Tales of the Rain: bedtime stories

Tales of the Rain: bedtime stories
Наталья Валентиновна Дмитриева

Nabokov Prize Library
Tales of Rain by Natalia Dmitrieva is a book that will give you a magic of very simple things, it will erase the shroud of the mundane, allow you to see the world in even brighter colors… How much goodness and coziness there is in this book! You can’t help but wish it rained more! Let’s hear the tales of rain! – these are some of the reviews of the first readers to the book you are now holding in your hands.

Turn over the pages and listen to the wise and gentle rustle… This book will interest a baby, a teenager and a wise, experienced adult. It will become a strong bridge that will help a child and an adult to better understand each other’s worlds. Try it!

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Natalia Valentinovna Dmitrieva

Tales of the Rain. Bedtime stories

© Natalia Dmitrieva, 2021

© International Writer’s Union, 2021

Natalia Dmitrieva

Natalia Dmitrieva grew up in a small northern town, constantly swept by sea winds. She lived in the vibrant Pervomayskaya Street, along which the Vyg River, running into the White Sea, noisily and cheerfully jumps over the rapids. After school, Natalia worked as a Pioneer Leader, Correspondent and Local Radio Announcer. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the University and moved to the city on the banks of Volga River, where she teaches the Russian Language and Literature to children.

The writer lives in a protected area of the city, which preserves the charm and architecture of the XIX century. The metallic roof of her wooden house with a mezzanine always sings very loudly in the rain. It is just impossible not to write at least one tale here! Moreover, having talked to some birdlings in their sms language, Natalia realized that they had to be moved to “greater, stronger, more honest and freer” branches and began to write books for children and their parents.

Advice from the Author

“…and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”

    (Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”)

The book you are holding in your hands is intended for joint communication between an adult and a child. How to make this communication productive?

Advice 1.Remember that sometimes the simple words are incomprehensible to a child. Stop reading and find out what is a window leaf, weather vane, calm, aboriginal. What do expressions like an enchanted circle or bring you to the surface mean?

Advice 2.Be sure to make conversation stops.

For example, why does a cloudlet appear on the window? How does the rain become a cloud again? What does a merchandiser do? Or what is “unselfish love”?

Advice 3.Take part in events together with the heroes.

Come up with a sequel to the fairy tale of a beautiful flower or suggest your own version of saving the little dragon. Explain to Tomboybreeze why he was in trouble. Help Alinka figure out the name of the village where the brothers Breezes lived [1 - Keep in mind that in Russian, the words “Windmills” and “Breezes” are very similar in spelling and sound, and a windmill is not necessarily a mill!].

Advice 4.Create illustrations for fairy tales.

Do not mix up the colors when painting the houses of the seaside town. What color are the shutters in the yellow house? And which ones are in blue?

I wish you creative success!

    Natalia Dmitrieva

The first rain

Friend or enchanted circle

Alinka ran a finger over the glass. The droplet obediently slid after it, then overtaking, then again, as if glued. The girl spread out her hand, began to smear the thin silver paces with concentration. But they did not obey, continuing to wriggle like transparent snakes. Alinka was snuffling with zeal. The window was covered with a light cloud, which quickly disappeared under the diligent hand, but on the other side of the barrier, the picture did not change: it was as if strange seaweed had joined the sky and the earth together. They swayed incessantly, sometimes smoothly, sometimes breaking. They seemed to be transparent, but because of them, everything lost its own color. At first, very funny rainbow lights flashed outside the window every now and then, as if millions of small fireflies were starting a merry carnival. But this carnival was going on and on and on, and the lights stopped being funny, and they somehow dimmed, and everything around faded with them… Alinka moved from her chair to the windowsill and pressed her forehead against the glass.

Don't be angry, Alinka. Don't be sad.

– Really?! “Don't be angry,” – the girl sighed resentfully. – You feel good, you walk all the streets! And because of you, I stay at home all day long. I want to go out too.

– But I'm not here forever, and I haven’t been there for a long time. Haven’t you missed me?

