Near the supermarket checkout, a long line had formed. Many shoppers’ carts were overflowing. Everyone was preparing for the New Year, stocking up in a big way. A slender girl in a light fur coat joined the end of the line with her cart and prepared to wait. There were no other options, as the same situation prevailed at the other checkouts. The evening of December 30th is the time when those who always postpone shopping make their purchases. They emptied the shelves of the most popular New Year’s products and grumbled. Despite the pre-New Year mood, many people became twitchy in stores. Understandably, everyone was in a hurry to get home.
The girl in the light fur coat stood calmly, though her cart was nearly empty. They planned to celebrate New Year’s Eve just with her husband, and they didn’t need much. There were, of course, plans to celebrate the holiday with friends. Alice and her husband were still being actively invited, but now was not the best time for festivities.
Two weeks ago, Alice became completely orphaned. Her mother had passed away. And, perhaps acquaintances say it wasn’t a sudden shock, as the woman had been ill for a long time, and Alice should have prepared for her demise. But how do you prepare for that? It’s just impossible!
Usually, Alice, who loved the pre-New Year hustle and bustle, just couldn’t get it together, couldn’t come to terms with the fact that her mother was no more. That there was no need to rush to her in the evenings and call during the day to learn about the slightest changes in her condition. Her mother tried to hide that she was getting worse. She wanted to make it to the New Year so as not to cloud her daughter’s favorite holiday, but apparently, she already felt that she would not make it. A couple of days before her death, she handed her daughter a family ring that had been in their family for several generations. A massive gold ring with a large stone, apparently worth a fortune. But for the mother and for Alice, this ring was not measured in money. It was their family heirloom. A memory connected with a touching story about a great-great-grandmother shot in the turbulent revolutionary times.
Handing the ring to Alice, her mother breathed heavily.
«Give me your hand, daughter,» she said weakly, extending her thin pale hand.
When Alice reached out, her mother placed the ring on her finger.
«I want you to wear it,» the sick woman gasped. «We passed it from one to another and always hid it. But I want you to wear it, in memory of all the women in our family. Pass it on to your daughter later.»
And Alice wore it. She wore the ring while burying her mother, and she was wearing it now. Although the ring was clearly too large for her, sometimes slipping off her finger. Alice’s husband had already mentioned several times that they should stop by a jewelry workshop to resize the ring. The girl herself understood this. Just not up to it yet. Decided that after the New Year holidays, she would definitely take care of it.
«Lady, why are we sleeping? Don’t hold up the line!»
Alice jolted from the sharp shout and realized that it was long her turn to unload her goods onto the conveyor, but she had been staring at the ring, remembering her mother. The girl immediately fumbled, feeling awkward.
Her groceries were very few, not even half a bag’s worth. Alice easily carried them to her car at the far end of the parking lot. Her husband had given her the small compact foreign car for her last birthday. She still didn’t feel very confident behind the wheel, so she always parked where it was convenient to leave. She did the same near her home, never driving into the yard of the nine-story building where they lived with her husband, but left the car on the other side. The residents of the building did not like to park there because it was still quite a walk to the entrance, but a quick walk did not bother Alice at all. The main thing was that the spot was always available, accessible at any time.
She grabbed the grocery bag from the back seat and, after setting the car alarm, quickly began to circle the building. Just around the corner, she saw the hunched figure of a homeless man. There was a small grocery store on the ground floor, and the homeless man had settled near it. He would sit right on the cold step, slightly to the side, so as not to obstruct shoppers, and sit there, head bowed. Near his feet, there was always a small cardboard box. Sometimes it contained small change that compassionate residents had thrown in; other times it was completely empty, as it was now.
Alice never just walked past. She genuinely felt sorry for the homeless man. He seemed not very old. By looks, not even sixty, but his face was sallow and gloomy. He might drink, but Alice had never seen him drunk or heard him raise his voice. He always sat with his head down, as if embarrassed by his situation and appearance. If someone tossed a coin into his box, the homeless man would nod briefly, expressing gratitude.
Alice’s hands were full, and yet, she couldn’t just walk past the homeless man. Everyone else was celebrating the holiday, and there he sat, alone, unwanted, in the cold, with an empty box. The girl hung the grocery bag on her wrist and awkwardly opened the clasp of her small purse. She didn’t take out her wallet, just peeked inside the purse, felt for the first bill she touched, and pulled it out. It turned out to be a five-hundred-ruble note. A bit much, of course.
«Well, let it be,» the girl decided. «I won’t be poorer, and a homeless person will be able to treat himself to something tasty for New Year’s.»
