Dear readers! We are pleased to present a new work by the wonderful Novosibirsk writer Gennady Prashkevich, “Masha and the Bat.” What is this? Novella? An excerpt from a novel? Future story? “How should I know? Gennady Prashkevich told us. There are things that you sit down to write with a clear understanding of what it will be. And there is a certain sweetish fog, like the smoke of a distant fire, and its heroes are just as vague and tender, although you see everyone down to the smallest details. Maybe this is a story about the world of science fiction... Or a story about shifts in time... Or a story about love, which, in fact, is the only thing you should write about... I don’t know... We’ll see when the nebula thickens into an apple.”