(illustrations by V. Chizhikov)
I will never forget this winter evening. It was cold outside, the snow was spinning with terrible speed. It was dreary and boring, and then dad and mom went to the movies. 
And when Mishka rang the phone and called me to his place, I immediately got dressed and rushed to him. It was light and warm and there were a lot of people: Alyonka came. Kostya and Andryushka followed her - and very soon a whole company of us gathered. We played all the games and it was fun and noisy. And at the end Alyonka suddenly said:
- And now hide and seek! Let's hide and seek! 
And we started playing hide and seek. It was wonderful, because Mishka and I were constantly arranging so that the little ones would fall out to lead: Kostya or Alyonka, while we ourselves hid all the time. But all our games took place only in Mishka's room, and pretty soon we got bored of it, because the room was small and cramped.
In the end, we began to slowly spill out of Mishka's room and filled the huge, long corridor of the apartment with our game.
It was better to play hide and seek in the corridor, because there were hangers near each door, and coats and fur coats hung on them. It was much better for us, because for example, whoever drives and looks for us is the one. Of course, it won’t immediately guess that I hid behind Marsemyon’s fur coat and stood on my felt boots just under the fur coat.
And so, when it fell to Kostya to lead, he turned to the wall and began to shout loudly: 
-Once! Two! Three! Four! Five! I'm going looking!
Here everyone rushed to different sides. And Kostya waited a little and shouted again:
-Once! Two! Three! Four! Five! I'm going looking! Again!
This counts as a second call. Andryushka and I slipped out into the corridor. Here Andryushka, without thinking twice, got under Marya Semyonovna's fur coat. I wanted to give Andryushka a slap on the back of the head so that he would free my place, but then Kostya shouted the third warning:
- It's not time, I'm coming from the yard!
And I was afraid that he would now salt me, because I did not hide at all.
I darted back and forth down the corridor like a shot rabbit. And suddenly I saw an open door, and I jumped into it. It was some kind of room, and in it, in the most visible place, against the wall, there was a bed, high and wide, so I immediately dived under this bed.
There was a pleasant twilight, and quite a lot of things, and I immediately began to examine them. 
Firstly, under this bed there were a lot of shoes of different styles, but they were all quite old, and there was also a flat wooden suitcase, and on the suitcase there was an aluminum trough upside down, and I settled very comfortably: my head on the trough, the suitcase - under the waist very smart and comfortable.
I looked at different slippers and slippers and all the time I thought how great it was to hide and how much laughter there would be when Kostya found me here. And I slightly unfolded the tip of the blanket, which hung down on all sides to the ground and covered the whole room from me: I wanted to look at the door to see how Kostya would enter.
But at that moment it was not Kostya who entered the room, but Efrosinya Petrovna, a pretty old woman, but a little like a Baba Yaga. She came in, wiping her hands on a towel; her hair was combed up, on top there was such a hair horn or shish - I don’t know what this hairstyle is called. In general, very ugly. 
So she entered the room and hung the towel on the hook. All the time I was slowly watching her from under the bed, because I thought how happy she would be when she saw that Kostya was dragging me out from under the bed. And I’ll also take some of her shoes in my teeth for laughter - then she will surely turn sour with laughter. 
And so it was warm and cozy for me to lie under the bed and listen to the guys stomp in the corridor. I was in a wonderful mood! And I kept looking at Efrosinya Petrovna.
In the meantime, she very calmly approached the door and, for no apparent reason, tightly slammed the door shut. And then - gloss, gloss! Turn the key and you're done! Locked up. Locked out of everyone! Together with me and the trough. Locked up two turns. The room immediately became somehow quiet and ominous! But then I thought that it was she who locked herself for a short while, and for a minute and now she will unlock the door, and everything will go like clockwork. Therefore, although I became timid, I was not completely, and kept looking at Efrosinya Petrovna: what will she do next?
