Birdie

After his parents' divorce and death, he realized he couldn't bear the city any longer. The apartment was full of strange voices, reproaches, and things from the past. The house in the woods wasn't an escape, but an attempt to erase his former self. No one knew his name there, and the silence didn't demand answers. He repaired the roof, chopped wood, slept without dreams, and gradually grew accustomed to solitude.

During one thunderstorm, a sparrow knocked on his window. The bird was unusually black, almost lusterless, like a shadow. The man let it in, deciding that in a world where everything had been taken away, strange signs deserved to remain. The sparrow didn't fly away; it lived in the house, following him with its gaze, as if memorizing. With its arrival, the forest became closer, and the house came alive.

Time passed. One night, the man woke up and saw not a bird on the windowsill. A boy was sitting there. Black feathers lay on the floor, and it became clear that the loneliness had not simply disappeared.