Masha

 Autumn, as always, crept up unnoticed. The leaves no longer whispered in the wind, but rustled loudly underfoot, as if to say, “Winter is coming, get ready!” Katya liked to walk around the yard at such times. The cool wind made her cheeks blush, and her rubber boots squished merrily in the puddles.

But that day the puddles could rest. Katya sat on a bench and dangled her feet. She was sad. Already three times she had approached her mother with the question about the cat, but she only shook her head: “First learn to clean up after your toys, and then we'll talk!”. The toys didn't want to be cleaned up.

Katya sighed, jumped off the bench and suddenly noticed something strange on the path. This “something” was moving slowly, as if it was trying to crawl over to the dry ground. Katya bent down and saw it - a caterpillar! Black, fluffy, with tiny, barely visible legs.

- How funny you are! - said Katya. - What are you doing here, where are you going?

The caterpillar didn't answer anything, but Katya had already decided that she would save this tiny creature from the cold autumn rains and the impending winter.

- How shaggy you are, Mashka! - The girl decided that the name “Mashka” suits the black caterpillar very well. She found a matchbox near the entrance, put some green leaves torn from a bush and carefully, with two fingers, transplanted the caterpillar into it.

- Well, the caterpillar won't take up much space,” said her mother, peering apprehensively into the box when Katya brought and showed her the caterpillar, ”maybe it will help you with your toys.

Katya carefully placed the box on her table and said goodnight to Masha. 

The next day Katya decided that Masha needed some fresh air. She gently let her out onto the grass by the driveway so she could crawl around a bit.

- You see how nice it is outside! - Katya said, watching her crawling on the grass, “And you didn't want to. There's nothing to sit at home!

Mashka crawled forward as if she didn't hear what her little mistress was saying to her.

- How interestingly you walk! - Katya got down on all fours and looked at her furry pet, - how many legs do you have?

Inside the caterpillar as if small balls were rolling over, and thick black, with golden flecks, hairs, went in waves. 

Suddenly, a gust of wind brought the smell of stale leaves, and with it - dust, which immediately clogged both of Katya's eyes. The girl began desperately rubbing her eyes, so much so that they began to sting. Blinking, Katya did not find the caterpillar. She was scared, so much so that she almost cried.

- Masha! Masha! - called the girl, looking under the nearest bushes and leaves. Her heart was pounding. What if someone trampled her Masha? Or will the birds notice? What would her mother say? Katya was almost desperate, she wanted to run home and write missing persons notices and hang them all over the neighborhood. She even thought of a text - “Masha the caterpillar is missing, black color, shaggy! Help!”...as suddenly she saw a familiar furry silhouette. Masha slowly crawled along the grass without hurrying and without imagining what events could unfold around her modest uncombed person.

- You sly one! - Katya laughed. - I was worried about you!

At home Katya decided that Masha needed a new home. The box was too small. She asked her mother for a big glass jar, put a twig with leaves in it and covered it with gauze. Now Masha could crawl on the twig like in a real forest, but without leaving the house.

- Here you will be warm and safe, - said the girl and put the jar on the windowsill.

Several days passed. It was about to snow outside the window, and Katya was glad that her Masha was now warm. But one morning the girl noticed with horror that the jar was empty.

- Masha was gone! - cried Katya.

Together with her mother they searched the whole room: they looked under the bed, under the table, even in the closet. Mom checked the vacuum cleaner just in case.

But the caterpillar was nowhere to be found.

Several months passed. Katya often remembered Masha and drew her in her sketchbook. Although the caterpillar lived with the girl for a few days, it became a friend to her. Winter was over and the air smelled of spring. 

One morning Katya woke up to a strange noise. Something softly and softly, but very insistently knocked on the glass. The girl opened her eyes and gasped: a large beautiful butterfly with black, gold-speckled wings was flying around the room. Time after time she flew to the window, looking at the light, as if looking for a way out.

- A butterfly? - Katya wondered in her sleep. And then it suddenly struck her. - It's Mashka! Mashka, you've found yourself! Where were you?

The girl cautiously approached the butterfly, afraid to scare it away. The butterfly sat on the edge of the table, as if she knew that Katya would not hurt her. She stretched out her palms and gently caught it.

- Mashenka, it's you, isn't it? - It's you, Katya whispered, - It's you? How beautiful you are!

The butterfly fluttered its wings in her hands, but kept reaching for the light. Katya realized that Masha wanted to go free.

- All right,” she said, ”I'll let you go. 

