throat. Whatever the poison was, apparently Baba Yaga knew it was potent enough that just the little bit carried on the wasp's stinger would be enough. And there was no way Esther could get there in time to stop it. The question then was how quickly the poison would act. The dog had died in only a couple of minutes.
Piotr's voice came from right beside her. She hadn't heard him come back out. "Vanya, close your eyes!" A stream of liquid spurted fifteen feet from Piotr's hand, catching the wasp as it reached Vanya's neck. Vanya was splashed with the stuff and there was definitely some of it in his eyes, but all Esther cared about at the moment was the wasp. It crawled feebly for a second on the neck of Vanya's T-shirt. Then it dropped dead into the grass without stinging him.
"Got the little bastard," said Piotr. He was holding a can of Raid Wasp & Hornet Killer.
"My eyes!" shouted Vanya.
Piotr was already reading the directions on the can. In Old Church Slavonic he called out, "Wash his eyes with water, and keep on washing them!"
Esther turned on the hose as Piotr got the business end pointed at Vanya's eyes. Not too strong, just enough to bathe the eyes, not sandblast them. Katerina fussed over him, helpless because she didn't understand the magic that Piotr had sprayed from the can.
Terrel looked at them in awe. "Man, you guys are really quick with wasps." He picked up dead Edwin, whose little corpse had fallen when Vanya grabbed at his eyes. "I better get home with the dog," he said.
"No!" said Vanya.
"Wait a minute, Terrel," said Esther, in her heavily accented English.
In proto-Slavonic, Vanya explained. "If he takes the dog home dead, they're going to find the poison and then we have to explain how Ruthie was trying to kill me and got the dog by mistake. I don't think we want to testify at Ruthie's trial."
Esther moved immediately to examine the corpse Terrel was holding. She closed her eyes, passed her hands over the animal, and then stroked its belly while inhaling deeply. Sniffing.
In Ukrainian she said, "She didn't use any kind of detectable poison. It was a spell carried on a potion. There'll be nothing that a chemist would recognize."
"How did you do that?" asked Katerina. "How did you test it without tasting it?"
Esther was ready to explain, but then Terrel, increasingly frustrated with all the unintelligible language, interrupted. "I got to get home with this."
Vanya answered him in English. "You've got to know - it wasn't poison that got him. Nothing that any vet is going to find if there's an autopsy."
"They do autopsies on dogs? Cool."
"They do when people think the dog must have been poisoned. But I'm telling you that there won't be any poison to find. So why mention anything beyond finding the dog dead?"
Terrel's face was impassive as he answered. "You mean I don't get to tell Mom how he twitched his little legs while he was croaking?"
"You shouldn't take the dog back, anyway, Terrel," said Vanya. Water was still trickling into his open eyes, carrying away the Raid. "Let me do it. Or my father. We'll just say we found it dead in our yard. You shouldn't be involved."
"No way," said Terrel. "I get to hand little Edwin to her." He sounded very firm about it. A little frantic, even.
"Whatever," said Vanya. "It's your life."
"No," said Piotr. "It's his life, but he is not going to take the dog to his mother. Give it to me." He handed the hose to Esther, to continue bathing Vanya's eyes. He strode to Terrel and took the dog out of his arms. "Esther and I have watched what you endure, ever since your family moved into the neighborhood. Because your mother loves the dog more than you, you think you want the revenge of giving her the dead body. But what you really want is for your mother to love you. Therefore she must not have the memory of this dog's body in your outstretched arms. Do you understand me? You must be a mile from here, flying your kite, when she gets this dog that we found dead in our yard."
Terrel thought about this for a moment. "Whatever," he said.
"So you should go now," said Piotr.
But Terrel wasn't done. "What about the kite, Ivan? You want to take it up?"
"Later. Tomorrow. You going to be in town for the Fourth?"