And she sat down on the bed, and the springs sang and creaked over me, and I saw her feet, how she took off her shoes one by one and remained barefoot and went straight to the door in her stockings, and my heart began to pound with joy. I was sure that she would now unlock the lock, and she was a chick! - and turned off the light. I heard how the springs howled over my head again, and pitch darkness, and Efrosinya Petrovna was lying in her bed and did not know that I was also here, under the bed, and I realized that I had fallen into a bad story, that now I was in prison, in a trap - worse than in prison! The door is locked, the lights are out, and I'm under the bed! 
Under the bed for a long time! Forever! Forever! How long will I lie like this? Happiness if an hour or two! What if it's before morning? How do you get out in the morning? And if I don’t come home all night, dad and mom will definitely report to the police. And the police will come with a sniffer dog. named Mukhtar. And if there are no dogs in our militia? What if the police don't find me? And what if Efrosinya Petrovna sleeps until morning, and in the morning goes to her favorite square to sit all day and again locks me up when she leaves? Whereas? Of course, I will eat some from her buffet, and when she comes, I will have to crawl under the bed, because I ate her food and she will sue me! And to avoid shame, I will live under the bed for all eternity? 
After all, this Efrosinya Petrovna can freely live another twenty years in this world! And I? Twenty years under the bed? After all, this is a real nightmare!
Here I could not stand it and, out of anger, I banged my fist on the trough on which my head lay. There was a terrible roar. And in this terrible silence, with the lights out and in my terrible situation, this knock seemed to me twenty times stronger: it simply deafened me, like an explosion or like a collapse in the mountains - bang-drums! And my heart skipped a beat. 
And Efrosinya Petrovna, above me, apparently woke up from this roar. She probably slept a peaceful sleep for a long time, but here, please, tah-tah from under the bed. 
When she woke up, she was frightened, lay down a little, caught her breath, and suddenly asked the darkness in a weak and frightened voice:
- Ka ra-ul?!
I wanted to answer her: “What are you. Efrosinya Petrovna, what kind of guard is there? Sleep on, it's me. Deniska! I wanted to answer all this to her, but suddenly, instead of an answer, I would sneeze in all Ivanovo, and yeshe with a tail: “Achh! Chhn! Chie! Chie!..” 
The dust must have risen there, under the bed, from all this fuss, but after my sneezing, Efrosinya Petrovna became convinced that something was wrong under the bed, she was very frightened and screamed not with a question, but in a completely affirmative way:
-Guard!
And I, completely incomprehensibly why, suddenly again sneezed with all my might, with some kind of howling, I sneezed, like this: “Apchi-uu!”
As soon as Efrosinya Petrovna heard this howl, she screamed even softer and weaker:
- Robbery!
And, apparently, she herself thought that if they were robbed, it was nothing. Just think, they will take away slippers or a jacket - this is nonsense, it’s not scary. But if with a knife! .. And then she screamed rather loudly in a rattling voice:
- Cut!
What a lie! Who is cutting it? And for what? And what? Is it possible to scream lies at night? Therefore, I decided that it was time to end this business, and since she still does not sleep, I need to get out! More than now, she will not be afraid. And everything rumbled under me, especially the trough, - after all, I can’t see in the dark; the roar is diabolical, and Efrosinya Petrovna is already a little crazy and shouting some strange words:
- Grabaul! Watch out!
And I jumped out and rummaged along the wall where the switch was, and found a key instead of a switch and was glad that it was a door, and unlocked it with this key, but it turned out to be a closet door, but I didn’t know this and climbed over the threshold of this door and stand and I poke in different directions and only hear how various junk falls on my head. And Efrosinya Petrovna squeaked, and I was completely dumb with fear, and then someone pounded on the real door:
- Hey, Deniska! Come out! Now! Efrosinya Petrovna! Give Denis, his dad came for him!
And dad's voice:
- Tell me, please, you don't have my son?
Here the light came on. The door opened. And our whole company burst into the room. They began to run around the room looking for me, and when I came out of the closet, I had two hats and three dresses on.
