came live and somehow grew up , because in addition to the town ’ s daily routine came something strange , something unseen , which was so nice and beautiful , because it seemed like a lie in which everybody believed .
A pure truth makes life chill , a pretty lie makes it pleasant . This news came with the spring and the little town upgraded doubly☺ . The tree buds cracked fast , and in the clean gardens the first flowers came out . Little butterflies flew through the big fences , and fluttered over the sunny houses .
When quiet Smarayda heard that , she smiled with such a young and beautiful smile as she hadn ’ t smiled in a long time . She , like never before , stayed long in front of the mirror .
Then she cleaned the roots of the big roses on whose stalks went life ’ s vigour . When she got to church on the next holiday , she heard whispers behind her back , felt jealous looks from every side , and that went like a new power through her body , which made Smarayda for the first time in so many years open her eyes larger .
On the way back she walked down the main street . Men sat in front of the cafes . She felt their looks full of desire , which she caught and dragged like invisible reins up to the farthest turn . When she hid in the small lanes , she went home quickly and excited like a young girl .
On the first days of the Lent , the time when the hardest tree – the dogwood – blooms – Pavel the Blessed went across the town to handle caterpillars and cultivate trees .
During his work , while he was on the ladder pulling the string of the scissors , he thought about Smarayda ’ s gold hair , and wondered if it was true or not . He hadn ’ t seen Smarayda , but his friends told him that they had met her and she really looked like having something about herself that other women hadn ’ t .
One day he told his friends that he was going to Smarayda ’ s house to clean her trees from caterpillars . From this day on , he didn ’ t show up in the café anymore , and those who saw him enter the house with a ladder and a pair of scissors on his shoulder wondered . They believed that Smarayda really had a gold hair .
On Palm Sunday , before she took the communion , Smarayda , looking down , quietly , but without regret , when she was talking to the old confessor in the small church admitted that she had made a mistake with the Blessed , and after the holidays was going to marry him .