whispered:
– Philip and I will put you on your feet. You’ll see, but you’re still sleeping.
Then she went up to the boy and took his hand.
– Come on, I’m going to write you the phone number of a famous sorcerer in the city, I’m sure he will bring your beloved grandmother to her senses.
– Come on,» Philip whispered.
He went into the next apartment, and there a twelve-year-old girl greeted him with a kind smile.
– Mommy, where have you been? – she asked Natasha.
– She helped our neighbor. Wait, Philip, I’ll get you the phone now.
The girl at first stood aside, looking carefully, but then she came closer and stretched out her childish, elegant hand, chirped.
– I don’t see you on the street, Philip. Don’t you go for a walk?
«I don’t have time, – Philip replied.
– And let’s be friends with you? You don’t mind?
– I don’t mind. Only I don’t have time to be friends either,» he said even more gloomily.
– Well, we’ll somehow find time for friendship with you. My name is Alla. Well, even if you’re older than me, but I’m also an adult and very smart.
«All right, I’ll try to find time for a walk with you a little later,» Philip replied.
Then Natasha came up and handed me a piece of paper.
– Take this, and be sure to call tomorrow, but do not delay.
Philip thanked Natasha, then put the piece of paper with the phone away in his pocket and went home.
The grandmother, without waiting for her grandson, quietly fell asleep in her bed.
MEETING WITH A SORCERER
The next day, Philip came home from school sullen and tortured. Today the math teacher called him to the blackboard. Since Philip was well versed in this science, he knew how to solve all these examples that the teacher wrote with chalk on the blackboard.
But he was unlucky, the teacher was called by the head teacher and he immediately disappeared, leaving the guy standing alone in the middle of the class.
Egor, the main enemy of Philip, saw a good situation and did not waste time to show his superiority again and was the first to start a war. He took a dirty rag from the board and threw it at Philip, who managed to dodge, but got a dirty rag again. When the teacher came in, the whole class was already laughing at the chalk-white boy.
The teacher was a young guy after the institute, he thought that Philip really had dirty himself and wanted to dirty all his classmates and decided not to sort it out, put two for his behavior.
– Quasimodo, and you know, the white uniform suits you, you don’t erase it, – Egor mocked.
Philip went into the room trying to forget about all the bad things, because now he had to turn all his attention to his sick grandmother.
– Filippok, my boy, how are you doing at school? «What is it?» she asked gently and quietly.
«I’m fine, Grandma,» he said, turning away to wipe away a few tears.
Grandma croaked something else and closed her eyes.
– I feel bad for my granddaughters. I probably won’t keep my promise to live long Filippok. I’m sorry, bunny.
– Grandma hold on, I’ll put you on your feet, you’ll see, – the boy said firmly and left the room.
Philip took out of his briefcase a piece of paper with a phone number that Natasha had written to him yesterday.
«It’s time to call everything,» he thought decisively and took the home phone in the hallway, then went to his room and closed the door so that grandma wouldn’t hear anything.
Philip dialed the number.
No one answered the phone for a long time, but they still picked up the phone.
«Hello,» a man’s voice said into the phone and fell silent.
– Hello, are you a sorcerer?
There was a slight silence on that wire, then it was interrupted by a deep sigh and the voice continued.
– I have a name, young man, just like you.
– I’m sorry, I was probably tactless just now. My name is Philip, my grandmother is seriously ill. They called an ambulance yesterday, but I didn’t give my grandmother to them. And your neighbor Natasha gave me your phone number last night.
«My name is Celestine. I’m a witcher, I did the right thing by calling me. Describe everything in detail now?
Philip, in a low voice, sometimes even turning to a whisper, began to describe the condition of his grandmother.
Soon Celestine interrupted him:
– I’ll make a decoction for Grandma now and I’ll be there in three hours.
Exactly three hours later, the doorbell rang.
On the threshold, as it seemed to Philip, there was a beautiful woman with long hair.
The boy froze in surprise, silently examining his guest. But the witcher broke the silence first.
– So I came, Philip, in three hours as promised.
The witcher’s voice was male, exactly the same as on the phone.
– Come in, – said Philip and let the guest into the apartment.
The boy looked at Celestin in surprise and somehow incredulously, so the witcher understood the situation, and in order to destroy the young man’s doubts, he said:
– There is one rule that will definitely be useful to you and not once. Looks are very deceptive. And as for me, my appearance is always different. Sometimes I’m even… um… an insect.
– Are you kidding? Philip asked incredulously.
– I’m not a simple person, I have huge magical abilities, you can’t even imagine how strong a sorcerer I am, – answered mysteriously Celestine.
«I wish I had that kind of strength,» the boy said dreamily.
Celestin’s smile appeared briefly on his face and soon disappeared.
– Well, my friend, shall we proceed to the magic ritual? «What’s the matter?» the witcher asked.
Philip wanted to answer that he should start, but a quiet grandmother’s voice was heard from the room.
– Philip,