Papa said:
What happened to you? Where have you been? And Kostya and Mishka also said:
Where were you, what happened to you?
Tell me!
But I was silent. I felt as if I had actually sat under the bed for exactly twenty years. 
Twenty years under the bed (illustrations by V. Chizhikov)
Story by V. Dragunsky with illustrations by V. Chizhikov.
V. Dragunsky
I will never forget this winter evening. It was cold outside, the snow was spinning with terrible speed. It was dreary and boring, and then dad and mom went to the movies.
And when Mishka rang the phone and called me to his place, I immediately got dressed and rushed to him. It was light and warm and there were a lot of people: Alyonka came. Kostya and Andryushka followed her - and very soon a whole company of us gathered. We played all the games and it was fun and noisy. And at the end Alyonka suddenly said:
And now hide and seek! Let's hide and seek!
And we started playing hide and seek. It was wonderful, because Mishka and I were constantly arranging so that the little ones would fall out to lead: Kostya or Alyonka, while we ourselves hid all the time. But all our games took place only in Mishka's room, and pretty soon we got bored of it, because the room was small and cramped.
In the end, we began to slowly spill out of Mishka's room and filled the huge, long corridor of the apartment with our game.
It was better to play hide and seek in the corridor, because there were hangers near each door, and coats and fur coats hung on them. It was much better for us, because for example, whoever drives and looks for us is the one. Of course, it won’t immediately guess that I hid behind Marsemyon’s fur coat and stood on my felt boots just under the fur coat.
And so, when it fell to Kostya to lead, he turned to the wall and began to shout loudly:
Once! Two! Three! Four! Five! I'm going looking!
Here everyone rushed in different directions. And Kostya waited a little and shouted again:
Once! Two! Three! Four! Five! I'm going looking! Again!
This counts as a second call. Andryushka and I slipped out into the corridor. Here Andryushka, without thinking twice, got under Marya Semyonovna's fur coat. I wanted to give Andryushka a slap on the back of the head so that he would free my place, but then Kostya shouted the third warning:
It's time not time, I'm coming from the yard!
And I was afraid that he would now salt me, because I did not hide at all.
I darted back and forth down the corridor like a shot rabbit. And suddenly I saw an open door, and I jumped into it. It was some kind of room, and in it, in the most visible place, against the wall, there was a bed, high and wide, so I immediately dived under this bed.
There was a pleasant twilight, and quite a lot of things, and I immediately began to examine them.
Firstly, under this bed there were a lot of shoes of different styles, but they were all quite old, and there was also a flat wooden suitcase, and on the suitcase there was an aluminum trough upside down, and I settled very comfortably: my head on the trough, the suitcase - under the waist very smart and comfortable.
I looked at different slippers and slippers and all the time I thought how great it was to hide and how much laughter there would be when Kostya found me here. And I slightly unfolded the tip of the blanket, which hung down on all sides to the ground and covered the whole room from me: I wanted to look at the door to see how Kostya would enter.
But at that moment it was not Kostya who entered the room, but Efrosinya Petrovna, a pretty old woman, but a little like a Baba Yaga. She came in, wiping her hands on a towel; her hair was combed up, on top there was such a hair horn or shish - I don’t know what this hairstyle is called. In general, very ugly.
So she entered the room and hung the towel on the hook. All the time I was slowly watching her from under the bed, because I thought how happy she would be when she saw that Kostya was dragging me out from under the bed. And I’ll also take some of her shoes in my teeth for laughter - then she will surely turn sour with laughter.
And so it was warm and cozy for me to lie under the bed and listen to the guys stomp in the corridor. I was in a wonderful mood! And I kept looking at Efrosinya Petrovna.
In the meantime, she very calmly approached the door and, for no apparent reason, tightly slammed the door shut. And then - gloss, gloss! Turn the key and you're done! Locked up. Locked out of everyone! Together with me and the trough. Locked up two turns. The room immediately became somehow quiet and ominous! But then I thought that it was she who locked herself for a short while, and for a minute and now she will unlock the door, and everything will go like clockwork. Therefore, although I became timid, I was not completely, and kept looking at Efrosinya Petrovna: what will she do next?
