The fisherman grabbed hold of a metal wire and yanked a strangely shaped object out of the thick mud. But once he washed it off and finally realized what he had uncovered, he froze in complete disbelief.
Like he did nearly every Saturday, he had arrived at the shoreline at first light. The storm from the previous day had passed, and the sky was calm again, yet evidence of the rough weather could still be seen everywhere.
Throughout the night, heavy rain had battered the coast while powerful winds drove the waves ashore, scattering all kinds of debris across the beach—driftwood, seaweed, plastic bottles, and rusted scraps of metal.
Carefully making his way through the waterlogged clay in his rubber boots, he searched for a quiet spot to cast his fishing line. He enjoyed being alone and always stayed away from crowded areas.
That was when something unusual caught his eye.
A thin metal strand was sticking almost straight up from the dense mud.
At first, he paid little attention to it. After a storm, finding odd pieces of debris was nothing out of the ordinary. Yet the longer he stared at it, the stranger it seemed.
The wire appeared to be firmly attached to something buried beneath the surface.
Curious, he walked over, crouched down, and tried pulling it with his fingers.
Nothing happened.
The object remained completely stuck.
He wrapped both hands around the wire and pulled harder. The ground around it cracked slightly, but whatever was hidden below refused to budge.
“What in the world is this?” he muttered, bracing himself against the sticky mud.
He tried again.
And then again.
With every effort, it felt as though the mud was dragging the object deeper underground. Even through his gloves, the wire dug painfully into his palms. Several times he considered giving up, but his curiosity had become stronger than his exhaustion.
He began rocking the wire from side to side, tugging in short bursts and pausing occasionally to catch his breath.
Then, suddenly, a dull sound echoed from deep within the mud.
Something gave way.
Very slowly, a large object began to rise from the muck.
The fisherman gathered every ounce of strength he had left and made one final pull. This time, the buried mass broke free all at once. He barely managed to catch it before it slipped back into the mud.
The object looked unsettling.
It was coated in a thick layer of dark sludge, making it impossible to tell what it really was.
Some sections appeared rounded, while others were sharply defined, causing all sorts of disturbing possibilities to race through the fisherman’s mind.
A chill ran down his spine.
“Please don’t let it be what I think it is…”
Without wasting another second, he decided to carry it to the water’s edge.
Once he reached the waves, he carefully began rinsing it off. The seawater gradually washed away the mud as he scrubbed the surface with his hands.
Inch by inch, the true shape of the discovery emerged.
And then, at last, he understood exactly what he had pulled from the earth.
At that very moment, the fisherman stood motionless, his eyes wide with shock.
At first, a smooth surface began to emerge from beneath the mud.
Then the outline of a nose slowly became visible.
Moments later, a pair of lips started to take shape.
The fisherman froze.
Another wave swept away a layer of sludge, and suddenly a familiar face with carefully sculpted curls seemed to stare back at him from the water.
The man stepped backward and stood speechless at what he had uncovered.
What he had just pulled from the mud was neither a mysterious artifact nor anything dangerous.
It was the head of a statue depicting Alexander Pushkin, the renowned Russian poet and writer.
For several long moments, he remained perfectly still, unable to take his eyes off the sculpture. Only minutes earlier, he had been convinced he had unearthed something disturbing.
The thought of calling the police immediately had even crossed his mind.
Now, the entire situation seemed almost ridiculous.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
Most likely, someone had discarded the old statue years ago by throwing it into the sea.
The previous night’s storm had done the rest, carrying the forgotten head of the famous literary figure back to shore.
And so, instead of stumbling upon something frightening, the fisherman found himself face-to-face with a stone relic from another era—a silent visitor from the past.
