36

Lesana was carefully cleaning the soot-covered vat. Nurlisa shuffled along, shaking the junk from the chests. She took out one bundle of fabric, then another, laid them out, stroking them lovingly.

It was hot, stuffy and ... blissful in the closet. During her monotonous work, the novice was carried away by her thoughts into the void. She didn’t think about anything, she just carefully rubbed the round iron sides, and enjoyed the warmth and roar of fire emanating from the furnace.

“Look out,” Nurlis’s assistant would sometimes call out and show her another piece of fabric. - It seems like you didn’t catch it?

The girl nodded in response. That was the whole point of their simple conversation.

And the grandmother, like many old people, loved to ask empty questions and wait for an answer to them.

- Avon, how firewood cracks! Come on, again this stoker from the stokers of one pine fell off me, but what, Lesanka?

This question had to be answered with an invariable “yes”, otherwise Nur