And she sat down on the bed, and the springs sang and creaked over me, and I saw her feet, how she took off her shoes one by one and remained barefoot and went straight to the door in her stockings, and my heart began to pound with joy. I was sure that she would now unlock the lock, and she was a chick! - and turned off the light. I heard how the springs howled over my head again, and pitch darkness, and Efrosinya Petrovna was lying in her bed and did not know that I was also here, under the bed, and I realized that I had fallen into a bad story, that now I was in prison, in a trap - worse than in prison! The door is locked, the lights are out, and I'm under the bed!
In the story "Twenty years under the bed" from the collection of V. Dragunsky "Deniska's stories" the main character, a boy named Denis, was bored and sad. His parents had gone to the movies and the weather was nasty. But then Mishka, a friend of Denis, called and invited him to visit him.
Mishka's was noisy and fun. Alenka also came, the same age as Denis and Mishka, as well as kids Kostya and Andrey. At some point, Alenka offered to play hide and seek. At first they played in Mishka's room, but you can't hide much in it, and soon the game moved to a large corridor of a communal apartment. Kostya and Andryushka had to search in turn, while Deniska, Mishka and Alyonka preferred to hide.
When once again Kostya announced that he was going to look for him now, Denis discovered that his favorite place under the neighbor's fur coat is already occupied. Time was running out, and Deniska, seeing open door, flew into someone's room and crawled under the bed. There he began to wait for Kostya to find him. But instead of Kostya, the old woman who lived in it entered the room. She locked the door, turned off the light, and went to bed. Denis is trapped.
What he just did not think, lying under the bed. In the end, he came up with the idea that he would lie under this bed for twenty years until he could get out from under it unnoticed. From anger, Deniska hit his fist and accidentally hit the trough that lay under the bed. There was a terrible roar. The old woman woke up, and after Deniska sneezed, she began to shout: “Help!”. Then the mistress of the room began to yell loudly that she was being robbed and slaughtered.
Deniska decided to get out of dark room. He crawled out from under the bed and looked for the door. Feeling the key on the wall, the boy was glad that now he could jump out into the corridor. But instead he ended up in a wardrobe. The tenants of the apartment ran to the cries of the old woman and soon Denis was taken out of the closet. When asked how he got here, the hero of the story could not say anything intelligible. It seemed to him that he really sat under the old woman's bed for many years.
Takovo summary story.
The main point of the story "Twenty Years Under the Bed" is that before you take any action, you should think about its consequences. Denis, not particularly puzzled, ran into someone else's room and hid under the bed. As a result, he greatly frightened the elderly woman and caused a commotion in the entire apartment. The story teaches to always think about the expediency and necessity of any action.
In the story, I liked Denis's friend, Mishka, who, in bad weather, did not lose his head and did not become sad, but invited the guys he knew to visit and arranged for everyone to have fun.
What proverbs fit the story "Twenty years under the bed"?
You think you caught it, but then you caught it yourself.
Hurry up and make people laugh.
Young lover of literature, we are firmly convinced that you will be pleased to read the fairy tale "Twenty Years Under the Bed" by Dragunsky V. Yu. and you will be able to learn from it and benefit. In the works, diminutive descriptions of nature are often used, making the picture that appears even more saturated. It is sweet and joyful to plunge into a world in which love, nobility, morality and selflessness always prevail, with which the reader is edified. All heroes were "honed" by the experience of the people, who for centuries created, strengthened and transformed them, devoting great and deep meaning children's education. There is a balancing act between good and bad, tempting and necessary, and how wonderful that every time the choice is right and responsible. Domestic problems - incredible good way, with the help of simple, ordinary examples, to convey to the reader the most valuable centuries-old experience. Charm, admiration and indescribable inner joy are produced by pictures drawn by our imagination when reading such works. The fairy tale "Twenty Years Under the Bed" by Dragunsky V. Yu. to read for free online will be fun for both children and their parents, the kids will be happy with a good ending, and moms and dads will be happy for the kids!
