The Magic Cheese - стр. 3
The old lady paid no attention to him and started to read the labels, following them with her hand in a glove – that way it was easier for her to read, Vovka guessed. He looked at her strong glasses and felt sorry for the old lady – the letters were so small and she was straining to read them.
”Can I help you, madam?” asked Vovka.
The moment he said that, the old lady suddenly vanished, as if he had never seen her before. Vovka was completely amazed! But also another wonderful thing happened – a new sort of cheese appeared in the shop window. Vovka had never seen this one before. On a bright yellow wrapper it was written with red letters: “Magic Cheese, weight 200 gr.” There was also a smiling little mouse on the wrapper. It even seemed to Vovka that the mouse winked at him. Well, of course, it could not be real – had anybody ever seen winking mice? Suddenly Vovka wished to try this magic cheese so strongly that he took it and went straight to the cash-desk. But, strangely enough, a cashier didn’t take any money for it.
At home Vovka washed his hands first – after all, he was a big boy to know about bacteria. Then he went to the kitchen, turned the kettle on and put cups and saucers on the table: for Mama, Grandpa, Grandma, and for himself. He put biscuits and sooshkas into a biscuit dish and got a sugar-pot. As for the cheese, Vovka sliced it thinly and laid on a plate. He couldn’t help having a tiny slice of it. “What an unusual smell!” he thought in amazement. “It doesn’t smell like cheese at all – it smells of summer, flowers, apples, water-melons, a little bit of a damp forest where mushrooms grow, loud splashes of water on the river, fresh milk that you drink before going to bed. And at the same time it smells of Christmas, of a Christmas tree, decorated with tangerines and brightly-wrapped candies, of a goose roasted in an oven, merry Christmas carols singers, frosty air that pinches your cheeks when you slide down the hill. Wow! How can they make cheeses like that? I’ve never had anything like that in my whole life! I wish I could take a glance at how they make it,” thought Vovka.
Immediately the usual kitchen surroundings vanished somewhere, and Vovka found himself in a huge green meadow. The boy was absolutely confused. Only a minute ago he was making tea at home and then – imagine that! – he was in a meadow! And oh, what a meadow it was! The grass was thick, bright and rich, and it was coloured with flowers – blue, yellow, pink, purple, white and red, large and small ones. They made the meadow look like a fine carpet. There also was a path across this flowery carpet, but not a single person anywhere. Vovka couldn’t even ask anyone what kind of a place he got at. And, which was more important, how did he get there? Surely, it was some kind of magic. Vovka thought that perhaps he was only dreaming and pinched his hand. It became white, then red – no, a bruise wasn’t a dream at all. The boy looked around again and walked along the path decidedly.