The forest on the highway

Cold moves through the world in a thousand forms, in a thousand ways: at sea like a herd of stampeding horses, in the countryside like a swarm of swooping locusts, in the city like a sharp knife cutting off the road and burrowing through the cracks into unheated homes. That night, the Markovados used up the last of their firewood, and the whole family, wrapped in their coats, looked at the small charcoal fading in the heater, and with each breath, clouds of mist rose from their mouths. No one spoke again, the clouds spoke instead of them: the wife exhaled long clouds as if sighing, the children seemed to concentrate on blowing soap bubbles, and Markovado jumped and gasped towards the sky, as if a fleeting moment of inspiration.

Finally Markovado decided.

" I'll go look for firewood, maybe I'll find it." He tucked four or five sheets of newspaper between his jacket and shirt as armor against the cold, hid a toothed saw under his coat, and thus, followed by the hopeful eyes of his family, stepped out late at night, the paper rattling with every step, and the saw running out of the flap from time to time.

To the city in search of firewood, to put it mildly! Markovado went straight to a small park sandwiched between two roads. It was empty, and Markovado studied the bare tree trunks while thinking of his family waiting for him with chattering teeth ......

Little Michel, chattering his teeth, reads a fairy tale borrowed from the school library about a carpenter's boy who takes his axe to the forest to cut wood. "That's where it's going." Little Mikhail said, "The forest! That's where the firewood will be! "He had lived in the city since birth and had never seen the forest, not even the experience of seeing it from a distance.

When all was said and done, he organized with his brothers: one with an axe, one with a hook and one with a rope, said goodbye to his mother and set off in search of the forest.

Walking in the city lit up by streetlights, there was nothing but houses: no forest, not even a shadow. They met a few pedestrians, but did not dare to ask where there was a forest. At the end of their walk, all the houses in the city disappeared, and the roads became highways.

The children saw the forest right next to the highway: a dense and oddly shaped forest flooding the endless plain. They had extremely thin and slender trunks, either straight or slanted: when the car passed by and the headlights shone, the flat and broad leaves were found to have the strangest look and color. The branches were in the shape of toothpaste, faces, cheese, hands, razors, bottles, cows and tires, and the leaves all over were letters.

"Hooray!" Little Mikhail said, "This is the forest!"

The brothers, in turn, looked fascinated at the moon peeking out from its strange silhouette: "It's beautiful ...... "

Little Michel hurriedly reminded them of what they were here for: firewood. So they cut down a poplar tree in the shape of a yellow spring flower, split it into pieces and brought it home.

When Markovaldo came home with few damp branches, he found the heater was lit.

"Where did you get that?" He pointed in amazement at the rest of the advertising sign. Because it was plywood, the firewood burned quickly.

"In the forest!" The kid said.

"What forest?"

"On the highway, densely packed!"

Since it's so simple, and it does look good. For new firewood, it was better to learn the child's way. Marco Vado went out again with the saw and headed for the highway.

Astorfer, the highway policeman, was a bit nearsighted and was supposed to wear glasses when he did night patrols on his motorcycle; but he didn't tell anyone for fear of jeopardizing his career.

That night, notified that there was a group of wild kids on the highway taking down advertising signs, police officer Astolfo made to ride to patrol.

The highway side of the weirdly flared, gesticulating trees accompanied by turning, large myopic Astolfo scrutinized. In the light of the motorcycle lights, he saw a big wild child climbing on a signboard. Astolfo stopped the car: "Hey! What are you doing up there? Jump off now!" The man didn't move and stuck his tongue out at him. Astorfer looked closer and saw that it was an advertisement for cheese, depicting a fat kid licking his tongue. "Sure, sure." Astorfer said, and quickly left.

After a while, a shocked face shone in the shadow of a huge sign. "Stop! Don't try to run!" But no one ran: it was a face in pain, for one foot was covered with corns. "Oh, I'm sorry." Astolfo said and then ran away in a huff.

The ad for the migraine pill depicted a huge human head, covering its eyes with its hand because of the pain. Astolfo passed by and shone on Markovado who was climbing on top and trying to cut off a piece with a saw. Because of the glare and blurry eyes, Markovado curled up and remained still, grabbing the ears on the big head, the saw had cut to the center of the forehead.

Astorfer studied it well and said: "Oh, yes, Staba pills!

Good job on this ad! A new discovery! The unlucky guy with the saw says that migraines can cut a person's head in half! I got it right away!" Then he left satisfied.

It was so quiet and cold all around. Marko Vado breathed a sigh of relief, readjusted his position on the not-so-comfortable stand and continued his work. In the clear moonlit sky, the low rattling sound of the saw cutting the wood was transmitted far away.