I will never forget this winter evening. It was cold outside, the wind was strong, it cut my cheeks like a dagger, the snow was spinning with terrible speed. It was dreary and boring, I just wanted to howl, and then dad and mom went to the movies. And when Mishka rang the phone and called me to his place, I immediately got dressed and rushed to him. It was light and warm there and a lot of people gathered, Alenka came, followed by Kostya and Andryushka. We played all the games and it was fun and noisy. And in the end, Alenka suddenly said:
- And now hide and seek! Let's hide and seek!
And we started playing hide and seek. It was wonderful, because Mishka and I always arranged so that the little ones fell out to lead: Kostya or Alyonka, while we ourselves hid all the time and generally led the kids by the nose. But all our games were played only in Mishka's room, and we got bored pretty soon, because the room was small, cramped, and we always hid behind the curtain, or behind the closet, or behind the chest, and in the end we began to slowly splash out of Mishka's room and filled the huge long corridor of the apartment with their game.
It was more interesting to play in the corridor, because there were hangers near each door, and coats and fur coats hung on them. It was much better for us, because, for example, whoever leads and looks for us, of course, will not immediately guess that I hid behind Marsemenya's fur coat and got into my felt boots just under the fur coat.
And so, when it fell to Kostya to lead, he turned to the wall and began to shout loudly:
- Once! Two! Three! Four! Five! I'm going looking!
Here everyone splashed in different directions, who went where to hide. And Kostya waited a little and shouted again:
- Once! Two! Three! Four! Five! I'm going looking! Again!
It was considered like a second call. Mishka immediately climbed onto the windowsill, Alenka behind the closet, and Andryushka and I slipped out into the corridor. Here Andryushka, without hesitation, crawled under Marya Semyonovna's fur coat, where I had been hiding all the time, and it turned out that I was left without a place! And I wanted to give Andryushka a slap on the back of the head so that he would free my place, but then Kostya shouted a third warning:
- It's time not time, I'm coming from the yard!
And I was afraid that he would see me now, because I didn’t hide at all, and I rushed back and forth along the corridor like a shot hare. And then, at the right time, I saw the open door and jumped into it.
It was some kind of room, and in it, in the most visible place, against the wall, there was a bed, high and wide, so I immediately dived under this bed. There was a pleasant twilight and quite a lot of things lay, and I immediately began to examine them. Firstly, under this bed there were a lot of shoes of different styles, but they were all quite old, and there was also a flat wooden suitcase, and on the suitcase there was an aluminum trough upside down, and I settled very comfortably: my head on the trough, the suitcase under my waist - very smart and comfortable. I looked at different slippers and slippers and all the time I thought how great it was to hide and how much laughter there would be when Kostya found me here.
I slightly unfolded the tip of the blanket, which hung down on all sides to the floor and covered the whole room from me: I wanted to look at the door to see how Kostya would come in and look for me. But at that moment it was not Kostya who entered the room, but Efrosinya Petrovna, a pretty old woman, but a little like a Baba Yaga.
She entered, wiping her hands on a towel.
All the time I slowly watched her, I thought that she would be delighted when she saw Kostya pull me out from under the bed. And I’ll also take some of her shoes in my teeth for laughter, then she will surely fall from laughter. I was sure that another second or two would fly by, and Kostya would definitely find me. So I myself laughed all the time to myself, without a sound.
I was in a wonderful mood. And I kept looking at Efrosinya Petrovna. In the meantime, she very calmly approached the door and, for no apparent reason, slammed it tightly. And then, I look, I turned the key - and you're done! Locked up. Locked out of everyone! Together with me and the trough. Locked up two turns.
