Christmas miracle. Yuri Maslov

Seeing her car he started barking loudly. However, when she got out, he immediately recognized her and stopped barking. He just stood and looked at his owner.

      She greeted Max and went straight to the house. It was pretty chilly outside. At night the temperature dropped to zero degrees Celsius.

      «Hi, guys,» she said loudly as she entered the house.

      «Hello, Mom.»

      «Hello, son. How was your day?»

      «Good.»

      «Did you feed Max today?»

      «Yes, Mom.»

      «Good. Where is Greta?»

      «She is upstairs, in her room.»

      «I see. And what are you doing?» she asked. «Watching TV again?»

      «Well, yes.»

      «What about homework? Have you done all for tomorrow?»

      «Yes, Mom. They did now give us a lot of homework so I’ve already done everything,» he answered in a calm voice.

      «Are you sure?»

      «I am, Mom.»

      «Good. Are you hungry or have you already eaten something?»

      «Greta and I have had dinner.»

      «And what did you eat today?»

      «We had schnitzel and rice.»

      «Excellent. So, I should not cook for you?»

      «No, Mom.»

      «All right. So, I will just prepare something for myself.»

      «Mom, you came a little later than usual today,» he said and looked at his mother.

      However, she pretended not to hear his words and did not reply.

      «Mom, do you hear me?» he repeated his question again.

      «Sorry, son. What did you say?»

      «I said that today you came home later than usual.»

      «Yes, that’s true.»

      «Why is that?»

      «There were things to do.»

      «What kind of things?» he asked tirelessly.

      «Urgent matters. Okay, enough questions for today. Let me eat in peace.»

      Martha suddenly felt rather tired. She didn’t have much of an appetite and decided to make herself just a salad for dinner. She decided not to tell anything to her children for the time being. Perhaps she was simply overtired at work. Maybe that was the reason for that unpleasant incident at the restaurant.

      Lately, she has been working quite a lot and not resting much. And the last time she was on vacation was the year before.

      Probably, this all happened to her today due to too much stress on the body. After all, with whom it doesn’t happen?

      This could happen to anyone. She slowly finished her salad and decided to go straight to the bathroom. She was so tired that after the bath she immediately went to her room. She lay down on the bed and fell asleep instantly. The accumulated fatigue and various experiences throughout the day made themselves felt.

      She was already sound asleep when her daughter came into her room.

      «Mom, are you sleeping?» she whispered.

      But there was only silence in response. Greta realized that her mother was very tired today. That’s why she went to bed so early. The girl stepped closer to her.

      «I love you so much,» she whispered.

      Then she kissed her mother on the cheek and left the room.

      CHAPTER 3

      TUESDAY

      Morning came. Martha got up reluctantly from the bed and stared out the window. Behind the glass, flakes of white snow were already circling with might and main, covering the roofs of houses, trees, cars and the earth itself. It seemed that the snow had been falling all night and was not going to stop. Outside the window there was a real winter wonderland on the eve of kind and bright Christmas holidays. Zurich was a great place to live even in the winter time.

      The ancient architecture of the city attracted many tourists from all over Europe and beyond. Martha really liked her hometown, and the children also loved this place very much at any time of the year. She also loved her job and the very fact that she had two wonderful children.

      She also liked Peter a lot. She repeatedly imagined how they would live together in a house under the same roof someday.

      Her beloved was a very kind and caring person. In addition, he had excellent taste and a good sense of humor.

      Like every morning, she went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. She hardly had the time to finish brushing when a violent cough broke out again.

      She coughed over the bathroom sink for about ten seconds. After the cough stopped, she washed her face again with cold water.

      At that very moment, she noticed the drops of blood on the sink. She got pretty nervous.

      «What on earth is the matter with me?» she said aloud. «This terrible cough again and more blood.»

      She chased away all negative thoughts and from the bathroom went straight to her children’s bedrooms to wake them up. First, she entered Mark’s room.

      According to the good old tradition, his alarm didn’t go off again. Or did he just forget to put it on?

      «Wake up, son. Time to get up.»

      «Okay, Mom.»

      «No „moms“. It’s time to get out of bed.»

      «Can I get some more sleep?» he asked in a sleepy voice.

      «No. Now is the time to get up and go wash up,» she said decisively.

      «Okay, Mom,» he said, and began to reluctantly get out of bed.

      «Get up, son. In the meantime, I’ll go and wake up your sister,» she said and headed to Greta’s room.

      When she entered her daughter’s room, she saw that Greta had already woken up.

      «Good morning, Mom.»

      «Good morning, sweetie. I see you are already awake.»

      «I am. I am an adult already and a responsible one so I can wake up on my own. Besides, I have an alarm clock.»

      «Yes, I know. You are a big girl. Why can’t your brother ever wake up on his own?!»

      «Because he always forgets to set his alarm.»

      «Exactly,» she agreed and smiled. «Okay, I’ll be waiting for you in the kitchen. Just try not to be late.»

      «Okay, Mom. You can rely on me, but I can’t vouch for Mark.»

      «I know,» she said, and smiled at her daughter.

      Martha was a good housewife and in some incredible way managed to always do everything on time. When she started preparing breakfast for the children, she suddenly remembered that she needed to pass all the tests from the referral that her family doctor gave her. And she could do it that very day.

      She took care of her health and understood that the situation should be solved with no delay. At the end of the working day she had enough time to pass all the necessary checks.

      In addition, she was very alarmed by this strong fit of coughing that she had this morning. And at the sight of her own blood, she generally felt sick.

      Meanwhile, the children were already in the kitchen. The first question they asked was about their long-awaited breakfast.

      «Already hungry early in the morning, guys?» she asked.

      «Yes,