In 2002, a young employee of a regional-scale historical museum, I was sent on a business trip to Valdai in order to study local customs related exclusively to wedding ceremonies, which were not held according to protocol, but in terms of folk customs. I settled in a rather large village, I was satisfied with my housing, if not for one circumstance.
I had to heat the stove myself in the morning, which I could not get used to. I have to get up about two hours before the planned trip to the surrounding villages, heat the stove so that the house will be warm by my return. But I coped with this, I even liked it …
About four days later I ride home on a bicycle in the evening and see that a huge column of either fire or some strange light is rising into the sky above my temporary home. It got cold inside, I decided that it was a fire, something was wrong with the stove.
I drive up to the house - everything is in order, there are no signs of even the slightest fire, the house does not even smell of smoke. Warm and cozy. And suddenly I notice that the wood in the stove, which should have been extinguished long ago and turned into coals, is blazing with fire. But I did not leave the key to anyone, they told me right away that only I had the key, there was no second.
I had nightmares all night, the house was very hot, and I even opened the windows. I woke up from the incredible cold, as if the stove in the house had never been heated at all. He flooded, filled the whole stove with wood, waited until everything burned out, closed the damper. He left.
In the evening I see the same thing: a column of light just above my house. And again the wood burning in the stove … I could believe that someone had a key and someone was burning the stove. But I clearly saw this column of bright light going into the sky. I just couldn't explain it, and then I just asked for a simpler house, and from the grin of the chairman of the village council I realized that something was wrong there …
Victor Usachenko, Tver region