sunnily. “‘One hundred recipes for healthy intercourse.’ ‘How to meet a blonde.’ ‘How to break up with a blonde without heartache.’”
He groaned again. “Who sent you?”
“No one. I came on my own. You found me, remember? But . . . I need you.”
“Why?”
“I can’t do anything by myself. I don’t know anything. I am scared of everything.”
“I noticed,” Aspirin murmured through gritted teeth.
“It’s true,” the girl sighed. “I have no one. Except for Mishutka.”
The girl approached, and Aspirin flinched, thinking she was bringing the bear closer to him, but she just picked up the tray with the dirty dishes and moved toward the kitchen.
“Hold on!” Aspirin yelled to her back. “What is your name, anyway?”
Another clap of thunder followed a flash of lightning that illuminated the dark room: a Japanese calendar on the wall, book spines on the shelves, and the girl’s pale face.
“Alyona,” she said gingerly, like someone who had just come up with a name and was not sure it actually fit.
“Liar,” Aspirin said.
The girl shrugged and walked out of the room.
Aspirin shook his head. The hallucination continues, then, he thought. Gusts of wind made the windowpanes tremble. In the kitchen the dishes clinked delicately.
How could he have fallen asleep? He just dropped everything and got himself wasted. She could have brought people into his apartment—her masters, or whoever sent her here.
“Hey,” Aspirin yelled hoarsely, hoping to be heard in the kitchen. “Where did you get the keys?”
“In the pocket of your jacket,” the girl answered serenely. “In the hallway.”
He rose, fighting off nausea.
“And now where are my keys?”
“Same place. I put them back.”
The sound of running water, the sound of a fork dropped into the metal sink.
“For your information,” Aspirin said, “I am changing the locks—tomorrow. Both of them. And the alarm will be on, and you don’t know the code. And the money? Where did you get the money?”
“Forty-five.”
“‘Forty-five’ what?”
“Your code is forty-five. You left it punched in, and never put it back to zeroes. And the money—I took it from your jacket and put the change back in your pocket. But since it was to buy you food, it’s not really stealing, is it?”
The logic was irrefutable—and infuriating.
The sound of running water stopped. Aspirin forced himself off the couch and went into the kitchen. The girl stood in front of an empty, sparkling sink, drying her hands with a towel.
“A different concierge was on duty today—her name is Sveta,” she said. “I told her I was your daughter from Pervomaysk. She looked very surprised.”
“I have no doubt.” Aspirin’s voice was low and hard. “And now you’re going to leave.”
“Where? In the rain? In the thunderstorm? Don’t be silly.”
“Don’t call me silly! Stop condescending to me! I’m the adult here, and I don’t care if there is a monsoon outside: you’re still going.”
Alyona smiled. “You have a nice large apartment. Some people stay in communal apartments all their lives, four people per room. Yet you’re too greedy to let an orphaned child stay with you. Even though you live alone and have plenty of space.”
“Who took you in last night? Gave you a place to stay? Who protected you from those thugs and their dog?”
“Mishutka protected me,” she said, almost as if she was confused by the question.
“That’s it. I am calling the police.” Aspirin turned to leave.
“Go ahead, call them,” Alyona said to his back, her voice icy. “It will be interesting when they come. I will tell them you made me walk around naked. And that you made me stand in different poses. And you wouldn’t feed me unless I complied. And also—”
He slapped her face, so hard that the little bitch flew off, slamming her back into the sink. It had been gutting, hearing her words. Hearing how easily those accusations could be thrown out, and knowing how easily they would work against him. Victor hadn’t believed him; the police wouldn’t believe him. No longer able to comprehend words—his or hers or anyone’s—and no longer seeing anything with clarity, Aspirin ran into the bathroom and turned the hot water to the maximum, trying to wash off the feeling of her face on the palm of his hand.
He wondered if he could get it hot enough to wash her completely out of his life.
To wash off the stain that was spreading on his soul.
Hands red and raw, he turned off the faucet. With the noise of rushing water and faulty plumbing no longer filling his ears, silence was everywhere. Not a single sound came