⏱ ~5 min reading
Yulka had a special item of clothing. Not a dress, not a jacket, not a hat with a pompom. Boots.
Red. With yellow laces. With a small blue star on the right. Rubber, waterproof. Not very long — somewhere to the knee. Inside — a soft, fluffy lining, which Yulka loved to stroke with her finger.
She was six, and her boots were her identifying mark. Everyone in the yard knew Yulka — «that girl in the red boots.» She wore them everywhere:
— in the rain, of course. That's their main element. Yulka jumped through puddles, causing splashes to fly in all directions.
— in the snow. Red on white is especially beautiful.
— for a holiday in kindergarten. The teacher Larisa Stepanivna said, «We have formal shoes in the morning,» but Yulka silently came in boots. Larisa Stepanivna just smiled.
— to the beach. It was more difficult here. Mom insisted for a long time that boots were not needed on the beach. Yulka argued. In the end, they took them — Yulka wore them to the beach and put them back on when she left the beach.
In short, Yulka and boots were inseparable.
One day in October, Yulka jumped in puddles for a particularly long time. The rain was warm—a real autumn treat. The puddles were huge. Yulka jumped and screamed with joy.
In the evening, my mother looked at the boots and shook her head.
— Yulia, you got them wet all the way to the top. Look — they're wet inside. Don't wear them tomorrow. Let them dry.
Yulka was sad.
— How do you say "don't wear them"? I always wear them.
— Tomorrow at the others. If you want, at the blue ones. If you want, at the yellow ones.
— No. I want the red ones.
"No way. They'll be wet tomorrow. They'll dry in a day. You can wear them the day after tomorrow.".
Yulka pursed her lips. She wasn't crying—she was already grown up. But her mood had deteriorated.
In the morning, Yulka woke up and immediately looked at her boots. They were standing by the radiator, with a newspaper inside (her mother had put the newspapers inside to dry faster). They were red, but wet — you could tell by the darker color.
Yulka sighed.
She went into the hallway to look for shoes to wear outside. For some reason, all of her mother's and all the other boots seemed foreign to her, uninteresting. In the closet were only her father's slippers—old, velour ones with worn soles.
Slippers. Big. Brown. Look like boats.
Yulka thought. She decided: it would be better to wear dad's slippers than ordinary boots.
She put them on. The slippers were huge. They hung from her feet like real boats. Every step — and the heel came out. She had to walk slowly, rustling on the floor.
Mom saw it and almost laughed. But she held back.
— Yulia, dad won't be happy.
"And I won't be there for long. I'll just go out into the yard.".
Mom sighed, but allowed it. She gave Yulka a warm jacket and let her go.
Yulka went out into the yard. Shkar-shkar-shkar - the sound of slippers on the asphalt.
The children in the yard — Andriyko, Olesyk, Marinka, two boys from the second entrance — saw her and… laughed.
— Yulka in daddy's slippers!
— She lost her magic shoes!
- Slipper Queen!
Yulka blushed. Not from anger, but from shame. She turned around, took a step towards her entrance, another step.
She wanted to go home. To her red boots. To her mother's hand. To where they don't laugh.
But then she saw.
A girl was sitting on a bench near the neighboring entrance. She was older than Yulka, maybe two or three years. Yulka didn't know her, she was probably new to the yard. The girl had long hair with a reddish tint and freckles on her cheeks.
And on her feet were slippers too. Big. Blue. With flowers. They hung down just like Yulka's.
The girl saw Yulka and... smiled.
“Hello,” she said. “You too?”
«What is »too’?” Yulka came closer.
"In slippers too?" the girl pointed to her blue pumps. "My mother threw my socks in the laundry this morning. There are so many threads in the yard - and I have none. I walk around here like you.".
Yulka laughed. For the first time since morning. Loudly — to the whole yard.
The girl laughed too.
— And I'm Yulka.
— And I'm Taya. Short for Thais. I'm oversold, I just moved in yesterday.
"Oh, you'll be running around in our yard!" Yulka sat down on a bench nearby. Her slippers creaked under them at the same time.
They sat for a long time. They talked. Taya showed Yulka how to jump in slippers without losing them - to do this, you need to soak your feet, like rowers in a kayak. Yulka learned. They walked around the yard like that - a step or two, like princesses in strange slippers. The other children laughed again, but this time with them. Taya and Yulka laughed together.
In the evening, when mom met Yulka on the porch, she asked:
— Well, what's a day without red boots?
Yulka thought for a moment. She looked at her father's huge slippers on her feet.
"It's strange," she said. "I thought it would be sad without them. But it turned out... the opposite. I met a new friend. Her name is Taya.".
Mom smiled.
"You know, little one, it's not the boots that make the day bright. It's the smile that makes it colorful. And you — you know how to smile. In any shoes.".
Yulka nodded seriously.
The next day, Yulka put on her red boots. They dried out and became bright again, like a holiday. But this time, she didn't consider them the main thing in the day. She knew: the brightness was in herself. The boots were just decoration.
Taya came to visit her. Taya was wearing blue sneakers. Both of them already had their sneakers at home. But the laughter remained.
✨ It's not the boots that make the day bright - it's the smile that makes it colorful ✨