 
Betula Pendula

First Cycle: Spring

Sarah Kassem

Copyright © 2014 Sarah Kassem - Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, think for a moment of all the hard work the author invested and head to your favourite ebook retailer to purchase your own copy

Text & Illustrations: Sarah Kassem

Translated and edited by Nicholas John Greenfield

http://www.betulapendula.de

 sarah@betulapendula.de
CONTENTS

Chapter One: Site Conditions

Chapter Two: Sporangium

Chapter Three: Anemophily

Chapter Four: Androecium

Chapter Five: Gynoecium

Chapter Six: Anther

Chapter Seven: Filament

Chapter Eight: Microspore

Chapter Nine: Megaspore

Chapter Ten: Monoecy

Chapter Eleven: Mitosis

Chapter Twelve: Haploid

Chapter Thirteen: Phytohormone

Chapter Fourteen: Meristem

Chapter Fifteen: Pollengrain

Chapter Sixteen: Testa

Chapter Seventeen: Gametophyte

Chapter Eighteen: Nucellus

Chapter Nineteen: Endosperm

Chapter Twenty: Perisperm

Chapter Twenty-One: Embryogenesis

End
Site Conditions

Everybody has a small, ugly dark spot in their brain. A small mouldy spot, a Venus moving in front of the sun, a blind spot on the retina of the brain mass. Far away from any recognizable, visible location, is a small, ugly dark spot in the twists and turns of the brain.

Some know of the small, ugly dark spot – they revolve around it, constantly staring at it, scratching and rummaging around until it begins to proliferate and expand and occupy a vast space.

Others do not know of the small, ugly dark spot, they live their lives as usual, and the small, ugly dark spot never reveals any effect.

Others know of it, but ignore it.

Some feel a slight pressure on the site of the spot, but only really notice it during a heavy headache.

And very rarely does anyone truly perceive the small, ugly dark spot and then question the cause and effect of this black, marble-like induration.

It's possible to live well with the small, ugly dark spot. To simply make a detour, hit a wide berth, ignore it, stay away from it, and then there's no need for concern.

Those who do not wish to know where this little, ugly dark point lies, should not continue to read.

If you draw a horizontal line through the left eye and then turn that line around 30 ° to the East, you will find the point at the extreme end of the head, just below the skull.

I will now tell you a story about a boy named Viktor.

Viktor P. Abies was seven years old when, one evening, he first discovered his own small, ugly dark spot.

Viktor was sitting on his bed, flipping through his Star Wars sticker book and wanting nothing more than to stick his freshly exchanged Chewbacca sticker in box 23 when he felt it. It was just a little pressure, an unassuming pull, a gentle spasm at 43° on the NNE line, rotated by 18° to the NE and mirrored by 6 units along the z-axis in his left brain. Viktor blinked his eyes a few times, twisted the left side of his mouth once, twisted it again along with his cheek, this time stronger. He pinched his left eye shut, pulled his left shoulder briefly below his left ear and shook himself once. The pressure faded and so he was able to stick Chewbacca properly, doing so carefully and meticulously within the outline of box 23. He was careful to apply even pressure to avoid air bubbles, looking proudly at the final outcome.

"Mom, can you sew me a Chewbacca costume for my birthday?" he yelled.

When he got no response, he yelled again a little louder.

When still no answer came, he placed both hands around his mouth and yelled as loud as he could: _"Mom! Can. You. Sew. Me. A. Chewbacca. Costume. For. My. Birthday?"_

He heard footsteps in the hall then his door flew open, slamming into his toy box and bouncing against his locker before coming to a trembling and fearful stop.

His mother stood in the doorway, her red hair tousled and piled heavily on the dark blue fabric of her bathrobe. Viktor almost never saw his mother with open hair, and when he did, as now, it cast such puzzlement over him that it took a few seconds for him to be sure that this person was actually his mother. Helena Abies only opened her hair to sleep. Throughout the day – from the moment she got up to the second she went to bed – she wore her hair in a tight bun at the nape.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" she asked. She spoke very softly and slowly, looking Viktor directly in the eyes while stretching out each word, doing so as if she wanted to make sure that each letter was understood. Such behaviour was a clear sign of anger.

"I want a Chewbacca costume for my birthday, please please please. Can you sew me one? Please?"

His mother said nothing and just looked at him, her gray eyes resting on him, motionless.

"Please, Mom!"

Helena blinked slowly, her long, upper eyelashes brushing lethargically on her lower eyelid, and asked, "Why?"

"Because Chewbacca is cool! Look," Viktor sprang off the bed, ran to her and held up his sticker album. She looked at it, but apparently at the wrong image and in the wrong direction. Viktor pointed at box 23 and yelled: "Here! Chewbacca! He's a Wookiee and a pilot and rescued Yoda!"

Helena looked down at him and said nothing.

"Please Mom, please please please!!!" Viktor pleaded, jumping up and down. "Sew me a Chewbacca costume, please!"

"I've already sown you a Darth Maul costume," she replied, maintaining the slow and quiet voice that Viktor knew should be scaring and intimidating him.

"Mama, please! I promise I'll help you. I'll do anything, anything!" He hugged her legs and buried his face in her knees.

Helena bent down and picked up the album from where it'd been dropped on the floor. She held it at arm's length and looked at the sticker of Chewbacca. "This," she said, pointing to box number 23.

Viktor nodded, clutching her left hand and kissing her knuckles several times. "Please, please, please!"

Helena looked at the picture. "He's hairy," she said.

"Yes!" shouted Viktor.

She looked at the sticker again. Viktor leaned against her leg and looked up at her. Helena was a big woman, everything about her was huge. Her hair was very thick and long, her hands broad and bony, her muscular legs, her shoulders and upper arms forming a massive frame that was rare in a woman. The bones in her face suggested an energetic sculptor had had a good day and therefore created something immense. Such was her stature that Viktor thought his mother would be the best warrior in "Star Wars", and that her stickers would be very expensive and valuable. Even Darth Vader might be afraid of her ...

Furthermore it seemed as if Helena would be completely free of fear, as if the concept of 'fear' did not even exist in her world.

Once, when Viktor was four years old, Helena had had rats in her tailor shop. A shipment of silk from South Africa had arrived, and apparently several rats had made their way into the very boxes that Helena had received. Her employees had panicked and Viktor too had been infected by the hysteria. He had seen one as it peeked under a box with trembling whiskers, beady eyes, and a thick tail twitching back and forth. Viktor had been creeped out by that.

Gem, the son of a seamstress, had said that rats sneak up on people when they are sleeping, licking them with numbness inducing saliva so that when they wake, they notice that their nose, ears, or all their fingers have been chewed off. He added that it happened all the time to people in Philippine prisons. Oded, another member of Helena's staff, had said that rats brought the plague, a disease in which one turns totally black, their skin rotting till they suffocate and begin to bleed from the ears. Two dressmakers, Maricel and Riza, both had said that rats ate cloth and fabric and so the studio would soon go bankrupt, as such all the employees would be unemployed and so they might as well submit their resignations already and try to find somewhere else to work. Maricel had also added that rats quickly produce many children, and Viktor had thus imagined how the rooms of the tailor shop would soon be full of rats, and the visiting room would be filled from floor to ceiling with writhing gray animals, and how, if yet more rats were produced, then they would spread across the city as everyone ran around and died of the plague without noses and fingers. Hedera Helix would thus be on the news as the United Nations would have to drop a bomb on the city so the rats can't infect the whole world. And then everyone would die.

This was too much for Viktor. Amidst the excited arguing employees in the tailor shop he had burst into tears and had an asthma attack. His mother, towering above the chaos like a giant lighthouse surrounded by crashing waves, had looked calmly at the panicked dressmakers, the excited children, the weeping and hyperventilating Viktor, the upset chef Cherno, who shouted that the rats do not eat fabric but instead would soon appear in his kitchen. He had taken off his apron, had thrown it onto the floor and had declared as he left the room that he was going to quit.

When Helena had had enough of this sight, she had thrown them all out in the backyard and locked herself in the studio, after which all that was heard for the next two hours was the sound of furniture being pushed back and forth, boxes knocked over and things falling to the ground. From time to time small squeaking noises could also be heard.

The employees remained in the backyard as this happened, Viktor sobbing in the arms of Oded while Gem told him that his mother was now being eaten by the rats and he would therefore end up in an orphanage where he would starve to death. Upon hearing this, Maricel had yelled at her son that he should tell no such nonsense, adding to her words a whack on the back of his head that caused him to cry. Gem's little sister, seeing her brother now crying as well, launched into tears herself. A few neighbours came over to see what all the noise was about and Kennedy the cat jumped into a tree hissing at everyone. Hearing this frightful noise, a flock of birds and crows, who were previously perched in the tree, leapt from their branches and circled the courtyard, chattering angrily. Two squirrels, also provoked by the commotion, jumped down from the tree only to find themselves surrounded by people, running a few scared circles, they then quickly scurried away under the gate.

After two hours had passed and the pandemonium had long since subsided, the door to the studio had opened and Viktor's mother had appeared in the entrance way. While she'd been inside, Cherno had lit the barbecue and cooked a few steaks, all of which were now being eaten by those sitting on the grass and discussing their future plans. Viktor, having calmed down as well, was listening to Oded tell him how he would leave Hedera Helix and travel the world to see the magical Galapagos tortoises and the giants of Easter Island.

When Helena appeared, silence fell upon them all. She looked at everyone calmly with sweeping gray eyes, her famous bedroom eyes which gave her the aura of unshakeability, always suggesting that she was terribly bored while every adult who gazed upon them had the sudden feeling of being a small, nervous child. She had a large hessian sack in her hand which she dropped in front of Oded's feet.

