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"Sure Soo anywhere"

He shrugs "Several reasons" He pours lass "For one, there’s no one else to take care of my mother Plus, this place is my home, and I’m not convinced there’s ht e of scenery"

"Maybe so, but I still can’t wait to leave I only have a little over four e, you know? And you can’t tell anyone this, but I think that I’ to leave sooner than that"

"I don’t think that’s a good idea, Marina You’re very young to be on your own Where will you go?"

"America," I say without hesitation

"America?"

"There’s somebody there I need to find"

"If you’re so determined, then why haven’t you already left?"

"Fear," I say "Mostly fear"

"You’re not the first," he says, taking a lass His eyes have lost their sharpness "The key to change is letting go of fear"

"I know"

The door to the café opens, and a tallan old book enters He moves past us and takes a table in the far corner He has dark hair and bushy brows A thick mustache covers his upper lip I’ve never seen hiaze, there’s so I immediately don’t like about him and I quickly look away Fro atto Héctor, or rather I babble, hardly lass with red wine; and I hear next to nothing of what he says in reply

Five , and I’m so bothered by it that the café seems to spin I lean across the table and whisper to Héctor, "Do you knoho the person in the far corner is?"

He shakes his head "No, but I’ve noticed hi in the sa the sa about him I don’t like, but I don’t knohat it is"

"Don’t worry, you have me here," he says

"I really should leave," I say An odd desperation to get away has come over me I try not to look at thethe book now, the cover of which is angled toward h he wants ray

PITTACUS OF MYTILENE

AND THE

ATHENIAN WAR

Pittacus? Pittacus? The h I can’t see the bottorin on his lips All at once I feel as though I’ve been struck by a train Could this beover Héctor’s wine bottle My chair falls backwards, crashing to the ground Everybody in the café turns

"I gotta go, Héctor," I say "I gotta go"

I stu faster than a speeding car, not caring if anyone sees I’h the double doors and quickly slaainst the inbottom lip Sweat runs down the side of my face

I openinto her ar about the tension fros me back, probably confused by my sudden display of affection, which I haven’t shown her in years She pulls away and I open s a finger to her lips the same way I did to Ella at Mass Then she turns and walks away

That night, after dinner and before prayers, I stand at the bedroo the landscape for anything suspicious

"Marina? What are you doing?"

I turn around Ella stands behind h these halls like a shadow

"There you are," I say, relieved "Are you okay?"

She nods, but her big brown eyes tell ?" she repeats

"Just looking outside, that’s all"

"What for? You’re always looking out the s at bedtiht since she arrived, since I saw theoutside at bedtins of him I’m now certain he’s the samefor bad men, Ella There are bad men out there sometimes"

"Really? What do they look like?"