ISBN 978-5-0056-4922-5

      Created with Ridero smart publishing system

      Seven brownie Stories

      ACQUAINTANCE

      – Timoshka, where are you a prankster? I hear some rustling. Where did you spend the night? Come tell me, what kind of bride did you have? – shuffling my slippers, I walked around the three-room apartment and talked to my invisible cat.

      In response to my words, there was a strange sound that came from the kitchen.

      Probably, Timoshka is climbing on the sideboard and rustling the packages that my wife Natasha left from last night.

      – Well, I got a prankster!

      But to my amazement, there was no cat. The kitchen was completely empty and glistened with cleanliness.

      Strange thoughts immediately came into my head. Someone walks around the apartment, right? Maybe it’s a thief? And for safety, I took with me what was at hand, and it was a broom.

      Now there was a noise in the living room, something resounding clattered on the floor. Bang!

      «It looks like a flower has fallen from the windowsill»

      I thought and already began to understand that this is definitely not Timoshka. After all, the cat was very smart and having lived with us for a long time never broke anything.

      I ran into the room with a quick step and a broom in my hands, but out of surprise I sat down on the sofa that stood near the aisle.

      There was a creature climbing up the curtain in the living room, something completely incomprehensible to me. It looked like a little man in a gray straw hat. He was climbing up like a rock climber climbing a mountain. At the same time, clinging to his little hands, he crawled and groaned loudly.

      – Where are you going? – I calmly asked him, instead of a flurry of surging emotions.

      – Yes, I am. I have to go upstairs,» the peasant grunted in response and continued to crawl, not paying attention to me.

      – Wait, – I said.

      It immediately seemed to me that there would be no danger from him and I became very interested in who I was dealing with.

      – Who are you and where are you going?

      – I’m in a hurry to get home, see? – without letting go of the curtain, the peasant said from above.

      – Where is home, there’s a ceiling up there. Hit it when you reach the top.

      – It’s your people’s ceiling. And we have a Non-Land beginning there.

      – Wouldn’t… what?» I asked, confused.

      Slowly and imperceptibly coming close to him.

      – Non-fiction. Do you understand? The world in which brownies live, and we only go to work in your world. And I’ve been lingering here with you today.

      – What’s your name? – I continued to ask my questions further.

      – Zyuzya, – the brownie answered proudly.

      «You have a funny name,» I said cheerfully.

      – I know your name, you don’t have to tell me.

      – And how? I asked, confused.

      – Vasily is your name, like the cat from the next apartment. You are even sometimes confused.

      «How do you know that?»

      – I know all about you. We brownies are such a people, we know everything about people. And we write it down in our workbooks.

      – And why?

      – This is our job.

      And then I took him by the leg, and began to pull him down from the curtain. Zyuzya began to resist with all his might, clinging to the curtain to crawl up. But suddenly his little shoe stayed in my hand.

      – Vasily, give it to me, our things should not remain in your world, otherwise one of the worlds will simply disappear. «Do you understand?» the brownie said tearfully.

      – Come on, you will come to me in the evening for seven days and tell the most interesting stories. And on the seventh day I will return your shoe.

      – Well, well. He asked for it. Be it your way. I’ll be back!

      And the room became quiet again, Zyuzya just disappeared into thin air and disappeared.

      «He must have flown to his Non-land,» I thought.

      The flower that was lying on the floor and the broken pot, as if nothing had happened, stood whole on the windowsill. Well, I was holding his tiny red shoe in my hand.

      THE FIRST STORY

      The sun was shining happily outside the window. It was a hot July. The boss gave me a short vacation, so I was happily sitting on the couch next to a lazily sprawled cat and preparing spinning for the long-awaited night fishing.

      – Timoshka, can you imagine I saw a real brownie yesterday, I thought at first that it was you who came back from a party, – I told my cat, looking into his multicolored eyes.

      One eye was yellow, and the other was a beautiful, real emerald.

      – Yes, what do you understand now, – I continued, because you cats hear human speech, but you do not understand the words at all, you can only distinguish the intonation. Affectionate means good, and evil means you have to run.

      – As if not so. You don’t know anything about these animals yourself, Vasily,» a familiar voice was heard in the room.

      – Zyuzya?

      I got up from the sofa and went to the curtain and began to shake it slightly.

      – Vasya, stop shaking the curtain, I’m already here.

      And when I turned back, I saw my yesterday’s guest lying on the sofa instead of Timoshka.

      – How did you sneak in so unnoticed? But I am very glad to see you! I exclaimed.

      «Well, I’m not happy at all,» his voice was heard in response.

      – Why is that?

      – It’s interesting for people to study our world, and we know yours. We come here to you only for work and I already told you yesterday,» Zyuzya replied and a strange gleam appeared in his black eyes.

      – Yes, I remember saying about the notebooks that you keep some kind of record about us.

      – Well, Vasily, I’m going to tell you one of our ancient stories about cats. Listen and draw conclusions,» the brownie giggled merrily.

      – Come on, I’ll listen, – I said and sat down contentedly in a chair opposite Zyuzi, that the most interesting thing about Timoshka was nowhere with the appearance of the brownie.

      – It was a long time ago, a hundred thousand years ago, as our chroniclers write. Nebylandiya was a real paradise for all creatures, and cats were idolized there and were always kept as a talisman in their family clan. These cute fuzzies loved Non-Land very much, but as it turned out later, they loved our world, but not us.

      They were taken with them on trips to different worlds and even to work here on your Earth.

      But cats have neglected our trust and love. They had their own thoughts about Non-Land. They took a poisonous ointment from our enemies ghosts from the world of Shadows and began to smear wool with it constantly.

      – Come on, you don’t believe it. And what happened next?

      – And then all the brownies from the world of Non-Land who had cats in the clan began to sneeze endlessly. And they even began to die from endless sneezing and runny nose,