t in memory, a late-summer day umn crispness. Speck and I  to eac ty moments bets going off to one calendar, five long and miserable years ribe took up our neably brig morning, ell  beat. But I never did. In t sense, t it o its own.

    Over trailed a string of smoke,  tember. quot;e matcrides and talked of our books. Srees, a slender breeze bleumbled from ts. to me, it looked for an instant as if acoo quickly, but trick of lig to mind tery beure, and I told Speck of my brief vision of our missing friends. I asked ed to be caught.

    Speck stopped at t led to trance. t  sed and crunc in a cloudless sky, and c mig I feared imminent peril. her eyes locked on mine.

    quot;You dont understand, Aniday. Kivi and Blomma could not take it anot. te for to be  and upper  you ever  to run ao t;

    ions poured out like sugar from a split sack. t s claims on me, and my nig  until I sat doo e turn, dusted and polis t morning, my life o  s, as if s see me before  only a distant space and time alive in ion. I  moment, to my lips. quot;Speck, I ;

    quot;ait. Listen.quot;

    to ood, vibrating beneat, t into t. In t instant, a crack and tumble, muffled by ter surface. tself  top speed, torance of t sly smoking on a ers nig tried to fig but o  upil ted. From inside, a reedy sound escaped from to fade in t settled, t person emerged. A single o t, o trate body. Speck turned it over : Béka. Onions soon followed, wing, and lay down beside .

    Speck leaned doo ask, q