"There were 26 rats," she said slowly and softly in her typical way of speaking when she was angry. Slow because she assumed that the listeners were underprivileged and therefore that the slowness of speech would increase the likelihood of her words being understood. And quietly because her quiet, deep voice, coupled with a volume just above a whisper, compelled all to silence, to listen very carefully and to concentrate.

"Oded will bring the rats to the dump. Riza, take the children and help them with their homework. Everybody else get back to work," she announced, before she went up to her office and worked on the bookkeeping.

Oded then revealed to everyone that all the rats had broken necks, and the staff were amazed when they entered the studio to find that all the cabinets and solid oak shelves, as well as the heavy machinery, had been tossed around. It took them two hours to put all the equipment and furniture back into place. Despite the chaos, the rat problem had been solved and never again would a rodent stray into the tailor's shop. Viktor was convinced that word had spread in the rat world, that now all the rats were afraid of Helena Abies and, as her apartment was above the tailor shop, it was now akin to a formidable fortress, indestructible and resistant to any invasion.

Helena put the sticker album on Viktor's desk. "Your cloak is finished, Maricel spent three days sewing it. You even tried it on yesterday."

Viktor sighed. He knew he had lost.

"Did you try it yesterday or not?" she asked. Viktor nodded and sighed inwardly at the question. His mother had been there, given instructions, staked the thick fabric with a few needles, and even ordered some last-minute changes – Viktor was slowly beginning to understand the concept of rhetorical questions, finding them both totally unnecessary and unnerving.

"You wanted to be Darth Maul and, as Darth Maul apparently has a red sword, a double red sword, who then had to go to Salix Alba and spend an entire day there, because it took so long to find such a sword in stores?" she breathed slowly and precisely.

Viktor saw a piece of lint on the carpet and pushed it around with his toe. She knew who'd been to Salix Alba, so the question was again unnecessarily rhetorical, serving only to deflate him further.

"Who?" she kept on, leaning slightly over him.

"Oded" Viktor whispered, crushing the lint with his toe.

"And when we ordered your horns and make-up, how long did it take until everything came?"

Viktor wanted to scream and throw his arms around angrily but he knew it would be for nothing. It was physically impossible to be in Helena's presence and express anger. She just seemed to soak up all the rage and anger in him, like a vacuum or a black hole. It was as if she could just stop up angry people with a cork, thus reducing them to either bottle the anger within, or simply let it fade away peacefully.

Helena knelt before Viktor so she could look him directly in the eyes and she asked again, this time in a whisper: "Where and how long?"

"You ordered the horns from Salix Alba," yelled Viktor. "Oded had to go there because they don't deliver! And you got the red makeup sent from New York, which is in America, far away, because that kind is better for the skin and doesn't cause pimples, and it took three months till everything finally arrived. And you had to give the customs office a lot of money to pay for it all!"

Viktor took a deep breath, let out a sigh of resignation and slumped his shoulders. He looked at another piece of lint on the floor and looked up again in order to check whether his mother was still looking at him. She was.

"Are you going to tell Maricel to throw away the cloak and begin work on a new costume?"

"No."

"Are you going to tell Oded tomorrow morning that the time he spent getting the sword and the horns was in vain?"

"No."

She picked Viktor up and brought him to bed. "Your birthday is next month so we don't have time for a new costume. You also need to learn how to make decisions. Once you've decided on something in life and all the levers are set in motion in order to realise it, you have to stay with that decision. You wanted Darth Maul and Darth Maul you will get, so you'll stick with it and keep this decision. You can't change your mind and wishes from one day to the other. Furthermore, it's disrespectful toward the people who have worked hard to ensure that your request is fulfilled. You will be Darth Maul, but you're not going to be a dictator, bossing people around. I don't like this Star Wars thing and I'm going to talk to your father about it tomorrow. When you are older and have your own money and your own people, then you can do and say what you want. But until then, you're seven years old and my staff are not your slaves and the people around you don't have to jump at your bidding. Now, as you have school tomorrow and you're still awake, you'll go to sleep this instant."

She stroked his forehead and covered him with his blanket. Now she was talking in a normal tone of voice, which meant that she was no longer angry. And Helena's voice in the normal volume had a very hypnotic effect. It was deep, with a billowing chant reminiscent of ocean waves in a dark, underground cave and those she spoke to in such a tone often became quite sleepy while listening.

Viktor looked at her. She sat on his bed, looking down at him, and he saw himself mirrored in her eyes.

"Ok," he said.

"Ok what?" She asked.

"Ok, I'll be Darth Maul."

"And what else?"

"I'm going to sleep now."

"Yes. But what about what I said earlier?"

Viktor thought. "That I shouldn't play Star Wars so much?"

"Yes, that too. But what else?"

Viktor thought. "When you make a decision, you have to do it and not change it."

"Correct. Good night, sweetheart." She kissed him on both cheeks, her lips pressed firmly on his skin, then she turned off the light and left the room.

Viktor lay in the darkness, thinking about Darth Maul and about Chewbacca and decided that Darth Maul was perhaps cooler than the hairy Wookie.

Just before falling asleep, he felt it again, the small, ugly dark spot, the small black marble in his head. He blinked a few times with his left eye, scratched his head, curled up and fell asleep.

Outside it was a windy night. Autumn approached and Hedera Helix experienced the fore of the first autumn storms. The first trees were strewn with golden leaves. The first birds moved away in droves in the sky. The first fields were long since harvested. A couple of sheets of paper and a chocolate bar wrapper flew past Viktor's window in the wind. A little bird, sitting in the tree outside the window with ruffled feathers, clung to a branch before the wind caused it to fly up and disappear.
Sporangium

The next day Viktor ran slightly tilted to the left. The small, ugly dark spot had shifted the balance of his body, bent his inner axis and caused an obliquity. Viktor did not know why he was bent this way, where it had come from, nor what it meant. The only indication he had that something was amiss, aside from the tilt, was the small, hard, marble-like spot he could feel in the left half of his head, a spot which radiated a special density and whose load – like a weight on a scale – seemed to press one of his two sides down.

Meeting Gem on the playground, the two of them ate their lunch on the short wall next to the drinking fountain. Since yesterday, and the events under the cow's udder, the mood had become quite strange between them. Hala, Gem's little sister, either ignored them or glared furiously at them whenever she happened to pass, refusing to speak to them anymore. Even with this glum mood between them the sun continued to shine, the children were noisy in the schoolyard and, from time to time, a ball flew towards the two lunching boys so they had to crouch and hold their food to avoid it. Throughout the break not once did they speak to each other.

Then, in maths class, Viktor stared at '64+5' and, though he knew that the '6' remained so he only had '4+5' to work out, he found the task impossible to solve. His thoughts couldn't stay on the '4+5' with the '6' at the beginning, instead always returning to Kennedy, her kittens, and the events of the day before.

Yesterday, after school, Viktor, Gem and Hala had been in the backyard of the tailor shop playing ball. Originally, they had been in Maricel's flat, but that had proved boring. Next they had moved next door to Viktor's flat, but there it had proved too hot. They then worked their way down into the tailor shop, but were soon thrown out after Gem had started throwing the ball around and Viktor had knocked over a jar of beads that Hala then slipped on, bashing her elbow and causing her to scream in pain. Finally ending up outside in the backyard, they had been running around on the grass playing 'airplane', before, with plastic zoo animals, they played a bit of 'house' with Hala and then, desperate for anything else to do, resorted to kicking the ball back and forth between them. They were not allowed out on the street, and, as all their toys were boring, there was nothing much to do, everything being extremely dull and the weather simply too hot.

Kennedy was in a cardboard box next to the tool shed watching them sleepily. The white cat had recently had some kittens and they were lying huddled near her belly. Kennedy was the neighbourhood cat and, though no one knew exactly who she belonged to, everyone fed her and she in turn chose varying houses in the neighbourhood as her breeding sites. The origins of how she came to be called 'Kennedy' is as unknown as when she first appeared in the neighbourhood. No one could say for certain but, as far as anyone could remember, Kennedy had always been there, and Kennedy was almost always either pregnant or had just once more become a mother. This summer she had chosen Helena's tailoring workshop as her delivery room. She had been inspecting each corner of the garden for days, till finally she hurried into the workshop, looked around and found a suitable place under the stairs that led up to the flats. When Helena saw her, she grabbed Kennedy by the scruff of her neck with one hand and, with the other, took hold of a blank cardboard box that had been lying on the stairs before going out into the garden and putting the box under the roof of the tool shed. She then went back into the studio still carrying the snarling Kennedy, took a handful of towels, and proceeded back outside where she first stuffed the towels in the box before then shoving in Kennedy. The cat sniffed the box, smelled the towels, turned around a few times, lazily hissed at Helena and then lay down. Four days later, early in the morning, you could hear loud whinings and a cry, and an hour later Kennedy was surrounded by her five tiny babies. Following the birth, Helena brought her something to eat several times a day as well as a cup of water now and then, and the two were soon therefore reconciled.

Yesterday, when Viktor, Gem and Hala had been listlessly kicking the ball back and forth in the yard, they had suddenly heard in the silence of the warm afternoon a tearful wail. It was so quiet and so squeaky that it was not actually perceived immediately, but must have been going on a while before they became aware of it. They looked toward Kennedy, but the cat was dozing and looked deeply relaxed. The squeak was heard again, and Viktor and Gem looked to where the sound came from. In the flower bed, a few feet away from Kennedy, they saw a tiny, scruffy kitten. Viktor checked in the box and saw that Kennedy had only four kittens. Thinking therefore that one must have escaped, they then tried to put the scruffy kitten back in the box only to have Kennedy spit angrily and show them all her claws before she pushed the kitten away with her paw.

They stood and looked down at the black-haired thing. Its eyes were encrusted and it was emaciated and too weak to walk with white lice swarming in its matted fur. The kitten crawled slowly toward them and Viktor was creeped out. He took a step to the side. The kitten meowed, tumbled over, picked herself up trembling all over and continued to crawl toward Gem. He pushed it slightly with his foot, causing it to fall over again and once more have great difficulty getting up.