The room immediately became somehow quiet and ominous. But then I thought that she didn’t lock herself for a long time, but for a minute, and now she’ll unlock the door, and everything will go like clockwork, and again there will be laughter and joy, and Kostya will be just happy that he found me in such a difficult place ! Therefore, although I was timid, I was not completely, and kept looking at Efrosinya Petrovna, what would she do next.
And she sat down on the bed, and above me the springs sang and gnashed, and I saw her legs. She took off her shoes one by one and walked straight to the door in her stockings, and my heart pounded with joy.
I was sure that she would now unlock the lock, but no such luck. Can you imagine, she is a chick! and turned off the light. And I heard how the springs again howled over my head, and all around it was pitch darkness, and Efrosinya Petrovna was lying in her bed and did not know that I was also here, under the bed. I realized that I got into a bad story, that now I am in prison, in a trap.
How long will I lie here? Happiness if an hour or two! What if it's before morning? How do you get out in the morning? And if I don’t come home, dad and mom will definitely report to the police. And the police will come with a sniffer dog. Nicknamed Mukhtar. And if there are no dogs in our militia? What if the police don't find me? And what if Efrosinya Petrovna sleeps until morning, and in the morning goes to her favorite park to sit all day and again ban me when she leaves? Whereas? Of course, I'll eat some from her buffet, and when she comes, I'll have to crawl under the bed, because I ate her food and she will sue me! And to avoid shame, I will live under the bed for all eternity? After all, this is a real nightmare! Of course, there is an advantage here that I will spend the whole school under the bed, but what about the certificate, that is the question. With a matriculation certificate! I'm under the bed in twenty years, not only will I ripen, I will completely overripe there.
Then I could not stand it and, out of anger, I banged my fist on the trough on which my head lay! There was a terrible roar! And in this terrible silence with the lights out, and in my terrible situation, this knock seemed to me twenty times stronger. He just stunned me.
And my heart skipped a beat. And Efrosinya Petrovna, above me, apparently woke up from this roar. She must have been sleeping peacefully for a long time, but here you are - tah-tah from under the bed! She lay down a little, caught her breath, and suddenly asked the darkness in a weak and frightened voice:
– Ka-ra-ul?!
I wanted to answer her: “What are you, Efrosinya Petrovna, what kind of “guard” is there? Sleep on, it's me, Deniska! I wanted to answer all this, but suddenly, instead of answering, I sneeze in all Ivanovo, and even with a ponytail:
- Apchi! Chie! Chie! Chie!..
There, probably, dust had risen under the bed from all this fuss, but Efrosinya Petrovna, after my sneezing, became convinced that something was wrong under the bed, she was greatly frightened and shouted not with a question, but in a completely affirmative way:
- Guard!
And I, it is not clear why, suddenly again sneezed with all my might, with some kind of howling even sneezed, like this:
- Ahhhh!
As soon as Efrosinya Petrovna heard this howl, she cried even more quietly and weakly:
- Robbery!
And apparently, she herself thought that if they were robbed, then this is nonsense, it’s not scary. But if ... And then she screamed quite loudly:
What a lie! Who is cutting it? And for what? And what? Is it possible to scream lies at night? Therefore, I decided that it was time to end this business, and since she still does not sleep, I need to get out.
And everything rumbled under me, especially the trough, because I can't see in the dark. The roar is diabolical, and Efrosinya Petrovna is already a little crazy and shouts some strange words:
- Grabaul! Watch out!
And I jumped out, and rummaged along the wall where the switch was, and found a key instead of a switch, and was glad that this was a door. I turned the key, but it turned out that I opened the closet door, and I immediately rolled over the threshold of this door, and I stand and poke in different directions, and all I hear is various junk falling on my head.
Efrosinya Petrovna squeaks, and I am completely dumb with fear, and then someone pounded on a real door!
- Hey, Deniska! Come out now! Efrosinya Petrovna! Give Denis, his dad came for him!
“Tell me, please, you don’t have my son?”
Here the light came on. The door opened. And our whole company burst into the room. They began to run around the room, looking for me, and when I came out of the closet, I had two hats and three dresses on.
