"Valentin Katayev. Rainbow-Flower (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than toys began rushing
towards her from all sides.


The first to come, of course, were the dolls. They blinked their
eyes and said "Ma-ma. Ma-ma" over and over again.


At first Zhenya was very pleased. But in a few minutes there were so many
dolls that they filled up the yard, their little street, two big avenues
and half the square. No one could move without stepping on a doll. No one
could hear anything 'except the dolls' chattering "Ma-ma, ma-ma!"


Can you imagine the noise five million talking dolls can make? And there
were at least that many. And these were only dolls from Moscow. The dolls
from Leningrad, Kharkov, Kiev, Lvov and other cities had not yet arrived.
They were squawking like parrots on every road of the Soviet Union.


Zhenya was getting worried. But this was only the beginning. After the
dolls came rubber balls which were rolling along by themselves. Then came
the marbles and scooters, tricycles, toy tractors and cars. Skipping-ropes
were crawling along the ground like snakes, they got tangled underfoot and
made the nervous dolls squeak louder still.
Millions of toy airplanes, blimps, and gliders were flying through
the air. Paper parachutes were coming down from the sky like snow and got
caught in the telephone wires and the trees. All traffic in the city
stopped. The militiamen at the crossings climbed the nearest lamp-posts
and didn't know what to do.


"Stop, stop!" Zhenya screamed. "That's enough! I don't want any
more! I don't need so many toys! I was only fooling. I'm scared...." Ah,
but who would listen to her? The toys kept pouring in. The whole city was
filled with toys. Zhenya ran upstairs - the toys followed her. Zhenya
rushed out on her balcony - the toys followed her. Zhenya ran up to the
attic - the toys followed her there, too. Zhenya climbed up on the roof
and hurriedly tore off the violet petal. She threw it up and quickly said:

Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE ALL THE TOYS GO BACK TO THE TOY SHOPS !