Suddenly Gem had the grand idea of playing football with the kitten. He knocked it with the side of his foot and then passed it to Viktor. Viktor, looking at Gem, who looked at him defiantly, pondered for a moment before kicking it back. By this time the kitten was letting loose wailing noises and whining incessantly. Kennedy simply yawned and once more returned to sleep.

Hala called them both monsters and shouted that they should stop immediately. They, however, continued, finding the game much more interesting than playing with a ball. Eventually though even that became boring, especially as the kitten soon ceased to make any noise and was barely moving. Gem went into the studio and came back with a lighter. He knelt beside the kitten, held the flame on its matted tail, and, after a while, the tail began to catch fire. Hala ran screaming into the studio and when the adults came streaming out the kitten was already in flames, dark smoke curling high from her body as a terrible stench filled the yard.

Hala cried and buried her head in Maricel's dress as the adults stood around and stared at the small fire in horror. Kennedy blinked tiredly and yawned. Hamid, the tailor, took a bottle of water and poured it on what was left of the kitten, which was only a black lump of unidentifiable material upon a patch of charred grass.

Helena grabbed Viktor by the ear and dragged him upstairs to their flat. She threw him on the couch, stood over him and yelled at him for a long time. She waved her arms, yelling until her voice broke and only a hoarse croak was possible as she banged her fist repeatedly on the headrest of the couch while intermittently circling Viktor like a rabid, hungry tiger. Pausing momentarily, she took a deep breath before continuing to scream until her voice finally collapsed, at which point she began to cry.

Viktor sat there with his mouth open, clinging on to the couch's cushions. He had never seen his mother like this, and he knew nothing at first. He knew that she was not angry, that anger in her always looked quite different. Helena's anger was scary, but what she was now was just ... overwhelming. Viktor had seen a documentary about a storm at sea on TV once. It had been night, a ship had been on the sea and you could barely see anything, everything was a horrible mess of water, air and noise coming from all directions till there was no longer anything constant, no horizon where you could be based, what was up one moment was down the next. Viktor had, since that documentary, long understood the phrase 'force of nature'. Therefore, while he was sitting in the living room watching the 'force of nature' called Helena Abies, like the ship in the storm it made him dizzy. Though he could not really listen and therefore took in only about every fifth word, the whole monologue was, as far as he could tell, almost solely formed from the word 'cat' and the question 'how could you?'

Eventually, he too began to cry as everything became all too confusing. He had never seen his mother scream and cry at the same time before. He understood that what they had done to the kitten was wrong and from below he could hear, from the loud voice of Maricel, that apparently her son too was receiving a similar explosion of anger and grief.

When Helena was finally done, she stood there for a few minutes simply staring at him. Viktor sniffed, wiped a hand across his face and his nose on his sleeve and stared at the carpet. He checked furtively every now and then to see if she still was still looking at him before once more casting his eyes back down. He knew that the 'force of nature' had passed and that now probably the anger would come. That was in fact even reassuring.

Helena shot forward toward him and grabbed his arm in her inimitable way, grabbed it in a grip so tight that it paralysed every muscle, yet at the same time such a delicate grip that it caused no pain, and pulled him into the bathroom. She turned on the faucet in the bathtub, and breathed through clenched teeth, "Undress. Bathe. Wash hair. Five minutes. Five minutes!" She left the bathroom and he heard her return to his room and open his closet.

Viktor hurried. He didn't quite know what was happening, but still he quickly undressed, climbed into the tub and lathered himself. He held his head under the faucet, worked shampoo into his hair and scrubbed it. Then he quickly washed his face, climbed out, took a towel from the shelf and ran to his room. Helena stood beside his bed with both hands on her hips, pointed at his laid out tux and whispered,

"Dress. Quickly." She had made the suit last year when he'd wanted to be James Bond on his birthday. He towelled himself dry, dropped the towel and swiftly pulled on his pants, trousers and then his shirt. Helena tucked his shirt into his trousers, tied his tie and ordered him to wear the jacket and the shoes. While he was tying his laces he thought for a second about what was happening and why he should therefore now be putting on his James Bond costume, but such thoughts were cut short when Helena came at him with a comb and drew first a clean parting before combing his dark brown hair until it lay smooth and neatly on his scalp. Then she grabbed him by the shoulders and steered him down the stairs and into the garden. All the employees were standing there, joined by not only a few neighbours, but also the greengrocer and the bar owner from across the road. In the middle of the yard stood a very red faced, hands on hips Maricel, next to a rather battered and bruised Gem. The boy looked up, startled, as Helena approached him.

Helena grabbed Viktor's ear with her left hand and, with the right, grabbed Gems ear and pulled them both toward the black, charred lump on the lawn. Leaving them standing over their folly, she then went to the tool shed and came out with a spade that she threw at the feet of the boys. Viktor was ordered to pick up the body and hold it in his hands, which he did while dry-retching a few times. The lump reeked of sweet smoke and was soft and flabby with black water that dripped from it onto his shoes. When finally he vomited and dropped the kitten, Helena turned on Gem and told him that it was his turn to hold it. He shook his head and began to cry, but his mother too shouted at him to pick it up and, having no choice, he finally held the dripping thing in both hands with his arms outstretched in front of him and sobbed. When Helena believed the boys had held the thing long enough, she told Viktor that he should dig a small hole in front of the flowerbed. When the hole was deep enough, Gem placed the remains in the hole, the hole was filled up, and Viktor and Gem had to stand in front of the grave.

No one said a word. All that could be heard was the cooing of a dove in the lime tree and the sound of a car driving up the road.

Twenty minutes later Helena went to the tool shed, came out with a small bucket and told them both to go to Barbacenia farm and return with some milk. The farm was located just ten minutes from the tailor shop and when they got there, Hugo the farmer, apparently already notified of their arrival, led them to the barn and showed them a cow who stared at them with big brown eyes and mooed. He took a small stool, put it under the cow, and told the boys that it was on them to do the milking. Both refused as the cow was not only massive but her udder was huge and disgusting and had thick blue and purple veins running all over it. When Hugo threatened to call Helena if they didn't do the milking immediately, it was enough to get Gem to sit down, grab a teat and start milking. He vomited immediately. Viktor too did likewise and found he couldn't stop gagging. His eyes watered and his throat burned as Hugo towered over them and gave short instructions on the art of milking.

Two hours later, when it was already dusk, they finally had the bucket a quarter filled with milk. When they returned to the studio with the bucket, they first had to fill up a small bowl to give to Kennedy. By nightfall they had to stand in front of Kennedy and apologise. Kennedy looked confused at first, then meowed expectantly, and when nothing happened, she put down her head and fell asleep. Viktor and Gem were not allowed to talk to each other, but instead had to take turns holding a monologue with Kennedy, asking for forgiveness and explaining in great detail what they had done and why it was so terrible. Oded was ordered to stand by monitoring them and was forbidden to speak a single word to them. He fidgeted uncomfortably and looked uneasy but after a while he took out a manga comic from his pocket and read secretly. The boys then had to pick some flowers from the flower bed, light a few candles, stand up in front of the grave of the kitten, and wait until it was time to sleep.

In the dark garden the boys stood staring at the heaped earth of the little grave. Around them crickets chirped and the linden tree rustled softly in the night breeze. The candles gave off a golden glow and Viktor could see Kennedy sluggishly licking her children. He thought of the day's events, from the lighter to the udder, wiggled his toes a little as he felt the onset of a slight headache. The James Bond shoes had grown a little too small for him and he also realized that the shirt and the jacket were too tight around the shoulders and chest. The collar pressed too hard into his neck. He thought of his new birthday costume and suddenly no longer felt any desire to be Darth Maul. He thought about who he would rather be and thought of the kitten in her shaggy coat. Then he thought of Chewbacca, who also had a shaggy coat. Maybe it would somehow make up for what he did if he wore a shaggy coat too. Darth Maul was a Sith after all and the Sith were evil and creepy, dominated by the dark side of the Force. Chewbacca and the Wookiees were tall and strong. Also Chewbacca was the friend of Han Solo, he'd saved Yoda and there was nothing creepy at all about Chewbacca and his friends. He decided then that he would tell his mother that evening before bedtime that he wanted to be Chewbacca.

Viktor sighed and continued to stare at the grave.
Anemophily

"What do you have now?" Viktor asked as the school bell rang.

"Bio. You?"

"Sport."

"You seeing your dad today?"

"No, tomorrow."

"Alright."

"I'll see you this afternoon at home."

"Sure."

"Ok."

"Alright."

"Alright."

"Later then."

Gem walked toward the school building while Viktor went to the gym. He pulled his sports bag along with him as he went, letting it drag along the floor like a dog on a lead. He'd asked both his mother and father multiple times for a dog but, even though he'd begged and pleaded, it'd been to no avail as neither showed any inclination to buy one. Now, in light of the events of yesterday, even the slightest chance that they may have one day been persuaded, had no doubt vanished forever after the affair with the kitten. Viktor was also sure that his father would already know what had happened. His parents had separated when Viktor was two years old, but, despite the separation, Helena and Immanuel Abies shared both a long-standing friendship and continuing partnership, a partnership that saw Immanuel deal with the taxes of the studio while Helena tailored almost the entirety of his wardrobe. As such they also saw Viktor as a joint project and meticulously informed each other about every little thing in his life. Therefore devout in the opinion that everyone in his father's company, Bresolino Views, would already know about everything that had taken place, Viktor wasn't sure if he should be in a bad mood, feel sad, or simply just blame Gem. Such thoughts haunted Viktor so much that, in his physical education class, he ran his warm up laps so fast he felt dizzy and was struck by a nosebleed. For the remainder of the class he had to stay seated on a bench with wads of toilet paper stuffed up each nostril. As he could then only breathe through his mouth, this in turn made him thirsty, but when he drank, such a pressure grew in his ears that he could no longer hear. At the end of the school day, when Oded came to pick him up, he let loose his anger by first grumbling to himself, then throwing his backpack on the back seat of the car, before finally declaring that he wanted to go home immediately.

