The old musician...the storyThe old musician heard the rumble of music in the distance and his heart fluttered. He hadn't played at a wedding since. He caressed the old violin, which had clearly seen better days at one time, and mumbled... Darling... I don't even remember the last time you played...The old fiddle stirred with excitement... She remembered the days when the world was young and beautiful, and she made wonderful sounds and the people danced wildly...When the feast was over, they presented the old violinist with expensive gifts, and he thanked his faithful violin. He also made a case of soft velvet, for her to rest in warmth after the wonderful dances, she even anointed her body with expensive perfumed oils and spoke to her in interjections like to an old beloved...He even changed the strings when he had the opportunity... To have a thin voice, the old gypsy said, like to a young girl... Well, if Stanka was here... how much money we would make...Methodi was the old gypsy's name, but everyone called him Metto.Come on Meto, people begged him to play and he grabbed the violin and made wonderful sounds. When he was sad, tears flowed from the eyes of the listeners, but when he was cheerful, everyone joined in the chorus.Metto played something cheerful... enough with this sad music... his listeners begged him...My soul is sad... I remembered Stanka...Stanka, your beloved, said a new settler and everyone laughed...Stanka is not a man, a boy, a babbling grandfather... but a bear...Bear... and this good one...Meto will tell you...Meto sighed and told for the umpteenth time how he found the little bear next to its dead mother.The communists, in order to save time and bullets, had thrown poison into the forest. The wolves did a lot of damage and attacked the herds, they even descended into the village at night. The winter was bitter and thick snow had hidden the land, and with it the game... The bear was only a year old and still lived with its mother...The old bear smelled a prey without knowing that it had poison... The gypsy found the little bear, which was playing next to its mother and had not yet understood the truth. Something stirred in the gypsy's soul and he adopted the poor bear...Meto, do you know how many sheep this bloodthirsty mother has stolen ...And so what, said the old gypsy... And your father used to steal horses... but now you're an honest man...The communists tried to take his bear and give it to the zoo, but the gypsy escaped into the forest and hid for a month as a Serbian partisan...Finally the mayor got fed up and said...Well... if you're so in love with this bear, keep him... just make sure he doesn't do any mischief...And the golden era of Meto began... He began to tour the resorts of the Black Sea, starting with Golden Sands and ending with Albena... The Bulgarian Black Sea was called the Red Riviera and was in no way inferior to the French Riviera. The fine golden sand, crystal clear waters and stealthy girls attracted Western tourists. Germans, French, Italians... there were even tourists from brotherly countries... Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary...Come on Stanke....show how the young bride is embarrassed when she makes love to her husband for the first time....The bear raised its two paws and covered its eyes...And now show how the old toothless grandmother dances..., how she jumps to the choir...The bear began to shake clumsily and everyone fell to the ground laughing...And now anyone who wants can take a photo with Stanka... Only 5 BGN...Back then, the party paid teachers BGN 100 a month, and Meto made it through in one day...And if someone is sick, I can pluck a few bear hairs for health... also if someone has given you the evil eye or you want to win a girl...The violin case was filling with money and Metto's eyes were burning with excitement.He went home to the village and didn't stop until he spent the money in the village tavern... If he saw someone in the street, he called them to the stern and bought them a drink... He even took musicians from the gypsy neighborhood and threw money at them just and only they cheer him up...When the money ran out, he hit the road again...Why are you splashing the money like that, someone scolded him...I'm like an English nobleman... he says, it's important Metto... When I feast, I want the peasants to be full...Money is to be spent... he continued... And Stanka had to rest...Stanka our bear, had grown into a big two-meter bear that could eat half an ox at one meal...This bear of yours will ruin us... the villagers complained... We need a meat plant to feed it...Meto pretended not to hear them and just ordered more wine...And why isn't the music playing......until one summer...Meto heard about some wall being pushed, but what was it pushed for and who didn't understand...They could now freely go to the West...Well, who stopped them before... Meto shook his head... And why do they want to run to the West...He didn't know that people were starving and barely making ends meet...So this summer Metto visited Golden Sands again...The old gypsy played, Stanka danced and the violin case filled with money... until...the show didn't end and, as always, Meto offered the tourists to take a picture with the bear or pluck hairs from the fur and..Some well-dressed woman, who had already passed the age of Christ and the lipstick could not hide the wrinkles, pushed forward and tried to take a picture with the bear...Money... said Meto and rubbed his fingers... Without money, there are no pictures... And you have to wait your turn... like the last remainingI ... pat myself on the chest, the foreigner ...am Brigitte Bordeaux ...Blink, don't blink, no money, no photos...say Meto.Some whispered in the ear of a gypsy...But she is a famous actress...Actress not actress... stomp Metho... will pay... like everyone else...and will wait in line...The star of the French cinema got angry not jokingly because she was ignored and wrote a long letter to the first democratically elected president Zélyu Zelev..The president was munching on sweet cabbage from New Zealand, because since democracy came, all the farms have been destroyed and now Bulgaria had to import food from outside to feed itself...Mr. President, a letter for you...How long have I been telling you cattle not to bother me while I'm munching on sweet cabbage...Zelyu Zelev was angry and read the letter quickly...Who is this Meto... and why is Brigitte Bardot complaining... sent the Secret Service to pat his backside... but no bruises and...go easy...you know democracy is...Meto lost two teeth to a security fireman who had retrained as a policeman because there was more loot there...but... that didn't hurt him... It hurt him... they stabbed him in the heart when they took Stanka from him...I raised her from a bear... cried the old gypsy...from a bear... from a puppy.. it doesn't matter... now she will go to the zoo in the capital... to delight the little children...The old gypsy cried for the first time, and a warm tear hid shyly in his bosom...The policeman felt that he had gone a bit too far and added...I'll let you see her one last time... but quickly... I don't want to lose my job... you know I follow orders...Stanka seemed to sense that she was seeing her master for the last time and hugged him so that his bones cracked...and roared...almost like a human......Time has passed... a year or two has passedbut the pain in Meto's chest remained...He went around the villages and played wherever he was asked... but the joy that made the villagers jump like crazy was gone...
