N&K

‘Our Dad is stronger,’ Nastya said to the neighbourhood boy Pavlik so loudly that he shuddered.

‘No, my Dad is stronger. He can do twenty press-ups.’

‘Huh, and our Dad can do thirty press-ups! He can also eat ten onions, and he won’t even cry.’

‘And my Dad, when he fights with your Dad, will kick him so hard that he will fly to Cheboksary.’

‘No.’

‘Well, yes.’

‘No-no-no, one hundred thousand times “no”. But then, then…’

‘But then we have a cuckoo clock, that's it,’ Ksyusha helped her twin sister win the argument.

Nastya and Ksyusha loved to brag about this unusual clock. Their friends and acquaintances often came to see this miracle and count ‘ka-kows’. Surprisingly, the bird had never made a mistake. The clock was a brown house, under which hung two pine cone-shaped weights and a chain. And most importantly, a tiny grey bird lived in the house. The cuckoo was so smooth and shiny that you would want to lick it.

‘Do you think the cuckoo is real?’ Ksyusha once asked her sister.

‘Of course not!’

‘Then why is she singing?’

‘Because…’

Nastya had no answer. Of course, she immediately wanted to get it, but the parents were at work. It was unbearable to wait, she needed to find out straight away. How was the bird doing there? Did she eat? Did she have chicks? Or was it a he? Most importantly, what did the house look like from the inside? Maybe it looked like a doll’s house with a beautiful sofa and striped wallpaper? Why on earth did these questions come to mind when Dad and Mum were away?!

‘I know, let's open the house,’ Nastya said with a sly smile. Every time she had an interesting idea, she would raise her index finger up. Ksyusha was a little afraid of this gesture, because something always happened after that.

‘They'll scold us.’

‘No one will know, we'll hang the house back.’

‘How about we let her ‘ka-kow’ first, then we’ll open the clock.’

The twins dragged the kitchen table into the hallway. Climbing onto it, Nastya reached for the clock, but could not remove it from the wall. Then Ksyusha helped: ‘Try to lift it up first.’ It worked well, and soon the clock was on the bed.

The girls knocked, but no one opened the door. They examined the clock and found latches on the back wall.

The twins' hearts raced with excitement.

They easily opened the clock to see…

That. There was. No. Bird’s house. Nothing at all. Neither a lamp by the bed or next to the rocking chair, nor a sofa or tiny pictures of Grandma and Grandpa. The bird did not cook dinner for the chicks. Instead, it turned its unremarkable tail to the girls. The cuckoo's house was full of different clockwork details. And its voice was such a thing with air that sounded like a bicycle pump. It was not ‘ka-kow’ but ‘f-f-f-oo f-f-f-oo’.

‘I thought, there should at least be babies in the nest,’ Ksyusha Mumbled.

‘I didn’t think that at all,’ Nastya lied.

Ksyusha hugged Nastya. The girls closed the clock in silence and hung it back up. They unhappily dragged the table into the kitchen. They waited until three to see the cuckoo again, but that time from the front.

‘I wish we didn’t see this,’ Nastya said.

‘Let's not tell anyone about it.’

‘Okay.’