⏱ ~5 min reading
Once upon a time there were two little sisters. One was called Nizhna, and the other was Serdita. Outwardly they were very similar: both with blond pigtails, both with dimples on their cheeks, both wearing identical checkered dresses that their mother had sewn for them one evening. But inside they were completely different.
Nezna spoke softly. Her voice was like the rustling of grass by the river—soft, flowing, gentle. When she hugged her mother, she hugged her for a long time, with all her heart, and didn't let go right away. When she stroked the cat, the cat would squint and start purring so loudly that it could be heard all the way down the hallway.
She spoke loudly when she was angry. She slammed the door. She stamped her foot when something didn't go her way. If she passed by, she could push her sister against the wall with her shoulder and not even look back. Her eyes often sparkled with small lights—sharp like sparks from a bonfire.
The mother looked sadly at her daughters and didn't know what to do.
"Sisters should love each other," she said in the evening. "And you seem to be from different worlds.".
"It's her own fault," Serdita grumbled, turning to the wall.
Nezna didn't answer anything. She would just move the bear closer, close her eyes and think: "Maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow she'll hug me.".
One Tuesday, my mother brought a big red apple from the market. Big, round, one cheek as red as honey, and the other as ruby, with dewdrops.
"Girls," said Mom, "this is for you. One for two. Share it.".
Mom went into the kitchen to bake pancakes. The smell of hot butter, vanilla, and warm dough sizzling in the pan.
Angry, she immediately dashed to the table. She reached out and grabbed the apple. It glittered in her fingers like a real treasure.
— This is mine!
"Sister, let's share," Nizhna said quietly.
— No. I took it first.
Out of resentment, Serdita stamped her foot - and the apple slipped from her fingers. It rolled across the table, jumped onto the floor - and fell right into a corner where there was a little dust.
The angry woman froze.
She suddenly felt terribly ashamed—and even more so because her mother would come in and see everything. Serdyta's eyes filled with tears, but she pressed her lips together and didn't let them spill out.
Nezhna got up from the table. Quietly, without a word, she picked up the apple. She went to the sink, washed it with warm water, and dried it with a towel — with both hands, carefully, as if it were not an apple, but a little bird.
Then she took a knife. She very carefully cut the apple in half. One half came out a little bigger — with that honey cheek. The other half was smaller, with a ruby one.
Tender held out the larger half to Angry.
"Take it. Your half is bigger.".
Angrily she took it. She held the apple in her hands and looked at it as if she had seen it for the first time in her life. And then - suddenly - she cried. Not loudly, as usual, but quietly. Tears fell on the apple, rolling down its red side.
"Why are you so kind to me?" she asked through her tears. "I'm pushing you. I stuck my tongue out at you yesterday. I told you I'd tear your teddy bear apart.".
Nezhna sat down next to her. She carefully placed her hand on her sister's.
"Because you're my sister," she said simply. "And because you have tenderness in you too. Only she's still too shy to come out. She's sitting somewhere inside and afraid. And when you scream, she hides even deeper.".
The angry girl was silent for a long time. She looked at the table. She looked at the apple. She looked at her sister's hands - small, with pink nails.
"And if I call her, will she come out?"
"He'll come out. Just not right away. First he'll look a little. Then more. And then he'll get used to it.".
An hour later, when mom came into the room, she saw two sisters sitting on the couch. Serdita hugged Nizhna tightly, resting her head on her shoulder. On the table were two half-eaten pieces of apple. And such silence — soft, warm, like a blanket.
"Forgive me for all the times," Serdita whispered. "For all the times.".
"I forgave you a long time ago," whispered Nizhna. "I knew you would come.".
Since then, something new has entered the house. Serdita has not become completely quiet - she still loved to run around the yard, laugh loudly, climb onto the highest branch of the cherry tree and shout from there to the whole garden. But when she encountered someone's tears - her voice became quiet, like Nizhnaya's. And then the dimples on her cheeks became even more gentle.
And once in the garden, little Tarasik fell and scraped his knee. The angry first one ran up to him. She squatted down, took a clean handkerchief from her pocket—the kind that Nizhna had once given her—and carefully wiped his tear. «Don’t cry,» she said very quietly. “I’m with you.” Tarasik looked at her and nodded. Nizhna, who was standing aside, only smiled—because now her little sister could do something that she couldn’t do at all before.
And mom, looking at them in the evening, smiled softly and thought: "I told you so. Little sisters.".
Because, as it turns out, there is tenderness in every heart. It's just that sometimes it sleeps. And waits for someone kind to gently call it by name.
✨ Tenderness is in every heart - you just have to call it ✨