stared again at Lev Alexandrovich’s face.
«Are you saying I’m your daughter?»
«Possibly,» he replied shakily. «Do you remember getting lost?»
«Of course,» Anastasia confessed. «We were on a train, my parents fell asleep, and some musicians and a boy with a puppy walked through the car. I stood up and followed them for some reason.»
«My God, to lose one’s own child, to miss an entire life…»
«When we got off the train, they took me to a small room, fed me, and changed my clothes. I saw that my things were gone, and I was afraid they would take the pendant too, so I hid it in my mouth. I’ve kept it all my life.»
«But didn’t you cry, didn’t you miss us?» asked Bessonov.
«Of course, I missed you. But they told me my parents had died, and I became an orphan.»
«Poor girl…»
«Then I was handed over to sectarians. Those people were insane and made us starve and pray. The only useful thing they did was teach me to read. At fifteen, I was brought to their leader, and I cleaned his library and read books. He said the world was ruled by immoral people. He scared me with such talk. Sometimes he said that such a world needed to be destroyed. He said it was easier to create a new one than to save and correct the old one. And then… he talked my head off and convinced me that I had to give myself to him…»
«Lord, what a horror!» he exclaimed indignantly.
«I gave birth to a daughter. Sons were taken from their mothers as soon as they stopped breastfeeding, claiming they needed male upbringing. Daughters were left with their mothers until they were fifteen. Children often fell ill and died because they weren’t treated and weren’t vaccinated, as they believed it deprived the child of divine purity. So, my Lena wasn’t allowed to be vaccinated, and she ended up catching an infection. When we were brought here, she was curled up as if from a convulsion. We escaped from those who tormented us, ran out of the woods right onto the road. Fortunately, we were picked up and brought here.
«Could it really be that we’ve met?» Lev Alexandrovich said with increasing hope. «Do you remember anything?»
«Very vaguely. But I remember mom Lena well. She was beautiful and very kind. Doesn’t she come here?»
«She only visits in my dreams now. She died of grief,» Lev sighed heavily. «That feeling broke her, and now I thought I was so weak I thought I would die. But now I have no desire to go. He suddenly laughed.
«Lena is your granddaughter; I named her after her grandmother.»
Lev extended his hands to the girl. The little girl glanced at her mom but approached him.
«Well then,» Bessonov cheerfully announced. «I need to get well soon. In a little while, we’ll all go home. You’ll have spacious rooms, a garden, and even a little pond.»
Lena, with wide eyes, listened to her grandfather.
«Is there something special about this pendant?» Julia asked shyly, touching the jewelry.
«It’s an old decoration,» Lev Alexandrovich explained. «It’s been with us since pre-revolutionary times, although it looks simple. Your great-grandmother gave it to us. She said it was a talisman because it was onyx. It’s believed that the stone gives strength. Mom passed it to you when you were sick.»
Gradually, Julia began to realize what was happening.
«It’s strange that Lena wanted to draw me with the pendant. I only wore it here, in the hospital…»
«Without it, we wouldn’t have met,» Lev smiled. «Let’s agree: from this moment, you call me dad, and Lena calls me grandpa. Do you agree, my dears?»
Julia and Lena looked at each other and, as if on cue, hugged him, there was no one closer in their lives.
Lev Alexandrovich took everything into his own hands and paid for Lena’s examination. It turned out that her lameness wasn’t treated because it was quota-based, but it was possible on a paid basis. So it happened. And just six months later, on Lena’s birthday, no one even remembered how awkwardly she used to walk.
Meanwhile, investigators and the guardianship service were dealing with the settlement of sectarians in the forest wilderness.
