Brownie⁣

For the first time, my ex-husband told me about the strange inhabitant of my apartment. We divorced many years ago, without swearing and mutual reproaches. Everyone has started a new interesting life, and communication continues now, and always very friendly.

That year I bought a new apartment, and my daughter and I took a cat. And after a while we went to rest, we wanted to get closer to the gentle sea and the southern sun. The cat needs to eat well, then I remembered about my ex-husband, asked to visit the pet every two days. He didn’t mind. He called one evening: he says, they say, he stopped by Anfisa (our cat), but he was so tired at work during the day that he had no strength left to go home (and his apartment is two hours away from ours). He asked if it was possible to spend the night with us.

“Of course you can,” I answer.

Early in the morning, another call from my ex. And he asks in a frightened way:

– Luda, how do you sleep in this apartment?

“Very well,” I replied, “we’re sleeping.” Wonderful even. What happened to you?

– Have you seen or heard anything unusual all the time?

“They haven’t seen or heard,” I said, surprised. – So what happened to you?

– I wake up, then, at night, – said the ex–husband. – I look, and your cat Anfiska is sitting in the doorway of the room, looking at me with her eyes so attentively. If only it were that simple! It was I who thought that Anfiska. And who else can? There were two of us in the apartment. It’s hard to see, of course, but I managed to make out – a small something, fluffy, the eyes only shine so brightly in the dark. I thought that cats are still unusual animals. And why can’t they sleep at night? He waved his hand and turned to the wall. And then a surprise was waiting for me: Anfiska was sleeping on a blanket there!

I was immediately thrown into a fever. I looked again at the threshold – this furry creature is sitting in the same place. And I wasn’t laughing, Luda! My heart started beating at a breakneck speed from horror, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. “Fuck me,” he said to this creature. It somehow automatically flew out. The furry creature only blinked and slipped out of the room. Then it was as if someone was giggling softly in the corridor, barely audible. After this night meeting, the dream was lifted by hand, but the shaggy creature did not come to me anymore.

– Misha, what kind of children’s horror stories! I laughed. – Stop joking! Yes, tell the others how the brownie came to look at you.

– If someone had told me about the meeting with the brownie, I wouldn’t have believed it in my life! But I saw him myself,” Misha continued to convince me. – Stories or not, my mother has lived in the village all her life and often told me about such cases.

“Misha, it was like that in the village,” I disagreed. – And we live in a city, we have a civilization here, what kind of brownies can there be?

But my heart somehow felt uneasy from the story of my ex-husband. Mikhail is a solid man, does not drink, so what happened cannot be called a hallucination. I found sites about mystical phenomena, read, looked at what they write there, but is it possible to believe this? People who claim the existence of brownies claim that it is necessary to appease the owner – he should leave a treat in a corner.

And at that moment, I myself remembered that when Misha and I were young and started living together in a new apartment, his mother gave a similar advice: put a saucer with sweets in a secluded corner so that the brownie wouldn’t get angry. So be it, I thought, the treat will not be superfluous. I left a plate of sweets and cookies on the refrigerator, and I also said out loud: “Help yourself, brownie, we’ll be friends.” I soon forgot about this story, but out of habit I continued to put fresh sweets on a plate.

One day my sister came, she promised to stay with us for a long time. But it turned out badly – soon after her arrival she caught a bad cold. The doctor was called, they ran to the pharmacy for medicines. My sister is lying, drinking, but there is no improvement. In the morning, on the sixth day of Irina’s illness, I woke up from the noise in the kitchen. I enter, and my Irisha is sitting there, something is interfering with a spoon in a mug and looking at the floor thoughtfully.

– What’s wrong with you? I asked her.

Ira perked up.

– You won’t believe me, sis! I woke up in the middle of the night, and the cough is getting stronger, I can’t breathe. I wanted to take a glass of water from the table, but it seemed to me that there was someone in the doorway. It’s pitch dark, almost nothing is visible, but I took a closer look, and someone small and shaggy is sitting at the door. I didn’t understand if his hair was straight or wool. And the eyes are so huge, green. Well, I think your cat scared me. And this shaggy one jumped on my chest. And not a cat at all!

Shaggy, but a human face, arms, legs are small. I couldn’t even scream out of fear, I just opened my mouth soundlessly. And this creature took advantage of the moment and blew into my open mouth. And all this in a second! The shaggy creature disappeared as if it had never been there. I must have been lying like this for a long time, my heart was pounding with fear, and it was scary to move or get up. Then gradually it felt so good in my soul, as if someone had quietly sung a lullaby to me. Almost immediately I fell asleep. And after waking up, I felt that my throat no longer hurts. Absolutely. And the temperature is within normal limits. Did it seem to me at night, Luda?

I thought for a minute.

“No, Irisha,” she replied to her sister. – Apparently, our host is a brownie, he doesn’t want you to get sick. And cured you at night. He’s kind, it turns out. And it helps us.

Then I told her about the incident that happened to my ex-husband Misha at our house. It turns out that this is how we live – me, my daughter, our cat Anfisa and the brownie. It’s amazing that I’ve never seen him myself. Yes, to be honest, I would not really like to.