I will never forget this winter evening. It was cold outside, the wind was strong, it cut my cheeks like a dagger, the snow was spinning with terrible speed.
It was dreary and boring, I just wanted to howl, and then dad and mom went to the movies.
And when Mishka rang the phone and called me to his place, I immediately got dressed and rushed to him. It was light and warm there and a lot of people gathered, Alenka came, followed by Kostya and Andryushka. We played all the games and it was fun and noisy. And in the end, Alenka suddenly said:
- And now hide and seek! Let's hide and seek!
And we started playing hide and seek. It was wonderful, because Mishka and I always arranged so that the little ones fell out to lead: Kostya or Alyonka, while we ourselves hid all the time and generally led the kids by the nose.
But all our games were played only in Mishka's room, and we got bored pretty soon, because the room was small, cramped, and we always hid behind the curtain, or behind the closet, or behind the chest, and in the end we began to slowly splash out of Mishka's room and filled the huge long corridor of the apartment with their game.
It was more interesting to play in the corridor, because there were hangers near each door, and coats and fur coats hung on them. It was much better for us, because, for example, whoever leads and looks for us, of course, will not immediately guess that I hid behind Marsemenya's fur coat and got into my felt boots just under the fur coat.
And so, when it fell to Kostya to lead, he turned to the wall and began to shout loudly:
- Once! Two! Three! Four! Five! I'm going looking!
Here everyone splashed in different directions, who went where to hide. And Kostya waited a little and shouted again:
- Once! Two! Three! Four! Five! I'm going looking! Again!
It was considered like a second call. Mishka immediately climbed onto the windowsill, Alenka behind the closet, and Andryushka and I slipped out into the corridor. Here Andryushka, without hesitation, crawled under Marya Semyonovna's fur coat, where I had been hiding all the time, and it turned out that I was left without a place! And I wanted to give Andryushka a slap on the back of the head so that he would free my place, but then Kostya shouted a third warning:
- It's time not time, I'm coming from the yard!
And I was afraid that he would see me now, because I didn’t hide at all, and I rushed back and forth along the corridor like a shot hare. And then at the right time I saw the open door and jumped in it.
It was some kind of room, and in it, in the most visible place, against the wall, there was a bed, high and wide, so I immediately dived under this bed. There was a pleasant twilight and quite a lot of things lay, and I immediately began to examine them. Firstly, under this bed there were a lot of shoes of different styles, but they were all quite old, and there was also a flat wooden suitcase, and on the suitcase there was an aluminum trough upside down, and I settled very comfortably: my head on the trough, the suitcase under my waist - very smart and comfortable. I looked at different slippers and slippers and all the time I thought how great it was to hide and how much laughter there would be when Kostya found me here.
I slightly unfolded the tip of the blanket, which hung down on all sides to the floor and covered the whole room from me: I wanted to look at the door to see how Kostya would come in and look for me. But at that moment it was not Kostya who entered the room, but Efrosinya Petrovna, a pretty old woman, but a little like a Baba Yaga.
She entered, wiping her hands on a towel.
All the time I slowly watched her, I thought that she would be delighted when she saw Kostya pull me out from under the bed. And I’ll also take some of her shoes in my teeth for laughter, then she will surely fall from laughter. I was sure that another second or two would fly by, and Kostya would definitely find me. So I myself laughed all the time to myself, without a sound.
I was in a wonderful mood. And I kept looking at Efrosinya Petrovna. In the meantime, she very calmly approached the door and, for no apparent reason, slammed it tightly. And then, I look, I turned the key - and you're done! Locked up. Locked out of everyone! Together with me and the trough. Locked up two turns.
The room immediately became somehow quiet and ominous. But then I thought that she didn’t lock herself for a long time, but for a minute, and now she’ll unlock the door, and everything will go like clockwork, and again there will be laughter and joy, and Kostya will be just happy that he found me in such a difficult place ! Therefore, although I was timid, I was not completely, and kept looking at Efrosinya Petrovna, what would she do next.
