Old Ivanov always felt that he rescued a war orphan and gained a lifetime of stability and happiness, and the same thing could happen to his beloved son. If his son seizes the opportunity, he will also seize his own future happiness.
Now, after listening to his father's heartfelt words, Jill fully feels his father's support for him.
"For now... let's just give her a pen. Wouldn't it be too radical to suddenly give her some clothes?"
"That's true." Old Ivanov opened the drawer and took out an old pen: "It has been used for some years and is still in good condition. Give this to her."
"OK."
"You go and drink the soup your mother made first, and we will have a good chat about this later. That girl is very beautiful, but you want to tell me how beautiful she is."
The couple had an only son, and they devoted all their love to hoping that their son would become successful.
His son is about to graduate from middle school. According to old Ivanov's idea, after his son graduates, he will first go to Perm University to take the entrance exam. If he passes the exam, he will have money to send him to university. If he fails, he can also arrange a post office for him.
work.
Because of his father's relationship, young Gil Ivanov must have a stable future waiting for him.
Now, his son, who comes back once a week, is sitting in front of him, drinking the soup made by his mother. Old Ivanov's eyes are full of hope.
After drinking two large bowls of beetroot soup and eating two pieces of boiled potatoes, Jill couldn't help but burp.
His mother supported her head with her thick arms and asked enthusiastically: "Tell us now, how is that girl?"
"Well, she is seventeen years old now and will be an adult next year."
"She is younger than you." Old Ivanov asked again: "She is your new classmate. How well do you know her?"
"This...I will try my best to understand. Dad, this is a matter between us young people, and I will handle it well."
"But we must also consider our feelings. I can only give you one piece of advice now. There are always suitors around beautiful girls. Do you think you can win?"
Gil was a little shaken by his father's words. Indeed, his understanding of Natasha was really very limited.
Jill thought for a while and said: "That girl's situation is a bit special. She is a war orphan. I think the identity background of such a child is not that complicated. Besides, she is so outstanding. As far as I know, I am the only one here.
Try to pursue him."
"Oh?" Old Ivanov smiled enthusiastically: "Those male classmates of yours are actually indifferent?"
"Yes. She is really good. I am the best boy in the class. I don't think anyone can compete with me."
"Okay then, can you continue to tell me how outstanding she is?"
In this regard, Jill has already held back a thousand words.
He immediately started talking, focusing on everything that happened today.
Gil said this with great joy, and he didn't realize that his parents were frightened at all.
Old Ivanov couldn't believe that a girl who dared to touch a gun could actually have excellent marksmanship.
"Wait! Jill, you mean she hit the target four hundred meters away with five consecutive shots?!"
"Absolutely true."
Old Ivanov's eyes widened and he asked again: "Are you a witness? Did you see everything?"
"Yes, so she is really excellent. But she is not an arrogant person. She gives me the impression that this girl is very confident and treats others very kindly. She makes me...make me feel very comfortable."
When he said these words, Jill just felt very ashamed. Really! I was so embarrassed.
Old Ivanov calmed down from his surprise. Based on what his son said before, he felt that the girl was undoubtedly a militiaman. Think about it for a moment, the so-called one-year gap from school was just when the battle to defend Moscow was in full swing. Think about it carefully.
, that girl has most likely participated in a real battle.
Old Ivanov knocked off the ashes from his pipe and warned his son solemnly: "Gil, I tell you, no one is born with good marksmanship. Even Siberian hunters can only become good after countless trainings."
Marksmanship. That girl must have participated in a real battle and served on the front line for a long time. My child, you are still too young, you can't think of some deep things."
"Ah? She also participated in the battle?"
"Isn't it? You just told me that she can run five kilometers continuously without collapse. Can an ordinary girl do it? Can you? Why can she? Good marksmanship and excellent endurance, such people are rare
My child, when I see your expression now, I know that you don’t understand her."
"But! But! I love her!" Jill said bravely after holding it in for a long time.