– How can I miss you, please? I can die of boredom with you!

– But I saw you looking at me. You were interested. See how the leaves on the trees rejoice at me, all the blades of grass and flowers offer me their tops and palms…

– "Tops and palms", – Alinka turned away from the rain and sat down more comfortably. – You're lying! No one is happy to you – all the flowers are closed from you, all the birds are hidden and everyone is waiting you to finally stop. You're boring to everyone! Understand? My mother tells me that a person can't be a meddler. And you're a meddler!

– But I'm not human.

– So what! This is even worse! I can't even talk to you, you don't understand anything, all you know is that you go and go and go, and you don't go anywhere. It's not fair!

– Who are you talking to now, then? You are talking with me, aren’t you?

– I don't know! Probably, I am not talking with you. They don't talk to the rains! There's nothing to talk about with them!

– It is very sad. I thought we were going to be friends…

– Be friends?! And why do I need a friend who walks where he wants and how much he wants, and I sit at home alone and I am bored?

– Do you want me to tell you stories?

– What stories? Do you think I'm a little child? And what kind of stories can you know? You only know how to tramp the mud!

– And you know, Alinka, when I get offended, I can't leave right away: I keep crying and crying, stronger and stronger, sadder and sadder… Although I have seen a lot of things in the world, I am almost eternal. When the cloud that I need to shed here to water the soil is over (the plants have no mouths, and they can only drink by taking moisture from the soil with their roots), only then the sun will come out and I will leave. But I won't disappear! Many, many magical adventures will happen to me, and then I will become a cloud again. But it won’t be at the same moment! Do you know that during thousands and thousands of years, in different streams and rivers, light weightless clouds and heavy thunderclouds, I have flown around our planet hundreds and hundreds of times and have seen and heard a lot of interesting things…

– I don't understand everything you've told me, but you should know that I'll ask my dad and bring you to the surface. Well, if you're going to cry all the time here, I won't hurt you – it isn't worth the effort… No, well, it's just an enchanted circle: in order you to leave, I have to be friends with you, so that you don't get offended. And in order to be friends with you, I need you to stay. And if you stay here, I won't be able to be friends with you! Well, actually… All right, I'll be friends with you. Firstly, friends should always tell the truth, and secondly, they have to respect the wishes of each other! I'm telling you the truth: I want you to stop. So if you're my friend, you'll leave. And also, please come at night, but don't come during the day. Well, you can, when I'm being punished or I get sick – friends help each other and visit each other in a difficult moment. Well? Why aren't you talking? You're not offended, are you? I have been just sharing my thoughts with you as a friend.

– But I thought that people don’t forget their friends. You remember, Alinka, about five years ago we went for a walk together. I was so glad that you didn't run away from me like other children, hiding under mother’s umbrella. You spread your hands like pink leaves, and looked at the drops, then you began to wash your cheeks and eyes. So funny! Your mother wanted to hide you from me under an umbrella, but you were running away from her and laughing. You squatted down by one of the puddles and looked at how the droplets were splashing into it. I had so much fun with you! We were happy together, like real, real friends. And I presented you a rainbow. The first rainbow of your life. I looked into your eyes and admired their reflection. Don't you remember this?

– I don’t remember. But my mother told me that when I was little, I did not like to walk under an umbrella, and always ran out and started catching droplets… But was it you?

– Of course, it was me. And in the spring, at the farewell matinee in the kindergarten, do you remember when Serezhka said that you had a stupid hairpin? How we used to cry together when you walked home alone and held your face up to me and whispered: "It's not me crying, it's you, rain…" And then you sat here, on this windowsill, and told me that I was good, because no one guessed how offended you were. After all, you specifically put on this hairpin then, to please to Serezhka. Now you know that he likes you very much, and then.

– How do you know all this? And he doesn't like me at all! And you're lying on everything! And I don't like him at all, not even a bit! And it was not for him…

– Alinka. I never and never tell anyone else's secrets to any single person. And how many of them I know! Don't worry, they're just boys. And not just boys! You know, people often say and do things that they don't really want to do.