Funny Children's Stories. Bilingual Edition

Many other things happen in our yard. And I always tell my mom about them. But I have never told my mom about the coin, and I will never tell her about it.

The tradition with the coin consists of having everyone pee on the newcomer. And everyone pees not just a little bit but in full force. So that the newcomer ends up being completely soaked.

As soon as someone new comes to our yard for the first time, we ask him right away whether he wants to see an interesting trick. The newcomer, of course, wants to see it and only asks what this trick is about. And we answer that the trick is called “fly away, my coin.” And immediately someone takes a handkerchief out of a pocket and someone else brings a coin.

So, three boys and the newcomer stand in a circle, stretch out the handkerchief, with each holding a corner of the handkerchief by his teeth. The newcomer also has to hold his corner of the handkerchief by his teeth.

This way, the handkerchief is stretched out between them. They put the coin on the handkerchief and tell the newcomer to do only one thing: to constantly repeat “fly-away-my-coin, fly-away-my-coin.” And then, they say, the coin will fly away.

And all begin to chant “fly-away-my-coin, fly-away-my-coin.” Well, of course they cannot say “fly-away-my-coin” because they are holding the handkerchief with their teeth. So they are only able to say something like “ly-aney-na-noin, ly-aney-na-noin.”

What goes on beneath the handkerchief, the newcomer does not see. Because the handkerchief obscures the view. He is only too glad to howl together with the rest, “ly-aney-na-noin, ly-aney-na-noin.” And in a couple of minutes, everyone scatters and only then does the newcomer realize what happened.

Last year it happened again with a newcomer. His name was Serge. He and his mother moved to our building at the very end of August. And when we played this joke on him, he ran straight home and never came to the yard again.

In September, he did not go to school. Everyone was saying that Serge’s mom was afraid to let him leave the room. And people from our school came to talk to her. They talked about something for a long time. And after that, Serge went to school.

When Mom first told Dad about Serge and his mother, Dad asked which room they had moved to. And Mom said that they had moved to the room that had just been vacated. “Just vacated?” asked my dad.*

Then Mom gave Dad THE look. That meant that Dad was not supposed to ask this type of question in front of me.

Dad did not say anything. He just closed his eyes and, after a second, opened them again. That meant that he did not completely agree with Mom.

Mom raised her eyebrows. And her eyes opened wide for a second. And I understood that to mean that Mom had agreed with Dad but with some reluctance. And she replied that she did not know what happened to the previous tenants.

Serge still does not come out to play. His mom does not let him. She is still too scared.

My mom knows that Serge's mom does not let him go to the yard, but she does not know why. And when my dad heard from Mom that Serge's mom is scared to let him go out to the yard, he asked, “Aren’t they scared to be at home?”* Maybe he had the knock-knocker in mind. Though I am not sure about it at all, of course.

Лиза

В воскресенье вечером я катался на велосипеде. И я увидел, как из соседнего подъезда вышла Лиза. У неё в руке была сумка. И пока я катил круг по двору, она прошла мимо моего подъезда, поверн

ула за угол нашего дома направо, а потом – ещё направо. В этот момент я уже точно знал, что она пошла к остановке троллейбуса. И я точно знал, в какой магазин её послали родители.

А с Лизой у меня получи

лась какая-то непонятная история. Два года тому назад нас в школе объединили с девчонками. Когда только ещё слух об этом прошёл, то все стали говорить, что это очень плохо. Никто из наших не хотел с ними объединяться. А поск

ольку все так говорили, то и мне пришлось так же говорить.

Хотя я сам не стал бы первый говорить, что это плохо. Но если кто-нибудь так говорил, да ещё у меня спрашивал – мол, правда ведь, это плохо, – то и мне приходилось говорить, что это плохо.

Хотя, на самом-то де

ле, мне очень хотелось с девчонками вместе учиться. И я до самого начала учебного года всё поверить не мог в это. А сейчас я думаю, что тогда, наверное, все хотели с ними объединиться. Только никто не хотел в этом признаться.