“Wow!” he whispered. I can watch how a real miracle is being made!”
“Do you call it a mir-racle?” snorted Curdfritter. “A r-real mir-racle is that one ordinar-ry boy has saved the whole fair-ry-tale land!”
Vovka tried to object that he hadn’t done anything special. But Curdfritter with the Wolf (who was nursing the sheep) and Cheese-eater, who had come back, and even the Villain were so fervently convincing him that he was a real hero, that the boy stopped arguing. Indeed, he helped to prevent further stealing of the animals, saved the Wolf’s reputation and hoped to return the Cheese Fairy.
Cheese-eater took the magic table-cloth out of her pocket, laid it on the table and they had a real feast. They had as much as they wanted to, and even the always hungry Wolf, who wasn’t used to much food, was finally so full that he dozed off right at the table.
It was getting dark. Only one day was over in the land of fairy-tales, but they had had so many adventures! Vovka understood that everything would come to an end very soon, but still Cheese-eater’s words were unexpected by him.
“All is well that ends well,” she said with a sigh. “Every cook praises his own broth. There is no place like home. At home even the walls help, and a bowl of a plain soup is not that bad. You are kind, Vova, and for a kind person every day is good. Live the way you are used to, and your happiness will find you everywhere, even at home, near a stove.’
“Dear Cheese-eater, we don’t have stoves. We’ve got radiators,” corrected her Vovka.
“This is not important,” replied Cheese-eater. “The important thing is that if you treat others kindly, you’ll be treated kindly as well.”
“Saying good-bye only makes me cry,” said Curdfritter, wiping away tears with his paw.
“When you are in time transition,” spoke the Wolf hoarsely, “remember me.”
As for the repented Villain, he said nothing, only sighed enviously, realizing that for him the world Vovka would soon return to would be closed until he changed completely. But the most important thing was that he started to understand that this would be the best way for him, because to live like a villain was not a pleasant thing at all.
Cheese-eater was sitting on Curdfritter’s lap and wiped away tears with his colourful apron – the tears were her own, Curdfritter’s and the Wolf’s. The Wolf was crying for the first time in his life, because he was saying good-bye to a friend, and before that he hadn’t had any. Still, his consolation was that four of his new friends were going to stay with him. And then every one of them gave Vovka a hug and said good-bye, Cheese-eater whispered to him, “Go!” and he went home. He came out of the house with the blue porch and the clay bells over the door, had a final look at the orange specks in yellow stones, at the flower pots on the window-sills and the embroidered curtains. And then without looking back he followed the path – past the well, through the wonderful forest, to the flowery meadow that looked like a fine carpet. Somewhere far from here his Mama was waiting for him, and Vovka missed her so much. He said good-bye to the trees and thanked them for their magic fruits that had been so well to the point. He also said good-bye to the flowers, brightly-coloured birds and butterflies that one could see nowhere else. When Vovka came to the place where he had found himself after eating the magic cheese, he didn’t know what to do. He stopped and started to wait. After a while he felt that he was lifted up into the air and carried somewhere so fast that he couldn’t see anything. Still, it seemed to him that in the opposite direction there rushed the old lady in the old-fashioned clothes that you could see only in a museum, and in the hat you could hardly imagine, with toy cows, sheep and goats on its brims. Vovka winked, and the old lady disappeared, as if she had never been there before. The flight was over and there came darkness.
