ONE DAY

Munavvara USMONOVA

ONE DAY

I was a child. I waited without sleep for my father to come home from work. My father, who was a public transport driver during the day, sometimes worked on duty at night. There was no sadness in my father’s eyes, and no gratitude in his words. I liked to smell their palms without pouring water on them. My poor father would be overjoyed at that moment. «You are the only one who loves my hands smelling of oil, my daughter,» he said, stroking my head.

One day my father came home happy. Looking at my mother, who was putting food on the table, he said: - Tomorrow there will be a big meeting at the bus station. The head of personnel called me and said, «We nominated you for the award. Come dressed well tomorrow, big leaders are coming from Tashkent, they will hand it over with their own hands. «You are the first driver in Andijan region,» he said. At that moment, a kind of light and joy flashed in my father’s eyes. I couldn’t sleep all night and thought about it. I also thought that if my father was given a bigger gift, the sick man would not be able to afford it. Even though I was a child, I used to lose sleep thinking that he must give money, a lot of money. And finally dawn came. He grabbed my father’s hand and said, «Dad, don’t be late. I will wait for you on the street,» I said. I sat down. The day began to dawn. I saw my father’s bus at the beginning of the street and took the lead. He happily held the big box in his hand to me. We all got into the house and opened it. There was a small wooden teddy bear inside the big, quiet box that barely held me in my arms. I could not believe my eyes and opened the bottom of the box. There were also inscriptions carved on a board placed under his feet. I looked at the teddy bear in my palms and cried with pain. I immediately put the gift away so that my parents and brothers would know what I had been thinking about all night long. I could not look my father in the eye. For some reason, no one said anything. Only one brother said: «The little bear did not carry a barrel of honey in vain.» «This will bring wealth to our home,» he said. Every time I saw the teddy bear standing on the shelf, something stuck in my throat. I wanted to sit and hug my father’s leg and cry with all my voice. Then... then my brothers got together to buy a wall clock for my dad’s birthday. The teddy bear sitting above the clock on the wall was close to my father. Forty years, and even more, were with my father. My brothers are scattered in four directions. I was also caught by fate. And the bear was next to my father. He was by my father’s side even when my father prayed for us during the Joynamaz, when my sick sister sat at his head and tears poured from her eyes, and when he said «wow» and «oh» in the trials of fate.

One day my father invited me to his place. That teddy bear in his hand. «Daughter, I brought you up, I sacrificed my life to make you happy. I introduced black and white. I pray that you will become a great poet. I have hope... I’m old. There is no confidence in a man approaching ninety. I have no wealth or valuables to give you. I want to give you this teddy bear. Fortunately, he was not alive. May it be with you now. I was talking to him. I stroked his head and caressed him. I asked if you were in pain. Do the same. Appreciate him as my father’s friend for half a century», he said...

Wow, dad, my dear dad!!! Forgive this lifeless little girl of yours... Forgive me, FATHER...

Translator - Madinabonu Makhammadrizoyeva