Bending down with the bag was not very convenient, so Alice dropped the bill into the box and ran off, peripherally noticing how the homeless man gratefully nodded. Her husband wasn’t home; he arrived right after Alice, and she hadn’t even had time to unpack the bag. He started scolding her:
«Why did you go to the supermarket alone? I told you we’d go together. See, I even got off work early. We could have gone tomorrow morning. Now I’m off for a few days.»
«Well, now we can rest,» Alice nodded. «Oleg, it’s not hard for me. I didn’t buy much, you see. Now we don’t need to go anywhere.»
Alice put the bag on the kitchen table, began unpacking her groceries, and suddenly shrieked.
«Oh, God, the ring! Oleg, I lost the ring!»
The girl looked in horror at her empty hand and turned pale. Oleg wanted to tell his wife that he had warned her, but the man bit his tongue. Now was not the time to reproach Alice; she was already upset. Oleg knew what the ring meant to her.
«Wait, don’t start panicking,» the man said calmly. «Alice, remember, when did you last see it? When was it definitely on your finger?»
«At the supermarket, when I was at the checkout,» the girl nearly cried. «Yes, they even rushed me, and I began to quickly lay out the groceries on the conveyor. Maybe then, or maybe when I carried the bag to the car. I remember, the handle of the bag caught on the zipper of my purse and I jerked it. Maybe at that moment. Oleg, I don’t remember! I could have lost it at any time.»
«Just don’t cry. We’ll try to find it. Let’s go to the supermarket, ask the cashier if she saw it. Let’s go, Alice.»
The girl dropped the bag, rushed to the hallway for her coat. Losing the ring seemed like a real tragedy to her. It was like a betrayal, a betrayal of her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, all of them! They had kept the ring for decades, and she couldn’t even keep it for three weeks.
Alice no longer had to run around the corner of the house to her car. They drove in her husband’s car, which he parked very close to the entrance. As they drove out of the yard, Alice didn’t notice that the homeless man was no longer in his usual place. The girl wasn’t thinking about that; her thoughts were far away, along with the lost ring!
If only she knew that her family ring now lay in the dirty, weathered palm of that very homeless man named Ivan.
Ivan Sergeyevich Alekseev was not always dirty and homeless. Once a robust man, he worked in shifts and earned a decent wage. His only mistake was choosing the wrong wife. The beautiful and cunning Tamara always pretended to wait for him to return from work, and he believed her. He loved her, so he believed her.
The man desperately wanted children, but Tamara refused to have them. She wanted to live comfortably, for her own pleasure, and as it turned out, not with Ivan. She had another man with whom they planned to swindle Ivan.
Tamara’s husband gave her all the money he earned on the job. At one point, she mentioned that they had the opportunity to buy a larger apartment. To do this, they needed to sell their two-bedroom apartment and, by investing their savings, buy a spacious three-room flat. Ivan sincerely did not understand why they needed a three-bedroom apartment if it was just the two of them and Tamara did not plan to have children. He did not understand, but he agreed with his wife. They sold the apartment, and Tamara disappeared with the money—all the money from the sale of the apartment and their savings. She left Ivan a note asking for forgiveness for falling in love with another man. And he, like the last fool, instead of going to the police, drowned his sorrows in alcohol. He drank everything that was left and lost his documents while drunk. That’s how he became homeless.
It was shamefully unbearable to beg near the store. But he had to do it to avoid starving to death. Ivan no longer drank. He didn’t need it, and there was nothing to buy it with anyway. His only concern was to scrape together enough for a loaf of bread with cheap sausages and find a place to sleep. That’s all that worried Ivan.
He had been sitting near the same store for some time. It was quiet here; the police didn’t hassle him, and the residents weren’t aggressive. Ivan recognized the slender girl in the light coat; he even knew which entrance she lived in. He was happy when he saw her. The girl never just walked past, but today she was especially generous. She threw a whole five hundred rubles into the box, apparently feeling generous for the holiday.
Ivan was pleased, wanted to put the bill in his pocket, and then realized that there was something else in the box besides the money. So that was what clinked when the girl threw the bill! The ring had slipped off her finger. A wide, thick, heavy ring with a large stone. Ivan wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about precious metals, but it was clear even to him that the ring was valuable.
When Ivan pulled the ring out of the box, the girl had not yet reached her entrance. He could have shouted, stopped her, and returned the lost item. But Ivan froze, staring at the ring in his hand. This ring could bring him something tastier than cheap sausages. Maybe even a warm bed for the night, something the man had long missed.
In less than half an hour, the homeless man stood in a pawnshop, looking in surprise at the five-thousand-ruble bill that a bespectacled appraiser, without hesitation, placed on the counter.
«What, are you looking? Think it’s too little?» the appraiser sneered. «But I’m not asking you where you got this ring, am I? So take what you’re given.»
