The Drawings

Chapter 4

Several visits later, Corey was sitting on an old fallen log well away from the cabin. A branch dnapped behind him.
Suddenlyhe hears "Nifty." Corey looked over his shoulder. The gremlin stood twenty feet away.
It was the closest Nifty had willingly come since the snare. "Nifty?" The gremlin nodded.
"That's your name?" Another nod. "Good to meet you properly, Nifty." Nifty stared at him then said
"But, you've already met me."
"Well that wasn't exactly a great introduction." For the first time, Corey saw the corner of Nifty's mouth move. Not quite a smile but it was close enough
That was all, then nifty disappeared again.
The next time, they spoke for less than five minutes.
Corey did not push. When Nifty disappeared back into the woods, he let him.
This time as he noticed nifty leaving, Corey asked “ is there anything you need?” “ I'd be happy to help”
That may have been the moment Nifty decided the human could be trusted a little.
Th next visit became ten.
Ten became an hour.
Nifty asked more questions than Corey did, and he was ok with thay.
Why did humans throw away perfectly useful things? Why did they spend so much time staring at glowing screens?
Why did they build roads and then complain about traffic? Corey did his best to explain.
Sometimes there was no good explanation. Eventually Corey stopped thinking of Nifty as the creature in the woods.
He was simply Nifty. And eventually Nifty stopped thinking of Corey as the human who had trapped him.
He was simply Corey. One evening, Nifty finally told him about home.
He told Corey about waking beneath unfamiliar trees. About not knowing how he had arrived.
About hiding from humans. About the cabin.
Then he told him the part he rarely allowed himself to say aloud. He was his memories aren't what they should be.
Corey listened. He did not interrupt.
He did not question whether Nifty's world was real. He did not ask for proof.
When Nifty finished, Corey simply said: "I
believe you." Nifty looked away. Those three words meant more than Corey understood.
Months after the snare, Nifty finally opened the cabin door while Corey stood outside. He did not invite him in with words.
He simply stepped aside. Corey entered.
Drawings were everywhere. Pinned to walls.
Stacked across tables. Tucked beneath books.
Leaning against furniture. Faces stared back at him from page after page.
Gremlins. There were landscapes too.
Strange buildings. Waterways.
Streets. Symbols.
Places from a world Corey had never seen. "You drew all of these?" Nifty nodded.
"They're my memories." Corey looked again. This was not a collection of characters.
It was someone's life. Every page was a piece of a home Nifty was fighting to remember.
The drawings changed the way Corey understood Nifty. Until then, he had heard stories about another world.