Unexpected Souvenir

Russia Mochi

You tug on the scarf around your neck in an effort to block more of the icy wind blowing straight into your face. You had known beforehand that the weather in Russia wasn't the warmest, but this is worse than you could have imagined, and it's not even winter.

A shiver ripples through your body as it feebly attempts to warm itself. Any body heat it creates is quickly blown away by the relentless wind. Despite the fact you're wearing a coat, the wind seems to howl right through you and chill you to the bone. You promise the deities of the elements that you'll never complain about the weather back home if the wind would just ease up, but to no avail.

What you wouldn't give for a warm taxi right about now. You opted to walk to your destination since, a) it's not very far, and b) it's cheaper, but you're starting to regret that choice as you continue to trudge through the biting wind. Loose strands of hair whip around your face making it hard to see, which is why you almost trip over something on the sidewalk.

"Oomff!"

You stumble forward a few steps, but manage to maintain your balance. It would've been really embarrassing if anyone had been around to see that, but luckily the street is empty. Your toe throbs from being stubbed on whatever it was you got your foot caught on, and you turn around to see just what in the world it was.

You don't believe your eyes. Sitting on the sidewalk is an oddly large white object with what looks like a scarf wrapped around it. You're about to move closer when the thing turns around. It has a face. There are definitely two eyes and a nose on the object, and you don't doubt there's a mouth under the scarf either.

"Привет (hello)!" it says to you. Well, that solves the mystery of whether it has a mouth or not.

"Привет," you say back. That's about half of the Russian you know.

"Это хорошо вне сегодня, да (it is nice out today, yes)?" the object asks.

"Um...Нет России (no Russian)," you tell it. That's the other half of your Russian speaking skills.

"English?" it asks in your native tongue. You nod. "Ah! I speak little English, so everything is alright, da?" You swear that it's smiling, even though you can't prove it without taking off its scarf.

"What are you....um...doing here...in the middle of the sidewalk?" There are about a million questions you want to ask, but this seems like a safe one to start with.

"I go home!" it tells you. Or maybe it's a boy.

"Where's that?"

"Right here." The white object turns toward a small house wedged between two large apartment buildings. It looks comically out of place compared to the buildings standing next to it. "Come! Very warm," he says as he starts moving toward the little house.

You're reluctant to follow, but it would be rude not to, right? Plus the cold is really starting to get to you, so the idea of going inside is almost irresistible. The round thing leads you to the front door of the little house and hops inside through what looks like a doggie door at the bottom. You hear a distinct click and the door swings open.

The thing you notice first is the temperature inside. The difference between it and the temperature outside is like night and day. You spot a roaring fire in a small fireplace across from the door and assume that's what's making it so nice inside.

You quickly swing the door shut to keep all the precious heat from escaping. The house is actually rather cute. It has simple furniture that's a little bit on the small side, probably to accommodate the size of the white object. You really want to know what the thing is so you can stop referring to it as "the object" in your mind, but you decide to make a little small talk first. After all, it was nice enough to invite you into its house. The least you could do is be friendly.