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A canary? I repeated inhow I had blurted out that word on the airplane without knohy Was it a coincidence that the canary was the last aniht I else?" The headmaster probed

I shook my head "Yes I ot back toannoyed She was dressed in a tight little ensehtclub than dress code Her red hair was pulled into two loose braids, her dull roots showing along her part

"Why aren’t you ready?" she asked, taking in my haphazard outfit

I fu your future," she said, adjusting her purse, which was covered in tassels

"Today? But I have to go to class"

"Yes, today," she said in disbelief "And we don’t have class It’s Saturday"

I glanced at ?"

I was pretty sure we had neverbetter to do "Okay"

The worew up We traveled there by foot, winding through the city streets until we passed Mont Royal, thethe west side of the city in its shadow

It was a hazy e as Anya led the way We chatted as alked She was born in Russia but had been living in Montreal since age ten Her father ran a drugstore, and she used to help out on the weekends, stocking the shelves That here she first learned how to put on " iteh she had been at St Clément for two years now, she had few friends there "I have my own people Russian people," she explained But the way she talked about them was the same way I talked about everyone I’d once known in California: as if they didn’t exist anymore They were in a different world, a world that didn’t include Monitors and the Undead, and I couldn’t tell the

Anya and I turned down a curved street lined with buildings that looked like tenement houses The people who passed us on the sidewalk all see Russian "It’s across from my hairdresser," Anya said "See, there" She pointed to a weathered brick building streaked ater stains Over the entrance was a sign in huge Russian print Anya held the door for me, and I stepped inside It was a spice shop The trail of cloves and nut in Russian to the man behind the counter, who see us each a honey stick before letting us through a back door that led to the rest of the building

We walked up four flights of stairs until we reached an apart of an eye on the door "This is it," Anya said, and rang the buzzer No one answered Anya rang it again, and tried to peer through the peephole

"Maybe she’s out," I said, cringing as Anya knocked and then held down the buzzer

"No, they’re here They’re always here"

Moments later, we heard heavy footsteps in the hall, followed by the clicking sound of dead bolts unlatching When it swung open, a hairy,us Anya said so to him in Russian He looked at me, back at her, and then promptly shut the door

"Zinyechka!" I heard him belloithin

"What did he say?" I asked

"We have to wait here for her to come meet us If she decides to see us, she’ll let us in If not, we have to go"

While aited, I peered out the tinyin the staircase A tall boydown the sidewalk below us, his broad shouldersbeneath his collared shirt as he stepped into the street "Dante?" I breathed, and stepped down a stair

"What are you looking at?" Anya said

I barely heard her as I watched the boy hail a taxi Just before he ducked inside, he looked up I pressed myself to the wall It definitely wasn’t Dante

Before Anya could ask , the apartment door opened, and a woman appeared in the entryway She was thick-boned, with thinning hair and heavy bosom "Yes?" she said, her voice deep Her hands were stained a blotchy red She wiped them on her apron

Anya spoke to her in Russian After she was finished, the woman looked me up and down "Why have you come to seedreaht be premonitions," I said softly

The wo, I placed thee, her fingersto Anya in Russian, and disappeared inside

"She said okay," Anya translated, and together we followed the woman into the aparted s that looked out on a fire escape and a brick wall It stank of h atelevision, another with a sewing machine and tworooht on the back of a chair "Will cost forty dollars Okay?"

Anya dropped her bag on the floor, and ild gesticulations she spouted a torrent of Russian words, which came out so quickly, I was surprised even Zinya could understand the, Zinya finally turned to me and said "Twenty"