And she sat down on the bed, and above me the springs sang and gnashed, and I saw her legs. She took off her shoes one by one and walked straight to the door in her stockings, and my heart pounded with joy.
I was sure that she would now unlock the lock, but no such luck. Can you imagine, she is a chick! and turned off the light. And I heard how the springs again howled over my head, and all around it was pitch darkness, and Efrosinya Petrovna was lying in her bed and did not know that I was also here, under the bed. I realized that I got into a bad story, that now I am in prison, in a trap.
How long will I lie here? Happiness if an hour or two! What if it's before morning? How do you get out in the morning? And if I don’t come home, dad and mom will definitely report to the police. And the police will come with a sniffer dog. Nicknamed Mukhtar. And if there are no dogs in our militia? What if the police don't find me?
And what if Efrosinya Petrovna sleeps until morning, and in the morning goes to her favorite park to sit all day and again ban me when she leaves? Whereas? Of course, I'll eat some from her buffet, and when she comes, I'll have to crawl under the bed, because I ate her food and she will sue me! And to avoid shame, I will live under the bed for all eternity? After all, this is a real nightmare! Of course, there is an advantage here that I will spend the whole school under the bed, but what about the certificate, that is the question. With a matriculation certificate! I'm under the bed in twenty years, not only will I ripen, I will completely overripe there.
Then I could not stand it and, out of anger, I banged my fist on the trough on which my head lay! There was a terrible roar! And in this terrible silence with the lights out, and in my terrible situation, this knock seemed to me twenty times stronger. He just stunned me.
And my heart skipped a beat. And Efrosinya Petrovna, above me, apparently woke up from this roar. She must have been sleeping peacefully for a long time, but here you are - tah-tah from under the bed! She lay down a little, caught her breath, and suddenly asked the darkness in a weak and frightened voice:
– Ka-ra-ul?!
I wanted to answer her: “What are you, Efrosinya Petrovna, what kind of “guard” is there? Sleep on, it's me, Deniska! I wanted to answer all this, but suddenly, instead of answering, I sneeze in all Ivanovo, and even with a ponytail:
- Apchi! Chie! Chie! Chie!..
There, probably, dust had risen under the bed from all this fuss, but Efrosinya Petrovna, after my sneezing, became convinced that something was wrong under the bed, she was greatly frightened and shouted not with a question, but in a completely affirmative way:
- Guard!
And I, it is not clear why, suddenly again sneezed with all my might, with some kind of howling even sneezed, like this:
- Ahhhh!
As soon as Efrosinya Petrovna heard this howl, she cried even more quietly and weakly:
- Robbery!
And apparently, she herself thought that if they were robbed, then this is nonsense, it’s not scary. But if ... And then she screamed quite loudly:
What a lie! Who is cutting it? And for what? And what? Is it possible to scream lies at night? Therefore, I decided that it was time to end this business, and since she still does not sleep, I need to get out.
And everything rumbled under me, especially the trough, because I can't see in the dark. The roar is diabolical, and Efrosinya Petrovna is already a little crazy and shouts some strange words:
- Grabaul! Watch out!
And I jumped out, and rummaged along the wall where the switch was, and found a key instead of a switch, and was glad that this was a door. I turned the key, but it turned out that I opened the closet door, and I immediately rolled over the threshold of this door, and I stand and poke in different directions, and all I hear is various junk falling on my head.
Efrosinya Petrovna squeaks, and I am completely dumb with fear, and then someone pounded on a real door!
- Hey, Deniska! Come out now! Efrosinya Petrovna! Give Denis, his dad came for him!
“Tell me, please, you don’t have my son?”
Here the light came on. The door opened. And our whole company burst into the room. They began to run around the room, looking for me, and when I came out of the closet, I had two hats and three dresses on.
Papa said:
- What happened to you? Where have you been?
Kostya and Mishka also said:
Where were you, what happened to you? Tell me!
But I was silent. I had the feeling that I had actually sat under the bed for exactly twenty years.