\u23f1 ~4 min reading<\/p>\n\n\n
On Saturday, Artem's aunt Oksana from the city was visiting. Aunt Oksana came infrequently \u2014 once every six months. But when she did, she always brought something delicious and unusual.<\/p>\n\n
This time she brought a large bowl covered with a towel.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhat is this?\u201d asked Artem.<\/p>\n\n
"These are cheesecakes with pumpkin," Aunt Oksana replied. "I made them myself. Try them all.".<\/p>\n\n
Mom put the cheesecakes on the table. Artem leaned over to look. They were orange \u2014 from the pumpkin. With a burnt crust. There was a bowl of sour cream next to them.<\/p>\n\n
Artem wrinkled his nose.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 I won't.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhy, son?\u201d asked his mother.<\/p>\n\n
"I don't know what they taste like. They're orange. I don't eat pumpkin.".<\/p>\n\n
Aunt Oksana wasn't offended. She just smiled.<\/p>\n\n
"As you wish, Artemchyk. Taste what you like.".<\/p>\n\n
Everyone at the table started eating. Dad ate one cheesecake, thought about it, ate another. Mom also tasted it and smiled. Little sister Dashka ate a piece and asked for more.<\/p>\n\n
Artem sat with his sausage sandwich \u2014 as usual. But he glanced at the cheesecakes out of the corner of his eye. A light steam was coming out of the orange crust. It smelled of something warm, vanilla, and slightly nutty. Not at all like the pumpkin that Artem had once tried in soup \u2014 that was bland and uninteresting.<\/p>\n\n
Dashka licked the spoon with sour cream.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 Artem, you don't know what you're missing!<\/p>\n\n
Artem looked at the cheesecake. It was small, round.<\/p>\n\n
\u00ab"What if I try it? One piece. Very small. If I don't like it, I'll tell you. No one will force me.".<\/p>\n\n
This thought calmed him down. Because if you can't finish eating, you can start.<\/p>\n\n
"Mom. Can I have one?"<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 Of course, son.<\/p>\n\n
Mom put a small cheesecake on his plate. Artem cut it with a fork. Inside, the cheesecake was tender \u2014 also orange, with small specks. Artem sniffed it. It smelled good. Like vanilla bread and a little honey.<\/p>\n\n
He took a very small piece on his fork and put it in his mouth.<\/p>\n\n
Stopped.<\/p>\n\n
It wasn't like he imagined. Not at all like bland pumpkin soup. The cheesecake was tender\u2014like porridge from early morning. Sweet\u2014but not too much. With a cheesy flavor\u2014warm, homey. And he could barely taste the pumpkin\u2014just a hint, like on an autumn evening.<\/p>\n\n
Artem chewed. Swallowed.<\/p>\n\n
Everyone at the table looked at him with curiosity, except for Aunt Oksana, who was calmly smearing sour cream on her cheesecake and didn't ask anything.<\/p>\n\n
"So what?" Dashka couldn't help herself.<\/p>\n\n
Artem thought.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 Delicious.<\/p>\n\n
Dashka clapped her hands.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 I told you so!<\/p>\n\n
Artem ate the whole cheesecake. Then he took another one. He poured sour cream over it \u2014 like Dashka.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you like pumpkin before?\u201d Aunt Oksana asked later.<\/p>\n\n
Artem thought.<\/p>\n\n
"I once tasted it in soup and I didn't like it. I decided that pumpkin was generally tasteless.".<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 And it turned out?<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 It turned out that pumpkin can be different. In soup \u2014 one. In cheesecake \u2014 another.<\/p>\n\n
Aunt Oksana nodded.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 It happens with everything. You want to say "I don't like tomatoes" \u2014 or maybe you just tried one variety. And the others are sweet, like candy.<\/p>\n\n
Artem thought about it. It seemed to him that this was important.<\/p>\n\n
In the evening, mom kissed Artem before bed.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 I'm proud of you, son.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 Why?<\/p>\n\n
"Because you tried. It's not easy to try something new. It's courage.".<\/p>\n\n
"Courage?"<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 Yes. Not just big courage \u2014 like with a dark room or with heights. Even small ones \u2014 like trying an unfamiliar dish.<\/p>\n\n
Artem smiled.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 And I thought courage was when you were scared.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014 That's also courage. And courage is when you don't know if it'll be good, but you try anyway.<\/p>\n\n
Artem closed his eyes. He dreamed of orange cheesecakes, which turned out to be good and tasty. The world was bigger than he had thought in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n
\ud83d\udca1 The world is big \u2014 and every new flavor can become a favorite.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n
A new dish appeared on the table - Artem didn't want to taste it at first. But one small piece revealed a taste he had never known.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":3320,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":""},"class_list":["post-2416","istoriya","type-istoriya","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/istoriya\/2416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/istoriya"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/istoriya"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}