"You love her? Then be brave and pursue her."
"I will, I will definitely catch her."
"Gil, I will support you." Gil's mother, Ivanova, claimed that she knew her son better than her husband. "Did that girl's parents die because of the war? What a poor girl. You married her,
I will be her new mother. Hehe, I was nineteen years old when I gave birth to you. Maybe when she turns nineteen, I...I can also be a grandma, hahaha."
"Mom? Are you kidding?!"
After saying this, Jill blushed and didn't want to say anything. But her mother's words really made Jill think a lot.
It would be wonderful if my life was arranged like this, but could I? Or should the precarious alliance allow me, an outstanding member of the Lenin Communist Youth League, to retreat to a peaceful place and sit back and watch my peers fight bloody battles on the front line?
?
No! That is an act of cowardice, no different than a traitor.
After experiencing today's glimpse at the shooting range, Jill became more determined to become a volunteer.
Young people in every era have their own passions. In this era of the Soviet Union, joining the army is the craze.
Old Ivanov continued to knock on the table with his pipe. He also thought about a lot of things, and then said: "That girl can run five kilometers without being out of breath. She is really a postman. Jill, no matter whether you can take her or not
Come on, at least let me know you."
"you?"
"Of course, this is necessary." Old Ivanov explained helplessly: "In my branch, many people have been transferred to the front line as field postmen. The proportion of female postmen in the city is getting higher and higher. Delivery work
It is very heavy manual labor, and men are generally responsible for this work. In extraordinary times, women’s role is really getting bigger and bigger.”
Jill quickly understood what her father meant: "You want her to be a postman?"
"If possible, wouldn't it be a good choice for her? She has excellent physical fitness and seems to have a very calm personality. If you have a chance, let me get to know her, and I will tell her that if she can't get into college, just
Let her come to work at the post office."
"Huh?" Jill was surprised.
"Don't be surprised! I'm sure that for a long time in the future, maybe ten or twenty years, there will be a large number of female postmen in my branch. I have more than ten years to retire. Before I retire, I have the obligation to train a team of female postmen.
Approval of outstanding female employees.”
Gil admired his father's responsibility for his career, but he did not understand the deeper meaning of his father's words.
Old Ivanov continued to ask: "What's that girl's name?"
"Call Natasha."
"Where's your full name?"
"Natasha Petrovna Kharkova."
"Okay, I've written it down." He said that and after tasting it carefully, old Ivanov suddenly felt that this name seemed familiar.
Jill was in a really good mood now, so she said: "Since you have found a higher candidate for the future postman, don't you worry too much about me? I have thought about it, and I will join the army and school after I graduate.
Most of the boys here are alone. I go to the front line to fight. When I win the war and come back, everything will be better."
"You!" Gil's words undoubtedly pierced the heart of old Ivanov, and for a moment he was filled with anger. The angry old Ivanov threw his pipe away and yelled: "How dare you!"
At first, Jill was really shocked by her father's rage.
After coming back to his senses, the young and energetic Gill counterattacked without hesitation: "Why? I just want to join the army."
"No! This is the only thing I will never agree to!"
"Why?" Gil also stood up and asked, "Are you asking me to be a coward?"
"You...you..." For a moment, old Ivanov was so angry that he was speechless.
Here, there is not only anger, but also anxiety from the heart. Finally, old Ivanov suppressed a sentence: "You are asking for death! Do you know how dangerous war is?!"
Jill was still unwilling to be outdone: "What's the matter? So many young people have gone to the front line, why should I stay in the rear and live like a coward?"
"Bah! What do you know? You will die fighting."
"No, I will come back safe and sound. Besides, you were not afraid of war when you were young, and the war strengthened my mother. Why do you make me a coward in my generation?" No.
"You!" The anxious old Ivanov knocked on the table hard: "Silly boy, you know the cruelty of this war!"
Speaking of this, old Ivanov felt that he had to show something real to calm his rebellious son.
