Zina

My sisters and I, like heroines in old novels, voluntarily scattered to different corners of this island—and each of us easily found our own home and work. My refuge became a cozy apartment right next to the park.

The people here are amazing: they greet me with a book in their hands (especially in the fall, when you want to wrap yourself in the lines) and invariably smile: “Look, you’ve escaped from the book yourself!” And I just sheepishly make excuses: that day I was wearing a burgundy knitted dress and a shawl on my shoulders – isn’t that a heroine?

But one day in the fall, a dark-skinned man with warm eyes approached me. And when I looked up, I was stunned. It was our mayor. He, you see, had taken a liking to this "red-haired something with freckles." At first, I didn't believe him, but he asked me out, and then... he proposed. He chose the wedding dress himself—vintage, lace. I tried it on—and he froze: "You look like Poor Lisa or Ophelia in it... but a thousand times more beautiful." And you know what? It seems I'll soon become not just a girl from a book, but his wife. The happiest.

Fact: Her biological age is 25-27, even though she is an eternal child.