That evening he sat on his bed and turned back to his Star Wars' sticker book. Next to it lay the football album that, because it was already completed, he now happily flicked through. It had taken him a long time to get every sticker and he thought about how he and Gerald van den Berg had sat together one long afternoon, discussing and exchanging stickers till finally the album was full from start to finish. The feeling he'd had when gluing the last sticker, that of René Higuita, in the correct box was one he'd never forget. He now turned to his Star Wars album and thought about when he would have the same moment of completion, which, as the album was not even half full yet, still lay unfortunately far in the future. He dreamed of the feeling that would flood over him as he smoothly stuck the final few stickers in the book, taking care to avoid air bubbles before releasing a cheer at the precise moment of completion.

Suddenly he saw, out of the corner of his eye, movement at the window. As it was a warm night, all the windows were open, and he looked to seek the source of the movement. At first he thought it might be a moth that may fly into his room. In such a circumstance he'd have to go and get his mother in order throw it out. Moths, butterflies – Viktor was creeped out by them all. He had once touched a moth only to find his hand become covered in dust from the moth's wings. Add to that the thick body and the whole thing was quite disgusting to him.

The flutter of movement persisted; even though Viktor couldn't quite make out just what the creature was until it suddenly flew into the room and sat itself down on top of his wardrobe. Viktor stared at it anxiously, especially when he saw that it was not a moth at all but instead a bird.

It was a very small bird, with a long, thin beak and feathers in fluorescent blue with flecks of pink and neon green. As it was a bird he had never seen before, Viktor had no idea what to do. He wanted to scream for his mother, but was afraid that the bird might flutter up and attack him with its long pointed beak the second he moved. Oded had once told him that one should never make any sudden movements in the presence of animals as, when they smell fear, they become aggressive and their reflex reaction then is to bite whatever threatens them.

The bird gazed down from the cabinet at Viktor and Viktor stared back up at it. Time passed. The wind blew softly into the room. It was already dark outside and the curtains fluttered gently in the night breeze.

The bird shook itself, pressed its mouth against its chest and puffed its feathers up until it looked like a tiny, fluffy ball.

"I'm cold and I'm hungry! I need to eat something now or else I'll staaarve!" The bird exclaimed, hyperventilating as it did so.

Since Viktor did not respond and instead simply remained staring up at the closet, the little bird jumped up and down a few times before asking, "Do you have anything to eat?"

Viktor thought for a moment, nodded to the bird, and ran to his school bag where he took out his sandwich from lunch, broke a piece off and put it carefully on the floor in front of the wardrobe. He then hurried back to his bed and watched the bird as it flew down to the food.

"What is it?" asked the bird, pecking at the salami in disgust before throwing it away.

"That's salami," said Viktor.

"Sa-la-mi," repeated the bird. "What is it?"

Viktor kneaded his hands together nervously. "Meat."

"I do not eat meat!" proclaimed the bird, pecking instead at the bread.

"What's this?" The bird asked, scratching his beak on the butter, before wiping it on the carpet in disgust.

"Butter."

"What's butter?"

"It's made from milk," Viktor replied.

The bird sighed unhappily and ate the bread without any real enthusiasm. "Do you have anything sweet?" it asked before adding, "And what about something to drink?"

Viktor went back to his school bag and took out both his water bottle and a Snickers bar. The bird hopped closer and Viktor sat on the floor opposite. He opened the bottle, poured some water into a cup that had been next to his bed, and set it down in front of the bird. The bird instantly jumped into the cup and turned a few circles in the water, like a sailing ship. It then stuck its head under the water, raised it up, and dunked it under once more. Dripping wet, it then he came out of the cup and stood expectantly in front of the still wrapped Snickers bar. Viktor opened the wrapper and the bird pecked gently at the chocolate.

"What is it?"

"Snickers."

The bird ate for a while, then flew up and flapped its wings extremely fast and turned a few quick laps around the room. "I love Snickers," it shouted as it increased its speed, its wings beating so fast that they were almost invisible. Viktor was creeped out by that.

The bird came back, ate more of the chocolate and studied Viktor closely. When it was finished, Viktor had to close the windows because the bird was cold. It flew to the foot of the bed, perched itself there and solemnly announced:

"My name is Cristobal. I'm a hummingbird and I'm already nine days old!" He hopped up and down a few times.

Viktor did not know what to do but, because his mother had always taught him to be polite when strangers were present, he replied:

"My name's Viktor and I'm seven years old. Next month I'm eight."

"I know," the bird said with a mischievous sense of pride as it puffed out its feathers so that it looked like a fluffy ball again.

They looked at each other for a while. Viktor was fascinated by the bright colours of the bird's plumage. Cornflower blue harmonised beautifully with pink and green, the light of the night lamp reflecting on it and therefore wrapping the bird in a golden shimmer. The bird constantly turned its head from left to right in order to inspect Viktor in detail using each eye. Its beak was very long, thin and pointed, its tail feathers an iridescent fan, which, depending on how the light fell on them, kept changing colour. The bird was so tiny that he could almost be mistaken for a butterfly.

After a while Cristobal flew a few leisurely laps around the room. He flew up to the lamp and examined it closely, then he flew around every other piece of furniture and, in order to check every nook and cranny, he flew from every height, depth and width of the room. He inspected each and every soft toy, every piece of Lego, looked at the fire truck and the excavator and drove a few laps around the room with the tractor. Then he intensively consulted with a Batman figure, recoiled from the snapping jaws of a Crocodile Dentist board game, and finally busied himself inspecting every figurine of both the toy soldiers and the plastic zoo. When he was finished, he flew a few slow exploration rounds once more around the room to make sure all had been seen, then sat down on the end of the bed and looked at Viktor, doing so again by taking turns with each of his tiny eyes.

"Want to see my sticker album?" asked Viktor, suggesting it because it was the only thing not yet examined by the bird.

Cristobal flew to Viktor willingly, who flinched and shrank back from the close proximity. The bird, however, simply sat gently on one of his knees, a perch so delicate, light and weightless that Viktor was able to form the consensus that death was not about to be doled out, and so instead took out his album and, turning the pages slowly, showed the hummingbird his various stickers.

"Who's that?" Cristobal asked, pointing a quivering wing at a sticker.

"Jar Jar Binks," answered Viktor.

When the album was through, Viktor asked whether Cristobal also wanted to see his football album. When the bird nodded willingly, Viktor picked it up, flipped it open, and proudly showed him his full collection.

Cristobal was most excited at the sticker of Diego Maradona, revealing such excitement by hopping up and down several times before flying a few exuberant laps around the room and crying out, "I know him!"

When he had finally calmed down he returned, somewhat out of breath, back to his perch on Viktor's knee and elaborated on his exclamation: "I know him! That's Diego Maradona! I was with him the day before yesterday. He bathed me and combed my hair and gave me some hot water with honey to drink." While retelling this happy memory, Cristobal had puffed himself up and had a blissful and dreamy expression on his sharp beaked face. "He's the hand of God," he added with tones of wonderment.

Viktor was both impressed and speechless. He looked humbly at his Maradona sticker.

"Would you like some water with honey?" he asked.

Cristobal made a few exalted jumps and screeched "Yeah!"

They then went to the kitchen. As it was dark and Helena was apparently already in bed, Viktor did not turn on the light, fearing that doing so would wake her and cause a scene of rebuke for his being up so late. He knew where he could find a glass, filled it with warm water from the tap, then ran to his room and came back with a flashlight. He clambered onto the counter and searched slowly and quietly in each cabinet till he found the jar of honey. He took a spoon out of the drawer, then led Cristobal back to his room where they both sat down on the floor. Cristobal was buzzing around the honey jar and Viktor read aloud what was written on it: "Real wild honey from pine, spruce and silver fir. Strong, spicy aroma. High in fructose." Cristobal nodded excitedly and gave him a thumbs up. Viktor took a spoon and stirred some honey into the water. When he offered Cristobal the glass, the bird fluttered excitedly up and down and demanded "More!" Viktor did as he was told and heaped another three spoons into the cup, stirred it, and guessed when Cristobal drank the whole glass and beamed with happiness that the result was satisfactory. The hummingbird flew across the room again, and his quick, hyperactive movements were becoming contagious, Viktor too began to fidget and hop up and down on his bed.

Cristobal moved to Viktor's school bag where he buzzed and asked what it was. Viktor had to take each item out of the bag in order to let the little bird satisfy his curiosity. Cristobal wanted to see every single book, pen and school supply, even taking a moment to perch himself down on Viktor's rubber while Viktor had to leaf through his biology book to reveal its contents to the inquisitive hummingbird.

"I go to school as well!" Cristobal said proudly. "Next time I'll bring my school bag, then you can see my things too."

"Will you come visit me again?" Viktor asked.

Cristobal nodded.

"I'll always come to visit you now. Four times a week. On the other evenings I have to attend training sessions or see to other people, but four times a week you're on my schedule."

"What kind of training sessions?"

"Well, I have school during the day and in the evenings I always have training."

"What you learn there?"

"I've been there five days so far! This morning I had LRRS Part 1 and then I had to come to you, that was the practical part. Now I have to report back."

"What's LRRS Part 1?"

"Long Range Reconnaissance Scout training part 1. There are 30 parts."

Viktor nodded knowingly, though in reality he had little idea what the bird was on about. "And who else do you visit?"

