Page 193 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

Suddenly it dawned on me:

– Wait! Where will she live? We don’t have such a wonderful place which you
have. – I asked my neighbour, being slightly disappointed.
– Don’t worry, dear. She can live here and you’ll come to clean her, feed, look
after her and go for a ride – she is yours. Just think that you "rent" a house for her here.
I don’t need it anymore, because I am not going to have horses. So, you’re welcome to
use it. And it will be a pleasure for me that Snow-storm will continue to live here.

I thankfully hugged my kind neighbour, took the coloured lace and led Snow-
storm (now mine!!!) home. My child's heart rejoiced – this was the most wonderful gift
in the world! And indeed it was very well worth the wait.
By midday I came to myself a little after such a stunning gift and began to make
"spy" sallies to the kitchen and dining-room. It’s better to say – I tried, but even my
most persistent attempts to penetrate there, unfortunately, failed. This year my
grandmother definitely decided not to show me her culinary "works of art" till the time
of "celebration". I was dying to look, even out of the corner of my eye, what she had
worked at so zealously for two whole days, accepting nobody’s help and keeping
everybody out.
Finally the long-awaited time came at last and my first guests began to appear at
about five o’clock in the evening. Eventually I could admire the festive table. When
the door into the living room was opened, I thought that I had got into a fairy-tale
garden! My grandmother merrily smiled and I dashed to her and threw my arms around
her neck, almost crying with the gratitude which overfilled me.

The whole room was decorated with winter flowers. Enormous cups of bright
yellow chrysanthemums looked like numerous suns which made the room light and
merry. And the festive table was a real work of grandmother’s art! Stunning smells
came from it and the variety of dishes shocked. There was a duck baked until it’s crust
was golden, in my favourite pear sauce where the halves of pears stewed in cream and
cinnamon floated, and a juicy chicken filled with nuts and white mushrooms teased our
nostrils with the tenderest smell of the mushroom sauce and made our mouths water.
There was a huge pike in the middle of the table, baked whole with juicy pieces of
sweet pepper in lemon-cranberry sauce. And the smell of thick, succulent turkey legs
under a crust of cranberry mousse made my poor stomach jump.
Garlands of various smoked sausages cut in thin pieces and beaded on the thinnest
small twigs like shashlicks decorated with pickled tomatoes and cucumbers "killed"
with the smell of famous Lithuanian smoked food, not yielding to stunningly smelling
smoked salmon around which there were small merry groups of juicy salt milk
mushrooms in sour cream sauce. The golden toasted round pirozki puffed hot steam
spreading a delicious "cabbage" aroma. This abundance of my grandmother’s most
skilful "works" shocked my "hungry" imagination, not to mention the sweets, the top
of which was my favourite tender curd pie whipped with cherries! I looked at my
grandmother with admiration thanking her from the bottom of my heart for this fairy-
tale, truly royal table! She smiled, being content with the produced effect, and began
to enthusiastically invite my guests to the table, numbed as they were by such plenty.

There were a lot of "big" anniversary birthdays in my life afterwards, but none of

Back to content

192