Due to work reasons, various offices in the Perm Post Office always receive a large number of letters from the military. Some of these letters are written by soldiers' family members, and a considerable part are death certificates of soldiers.
Perm City is the core of the Perm Oblast and one of only two cities with a population of one million in the Ural region. The Ural region is currently one of the important soldier areas of the Soviet army. The newly recruited soldiers in the first half of 1942,
Quite a few come from this area.
In August, the Soviet army launched a very successful Rzhev counterattack. The Soviet army liberated the Rzhev area. Although the battle achieved a major tactical victory and boosted the morale of the people, the Soviet army also paid a lot of human sacrifices for the victory of the battle.
After all, the Soviet army won this battle, and the Soviet army was able to clean the battlefield very well. In this way, a large number of soldiers who lost their lives were marked as "killed in action" instead of the large-scale "missing" marks in the past.
Tens of thousands of letters arrived in the city of Perm, and through this sorting station, death certificates of soldiers were delivered to their families in various collective farms and urban residential areas.
Having been exposed to too many letters like this, old Ivanov knew based on his own feeling that this war was different from what was advertised in Pravda.
Of course, newspapers must focus on praising the heroic sons and daughters of the Soviet Union for the sake of morale. As for the huge sacrifices made by the heroes, they often brush it off or not mention it at all.
"After one battle, the city of Perm alone received as many as 10,000 certificates of death of soldiers! This is only the situation in the Perm region, will it be better in other places? Silly boy, can you understand this?
What a tragic war? It was not ten thousand letters, but ten thousand people as young as you, who died in the battle last month. Do you want me to lose you? We only have one child.
!What will we do if you die?"
"Then adopt another child." Jill said sternly: "Or Natasha. Dad, since you care about her very much, you can give her more love and let her be your daughter. I must
If I join the army, I am the squad leader and I am still a member of the Lenin Communist Youth League. If I don’t join the army, I should take off the badge on my chest because I am not worthy.”
"You! You are so... so angry to death!" Old Ivanov shook his hands vigorously, left the dining table in anger, returned to his bedroom and slammed the door hard.
Gil didn't think he had done anything wrong, but when he raised his head, he saw his mother crying.
"Mom? What did I do wrong?"
Ivanova wiped away her tears, picked up the pipe that her husband had dropped, and said, "It's nothing, you're right."
"But."
"Son, I really don't want you to join the army." Ivanova took her son's hand and said earnestly: "We are only a child, how can you say such a thing? Listen to your father and work in the post office in the future.
No, that’s pretty good too.”
"No! You can't be so selfish." Jill emphasized, "The whole school's children are undergoing military training. What is the purpose of our target practice? It's not to defend the country. You participated in the war when the country was founded, and now
It's our generation's turn to defend her. But you selfishly told me to retreat. No! This is not what a man should do."
"Alas..." Ivanova sighed and stopped dwelling on this topic.
"We've finished the meal, are you still hungry? There were more potatoes distributed in the factory today. Can I cook another one for you?" Ivanova asked numbly.
"No, I ate well at school."
"Okay, the clothes to keep out the cold are ready. You can take them to school tomorrow on your bike. What else do you need? For example, what else do you want to give to that girl?"
"No... no need. I think one pen is enough. It is already very valuable." As he said that, Jill took out the silver pen with pattern and relief from his pocket and showed it to his mother.
When Ivanova saw this, she fully understood what her husband was thinking. She immediately emphasized: "Of course, it is really very valuable. Your father bought it for fifty rubles more than ten years ago. At that time, it was
His salary was two months. You were still young at that time, and I criticized him for a long time because of this."
"Ah? Such an expensive thing? My father is really willing to give it up?" Jill was shocked.
"It's not all for you. As long as you know, go and change your clothes now. Have you washed yourself in the school bathhouse? Now wash your face and go to bed early. Understand that your school has another routine flag-raising ceremony. Don't delay.
Already."
"OK, all right."
It was already night, and the exhausted Jill didn't think much and soon fell asleep.