Winter vacation has finally come, and grandmother Nela will be visited by her grandchildren - eight-year-old Masha, five-year-old Dima and her eldest granddaughter Vera. In the coming year Vera will be twelve years old, and she considers herself an adult. Vera no longer plays with toys, and as a gift to herself orders something from gadgets. But Grandma Neli always has something to please her favorite grandchildren. And then the doorbell rang. Grandma! Grandma, hello! - and now the trio is in the arms of Nelly Egorovna. Then the whole family gathers around the table, and after the meal - the main part of the evening, which is eagerly awaited by Dima, Mashenka and even Vera - unwrapping gifts that are waiting for their owners under the big fluffy artificial Christmas tree. Vera got a player and headphones, Dima got a train, which was almost like a real one. But Mashenka was the most happy about her present, because she received... a real music box! The box was really very beautiful, and inside it music was playing softly, and there was a fairy-tale town! Masha especially liked this town, and even the restless Dimka, and Vera didn't even want to look at it. And most of all, when grandmother said:
- This is a very unusual box. The salesman I bought it from said that once a year there comes a night when a person can experience the world of the music box. - And the younger ones began to dream how nice it would be to be inside the music box, Vera said contemptuously:
- Little children! Don't you realize that all this is just a fairy tale, and inside this box there can only be a mechanism, and nothing else!"
The younger ones, hearing this, of course, were upset, and Grandma thought:
-Vera, Vera. When will you finally realize that even if you don't believe in fairy tales and magic, you shouldn't deprive your brother and sister of it all!
Night came, and the children went to bed. In the morning, Faith woke up to some light hitting her eyes. At first she thought it was the sun, but when she opened her eyes she didn't realize where she was. She looked around and saw that there were a lot of houses, like in the fairy tale "Gingerbread House", only the houses were not made of sweets. And then Vera finally realized what had happened. She was in a music box town. And Vera also realized that someone was looking at her very carefully. She sat up and finally saw that there were several children looking at her. They were all younger than her - the oldest were about ten years old, some even younger.
- Hi, are you new? - The oldest of the boys asked her - Or are you just traveling? I'm Tim.
- Me? Yeah, sort of. I'm Vera.
- Well, guests are always welcome - answered Tim - Meet Max, this is Martin, this is my brother Dean, this is Stella, this is Maya, this is Mia, this is Mila... There were many children in this town, but Vera didn't remember the names of the others. But she noticed something else: they were all sad and quiet. Not only were they not laughing, but none of them were even smiling. This alarmed Vera, and she asked:
- Why are you all so sad? Is something wrong?"
- Because we don't have long to live here," Tim began with difficulty choosing his words.
- Are you going somewhere? - Vera did not understand, and then one of the girls (as it turned out, Mia), could not stand it and shouted:
- We are sad, because our town will soon cease to exist! - She almost cried, she said - And all the other music box towns, too!
Vera was not very interested in such toys, but even she was stunned by this answer.
- P - Why? - She asked stammering.
- Because all of us will soon be replaced by different electronic toys! - Mia continued to cry - Nobody believes in us anyway!
- Not true! - replied Vera - My sister loves your town very much! And... and my brother... And now I will love you all too - hesitated, she added - I just didn't know that you existed, and now I met you, and found out what you are like. And now I will never forget you, and I will never say you don't exist again!"
Vera said so and woke up. She never realized if it was a dream or not, but since then she had never told anyone that miracles don't happen. Perhaps it was because she believed in them a little bit herself?"
The End