# Max in litle owl

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Max gets on a bus to a fictional world in a pioneer camp. Where the counselor scours him for various things and he falls in love with a girl named Slava.

The prologue.

I had a dream again. This dream... It's the same thing every night. But in the morning, as usual, everything will be forgotten. Maybe it's for the best. There will be only vague memories of the gates ajar, as if inviting somewhere. Next to them, two pioneers were frozen in stone. And also a strange girl... who constantly asks:

"Will you come with me?"

Will I go? But where to? And why?

And where am I anyway?

Of course, if everything had really happened, in reality it would certainly be worth being afraid.

How could it be otherwise! But it's just a dream. The one I see every night. But all this is not for nothing! It is not necessary to know where and why in order to understand something is happening. Something that desperately needs my attention. After all, everything around me here is real.

It's as real as the things in my apartment are real. I could open the gate, hear the creak of hinges, brush away crumbling rust with my hand. Inhale the fresh, cool air. And shiver from the cold. I don't like extreme cold. At home, the batteries are at full capacity in winter.

I walk up to the gate and slide the creaking sash. I look inside. Silence. There is no one but a strange girl. I return to my seat.

But this is a dream-I understand that, but what's next? What will change my understanding? It's like being on the other side of a cracked old TV screen. Who struggles with the last of his strength against interference and tries to show the viewers everything without missing the slightest detail.

But now the picture is losing its clarity... Probably waking up soon.

***

Should I ask her something? The girl's. What's her name? For example, about the stars. There are a lot of them here. But why about the stars? You can ask about the gate. I'm not just standing here! Yes, about the gate! She'll be surprised. Or better yet, about the camp. It must have been a good camp... It's like he's gone. And what do the camp, the gates, and the stars have to do with this place? A strange dream. I constantly dream about the same children's camp and that owl at the gate. It seems to justify the name.

After all, if I have this dream every night, it will be forgotten anyway. We must look for a solution here and now! But if you look closely, you can see the Magellanic Cloud. It was like being in the Southern Hemisphere.

***

In a dream, the little things always worry more. The unnatural color of the grass, the impossible curvature of straight lines, or your own skewed reflection - and the real danger of ending everything here and now seems like nothing. Of course, you can't die here. I know for sure, I've done this hundreds of times. When I had a dream about my death and I tried to avoid it. I'll have to ask the girl, she's a local, she should know. Yes, exactly! Ask about the owl, for example. It's too weird a bird. However, it doesn't matter.

"Will you come with me?" The girl with the cat ears asks again.

And every time you have to answer. I usually say no, but today, for the sake of interest, I can agree with the girl.

And if you don't answer, the dream won't end, and I won't wake up.

And every time it's so hard to decide what to answer. Where am I, what am I doing here, who is she? And why does so much in my life depend on the answer to this question? Or does it not depend? After all, I answered no, and everything went on as usual.

It's just a dream.... Just a dream...

"I'll go with you."

I woke up.

I stretched and tried to remember what I had dreamed. That gate again. But this time I agreed. The alarm clock rang. I turned it off and went to make myself breakfast to the cheerful music.