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

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than all the toys
disappeared. Then Zhenya looked at the rainbow-flower and saw that there
was only one petal left.


"Oh dear!" she said. "I've used up six petals already and I've had
no fun from any of them. Well, I'll be smarter next time."
Zhenya walked along the street, thinking.
"What else should I wish for? I know, I'll wish for a pound of
chocolate candy. No, I think I'd rather have a pound of peppermints. No,
I'll have half a pound of chocolates, half a pound of peppermints, a
package of halvah, a bag of nuts, and I might as well get a pink
bread-ring for Pavlik. But what's the use? What if I get all that candy?
I'll eat it up and have nothing left. No, I better wish for a tricycle.
No, that's no good. I'll have a couple of rides on it and then the boys
will probably take it away. And they'll hit me if I don't give them rides!
I think I'll buy myself a ticket to the movies or to the circus. That's a
lot of fun. But maybe I'd better ask for a new pair of sandals? That's
also nice. But then, what's the use of a new pair of sandals? I can ask
for something much better than that. The main thing is not to be in a
hurry." This was what Zhenya was thinking about as she walked along.
Suddenly she saw a very nice boy sitting quietly on a bench. He had big
blue eyes that looked merry. The boy was really nice, you could see he
wasn't a bully. Zhenya decided to make friends with him. She came up
close, so close that she could see her own face mirrored in his eyes:
there were her braids touching her shoulders.
"Hello. What's your name?" she asked.
"Vitya. What's your name?"
"Zhenya. Let's play tag."
"I can't. I'm lame."
And then Zhenya saw that he had on a big ugly shoe with a very thick
sole.
"Oh, that's too bad!" she said. "I like you and it would have been a
lot of fun to play tag."
"I like you too, and I know it would have been a lot of fun to play
tag with you. But I can't. I'll never be able to. I'm crippled for life."


"Don't be silly, Vitya!" Zhenya said and took the precious
rainbow-flower from her pocket. "Look!"
She carefully tore off the last petal, the light-blue one, and held
it up to her eyes for a second. Then she opened her fingers, let it fly
off, and sang in a high, happy voice:

Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.