Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer

Sweet Darusya

cold, and emptiness; only the pigs were scurrying in the pen, flapping their ears, and snorting with their hungry snouts. The neighbors, awakened from their sleep, shrugged their shoulders. Matronka stood bent over in the garden all day; then she went to Maria to sharpen her hoe and said she was going to herd in the livestock from the meadows, but she was a little late because of the hoeing. And then it was looking like rain, my poor head, and, you see, Maria, I’m still here, and you’ve already tucked the child into bed, and milked the cow, and went with that to her own house, and from then on Maria didn’t see her, because she dragged herself to the house ahead of time…. The neighbors went with Tanasiy to search for

Matronka in the meadows. They wandered about till the middle of the night. They found the sheep huddled together by the dam, but didn’t find the woman or her cow. What were they to do? They closed up the house. Maria took the child and put her in the cradle next to her boy. And then the village fell asleep as it did before this. In the morning they told Mykhailo in the mountain valley. That is how the misfortune began. …Mykhailo ran from the mountain before midday. For some reason he took the child swollen from crying from Maria – and went to the Primar. Yilashko was a good caretaker in Cheremoshne – he hadn’t

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