"Lord alive, what happened then!
He threw his arms round my neck, he kissed my cheeks, my lips, my forehead, and started chirping away like a little bird.
'Daddy dear!
I knew it!
I knew you'd find me!
I knew you'd find me whatever happened!
I've been waiting so long for you to find me!'
He pressed himself to me and he was trembling all over, like a blade of grass in the wind.
My eyes were misty and I was trembling, too, and my hands were shaking .... How I managed to keep hold of the wheel I don't know.
Even so I put her in the ditch and stopped the engine.
While my eyes were so misty I was afraid to go, in case I knocked someone down.
We sat there for about five minutes and my little son was still clinging to me for all he was worth, and not saying anything, just trembling all over.
I put my right arm round him, hugged him gently, and turned the lorry round with my left hand and drove hack to the cottage where I lived.
I just couldn't go to the elevator after that.
"I left the lorry at the gate, took my new son in my arms and carried him into the house.
And he got his little arms round my neck and hung on tight.
He pressed his cheek to my unshaven chin and stuck there.
And that's how I carried him in.
My friend and his wife were both at home.
I came in and winked at them with both eyes. Then, bold and cheerful, I said:
'Well, I've found my little Vanya at last.
Here we are, good people.'
They hadn't got any children themselves and they both wanted a kid, so they guessed what was up straightaway and started bustling around.
And the kid just wouldn't let me put him down.
But I managed it somehow.
I washed his hands with soap and sat him down at the table.
My friend's wife ladled him out a plate of soup, and when she saw how he gulped it down, she just burst into tears.
She stood at the stove, crying into her apron.
And my Vanya, he saw she was crying, and he ran up to her, tugged at her skirt and said:
'Why are you crying, Auntie?
Daddy found me near the cafe. Everyone ought to be happy, and you are crying.'
But she only cried all the harder.
"After dinner I took him to the barber's to have his hair cut, and at home I gave him a bath myself in a tub and wrapped him up in a clean sheet.
He put his arms round me and went to sleep in my arms.
I laid him gently in bed, drove off to the elevator, unloaded the grain and took the lorry back to the park. Then I went to the shops.
I bought him a pair of serge trousers, a little shirt, a pair of sandals and a straw cap.
Of course, it all turned out to be the wrong size and no g-ood for quality.
My friend's wife even gave me a ticking-off over the trousers.
'Are you crazy,' she says, 'dressing a boy in serge trousers in heat like this!'
And the next minute she had the sewing-machine on the table and was rummaging in the chest, and in an hour she had a pair of cotton trousers and a white shirt ready for my Vanya.
I took him to bed with me and for the first time for many a night fell asleep peacefully.
I woke up about four times in the night though.
And there he was, nestling in the crook of my arm, like a sparrow under the eaves, breathing away softly. I can't find words to tell you how much joy I felt.
I'd try not to move, so as not to disturb him, but it was no good. I'd get up very quiet, light a match and just stand there, admiring him ....
"Just before daybreak I woke. I couldn't make out why it seemed so stuffy.
It was my little son. He'd climbed out of his sheet and was lying right across my chest, with his little foot on my throat.
He's a rare young fidget to sleep with, he is; but I've got used to him. I miss him when he's not there.
At night, I can stroke him while he's sleeping, I can smell his curls. It takes some of the pain out of my heart, makes it a bit softer. It had just about turned to stone, you know. -
"At first he used to ride with me in the lorry, then I realised that that wouldn't do.
After all, what do I need when I'm on my own?