Cristobal flushed and puffed himself up proudly. "Twice a week I go to see Monica Bellucci," he stated, breathlessly proud and blushing deeply.

"Who is Monica Bellucci?" Asked Viktor.

Cristobal jumped up and down and screamed, "I have no idea! But she is sooo pretty! Yesterday she caressed me and said that I have wonderful feathers." He staggered back and forth dizzily. "Tomorrow I'll visit her again! Do you have any more Snickers? I'm terribly hungry!"

Viktor gave him the rest of the Snickers.

"And why are you coming to visit me?" He asked.

Cristobal chewed, thought, looked intently at the ceiling, chewed again, and then shrugged.

"I don't know," he said finally. "It's in my schedule that I'm to visit you three to four times a week in the evening. I won the aptitude test you see" – he flew up and performed a pirouette – "and that means that I'm doing the training and so will always visit you. When my training finishes, I'll show you something very important. I still don't know what, but it's very important." He made a couple of loop-the-loops and stressed once again proudly, "Very important."

Viktor nodded and was quite excited. "You wanna play?" he asked. Cristobal wanted to play with the plastic soldiers, so they split the game pieces and lined them up in corps. Viktor called his commander 'General Garibaldi' and put him in a remote control car, Cristobal named his 'Pius the III' and put him in the passenger seat of the tractor while he took position behind the wheel. He drove off, and Viktor drove his car with the remote control. The aim of the game was to circle as many of the opposing player's soldiers as possible. Viktor's army won and Cristobal did a few laps of honour in the tractor around the room until he went under the bed, hit a wall and the vehicle tipped over. He then crawled out quite covered in dust and Viktor had to help him pick the dust bunnies out of his feathers.

Cristobal looked at his wristwatch and saw that it was very late and he had to go as he still had to file some reports before sleep.

He flew to the window, sat down on the sill and looked at Viktor. "Thank you for the honey! See you soon," he cried before flying away. Viktor watched him go, a tiny, vibrant thing that flapped its wings so fast that you could only see what looked like dreary little fog around the bird's tiny body.
Androecium

The next morning Viktor sat at the kitchen table, eating Froot Loops from his Spiderman breakfast bowl.

His mother was sitting opposite him and talking on the phone to someone about some material deliveries. She was dressed very neatly, as was her habit every morning. Today she wore a peach-coloured suit. Her reception room in the studio was also very peachy – from the counter, carpet, couch and wallpaper, to even the decorative items. Helena had been counselled when setting up the studio that the colour peach was a soothing, harmonious, elegant and accordingly promotional colour. As such she was always careful to ensure her dress matched the colours of the reception room, doing so to such an extent that she had even sewed her own array of costumes in endless variations of beige, coral, salmon, sand, sienna, sahara, isabell, chamois and ecru. Viktor had seen from the colour charts in the tailor shop that there were many different names for almost the same colour, and he saw no big difference between sienna and ecru, though he did find the name beautiful. Sometimes Viktor found that his mother looked naked because her peach-coloured costumes were so often the same colour as her skin. Even her high-heeled shoes were the same peach. As her skirts often ended just above the knee, exposing her muscular calves, and her shoes were near enough the same colour as her skin, one could easily be mistaken into thinking that the shoes were actually some part of her feet and therefore that she was even bigger than she already was. Her muscular upper body, huge chest and broad shoulders were framed by an eggshell-coloured blouse and peach blazer. To compliment all this uniformity, the pearl necklace around her neck was made from apricot-coloured South Sea pearls, and the leather strap of her watch was also a peachy beige. In fact, the only things to break through this chameleon-like tone-on-tone harmony were Helena's reddish hair and her dark red lipstick.

Helena absentmindedly stirred her coffee with a spoon as she listened intently to what the person at the end of the line had to say. Viktor knew that in a few months there was a fashion show that a man had hired Helena's studio to prepare some items for, and therefore that there was much to do at the moment: sewing machines rattled incessantly, big boxes were constantly being delivered, the phone was continuously ringing, and strange people were ever walking in and out. Viktor was creeped out by that.

When she had finished the call and hung up, Viktor put his spoon down, cleared his throat, and announced:

"Mom, I want to play the harp!"

His mother glanced up, looked at him blankly, looked back down at a few notes in her diary and murmured: "Ok, Viktor."

He took his spoon in his hand again, took another spoonful of Froot Loops, chewed hard and focused, swallowed and repeated: "Mom, I want to learn to play the harp."

Helena looked up from her busy schedule with barely hid irritation, laid her pen neatly in the middle of the page, folded her hands on the table, and looked at him piercingly: "What?"

"I want to learn to play the harp!"

"Harp?"

"Yes."

"Harp, the instrument?"

"Yes."

"Do you even know what a harp is?"

"Yes. It's an instrument that you pluck with your fingers, like a guitar, but better. You sit next to it and it makes music."

Helena looked at him intently. "Are you serious?"

Viktor took another spoonful in his mouth, chewed carefully, thought about it and then nodded, "Yes."

Helena closed her schedule, gathered up her other papers and stood up.

"Well, this afternoon you're with your father so why don't you share with him your good news. Right now come on, it's late and you've got school."

Viktor spent three afternoons a week with his father. Immanuel Abies was the owner of Bresolino Views, one of the world's largest manufacturers of electron microscopes. It was based in the small town of Hedera Helix and had other branches and factories in Helsinki, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and Caracas. Viktor loved the company because, firstly, its office was the tallest skyscraper in Hedera Helix, secondly, all company employees were very nice to him, and thirdly, the canteen had the best crème caramels he'd ever tasted and which were not only free for him, but also of unlimited supply.

Something else Viktor loved was that his afternoons there were always structured in the same way. Nothing unexpected ever happened and there were no sudden surprises; instead, everything was always both uniform and predictable. His father picked him up from school then they went to the cafeteria and ate lunch. Today, Viktor had schnitzel, fries and a small salad. His father always cut his schnitzel for him and made sure through careful observation that Viktor ate his whole salad, even the lettuce leaf and the parsley that were merely meant to decorate the plate.

"Dad, I want to play the harp," said Viktor while his father finished cutting up his schnitzel.

"Of course. Now come on, eat."

Viktor took a piece of steak, chewed it, and repeated: "Papa, I want to play the harp."

His father paused. "What?"

"The harp. I want to learn how to play the harp."

"What does your mother say?"

"She said yes."

"All right, Viktor. Finish your plate and we'll talk about it later."

After lunch they always went to the roof of the tower, where his father could smoke a cigarette and Viktor examine the sky and the surrounding city through a large, mounted telescope. As Viktor was still too small to look through the lens of the telescope unaided, his father had designated him a chair on which he could climb, even writing on the chair with Tippex 'Viktor,' turning the I in the name into the company logo: an eye in the middle of a white flower.

After his father had polished off two cigarettes and Viktor had satisfactorily examined both the cityscape of Hedera Helix and the cloud formations overhead, they rode the elevator to the basement where Immanuel Abies left Viktor in the guard room of the security department.

At 4pm Viktor always had his 'date' with Gerald van den Berg. Gerald van den Berg was the supervisor of the CCTV throughout the building. For half an hour Viktor would sit with Gerald and they would watch the screens. Occasionally Gerald would take out his radio or press a button on the console and say things like '115 to 438, guarding floor 23' or '115 to 574, Park E deck, blue Golf at 159, authenticate'. Gerald van den Berg came from a country where there were lions and giraffes, where women wore golden rings around their necks, balanced large baskets on their heads and you could supposedly get the best food in the world: cassava with smoked fish. Once, when Viktor had asked why his skin was black, Gerald had replied, "When God was baking people, he was distracted by an emergency call and forgot about me. When he remembered, I was a little bit burnt."

More often than not such afternoons proved to be quiet affairs as no one threatened the safety of the employees, no mysterious cars lingered in the parking deck, and no suspicious machinations in the corridor caught Gerald's attention. As these periods were so often quiet, Viktor and Gerald occupied their time exchanging football stickers. Gerald always had three large packets of cheese triangles under his desk and after they had engaged in long arguments about who keeps which sticker, the two of them would often munch the triangles, using the technique of biting the corner off the triangle then squeezing the cheese into their mouths like toothpaste. Gerald would always enlighten him with endless facts and titbits related to any footballer you may wish to know about. Viktor had therefore learnt from Gerald such expressions as "he should go fuck himself" or "they run like they have sticks up their arses" or "even his mother couldn't kiss that face." Then one day Immanuel informed Viktor that Gerald had been suspended from work for two weeks and, when he returned, Viktor never again heard such expressions leave his lips. Even with the absence of such colourful expletives however, the 4pm date was still a highlight of Viktor's week, especially seen as Gerald had once made him his own placard which read, 'Viktor P. Abies – Associate Chief Inspector and Master Professional Football Sticker Swapper.' Years later, when Viktor no longer went to the company after school, he still kept the sign in a box under his bed.

At 16:28 pm Gerald and Viktor always watched a young man walked into the lobby on the monitors. The young man's name was Marco and he was Viktor's homework tutor. Marco always had a slight cough, giving off an anaemic impression that worked in unison with his shyness and his awkwardness. He had once held an internship at Bresolino Views and, once the internship had run its course, Immanuel Abies had hired him as a tutor for his son because of his outstanding marks in electrical engineering, and the meticulous care he took to always convey his constant obedience. Marco had proved to be such a success as Viktor's tutor that the latter had risen to top of his class and even achieved the rank of school's best in first grade. Such achievements had led Immanuel to double Marco's salary and furthermore award him with a new mountain bike, the result of which was such a show of gratitude, humility, subservience and respect that Marco was akin to an ice cream melting in the sun, an ice cream whose level of commitment to Immanuel, Viktor, and Bresolino Views, simply couldn't be measured. Although the time spent in an empty top floor room with Marco pouring over homework was never fun nor exciting, Viktor had long learnt to see both the worth of Marco's assistance and the wisdom of his patient presence, a view that lead him to adopt a fairly collective stance toward any sticky note with some observations or explanations from Marco on it.

