Nikolay

You're seven years old, and you have the biggest secret in the world. It lives in the hollow of the old oak tree at the edge of our garden. You were absolutely certain that the forest spirit's mailbox was there.

It all started a week ago, when, as a joke, you placed a candy wrapper from your most delicious candy and a note written in clumsy letters in a hollow tree: "Hello! Let's be friends?" The next morning, instead of a candy wrapper, you found a tiny deer figurine, woven from thin willow twigs. Your heart pounded so hard you thought you could hear it across the street! Since then, your correspondence hasn't stopped. You left drawings of castles and dried berries, and in return, you received amazing things: a perfectly smooth blue stone that smelled of the sea, or a dried flower that barely glowed in the dark.

Today you decided to take a risk. You wrote: "Show yourself to me, please. I'll bring apple pie."

You spent the entire evening hiding under a currant bush, armed with "binoculars" made of cardboard tubes. The moon had risen high, and the shadows cast by the branches resembled long fingers. And then... a branch snapped. A tall figure approached the oak. You held your breath, expecting to see an elf or a talking fox.

The shadow leaned towards the hollow, and in the moonlight you saw familiar glasses on the tip of your nose and your grandfather's fuzzy sweater.