“Electronic letter,” corrected him Vovka. Though he had already guessed that he wouldn’t be able to call Mama, he gave a lecture to Curdfritter and Cheese-eater about modern technologies.
“Good heavens, we didn’t know about such things! We use only old stuff her-re, like a flying car-rpet, a magic table-cloth, fast-r-running boots and things like that, you know,” said Curdfritter with some envy. “We don’t have contact with those who live far-r, behind the blue mountains and thick for-rests. What for-r?! They are all tr-roublemakers, anyway. And those who live over-r the sea-ocean are fr-rom the fair-ry-tales for gr-rown-ups. We are not old enough for-r them. If we have a need of any kind, we’ll call a magpie that is fast to fly. The tr-rouble is, when it’s flying tr-rough woods, ever-rybody knows our news. Loves gossip, nothing can be done about it.”
“Then please, let’s send the magpie, Curdfritter,dear! Mama is so worried by now!”
“Without children your life is troubled, but with them you have worries doubled.” Cheese-eater was upset. “You can’t mix the human world with our fairy-tales, because then you’ll have a mess! And the magpie is so muddle-headed, it always causes confusion. It’s got everything out of place, not to the point, so no wonder it’ll have things only spoilt. Probably, because of that chatterbox you won’t be able to return home.”
“No!” Vovka was frightened. “Then don’t send it. Maybe there is another way.”
“What way? You humans have many modern things, but we live in an old-fashioned way here. We are old fairy-tales, you know. We have been living since they made us up. And our ways haven’t changed since that. We don’t run from our future, but we don’t try to look ahead, either. There is no need to hurry up; the day awaited will come up. Perhaps, we also have new lands in our fairy-tale world where there are these telepons and compruters, but we never travel there. We are so busy that don’t have time for that. But I’d love to travel for a good reason. If you took me with you, I’d be glad to join.”
“What are you talking about?” said Curdfritter indignantly. “And who, may I ask, is going to do the wor-rk about the house? I won’t manage it alone!”
“But I have already done everything! You’ve got to churn the butter and make the cheese. This is your job; I am of no help to you here.”
“Really, Curdfritter,” said Vovka excitedly, “let her go with me! She knows everything here and will advise me.”
