It was on a bus ride to school one early March Friday morning that Jelena for the first time clearly saw a frostling crouching atop a car and with a knot of anxiety tightening in her gut silently accepted her father’s legacy had arrived almost in full.
A series of hollow hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, drilled the notes deep inside Nika’s head, making her jump with the nerves and spill the oil all over the torch and her shaky hands.