Sometimes I have a strange dream about a small bird with only one leg. In the dream it hops slowly across the ground, watching me quietly from a short distance away. Every time I wake up, it reminds me of a sparrow I once knew when I was a child.

When I was younger, I used to spend a lot of time sitting outside our house. Most days I would sit there eating a piece of bread or some biscuits while enjoying the quiet afternoon. That was when I first noticed the small sparrow.

It was different from the other birds. One of its legs was missing, so it hopped around carefully on the other one. At first it stayed far away, watching me from the ground or from a nearby fence. It looked curious, but also cautious.

One day, something unexpected happened.

While I was eating bread, the sparrow slowly hopped closer to me. I had never seen a wild bird come that close before. Normally birds would fly away the moment a person moved. But this one stayed. It stood there bravely, looking at the bread in my hand.

I felt curious too.

So I broke off a small piece of bread and gently tossed it toward the bird. The sparrow looked around for a moment, as if making sure it was safe. Then it hopped forward and quickly grabbed the piece of bread.

That was the first time I ever fed a bird.

From that day on, the little sparrow began visiting me often. Whenever I sat outside with bread or biscuits, it would appear nearby. Sometimes it waited patiently until I noticed it. Other times it would hop around the yard, looking toward the house as if it was checking whether I was there.

Over time, the sparrow seemed to grow comfortable around our home. It no longer stayed far away. Instead, it watched the windows and doors, almost like it was spying on the house to see when I would come outside.

Whenever I stepped out with food, it would appear again.

One afternoon I was sitting outside eating bread when the sparrow arrived, just like always. But this time it had brought a few other birds with it. They stayed behind while the one-legged sparrow came closer to me first.

It felt almost as if it was introducing them.

I smiled and broke the bread into several pieces, throwing them onto the ground. The small birds gathered around and began sharing the food together. I sat quietly, watching them eat peacefully.

At that moment, everything felt calm and simple. The birds pecked at the bread while the afternoon sun shone softly over the yard. For some reason, the scene stayed in my memory like a small, silent moment of happiness.

As the years passed, life slowly changed. I grew older and became busy with other things. Eventually I stopped seeing the sparrow around our house.

Days turned into months, and months turned into years.

All that remained was the memory of that brave little bird who used to share bread with me.

Then one day, my mother told me something that broke my heart.

She told me that our new cat had killed the sparrow.

When I heard those words, I felt tears filling my eyes. That bird had been more than just a sparrow to me. When I was a child, it had felt like my only quiet companion.

Even now, I still remember that small bird with one leg.

And sometimes, in my dreams, I still see it hopping toward me again.

In 2019, during the Christmas season and close to the New Year, I experienced something strange that I will never forget. It happened late at night outside our house, on a quiet evening when everything around us felt peaceful.

That night, my little brother and I were sitting outside the house on a big wooden log. It was something we often did when the weather was nice. The night air was cool, and the sky above us was dark with many stars shining softly. We were talking and telling stories to pass the time.

Not far from us, my older cousin sister was sitting with some of her friends. They were laughing and joking about things they had done in their old school days. Their laughter filled the quiet night, making the moment feel warm and lively.

My little brother and I started joking around too. We began talking about strange and funny things, and somehow our conversation turned to UFOs. We joked about what it would be like if we actually saw a real UFO flying across the sky in the middle of the night. At first, it was just our imagination. We laughed and pretended to look up at the sky as if we expected something to appear.

But suddenly, something unbelievable happened.

Out of nowhere, a bright light shot across the sky.

It moved extremely fast, faster than anything I had ever seen before. The light zoomed past the tall trees near our house and almost seemed to touch the branches. It happened so quickly that I barely had time to react. In less than a second, the light was already gone, disappearing into the dark sky.

My little brother and I were completely stunned. We looked at each other in shock, trying to understand what we had just seen. At the same moment, some of our neighbors who were outside also noticed it. Even my cousin and her friends stopped talking and stared up at the sky.

Everyone who saw it was confused and amazed.

The light was very bright and had a green glow. It did not look like an airplane or anything I had ever seen before. Its speed was incredible, almost impossible to explain. Even today, I feel that modern technology would struggle to move in such a strange and sudden way.

For a moment, nobody said anything. We were all speechless, trying to process what had just happened. Then people began asking each other questions like, “Did you see that?” and “What was that light?”

None of us had an answer.

The next day, when I went to school, I told my friends about what happened that night. I explained everything in detail — the bright green light, how fast it moved, and how several people had seen it. Unfortunately, many of my friends did not believe my story. They thought I was joking or making up a story.

Even though some people doubted me, I know what I saw that night. My little brother, my neighbors, and others witnessed it too. It was real, and it left a strong memory in my mind.

That strange moment in the sky remains one of the most mysterious experiences of my life. It was the night I had my first encounter with what might have been a UFO.

It was in 2017 when I was in Grade 3. I remember one strange afternoon that stayed in my mind even until today. School had just finished, and it was around 2:30 in the afternoon. Most of the students had already gone home, and the school grounds were becoming quiet. Only a few of my classmates were still inside the classroom packing their things.

After a while, I walked outside the classroom and saw my big sister waiting for me near the door. She had come to pick me up so we could walk home together. I went back inside for a moment to finish packing my books and school materials into my bag. A few minutes later, I came out again to meet her.

While we were about to leave, something caught my attention. Not far from us, a group of kids were gathered around one boy who was holding a phone. They were all staring closely at the screen. Some of them looked shocked, while others seemed scared and confused. Their reactions made me curious.

I wondered what they were looking at that made them react that way.

Because of my curiosity, I walked toward the group with my sister beside me. I wanted to see what was on the phone that had everyone so surprised. My sister also noticed the crowd and asked the boy if we could see the picture too. He agreed and handed the phone to us.

When I looked at the phone, I was completely stunned.

The image showed a photo of my teacher’s daughter standing with her friend. It looked like a normal photo at first, as if they were simply taking a picture together. But when I looked more closely at the lower part of the photo, something very strange appeared behind their legs.

There was a small creature standing there.

It looked very unusual and almost unreal, like something created by computer graphics. The creature was very small and naked. Its skin looked brown, and its body shape was strange. What frightened me the most was that it seemed to have four arms and only three fingers on each hand. Its eyes were tiny and odd-looking, and the most disturbing thing was that it did not seem to have a mouth at all.

Seeing that image made my heart race. I felt shocked and frightened at the same time. My mind started thinking about the possibility that such a strange creature might actually be somewhere in our school.

After seeing the picture, I quickly gave the phone back. My sister and I left the school and walked home together. The entire way home, I could not stop thinking about what I had just seen. I felt scared and uneasy. For a moment, I even thought about transferring to another school because the image had frightened me so much.

However, that never happened. I continued studying at the same school and eventually forgot about transferring. Still, that strange image remained in my memory. Even today, when I think about my childhood, that moment stands out as one of the most mysterious and frightening things I experienced when I was young.

That is one memory from my childhood that I still remember clearly.