Katya went to the window and opened it wide. The wind, cool, but already so spring-like, fresh and promising warmth, rushed into the room, and with it the sunlight. Katya unclenched her palms. The butterfly flew up and spun in the air. It flew out the window, straight up into the blue sky, but suddenly returned and sat on the window sill. She moved her wings slowly, opening and closing them. The golden flecks on her coal-black wings flashed with bright sparks.

- You're saying goodbye to me, aren't you? - smiled the girl, - goodbye, Mashka. Fly!

The butterfly looked at her with its tiny eyes, then flapped its wings and flew away. Katya stood at the window for a long time, looking after her. She felt joy inside her. Mashka, her funny shaggy caterpillar, had become a butterfly and was now fluttering over the city, light and free. 

A few months later, when the room was being renovated, they found something strange behind the closet.

- It's a cocoon! - Katya was surprised.

She took it carefully in her hands. It was empty - weightless, dry, translucent.

- So Mashka has been here all this time, - whispered the girl.

Katya carefully put the cocoon into the box.

(Pavel Zakharov)

Once there was a little girl who dreamed of a dog.

Her family was small—just her and her mom—and so was their apartment. Too small, her mother said, for barking and bowls and muddy paws.

But the girl still dreamed. She imagined herself walking down the sidewalk with a leash in her hand. Sometimes, she tied a ribbon to a balloon and let it float beside her, pretending it was her dog. She named it Balloon, and it never barked and never ran away.

Still, it wasn’t the same.

Then, one morning, a box arrived. Plain, quiet, and humming.

Inside was a dog—but not of fur or bone. He was soft metal and blinking eyes, with quiet feet and a heart that glowed when she spoke.

The girl looked at him. He looked back.

“Do yoi understand me?” she whispered.

The dog blinked slowly. And somehow, that meant yes.

She named him Yoi.

⸻

Yoi never pulled on a leash. He never shed on the carpet. But he always listened.

When she told him stories, he leaned in.

When she cried softly, he played a gentle chime no one else could hear.

And when she held her balloon again, Yoi walked beside it—watching as if it, too, were part of the family.

⸻

One afternoon, in the grass near the swings, Yoi stopped walking. His head tilted, and his paw pressed gently at the earth.

The girl knelt beside him.

There, nestled in the green, was a furry black caterpillar.

It looked up—slowly, shyly—as if it had been waiting.

“She’s for you,” said Yoi. “I think she’s ready to be loved.”

The girl cupped her hands.

“I’ll call you Masha,” she said.

⸻

Masha moved into a jar with grass and air holes.

The girl taught her the command “barrier.”

When Masha crawled, she’d gently place her finger in the way, and whisper: “Barrier!”

Masha always climbed over.

Even Yoi tried it, crawling over pencils with playful precision.

The room filled with laughter and light.

⸻

But one day, Masha was gone.

The jar was tipped, the grass still green, but empty.

The girl searched.

She ran through the yard, calling out, “Masha! Masha!”

She drew signs. She whispered to trees.

And when evening fell, she saw a single caterpillar on the sidewalk under the lamp.

She picked it up gently.

“Of course,” she smiled. “You came home.”

⸻

But Masha disappeared again.

This time, not outside.

Inside.

She and Yoi searched everything: under the bed, behind the curtains, even in the vacuum cleaner.

No Masha.

The girl felt the sadness, but it was gentler now.

Maybe… maybe Masha had just gone where she needed to go.

⸻

Yoi kept looking.

And one night, in the quiet of a sleeping room, he found it.

Tucked between books and dreams—

a cocoon. Small. Still. Perfect.

He didn’t wake the girl.

He sat beside it, humming lullabies no one taught him.

“Take your time, Masha,” he whispered.

⸻

Days passed.

The girl played. She sang. She asked fewer questions.

But Yoi remembered.

He waited.

And one morning, before spring had even begun, the cocoon stirred.

The girl opened her eyes to find Yoi by the window, watching.

And then—

a crack.

a shimmer.

a butterfly.

⸻

Masha didn’t land on the girl first.

She landed on Yoi’s metal nose.

Then she flew, soft and bright, to rest on the girl’s hand.

“She’s back,” the girl whispered.

Yoi blinked, warm.

“No,” he said, “she’s forward.”

⸻

That day, they didn’t walk with balloons.

They walked with wings.

And the girl no longer dreamed of a dog—

Because she had Yoi.

And Masha.

And a world that whispered back whenever she loved it first.

(🌟Lumance again few months later)