At promptly 6pm the session would end. At the very beginning, when Viktor was still in the first grade, Viktor's homework would never stretch through the whole 90 minutes for which Marco was paid and, seeing as Immanuel insisted Marco be paid for 90 minutes regardless of how much there was to do, Marco never idled but instead invested his intellect in the creation of numerous educational games and tests solely invented to help pass the time. When such a session would fall on a school holiday – even during school holidays Viktor, for some incomprehensible reason, had homework – Marco would always take Viktor on an educational trip. They'd so far visited a soap factory, an ice cream factory, various farms and garages in the area of Hedera Helix, the Natural History Museum and furthermore every event organised by both Amnesty International and Greenpeace. His father of course had to approve all these trips, and would often do so with a generous allowance given over to ice cream providing that Viktor be able to relate later all he'd seen and learnt on the trip.

When Marco finally left come 6pm, Viktor was then obliged to sit beside Emilia, the secretary of his father. Emilia was always very busy in her capacity as secretary. When she wasn't on the phone or scribbling notes in her calendar, she was tap tap tapping away at the keyboard or running after Viktor's father brandishing papers or lists. Thankfully though the period he spent with her, from 6 to 7, was 'the end of the business day,' and so after twenty or so minutes of frantic chaos she would finally have time to turn her attention to Viktor and, not really acknowledging the fact that he was a little boy, she would relate to him all manner of anecdotes related to clients or business matters. Viktor never understood what she was saying, but he listened politely and attentively and nodded when he thought that such a sign was expected of him. He found Emilia very pretty, her long brown hair and glasses catching his eye in a way he found deeply intriguing, a sensation added to by her wonderful smell and the sense that, with her office always full of fresh flowers and chocolates, she was quite liked by everyone. In addition to incomprehensible tales of Bresolino Views' business, Emilia from time to time shared with Viktor certain things that he could understand. As a result, from an early age Viktor was aware of which handbags were the must have accessories of the month, that a mixture of egg yolk, olive oil and nettle tea gave you very healthy hair, and that the addition of a shot of pickle juice to a pasta salad makes a wonderful dish. Today, he learnt the importance of retaining receipts post sale, especially seen as some sales assistants can prove quite bitchy should you wish to return an item without a receipt. Viktor made sure to make a mental note of the importance of storing such paperwork carefully.

7pm always brought about the end of Emilia's workday, an event signified by her pulling on her jacket, slinging her bag on her shoulder, hugging Viktor with a kiss on the cheek before throwing a shouted 'Bye, sweetie!' over her shoulder as she ran to the elevators.

Once Emilia had left, Viktor had forty-five minutes to himself as his father was occupied with either meetings or video conferences. In order to help him pass this time, a small desk had been set up with crayons, paper, books and a small microscope. It was this latter addition that would then distract Viktor for the majority of those forty-five minutes, a hobby that had begun once when he'd seen his own fingers under the microscope. Though to be honest this first encounter hadn't done much to prophesize the fun he would have later, as the sight of his fingernails' deep grooves and furrows and mud brought about in him a fright so terrible he stayed away from the microscope for days. Once this first encounter had faded in its horror, he found a growing fascination with the device blooming within him and a new desire to inspect everything he could find overcame him: chewing gum, dust, soil from the pots, erasers, Emilia's earrings, boogers, scraps of paper or hair. Each and every one ended up under that powerful lens and the inquisitive eye behind it.

At 19:30 the cleaning lady always came with her wiping, vacuuming and emptying of the rubbish bins. This lady came from an exotic country, something constantly reinforced by the fact that she only spoke some incomprehensible language. The first occasion Viktor had met this lady was one that had filled him with fear and suspicion, both born of his lack of understanding as to what she was on about. Such feelings soon wore off however as Viktor learnt to see past the foreign words and hear in their intonations a soft, almost peaceful tone that, as the office was quite empty and therefore creepy in the evenings, worked to avail him of his other fears. Sometimes the cleaning lady would sing a song from her native country or gesture wildly with flailing arms and jabber angrily about an elderly man whose photo she always had in her purse. Viktor, having grown accustomed to these strange displays, had learnt to nod his head vigorously and always put forth the pretence that he understood, even though his jaw more often than not hung low in a giving sign of his ignorance.

Viktor loved Bresolino Views, and Gerald, Marco, Emilia and the cleaning lady were his best friends for years.

Today he informed all those he met about his new ambition to learn the harp, stressing as he did so: "Please let papa to say yes, please! Tell him to say yes," as if, being adults, they all had such power.

The responses he'd gotten were as follows:

Gerald had looked at him funny and asked: "Are you a small angel in a white dress with wings or what?"

Marco had been nervous and said he couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't be the one to say something like that to his boss.

Emilia had laughed and said, "Oh, how sweet, my darling!" before adding, "Harps are expensive and very hard to learn!"

Finally, the cleaning lady had listened intently, blinked her eyes, shrugged her shoulders and given Viktor a piece of candy as way of a response.

In the car when his father was driving him home, Viktor once more mentioned the thorny issue.

His father switched to fourth gear, overtook another car and asked, "Viktor, where on earth did you ever pick up such an idea?"

"Just like that. I want to learn it."

"But a harp! Why a harp?"

"I want to play the harp."

"Wouldn't you prefer to learn the guitar?"

Viktor shook his head, adding an additional "no" due to the darkness of the car's interior and his father concentrating on the road.

"You could join a football club instead. Playing football is fun! After all, you already collect the stickers. Think, you could even be the next Battigól!"

Viktor thought about it, then shook his head and stressed: "I need to play the harp."

His father looked unhappy. "Tell me a compelling reason why I should agree?"

Viktor thought for a moment and then replied: "I think that it will do my brain some good."

"How?" His father exclaimed, startled.

"I don't really know. But I know that I have to play the harp."

His father looked quite worried after this exchange, so much so in fact that the next day he had a neurologist spend four hours examining Viktor, his results being summarised in twelve pages that stated Viktor was perfectly healthy and his brain completely in order.

His father relented, buying him a small harp. He warned his son that it had cost him almost as much as a new car and that, as such, Viktor was to not only see that not even a scratch marred its surface, but also that he would learn under the guidance of a professional.

Viktor therefore began visiting a harp teacher and, though he took his lessons seriously and practiced carefully, he soon decided that playing the harp was not only difficult, but also boring; two realisations that led him to give it up.
Gynoecium

Viktor had been sick again.

Helena Abies carried him his to bed and admonished him: "Don't scratch so much!"

In addition to gastrointestinal flu, he had lice. In this latter affliction he wasn't alone, however, as his whole class had been suspended from school while the parents had received the order to completely rid their children of the lice infestation.

"Viktor, I can't stay next to you all day." His mother said as she placed a bucket next to the bed. "I'll come up again in an hour. If you have to be sick, please don't do it in or _behind_ the bed but in the bucket. Do you understand?" Viktor nodded. "And stay away from your hair! I'm sending Oded to the pharmacy and he'll buy you something for it." She kissed him on the forehead, drew the curtains, told him that he should sleep a little, and went out. He heard her open the door, close it again, and then her footsteps as she went down the stairs.

Viktor and his mother lived in a small apartment above the tailor shop and Viktor was infinitely pleased with this living situation. Of his friends and classmates he was the only one whose parent lived above the place where they worked. Viktor couldn't imagine life without the tailor shop nor without his mother always being so near by. Having the staff also live in small one-room apartments above the tailorshop made them feel like family as well. His mother often took business trips, theatre performances where she created costumes or galas where she made gowns, but she was never away for more than a few days. Helena Abies was one of the most famous personalities in Hedera Helix. She'd been mentioned in many acceptance speeches, her studio was often in the newspaper, and once she'd even been on television, though Viktor had been so small at the time that he didn't remember any of it. Helena had even been permitted to organize a fashion show once in a palazzo in Venice. Viktor had been allowed to go with her but Venice had creeped him out. Maybe it was because on each of the four days they'd been there he'd fallen in the canals. His mother had been very angry, swearing that she'd never take him anywhere again before giving him the silent treatment on the flight home. Looking back, however, maybe her anger on the plane had had more to do with the fact that Viktor had knocked lasagne all over her lap before accidentally covering the other passenger next to him in coke.

He had also accompanied his father on several business trips. Helsinki he found boring, Abu Dhabi too warm, Shanghai scarier than Venice (he'd gotten lost there and spent three hours in a police station surrounded by outlandish sounding and looking people who stared at him the whole time while he wailed like a baby and simply couldn't stop himself from crying). As for Caracas, he couldn't remember a thing and finally Canada had been so cold he'd spent two weeks in the hospital with pneumonia. His father, strangely enough, never asked him on a business trip after that.

Now he lay there, trying not to think of his scalp, and instead inspected the linen. There were green monsters on a dark blue background who, all over the place, drove red tractors and had very crooked eyes with their tongues hanging out. He was terribly bored, but he was too tired to get up and do something, so he stared at the ceiling and heard the humming of the sewing machines below. The business area consisted of Helena's peach reception room, the couch and the peach-coloured armchairs, a table with scattered catalogues on it, and a reception desk. The customer came in, got tea or coffee or on warm days fresh lemonade, studied the dresses, suits or other garments in the catalogues till they found what they liked, then Helena would take their measurements and lead the customer into the two storage rooms in the basement where they could choose the fabric for their garment. When the customer finally left, Helena brought the fabric and the dimensions back to the workshop. There, three women from the Philippines and two men from Bahrain got to work cutting the fabric, sewing on beads, embroidering by hand or working on the incessantly rattling sewing machines. After that Helena would often sit alone in the studio at night in order to work by hand and give each item her own personal touch.

