⏱ ~6 min reading
One Sunday afternoon, when a light drizzle was softly falling outside and soup was bubbling in the kitchen, little Danilko found a large cardboard box on the balcony. Completely empty. A washing machine had once arrived in it from the store, and the box smelled of new cardboard and something a little metallic—the way dad's tools smell.
Danilko walked around it. He tapped the side with his finger. The box responded with a dull "boom-boom.".
"You'll make a rocket," he said seriously. "The best rocket in the world.".
He brought pencils, colored markers, blunt-ended scissors, which his mother allowed, and a piece of old cloth for a flag. First he drew two round windows on the side - to look at the stars. Then he wrote the word "SPACE" in big letters. Then he cut a door on the side. And he stuck an ice cream stick in the top and tied a little yellow piece of cloth to it - it was the expedition flag.
"Everything is ready," Danilko said to himself. "We can fly.".
He climbed inside. Inside it smelled of cardboard and a little bit of felt-tip pen. It was a bit cramped, his knees buckled, but it was very cozy — like in his own little house that no one but him knew. Danilko closed his eyes.
- Once. Two. Three. Start.
And then—indeed—the rocket trembled. The cardboard under his fingers became cold and smooth, like real metal. Behind the windows, instead of the gray balcony roof, stars floated—first small, then large, then very close, like lanterns on a Christmas tree.
Danilko pressed his nose against the painted window and gasped.
“I’m in space,” he whispered. “Really in space.”.
The first thing he met was the Moon. The same one that his mother sometimes pointed to from the window. The Moon slowly turned its round, gentle face towards him.
"Good afternoon, little traveler," said the Moon quietly. "You have a nice rocket.".
"I made it myself," Danylko replied proudly. "From the box.".
"The best rockets are always made from what others consider empty," the Moon smiled.
Danilko flew on. Soon Saturn emerged from the darkness. Large, golden, with seven thin rings around it, spinning as if someone were carefully spinning a top.
"Hello, Saturn," Danylko called out through the window.
Saturn tilted its rings like a hat, and one of them touched the cardboard side of the rocket for a moment. It tinkled with a soft silver "dang-n-n" like a spoon on a cup.
Then there was Venus. There Danilko stopped for dinner. Venus treated him to red jelly that trembled on the plate as if it were alive. It tasted like strawberries and something sweet that doesn't exist on Earth.
"Thank you," Danilko said politely, wiping his lips with his sleeve. "Very tasty.".
And then — the most amazing thing. On a small blue planet, similar to a big fluffy ball, he met aliens. They were very small, with six kind eyes, with little hands as soft as pillows. They were not afraid of Danilko. And Danilko was not afraid of them — because when someone has as many as six eyes, but they are all gentle, there is nothing to be afraid of.
"Hello," Danilko said and extended his hand.
The aliens chirped softly—like chicks in a nest.
They sat down together on the warm green grass (it was soft, soft, like a rug on a children's floor) and exchanged gifts. Danilko took out his favorite green pencil from his pocket - the one that always wrote the most evenly. The aliens took it carefully, examined it with all six eyes and hid it like a treasure. And in return, they put a tiny pebble in Danilko's palm - warm, like a pie from the oven, and shiny, as if a little star was sitting in it.
“It’s from our planet,” they explained in chirps. “So you don’t forget.”.
Danilko put the pebble in his pocket. And at that very moment — as if from another, very, very distant world — a familiar voice was heard:
— Danilka! Come on, tea is ready!
The boy opened his eyes. He was sitting in a cardboard box on the balcony. The rain had stopped. The kettle was simmering in the kitchen.
“I’m coming, Mom!” he shouted.
Danilko carefully climbed out. And suddenly froze. There was something in his pants pocket. Small, hard, warm. He carefully pulled it out - and on his palm lay a tiny, barely noticeable speck of dust, which sparkled little by little.
"This is my cosmic dust," Danilko whispered.
He carried it into the room and placed it between the pages of his favorite book about the stars. So that it wouldn't get lost. As a keepsake.
At tea, his mother placed a cup of milk in front of him and asked gently:
— Well, traveler, how was the flight?
"Very well," Danylko replied seriously. "I met aliens. They are good.".
Mom smiled, patted him on the head, and didn't object. Because wise moms know: when a child says they've flown into space, they don't argue with them. They rejoice with them.
“And who are they, these aliens?” she asked gently, placing a saucer of raspberry jam in front of him.
"They have six eyes," Danilko explained seriously. "And their little hands are like pillows. They gave me a speck of dust. I put it in the book.".
"Well done," Mom nodded. "You kept it. Good gifts should be kept.".
Danilko sat at the table for a long time, dangling his spoon in his cup and looking out the window. It was already getting dark outside, the first stars were slowly lighting up over the roofs of the neighboring houses. And it seemed to Danilko that one of them - the farthest, barely blue one - was the same planet with his six-eyed friends. And that they too were now looking into the sky and looking for his window.
Many years passed. Danilko grew up, became an engineer, and one day he really flew in a real rocket — made of metal, with fire, with all the devices. He saw the Earth from above, like a blue berry. He saw the stars without windows.
But the best journey he remembered in his life was in a cardboard box, at the age of five, when the rain was pounding on the balcony, and in his pocket was a warm speck of dust from a distant planet. Because imagination is also a real flight. And children who dream have wings that never disappear.
✨ Imagination is also a real flight, and children who dream have wings that never disappear ✨