⏱ ~4 min reading
Marinka loved her blanket. It was fluffy, with a pattern of stars and moons, and it smelled of dried daisies because her mother had put a bag of flowers between the linen closet.
But that night, the blanket didn't seem the same to Marinka as usual. As soon as the girl pulled it over her head, she heard a "shh-shh-shh." Right next to her ear.
Someone was whispering.
Marinka froze. She lay very still, like a snail in a shell, and listened. The whispering did not subside. It was very quiet, very gentle, but very real. As if someone was sitting right on her pillow.
— Shhh... dream-dream-dream... fly-fly-fly...
The girl tightly clutched the edge of the blanket. All the stories her older brother had told her at the dacha swirled in her head: about whisperers, about brownies, about invisible guests. Marinka always pretended not to be afraid, but in reality she was. Especially at night.
She wanted to call her mother. But her mother was already asleep. And her father was asleep. And her dog Filya was asleep, quietly nibbling on his rug in the living room.
«"If I look out," thought Marinka, "and there's no one there, then I just made it up. And if there is someone there... well, then at least I'll see who it is.".
She gathered her courage. And very, very slowly lowered the edge of the blanket - just enough for one eye to peek out.
On the pillow, next to her cheek, sat a tiny creature. No bigger than a pea. In a little dress made of petals and with transparent wings that shimmered with thin irises. On its head was a wreath of dandelion fluff.
The tiny creature held a tiny bundle in its hands—like a scroll of cloud—and whispered softly into it.
When Marin's eye appeared, the fairy jumped on the spot, almost dropped her bundle, and pressed her hands to her mouth:
— Oh, you're not sleeping!
Her voice was like the tinkling of a small bell.
“Who are you?” Marinka asked in a whisper so as not to scare the little one.
"I am Snowball," the fairy answered, adjusting her wreath. "I bring dreams. Each child has their own. I thought you were already fast asleep, and I came to whisper to you tonight's dream.".
"And what dream?" Marinka was no longer afraid at all. She became extremely curious.
Snowy smiled. Her wings fluttered, and tiny golden sparkles scattered around.
— Today you were supposed to have a dream about a warm pond with daisies on the shore. And about a big, kind catfish that rides children on its back. And about your grandmother baking pancakes from sunny dough.
Marinka's cheeks turned pink with admiration.
"Why are you whispering?"
"Because dreams themselves are very quiet," explained Snook. "If you speak them out loud, they get scared and fly away. That's why we night fairies always whisper. Right in your ear. So that the dream can carefully enter your head and blossom there.".
— And I haven't seen you before.
"None of the children see us," sighed the fairy. "We only come when their eyes are already closed. You're the first to peek out. Everyone else just listened to me from under the blanket and thought it was the wind.".
Marinka laughed softly.
— And I thought it was a ghost.
"Oh no, there are no ghosts," said Snoika seriously. "But there are fairies. And the whispers under the blanket are almost always us.".
The girl settled down more comfortably and pulled the blanket up almost to her chin again. Snooki sat down next to her on the pillow, crossed her legs, and unrolled her little cloud scroll.
"Close your eyes, little one," she said gently. "I'll start over. Once upon a time there was a warm, warm pond..."
Marinka closed her eyes. The whisper no longer scared her—it lulled her to sleep. She felt Snoyka's tiny wings softly touch her cheek, and the scent of dandelions spread across the pillow.
And in the morning Marinka woke up and smiled. She dreamed exactly what the fairy had promised: a pond, catfish, and grandma's pancakes. On the pillow lay a tiny, tiny dandelion fluff.
From that day on, Marinka was no longer afraid of whispers under the blanket. She even told him: «Hello, Snoyko, I’m ready.» And she waited for her dream tonight.
Sometimes Snoika brought dreams about space - and Marinka flew among the stars on the back of a dolphin. Sometimes - about a snowy city, where all the houses are made of cookies, and the gutters are made of milk chocolate. And once she dreamed that the girl could speak the language of sun bunnies - and all the sun bunnies in the world came to her to play tag.
And when Marinka felt sad during the day — for example, when her mother went to work or the rain prevented her from going out into the yard — she would lie down on a pillow, close her eyes, and whisper: «Snoyka, can I just take a little nap?» And it seemed to her that right next to her ear, the familiar «shhh-shhh-shhh…» began softly, softly, and she felt warm.
✨ What we fear sometimes turns out to be our friend ✨