It happened when I was about 8 years old, probably. I grew up as an ordinary child in an ordinary Soviet family. Every summer, I, a pale urban wretch, was sent to my father's grandmother in the countryside. I didn't really like going there, there was no company for me there — all the village guys were much older, and I wasn't interested in my peers myself. As a result, I just spent the whole summer hanging around the yard, helping my great—grandmother, a strong, wiry old woman, drinking fresh milk and counting the days until my parents arrived.
In early August, a monster appeared on our property. Uncle Seryozha, the neighbor on the right, dragged him and put him not far from the fence. I call the old Soviet refrigerator "ZIL" a monster, it's so huge, with a snap-on door. It was in pretty decent condition, though the latch on the door was broken. Why my grandmother needed it, I can't imagine, maybe she was going to grow seedlings in it, who knows? I was wary of going around the refrigerator, because grandma had strictly ordered me not to get in or hide in it, and generally stay away from it. Two days later, I stopped paying attention to this bandura, because it was completely uninteresting, and I just got a girlfriend.
Her name was Anechka, a pretty little girl with blonde pigtails, dressed in a plaid sundress. I noticed her from the window when she was standing by the fence and looking at our plot. Naturally, I immediately went out to get acquainted, hoping that the girl, like me, was brought here for the summer and she was bored alone. And so it was. Anya was brought from the city by her parents, she didn't know anyone here and she was lonely. I was happy, I called her into the house, but Anya refused, saying that her grandmother did not allow her to visit strangers and offered to play near the fence. I took out my dolls, cups and plates, and we started playing. Grandma looked out of the window several times, but when she saw us at the fence, she hid in the house again. I liked Anechka very much; I hoped that she would become friends with me and we would spend the rest of the summer together. When it got dark, Anya abruptly got up and said that it was time for her to go home, and she would come back to me tomorrow.
That night I didn't sleep well, for some reason it was hard for me to breathe, I turned around and pulled off the blanket. I got up in the morning sluggish and sleepy, but the thought of Anya made me perk up. I ran out into the yard. She was already waiting for me at the fence, again dressed in a plaid sundress. We played until lunch, then Grandma called me to eat. I was surprised why she didn't invite Anya — in the village it was customary to invite guests to the same table with the hosts, but Anya waved her off and said she would come tomorrow.
The next day we played again, I told Anechka about my parents and school friends, and she sat sad and depressed. I asked her what was the matter, and she told me that her parents quarrel all the time, dad offends mom, and Anya always hides during their quarrels. She doesn't have any girlfriends, and she's very sad and scared. When I was little, I almost burst into tears from her story, hugged her and said that I would always be friends with her, and if mom and dad would let us, we would take her home and live like sisters.
Anechka looked at me strangely and asked if I really wanted to be friends with her forever. I fervently began to convince her that she was my best friend, and I would always be there for her. She smiled and offered to play hide-and-seek. It fell to me to drive. I started counting to ten, closing my eyes. There was a noise, a thud, and then silence. I opened my eyes and went to look for Anya. There's nowhere to hide on our property, except in the bushes or near the chicken coop. Anya wasn't there. I was wandering around the site in confusion, and then my gaze fell on the refrigerator. "Aha!" I thought. That's why I heard a noise — it was the refrigerator door opening, and a thud — the door slammed shut. I hurried to the ZIL, but suddenly my grandmother's warnings came back to me: do not climb inside! I hesitated by the door and timidly pulled the handle towards me. The refrigerator opened with difficulty. I pulled harder, opened it and saw Anya. I reached out to lure her out when she grabbed me and yanked me towards her. The refrigerator door slammed shut, and I was in the dark. I screamed and started banging on the door, but it wouldn't open. I started crying loudly, then I felt movement near me and turned around...
My grandmother found me. She came out to invite me to dinner and saw that the yard was empty. Knowing that I would not leave without permission, she searched all the courtyard buildings and froze when she realized that I could only be in one place. They pulled me out almost suffocated, unconscious, because those old refrigerators couldn't be opened from the inside, and they didn't let air in. If Grandma had come out half an hour later, they wouldn't have saved me...
At the hospital, when I was recovering, I told them how it was. I told her about Anya, how she dragged me inside the refrigerator. Grandma just shook her head in disbelief and told her parents that there was no girl on our property, all these days I was playing by the fence alone. My parents decided that all my stories were just hallucinations from oxygen starvation.
But these are not hallucinations. I remember Anya, even though it's been almost 20 years. I remember her face there, in the darkness of the refrigerator, her eyes bulging, her mouth wide open, her face blue from suffocation. I remember that I promised to always be friends with her and be by her side. I remember.
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