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Story Two

NOBODY’S SPACE

Prologue

VACATIONS IN THE COUNTRY OUTSIDE MOSCOW HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE prerogative of the rich or the poor It’s only the middle class that prefers Turkish hotels on inclusive tariffs offering "as et down," a torrid Spanish siesta, or the neat and tidy sea coast of Croatia The middle class doesn’t like to take its vacations in central Russia

But then, the

In any case, the profession of biology teacher, even in a prestigious Moscow gra whatsoever to do with the middle class And if the teacher is feo for another wo on theup her two children, then Turkish hotels are nothe children had not yet reached the terrible teenage years and were genuinely delighted by the old dacha, the little stream and the forest that started just at the back of the fence

What was not so good was the way the elder child, a daughter, took her senior status so seriously At the age of ten you can be pretty good at keeping an eye on your little five-year-old brother splashing about in the strea deep into the forest with hileaned from the Nature Studies textbook

However, ten-year-old Oksana had no idea that they were lost yet She walked blithely on along the forest path that she could barely even htly by the hand as she told him a story

"And then they hah him They hammered one stake into his forehead, and another into his stoot up out of his coffin and said, ’You can’t killtime already My na quietly

"All right, all right, I was joking," Ksyusha said seriously "He fell down and died They buried hihtened Ksyusha," Ro because he was afraid, though¡ªhe always staht?"

"All right," said Ksyusha, looking around She could still see the path behind them, but ahead it was co leaves The forest had suddenly beco at all like it was near the village where their mother had rented their summer dacha, an old house that no one lived in anymore They’d better turn back, before it was too late As a caring older sister, Ksyusha realized that "Let’s go hoy," her brother said suddenly "Look, a doggy!"

Ksyusha turned around

There really was a dog standing behind her A large, gray dog with big teeth, looking at her with its

"I want a doggy like that," Ro over the words at all and looked at his sister proudly

Ksyusha was a city girl and she’d only ever seen wolves in pictures And in the zoo as well, only they were some rare kind of Sumatran wolves

But now she suddenly felt afraid

"Let’s go, let’s go," she said in a quiet voice, tightening her grip on Roy, you can’t play with it"

Sohtened hi, he clutched his sister’s hand even tighter and followed her without a y stood still for moment, and then set off after the children at a slow, deliberate walk

"It’s f-following us," said Ro back "Ksyukha, is it a olf?"

"It’s a doggy," said Ksyusha "Only don’t run, okay? Wolves bite people who run"

The doggy

"Run!" shouted Ksyusha They set off at randoh the prickly bushes that grasped at therown-up, past a row of moss-covered tree-stued the again Behind theht, on the left And every now and then it h

"It’s laughing," Ro disappeared Ksyusha stopped beside an iainst her Her little brother had rejected any sissy stuff like that a long tile, just pressed his back against his sister, put his hands over his eyes in fear, and repeated quietly over and over again, "I’m n-not afraid, I’m n-not afraid There’s no one there"

"There’s no one there," Ksyusha confiry had puppies here She was just driving us away fro horeed happily and moved his hands away from his eyes "Oh, the puppies!"

His fear disappeared instantly theout of the bushes There were three of the foreheads and foolish eyes

"P-puppies" Roht

Ksyusha jerked to one side in panic The pine she was standing against wouldn’t let her go¡ªher little calico dress was stuck to the resin on its bark Ksyusha tugged harder and the cloth tore with a crack and came unstuck

And she saw the wolf The as standing behind her, s

"We have to climb up the tree" Ksyusha whispered

The wolf laughed

"Does she want us to play with the puppies?" Roray head with the dark patches As if it were answering: No, no I want the puppies to play with you

And then Ksyusha started shouting¡ªso loudly and piercingly that even the wolf took a step backward and wrinkled up its gray etting that she was already a big, brave girl

"Don’t shout like that," she heard a voice say behind her "You’ve woken up the entire forest"

The children turned around with renewed hope Standing beside the pups was a grown-up woman¡ªa beautiful wo linen dress

The wolf growled ly

"Don’t be silly," said the woman She leaned down and picked up one of the pups¡ªit dangled limply in her hands, as if it had fallen asleep The other two froze on the spot, too "Noho do we have here?"

Paying no more attention to the children, the wolf moved sullenly toward the woman

Dense wolf’s thickets dark with fear, There’s no way you can hide in herethe woman chanted The wolf stopped

The truth and lie I both can see, Noho do you look like toat the wolf