Sivana. Фиби Тюдор

had mowed down all the thickets. I ran to the kitchen, where Pauline was already preparing breakfast, and Henry was reading the newspaper.

      – Dad, Pauline, go outside quickly! There's something strange there. I called to them.

      "That's really a Rosemary village, "the doctor laughed, seeing the debris of branches.

      –There must have been a strong wind at night and they just broke, nothing unusual, – patting me on the head, Paulina reassured me.

      "There was no wind, Mom, I was reading late," Mary's sleepy voice came from the hallway.

      "Well, anyway, we'll have to remove the branches before we leave," Henry said.

      This is what we did for half a day. Realizing that we would not be able to catch the train today, it was decided to go in the morning. Everything was collected. I took Tinky and Joe to the neighbors to look after our dogs while we were out of the village.

      On the way back, it seemed strange to me that the rosemary thickets are still thick and high. It was as if there were more of them, not less, despite the fact that we spent half a day removing broken branches. I didn't say anything about my observation to Mary. We went to bed early.

      It was the morning of October 31. When I woke up, I saw that the floor in my bedroom was littered with rosemary. Puzzled, I went to Mary's bedroom. She was still asleep and everything was normal in her room. I looked into the adults ' bedroom, they were also asleep, and everything was as usual in the bedroom.

      I went back to my room. The rosemary branches scattered on the floor did not disappear. I decided to clean up everything and not say anything about it to others. So I did.

      Everything was ready for our journey. We sat down to breakfast before leaving in high spirits. And there was a knock on the door. Pauline opened the door. It was the postman. He brought a letter addressed to me.

      –Sivana, baby, this is for you, – Paulina handed me the letter in surprise.

      – Is that really strange? Henry said, setting down his coffee cup.

      – Come on, open it quickly, who is it from? Mary said with surprising impatience.

      A letter without a return address. I opened the envelope, which only had "Sivane" written on it. There was no letter or postcard in it. In the envelope there was only a small sprig with blue fragrant flowers, a sprig of rosemary. Rosemary again! What does this mean?

      I told my family everything that I thought about this. About something that is strange in my opinion. A pile of broken branches yesterday in the yard, rosemary thickets that have become thicker and higher, the floor of my bedroom is strewn with rosemary branches today and this message is in an envelope.

      "We need to consult with Dick, maybe he will help us figure it out," Dr. Reindir suggested after finishing his coffee. He immediately put on a raincoat and went to our neighbor, his friend, the literature teacher Dick Howard.

      An hour later, Henry returned with a book.

      – Dick found this book in his possession, it's about legends. Everything he knows about rosemary, " he handed the book to me.

      "My dear, perhaps it would be better for you and the girls to stay. I'll go alone, I'll try to get back as soon as possible. I need to sort out my research, visit the professor. We'll all go to London together for Christmas, okay? – the doctor turned to his wife.

      – Yes. It's better this way, go. I'll look after the girls, " Pauline replied.

      – Tinky and Joe Dick will bring after a walk. If anything, he's on the alert. I told him about our strange incidents. He will look after our house. And you'd better not go out until I get back, " Henry said, kissing Pauline goodbye and hugging Mary and me, calming us down.

      Pauline and Mary began to prepare dinner, and I sat down next to her in a chair by the window for reading. Here's what I learned from the book.

      Rosemary in Latin means "sea dew". According to legend, rosemary flowers were white at first. The flowers turned blue when, during the flight with the little Christ from the soldiers of Herod, the Virgin Mary put on her blue cloak in a rosemary bush. Therefore, one of the many colloquial names of this plant is "Mary's cape".

      This happened with the light hand of the ancient Roman historian Pliny, who said that rosemary flowers have such an attractive color due to the fact that sea foam, falling on the flowers, turns them blue, because the plant is found mainly on the rocky sea coasts of the western Mediterranean.

      Even more legends surrounded rosemary in the Middle Ages. There is one scene in "Hamlet" – Ophelia's crazy speech in scene 5 of Act 4, when she distributes her bouquet to the audience. The associations evoked by each individual flower from the bouquet in the audience in the 16th century were completely definite and helped to reveal the characters of the characters of the play more clearly. But the bouquet of Ophelia, full of symbolic meaning, said little already in the 19th century, and even less to our contemporaries. Meanwhile, each flower in it is of key importance for determining the characters. The ancient ideas about rosemary as a plant that improves memory, strengthens vitality, heart and mind were preserved even in the time of Shakespeare. At the same time, rosemary sprigs began to decorate the bride's bouquets, symbolizing constancy, loyalty, strengthening love, devotion. On the other hand, rosemary was in demand not only in wedding, but also in funeral ceremonies and religious rites-to preserve the memory of the deceased. Thus, in the medieval language of flowers, Ophelia offers rosemary to her brother to strengthen his spirit and the memory of his father.

      Legends about rosemary persist among perfumers. "The Queen of Hungary Water", containing a distillate of rosemary flowers and tops, was considered the first miraculous remedy that preserves youth and beauty. "Water of the Hungarian Queen" is still considered one of the first alcoholic distillates in the history, the creation of which dates back to the end of the 14th century by perfume historians.

      The legendary rosemary water was created as a remedy for gout or rheumatism, which the elderly Hungarian Queen Elizabeth suffered from. A beautiful legend tells that a miraculous formula was created for rejuvenation, which happened so successfully that the queen became famous as Ninon de Lanclos, and at the age of 72 she captivated men with her beauty and youth, which made the Polish king offer her his hand and heart.

      The ancient Greeks used a drink from this evergreen plant to improve memory. Hence the student custom of weaving a sprig of rosemary into his hair.

      In the language of flowers, rosemary means loyalty and memory.

      The Greeks and Romans considered rosemary sacred. It symbolized love and death. In ancient Greece, a wreath of rosemary flowers was placed on the grave, rosemary branches were given to the relatives of the deceased. The Egyptians put a branch of rosemary in the hand of the deceased, it was believed that its fragrance would brighten up the journey to the land of the dead. The image of the rosemary branch is often used on tombstones. Rosemary's message is: remember and be faithful.

      Remember and be faithful – this is a message for me on my 10th birthday. Rosemary as a gift so that I remember what I forgot…It remains only to remember.

      Chapter 5. Henry's Epiphany

      A week after the incident with rosemary, Henry returned from London. We ran out to meet him. How nice it was to see the joy in his eyes. It was not only the joy of returning to his family after an absence, it was the joy of understanding what had been eluding him all this time.

      – I remember everything, I understand! – the doctor's first words as he approached the house.

      He told how he met his classmates and a professor in the city. How they spent their time, but this was only a prelude to the main news.

      "Sivana, I'm your real father," Dr. Reindir said when Pauline and Mary left to wash the dishes after dinner and we were left alone at the table.

      – How is this possible? I was surprised.

      – I got to London a little more than thirty years ago, I didn't remember how you did, how I got there and what happened before that. I was 26 years old at the time. The professor studied me for a long