Ivan tore his gaze from the money and looked hard at the chubby appraiser. If he so easily laid out five thousand, without even really examining the ring, how much could it really be worth? How upset must that girl be, the one who lost it? After all, she just wanted to help a homeless man. And this was his gratitude!
A heavy battle of conscience and desire to feel warm and human again was raging inside him. Even those five thousand meant a bed in a hostel for several nights, meant normal food. Tomorrow was December 31st. With the money, Ivan could buy a salad from the deli, a real cutlet. He wouldn’t have to look for open basements to spend the night. He could sleep on a real bed, not shivering from the cold.
These thoughts were spinning in the homeless man’s head, while in his pocket lay the five hundred that the girl had given him. It’s very hard to remain human in such conditions!
The appraiser flinched, his glasses sliding to the tip of his nose, when the homeless man suddenly grabbed the ring from the counter and, stepping heavily with his huge dirty boots, possibly dragged out of some dumpster, headed for the exit of the pawnshop.
«Hey, what are you doing? Where are you going?» the appraiser nervously called out. «Alright, wait, I’ll give you the same amount again. Another five thousand, hear me?»
Ivan quickened his pace. He needed to get out into the street quickly so as not to hear how much money they were offering him, so as not to be tempted. It’s wrong to do this to someone who treated you kindly. Even living like an animal, one must manage to remain human!
Returning home after unsuccessfully searching for the ring, Alice cried, and her husband tried to comfort her.
«Don’t be upset, maybe it will still turn up. We’ll post a notice, promise a reward,» Oleg consoled her, not believing his own words.
Finding a parking spot in the courtyard with great difficulty, the man parked the car, and they gloomily walked to the entrance. Near the entrance, a dark figure in a huge dirty coat and old boots was wiping off. Alice approached the door, wiping away tears, not looking around. But suddenly the figure blocked her path, turning out to be the homeless man she knew.
«Here, this is yours. You dropped it into my box today,» the man said hoarsely, opening his dark hand.
The ring sparkled on his palm. Alice shrieked.
«God, Oleg, it’s it! It’s my ring. This can’t be happening. Thank you, thank you so much.»
Alice, not minding the fresh smell emanating from the homeless man, threw herself into hugging him, and her stunned husband blinked his eyes. He was a realist and could not believe that such a person would return a valuable ring. Probably hoping for a reward. Oleg pulled out some money, ready to give it to the man when Alice stopped hugging him. But the homeless unexpectedly moved his hands behind his back.
«No need, I didn’t do it for that.»
Keeping his hands behind his back, the homeless man first backed away, then began to hurry away. But Alice couldn’t let him go.
«Wait,» she cried out, «do you have somewhere to sleep? We have an empty apartment, my mother’s apartment. You can stay there for a while.»
The next day, December 31st, Ivan Sergeyevich Alekseev could hardly believe his luck, being in the warmth and in clean clothes. He had washed, slept on a soft sofa. And there was a TV! Ivan could celebrate New Year’s Eve watching television programs, just like before, in a normal life. Alice and her husband brought the man here last night, and today at noon brought salad, sausage, and even a hot meal. Alice said:
«Ivan Sergeyevich, I thought all night about how to help you. I have a friend, she’s a famous blogger. She has over a million subscribers. I want to take your picture and post your story on her blog. We’ll ask people to help, whatever they can. The world is not without kind people. You proved that yesterday.»
Ivan was shy, of course, when Alice photographed him, but he did not refuse. Let her post it wherever she wants. It’s unlikely to bring any results, but the man had long given up on his life. So why not, let her try.
Alice’s friend was excited to post about Ivan Alekseev. She told how a homeless man returned a ring and in what a difficult position he was. She attached Alice’s card number to the post so that those who wanted to help could contribute money. The post went live on January 1st, but Alice and her blogger friend didn’t expect any large donations.
But people were moved! They shared the post, wrote comments. And Alice’s phone kept notifying her of money being credited. By January 2nd, it was clear that if this continued for even a few more days, Alice could gather quite a substantial sum. It might be enough to buy housing for Ivan.
On January 3rd, a particularly large donation came from an anonymous benefactor, and on January 4th, something completely unexpected happened. A woman commented on the post, recognizing Ivan as her long-lost brother. She had emigrated with her husband years ago, and contact with her brother had been lost. The woman asked for Ivan’s contact, wanted to help, planned to come and restore her brother’s documents.
That’s when it became absolutely clear to Alice that Ivan Sergeyevich Alekseev would never live on the street again, and everything would be alright for him. This man had once lost absolutely everything, but he had not lost what was most important—his conscience and nobility. And for that, everything would return to him manifold!
