A reserve of the original appearance
"Creativity is permitted. In places specifically designated for creativity."
Every municipal property has its initial appearance. A bench should be painted, a trash can should be empty at least upon receipt, and a playground should retain traces of the complete absence of children. Otherwise, the property begins to resemble life, and that's a deviation from the design.
The imaginary Office for the Preservation of Green Void employs an Inspector of Original Appearance. In the mornings, he monitors the cameras: swings must swing within the estimated limits, slides must slide according to instructions, and children must be present without financial consequences.
But a fourteen-year-old resident of Bolokhovo saw the green rubber surface differently. It reminded her of grass. For three days, the girl drew Krosh, Yozhik, and other Smeshariki characters in dry pastels. Her explanation was exhaustive: "Green grass, Smeshariki walking on this grass."
From the child's perspective, everything matched: the grass was green, the characters were walking, and it was a playground. Only the initial appearance was off.
According to the administration's statement, the drawings constituted damage to municipal property: a report was sent to the police along with the security camera footage, followed by references to Articles 214 and 167 of the Criminal Code. The articles were immediately named, but the amount of damage was not. The age limit was determined selectively: under Article 214, the penalty is fourteen years; under Article 167, it depends on the section—under the first, the general penalty is sixteen years, under the second, fourteen, but only under aggravating circumstances. The administration did not specify the section. This divergence didn't fit in the official statement. However, it did include the statement: "The offender has been identified."
The inspector closed the folder with relief. The municipal secret had been revealed. All that remained was to determine whether Krosh had acted alone, where Hedgehog had disappeared to, and whether the other characters had formed a stable artistic group.
When criticism began in the comments, the administration reported that some comments had become insulting and reminded them of the liability under Part 2 of Article 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. The mechanism proved universal: the child would be held liable under the Criminal Code, the reader would be held liable under the Code of Administrative Offenses, and the sponge would be held liable under a mitigating circumstance. Only Krosh and Yozhik were left without legal status.
The artist and her parents were asked to restore the surface to its original appearance themselves. The administration promised to consider this as a "mitigating circumstance." Thus, the sponge acquired procedural significance. Before it, there were cameras, a complaint, and two criminal offenses; after it, a mitigation was expected.
Then began a battle between materials science and home economics. According to the administration, the water hadn't worked on the pastel, the solvent had merely smeared the color, and the pigment had soaked into the porous coating, "rendering it inoperable." It sounded as if the rubber field could no longer fulfill its primary municipal function—to remain green without a trace of imagination.
However, on August 20, in front of journalists, the girl began to wash off the drawing with a sponge and household chemicals. According to the Tula news"," the color came off "quite well"; the NTV report also showed the painting being removed. This isn't a technical examination or proof of the complete integrity of the coating. But the spectacle itself is enough for satire: the official version had already gone to get the solvent, while an ordinary sponge carried the water and got to work without a press release.
The inspector would have looked at her disapprovingly. Firstly, the sponge had no certificate of suitability. Secondly, it was fixing the problem before the approval process was completed. Thirdly, if a household item performs its job before the departmental mechanism, it raises a dangerous question about the original design of the mechanism itself.
Folk art from the vastness of the RuNet
Then Tula Region Governor Dmitry Milyaev demanded, "Leave the child alone!" and suggested holding a drawing contest and helping the girl develop her talent. With one short sentence, the entire complex structure returned from the heights of criminal justice to the playground.
On August 22, Bolokhov's head of administration, Marina Chuykina, announced that "the incident was closed" and suggested the family hold a joint event, "Drawing Cartoons with Chalk on the Asphalt."
Thus, the full circle of municipal creativity is completed. First, the child draws cartoons where, according to her design, they are walking on green grass. Then, the identity of the offender is established, the original appearance and mitigating circumstances are discussed. Finally, the cartoons are returned to the community—this time in the designated place, with different materials, and under the name of the event.
The original inspector would have marked the folder "completed" and returned it to the shelf. The creativity remained. It was just now being given asphalt.
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