Viktor had several boxes under the bed with costumes that Helena had made for him over the years. He had Superman, Batman, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, several pirate costumes, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Pikachu, some military uniforms and He-Man. These costumes were his greatest pride and he wore them whenever the occasion offered itself.

Right now, however, he felt like a dog on a dump. He forced himself to get up, open the curtains and then open the window. It was a sultry afternoon. He saw Kennedy in the courtyard bathed in sunlight. "Kennedy," he called softly. The cat looked up, meowed and then went back to sleep.

When Viktor was younger, he'd been firmly convinced that Kennedy's father was an admiral and had a huge fleet, and that Kennedy, when the fleet had once docked in Hedera Helix (Hedera was terribly landlocked, not even possessing a river), had jumped ship and decided to stay because it was not as scary as other cities. Furthermore, she'd then chosen the Fourth District to be her home. For Viktor this made perfect sense. His father lived in the Ninth, a District filled with large apartment blocks with doormen and valets who parked their cars and lifts that led directly into homes where each apartment had a terrace that was bigger than Helena's entire apartment. Viktor didn't like this District. Everything was too clean, and when he stayed with his father the maid would always peer disapprovingly over the toys he left scattered around the apartment. Once, while eating chocolate in bed, he'd fallen asleep. The next morning he awoke to find the chocolate had not only melted under him, but spread all over the sheets as he'd tossed and turned at night. The two maids had been so disgusted, thinking he'd pooped in bed, that they had cast such dark looks over Viktor that he could still see their faces now.

The Fourth District consisted of small houses, a greengrocer, a bar, and a market that is held three times a week. No building is higher than two storeys and as such from the second floor you can already see the horizon. In the Ninth District, unless you live on the twenty-seventh floor, any glimpse of the horizon is impossible.

Hedera Helix's districts were arranged spirally. In the centre of the First District was the Town Hall, a few companies - including Bresolino Views - the shopping area and the old town, which didn't really look very old. Then the districts turned clockwise till the final one, the Tenth District. The Fourth District bordered on the city's outskirts and so from Helena's house you only had a ten minute walk east to find yourself already out of the city.

As to the other districts there was nothing there to interest Viktor. Often, on his afternoon outings with Marco, the two of them had traversed many of the districts and he'd found everything looked so much alike that he couldn't tell them apart. He knew only D1, D4 and D9 (where his school was also located). He also knew a little of D10 as it bordered on D4 and once in a while hosted a circus. In fact D10 was little more than a big field that - when the circus was not there - just lay empty and abandoned.

Overall Hedera Helix was not very big. It would only take you an hour to walk from one end to the other. As such, there was no need for trams (Viktor had been in a tram in Helsinki and found himself creeped out when it suddenly entered an underground tunnel), and instead the city was served by just one bus, the HEx - Hedera Helix Express – and its total of 10 stops that Viktor knew by heart.

1. Downtown

2. Customs House

3. Supermarket

4. Market

5. Church Street

6. Cemetery

7. Industrial Area

8. Cinema

9. P-Blocks

10. The Field

Viktor had been able to recite all these stops from the age of four. He loved everything about buses, even though he was never allowed to ride on one alone. The only person who he ever went on the bus with was Marco. Of the few adults he travelled with, his father hated buses and Oded always drove the studio's car. His mother stubbornly refused to drive a car, and as such didn't even have a driver's license, meaning that Oded chauffeured them everywhere they needed to go.

Many people believed that Helena was stingy and that her modest lifestyle was just a pretence. They always said that she should buy a decent house and open a real shop in the centre of the city, rather than live in a tiny apartment above her own small, noisy business. Viktor found her anything but stingy. Though she gave him almost no pocket money, she always bought him whatever he wanted, and as such he could think of nothing that he had ever wanted and not received. Well, almost nothing. There had been the time he'd wanted the elephant travelling with the circus. And the time he'd wanted the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton from the Natural History Museum.

Furthermore, should Helena have ever declared a desire to move, Viktor would have been the first to object. Even from a young age he'd been a pronounced patriot of the Aquifolium Street and such devotion would stay with him for the rest of his life.

D4 was not exactly the cleanest district. The local garbage dump was not far away, close enough so that the flies and the smell became noticeable on warm summer days. The market also brought with it a few odours and waste, not to mention the rats. And when it rained, the water was knee-deep in the streets because the sewers were clogged.

In fact, from an outsider's point of view the only bright spots in D4 were a walk in the fields on the edge of Hedera Helix, a visit to Helena's peachy studio, or a visit to the 'Reconquista', a bar on Viktor's Street.

The Reconquista never played music, the menu consisted of a single dish and eight drinks, the interior was quite dark, the woodwork was full of woodworms, it always smelled sourly of nicotine, beer, urine and potato soup, plus the owner was a grumpy, taciturn man named Rocco. However, the one redeeming feature of the Reconquista was its apple pie, which had become a thing of local legend. Twice a year Rocco's mother, who worked in the kitchen of the Reconquista, was in an immense bustle: In summer, when the circus was in town, and in the fall, when after the harvest would be the town festival. In fact, the Reconquista was often seen by both circus goers and festival patrons alike as partially more popular than those two widely loved events. To further matters, one of the eight drinks on Rocco's menu was a Russian beer. Nobody knew how Rocco could have so much Russian beer in stock and how he ever mastered it with transport and customs, because Russia was not exactly around the corner, but that Russian beer was not only very cheap, but also everyone who tried it – Viktor could not read the name on the bottle thanks to its indecipherable letters – was so fascinated by its taste that they came back time and time again. Rocco did not like people and no one knew if Rocco was his first name or his last name. He didn't see his bar as anything enjoyable, instead seeing it only as means to pay the rent and pay for his few other overheads. In fact, it was only when he could be coaxed to take out his guitar that a hint of a happiness could be seen upon his face. He could only play two songs however: 'Closing Time' by Leonard Cohen and 'Drive' by The Cars. No one knew if Rocco could play any other songs, but he played these two so perfectly that his voice still echoed through the street. 'Drive' and 'Closing Time' therefore became anthems for the apple pie lovers.

Viktor was about to close the window when he saw Gem in the backyard, he was riding circles around the yard on his sister's tiny tricycle. Viktor called his name softly. Gem looked up, waved and shouted:

"Hey, how you feeling?"

Viktor leaned out of the window. "I threw up four times."

"Really? Cool."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Bored. You?"

"Nothing."

Gem motioned his head in the direction of the tailor shop and rolled his eyes. Apparently he was still under house arrest. Viktor had also been under house arrest, but today it didn't matter as he couldn't even go out of the house voluntarily. Even just standing left him feeling dizzy.

"I'm going to sleep," he called down.

"Go puke! You have to get rid of all the bacteria, then you'll feel better!"

Viktor waved and closed the window. He opened it again. And then closed it again. He couldn't decide whether it was cold or warm.

At that moment his mother opened the door and came in with a cup and a small paper bag.

"Here, drink this, and here are a couple of sandwiches."

Viktor obediently ate a sandwich and drank the black tea.

"Mom, am I going to die?"

Helena laughed. "No Viktor, you're not."

"Never?"

"No, not ever. But not now. You've got gastro-intestinal flu, that's all."

"Why did I get it?" Asked Viktor.

"No doubt from all the crap you and your friends are always eating."

"What?"

"All this terrible stuff like edible paper or those lollies that make your tongue blue or green."

"And why do I have lice?"

"Somebody had them in school and infected you."

"Who?"

"I don't know." Helena paused and looked at Viktor. "The little kitten had fleas. Perhaps as a punishment all the fleas jumped on you when you started the fire."

Viktor contemplated on that, then nodded. "I'm sorry," he whispered to both his mother and the kitten, as if it still swirled around him somewhere, listening. He imagined the kitten's anger and how one day it might buy a car to run him over with.

"When will I die?" He asked his mother.

"Don't think about that. It's a long, long way off. First you're going to be big and do what grown people do."

"Like take the bus alone?"

"Yes."

"Drive a car?"

"Yes, drive a car as well. Right now though you've got be alone again as I've got to go back down. Oded is going to the pharmacy to buy you some special shampoo for your lice and I'll come up in the evening and we'll give it a try. Ok?"

Viktor nodded and got into bed. She tucked in him and he fell asleep immediately, waking up again only when it was dark and someone was knocking on his door.

It was Gerald van den Berg and Marco.

Viktor was so pleased that he jumped up and almost fell out of bed.

"No, you stay where you are," cried Gerald. "Don't come close. Lice and adults ain't cool."

Viktor sat on the bed and Marco brought two chairs from the kitchen so they could sit near the door.

"I have a bottle of Coke and some cheese triangles for you. Say, what's that smell in here?" Gerald opened the window. "You've got to ventilate from time to time, or your brain'll go all mouldy! Say, what did you do all day?"

Viktor shrugged. "Rested."

"Ooo, that's the dream," cried Gerald. "Maybe I should rub my head on yours so I get the lice and can rest all day tomorrow!"

Viktor laughed.

Marco had been to the library and had gotten Viktor a few books. Two were about dinosaurs and two about volcanoes, five were comics and one was a book entitled 'Make your own toys'. Viktor was so happy that he wanted to hug Marco, but Marco stayed well out of reach.

"I wanted to take Marco here to visit Rocco. Imagine, he's never drunk the Russian beer," Gerald said.

"How long have you guys been friends?" asked Viktor.

"Since you've not been at the company. Your father had forgotten to tell Marco that you're sick and so when I saw him in the hall, I knew he didn't know. I sent a couple of security guards to get him and you should have seen his face! He was terrified, thinking he was arrested, till he came to me and saw I'd sent them. We decided then that we'd come visit you this evening. We get on great, don't we?" Gerald suggested as he slapped Marco on the back. "And then I thought I'd show him where decent people go in the evening for a drink."

