Ivan Nikolaevich.

Today, Ivan Nikolaevich and his family returned home. His faithful friend made sure that their home met them with warmth and love. I cleaned everything here, cleaned it up, tinted it up, where it’s necessary, it seems, even replaced some furniture. The chairs are new ... Same, only new. Ivan did not even understand it right away. Just when I sat down on one of them, I remembered that his chairs were slightly loose and gave out a barely audible creak, but this is nothing - holds tight. The curtains were also different, although of the same color.

- Probably, they faded completely during our absence, - Ivan thought.

Rita also noticed all this. She was touched by such a concern of a family friend, and she furtively wiped her tears. Ivan approached his wife and gently embraced.

“Here we are at home, love,” he said. - Thank you for helping me back here.

- And thank you for coming back with me. Without you, I would not need this house. Probably, I would not need anything.

In the evening Alexander came with his young wife Sveta. Ivan was looking forward to meeting him. The fact is that Alexander was wrong in telling Svetlana that he and Ivan turned out to be 100% heterosexual. In fact, Ivan’s feelings for Sasha were very different from what Sasha felt. All this time, Ivan really missed him. At first it seemed to him that he would not be able to endure separation from a friend, then he was afraid that he was losing his love for him, and now he was even wondering what he would feel when he saw Alexander. And the fact that he felt Ivan, he was very pleased. There was no more crazy passion that burned in him for so long, there was no fear that now they would be in other respects. There was only the joy of meeting, it was nice to see Sasha’s happy face, to feel his firm handshake ...

Yes, between them now there was no passion, there was no love, but there was friendship, mutual understanding, devotion. And love and passion now they both gave their wives. It should be so. This is the way of nature itself, that you must belong to the opposite sex. And the fact that you managed to find a soul mate in your life only testifies to your double happiness.

After dinner, the children went to their rooms, because they already had their plans for the evening, and Ivan Nikolaevich said:

- Well, girls, let us go and whisper in private?

- Yes, go already, - Rita laughed. - I’m generally surprised that you endured so much.

“We have wonderful wives,” Ivan Sasha winked. “Others would have banned our friendship for a long time, but ours let us go and they don’t even twist.”

- Naturally! They are the best in the world, ”Alexander supported the compliment to wives.

When the cabinet door closed behind them, Ivan carefully looked into Sasha’s eyes. He wanted to say so much, so much he wanted to ask a friend, but instead he only exhaled quietly:

- Hello my friend!

He always greeted Alexander so much, especially when they were alone, and he could say it with a special intonation, putting all his feelings into these three words.

“Hello,” Sasha answered.

They embraced tightly. For a moment, it seemed to Ivan that nothing had changed, that he, like before, loves Sasha, that now he wants the same thing as always - that Sasha would kiss him, caress, love ... but nothing It happened. Now it was enough for him to just sit with a friend and chat.

“Sit down next, let's talk, remember the old days,” suggested Ivan.

- And what to remember them? They were never forgotten, - answered Sasha.

We sat and were silent.

“I'm glad you came back,” Alexander said after a while.

- And I'm glad ...

- When will you return to work?

- Soon ... But let's talk about it later. Better tell me how you live here.

- Fine.And now that you are back, it will be fine.

And the guests are gone. My wife also said that she was tired, because she was going to bed, but Ivan decided to sit still for a while, think ...

He went out onto the veranda, breathed in the full evening air and thought that he was very happy. The man felt it so acutely that, despite fatigue, he didn’t want to think about sleep. How can you sleep if life is beautiful! As if youth has returned to Ivan. Only in your youth you cannot sleep, because feelings overflow your chest, dreams hit with an inexhaustible spring, and you are sure that everything in your life is still ahead.

Today's sensations were very similar. Ivan sat down in his favorite rocking chair, which Sasha also did not forget, and began to remember. If he suddenly wanted to write a memoir, he even knew what would be included in his book. But he will never write it. There is not enough courage to tell the whole truth about people to people who think of him much better than he really is. But he could admit to himself. Therefore, he began to tell himself, in order to draw a line under one stage of his life, passing on to another.

Now he is Ivan Nikolaevich, the father of the family, a respected person, the owner of a large company. Only his story began many years ago. So much that I just want to start it like a fairy tale.

Chapter 1. How it all began ...

Once, a long time ago, when such a country as the Soviet Union still existed, two boys, Vanya, lived in the same yard of one ordinary city. We went to the same school, sat at the same desk. Only one was dark-haired, and the other on the contrary - white. So, the nicknames Vanya Chernyi (this is the one that now became Ivan Nikolayevich) and Vanya Bely entrenched in them. Sometimes, for joke, the dark-haired man was called blond, and blond was brunette, but friends never confused who they were, because, just like outwardly, they were complete opposites, so they had completely different characters. Vanya Cherny was a lively, cheerful fellow with an inexhaustible fantasy of all sorts of mischief. Such an informal leader in the yard. Often he Vanya Bely, an obedient quiet boy, incited all sorts of crimes, such as running a cat out of the window to Uncle Vasya, who lived on the first floor, or snatching a ski from a neighbor's balcony, which were so unintentionally exposed too close to the window of Vanya Bely and made it possible to reach before them.

But even these pranks did not prevent the boys from being among the good and diligent students. And it lasted approximately until the class of the eighth, until the hormones began to tear the roof off. Obedient and quiet, Ivan the White turned into a local Casanova, as his friends called him. The girls behind him just went for a herd. Vanya Cherny tried to keep up, but, as they say, he was in different weight categories with a friend. The first was lucky to be born in the family of the director of a department store, and the other only in a simple family of a simple foreman. The blond and jeans appeared, and other fashionable things, at recess he gave the girls gum, different hairpins. And the little black one wore ordinary clothes from the store, but he dreamed about chewing gum just like girls. Only such a huge difference in material wealth could not prevent the friendship between the boys.

Once the little white invited a friend to himself and demonstrated the miracle of foreign technology - a video recorder. In the middle of the eighties, when not even every apartment had a color TV, the video recorder in general was the ultimate dream. With knowledge of the case, Vanya Bely turned on the video player, inserted a cassette - and, oh, a miracle! they watch "tom and jerry". Oh, and it was great to laugh with friends at an unlucky cat, who always got it from an inventive mouse.

It was from that day that after two days, Ivanov’s favorite occupation was to watch an hour or two while the parents were at work, some kind of film. Moreover, the collection of videotapes was regularly updated.

And once Vanya Bely told a friend that Cherny must come to him today. He will show him! By the end of the lessons, both sat on pins and needles. They did not even stay for a class meeting, but rushed home.And indeed, it was worth it!

Yesterday, when Vanya was looking for his winter hat on the mezzanine, I saw a stack of video tapes. “What are they here?” He thought. Wanted ...