They stood up, Marco wished Viktor a "Get well soon" and Gerald said "Go for it, kid!".

Shortly thereafter, his mother came up again. She directed him to the bathroom, ordered him to undress completely and sit in the empty bathtub, then smeared a terribly smelly liquid into his hair. It smelled so horrible that in a flash the sandwiches he'd eaten reappeared, joined instantly by the tea he'd drunk, all of which looked like a dark brown liquid mess.

"Viktor," shouted his mother when he was choking. "Don't act so silly! This smells like chamomile!"

When he had finally calmed down, she told him he had to stay like that, in the tub, for half an hour. She left him and went to change his bedding for the second time that day before she vacuumed the whole house.

"Mom, can I turn on the hot water? I'm cold!" Viktor cried after a while.

She came into the bathroom and gave him a disapproving look. "You are not cold, it's 35 degrees here in the apartment."

"But I'm cold," whimpered Viktor.

"Yes, but woe be if any water gets on your head as I'll have to shave all your hair off then." She warned before putting the tap on a little bit.

Viktor was not really cold but just very bored. He now had at least the water to play with. Taking the shampoo bottle his mother had left, he imagined it to be a pirate ship and took an imaginary lice from his head and placed it on the ship. Then it became Captain Ahab and chased a bar of soap which was Moby Dick.

Later, when Viktor was lying in his bed, he imagined how a there was a whole town of lice on his head. He saw them with highways and schools, supermarkets and playgrounds for the little lice, all of it running smoothly till a sudden toxic rain that supposedly smelled like chamomile came and killed them all. As he imagined them melting in acid, he felt so sorry that he almost broke into tears. He took a sip of Gerald's Coke bottle that he'd hidden under the bed and fell asleep.
Anther

Viktor was packing his bag for school the next day – he was now officially lice free – when Cristobal suddenly appeared.

He'd been looking at pictures of spiders in his biology book and was about to put the book into his satchel when there had been a knock at the window.

Viktor excitedly climbed onto the window sill and opened it.

"You came again!" he beamed, jumping up and down while Cristobal excitedly flew a few rounds around the room.

"Yes, it's my job," Cristobal gasped as he settled himself, sweating, on Viktor's bed.

Viktor sat next to him and said: "I thought you'd been a dream!"

"No, I'm really real! Here, check" Cristobal said, holding out a wing.

Viktor studied the tiny wing very carefully with its shimmering, neon blue feathers. The wing was as long as Viktor's little finger.

"And here..." Cristobal turned his wing to reveal fluffy, baby pink feathers on the other side.

"You're beautiful," Viktor said.

Cristobal blushed. "Really?"

Viktor nodded.

"How have you been?" asked Cristobal.

"I had lice."

"Really?"

"Yes. But they're gone."

"Where?"

"I had to use this shampoo, then they died."

"Oh," Cristobal said, disappointed.

"What have you been doing?" asked Viktor.

"I've had a lot of lessons, visited a few people and studied. Tuesday I had an exam."

"Who did you visit?"

Cristobal blushed furiously and said mischievously. "Catherine Zeta-Jones."

"Who's that?"

"You don't know who Catherine Zeta-Jones is?" shrieked Cristobal, shocked.

Viktor shook his head. The next day his mother had to send Oded to the video store in order to rent all the movies starring Catherine Zeta-Jones so Viktor would finally stop pestering her. She fretted over the whole affair for a few days, asking herself just how normal it is for an 8-year old to develop such a sudden fascination. Then she had to sew him a Zorro costume.

"Catherine Zeta-Jones is..." Cristobal began, "she's... she's just... she's the most beautiful woman in the world!"

"Really?"

"Yes," shouted Cristobal before he flew up and turned some fast laps around the ceiling. "Yes, she is a queen!"

When he had calmed down, he gasped, "Oh, and she has the best honey. Orange blossom honey! And she has bougainvilleas in front of her house. Do you know them, the large red flowers? She has millions! Trillions! I can drink as much nectar as I want! And then she strokes my back and kisses my head." Cristobal blushed and grinned stupidly.

"So why do you come to me?" Viktor asked, tormented by perplexity. After all, he was not a queen and had no orange blossom honey or bougainvillea. So self-concious was he in fact that he thought he might have to improve his situation somewhat by stridently insisting the next day that his mother plant bougainvilleas in the backyard. Despite his resolute determination however, it was not the right time for such a request seeing as his mother had just returned from the Customs Office where she had been to complain about a lost delivery, and as such Viktor's request was greeted by first a blank stare, and then some rather angry words. Not to be perturbed however, Viktor steeled his demands and clambered onto the counter where, improvising an empty plastic box for a drum, he banged away chanting "bougainvillea! bougainvillea!" till his mother, at her wit's end, threw him out of the studio and gave him some money to buy honey.

"I don't know why I come to you, I'm still small, but that's why I go to school," Cristobal said.

"Are we best friends?" Asked Viktor.

"Sure! I'll now always come to you and we'll do what best friends do. What do best friends do?"

"Play."

"I like to play," said Cristobal.

"And do homework together."

"Ok," Cristobal said. "Next time I'll bring my backpack."

"And they always look out for each other and are always there for each other, like the Three Musketeers."

"I have muscles!" Cristobal showed his tiny biceps.

"Want to play Gameboy?," asked Viktor.

"Let's go for a walk!"

"Now?" Viktor asked with wide eyes. "It's late and cold and dark."

"It's not cold, it's warm! You can wear a jacket if you want."

"But it's dangerous out there so late!"

"We've promised to protect each other though."

Viktor thought about it and said: "Ok." He took his winter jacket down from the closet and a thick winter scarf for Cristobal.

"And if we get lost?" Viktor asked as they stood outside in front of the gate to the street.

"Viktor Abies, 17 Aquifolium Street, 00319 Hedera Helix," Cristobal said quickly.

"That's my address!"

"Yes."

"How do you know my address?"

"I need to find you so I need your address, and I've already learned to navigate. Oh, and everything is in your file."

"I have a file?" Asked Viktor.

"Yes. But there is not much inside."

"What does it say about me?"

"There's a copy of your birth certificate, a genetic analysis, your pedigree, your school grades, a psychological profile, a picture of you... so not so much."

"Has everyone got a record?"

Cristobal nodded. "Yes, everyone. Directly at birth we set up a record for each newborn child and it grows over the years and at the end of their life there is always a very thick file."

"Does Catherine Zeta-Jones have a file?"

"Yes, but it doesn't belong to us. I visit her just like that," Cristobal said, grinning again a little moronically.

"Why do I have a file?"

"I don't know. I'm still learning. Maybe I'll find out in my management course next week."

They had now reached the end of Aquifolium Road. They'd passed Rocco's Bar, but it was dark inside. Wednesday was a day of rest.

"And now?" asked Viktor. Cristobal had been buzzing around and sniffing a few daisies that were along the way.

"No idea. Show me Hedera Helix."

Viktor was overwhelmed. He had never been out and about so late by himself. On top of that, if he really thought about it, he had never been for a walk with anyone other than Marco. His mother thought nothing of walking, seeing it as a waste of time. If she had to do it, then she did so quickly and focused on her end point. To Helena, Hedera Helix consisted of the Customs Office, post office, department store where she bought her yarn and buttons, and her studio, which was the centre of her universe. Sometimes she went to the market, or rather ran across the market with Oded panting behind her, carrying the heavy bags. And rarely, if they had something to celebrate such as a large order or an article in the newspaper that mentioned the studio, she and the staff went to the Reconquista. But even that she didn't really like and so more often organised for apple pie and coffee to be delivered to the studio. Rocco would then rush around grumpily and there was normally a dispute between the two as Helena faulted Rocco's clothes. "Bring those pants to me, I'll stitch up the hem" she'd pester, adding "And give me your shirt, I'll put a new collar on it for you."

His father was very reluctant to walk and went everywhere by car, so the experience of being out at night with Cristobal was very new for Viktor. The two of them walked along Pacific Street, which ran at a right angle to Aquifolium Street, and reached a small lit space with two benches.

"Over there's the market," said Viktor, pointing, "and if we go down there," he pointed in the other direction, "then we come to Cherry Avenue, which then leads to the cemetery."

"Are there actually cherries?" Asked Cristobal.

Viktor didn't know, so they went to Cherry Avenue. Actually, Cherry Avenue was a long road that was lined on both sides with cherry trees, but, much to Cristobal's disappointment, the trees had no cherries.

At the end of Cherry Avenue, the cemetery lay quite dark and menacing, so they turned around and went back. They sat down on the bench in the illuminated space, Cristobal buzzed before the road sign under the street light and tried to read.

"Place of Holoarktis" he cried profusely then fluttered back to Viktor and sat down on the bench. "I've recently learned the alphabet!"

"I learned it in school," Viktor said.

"I know all the letters! Should I recite them to you? Acer Betula Capensis Didierea Eucalyptus Fagus ... I can even spell my name! Shall I show you?"

Viktor nodded.

"Capensis Rosa Ilex Salix Taxa Olea Betula Acer Lilia. Should I even spell your name?"

Viktor nodded.

"Verrucosa Ilex Kiwi Taxa Olea Rosa."

"You also have Olea and Rosa in your name?"

"Yes!" Cristobal said jumping up and down.

The small square was dark, only illuminated by the two lights. It was warm and Viktor was sweating in his heavy winter jacket.

"Shall I tell you where I come from?" asked Cristobal.

Viktor nodded.

"I am from the League of Birds."

"Are all birds in the League of Birds?" asked Viktor.

"Yes, but many leave the League and want to live alone, and then they starve and freeze to death. Every normal bird is in the league."

"Even ravens?"

"Yes. Ravens are our paramedics."

"And parrots?"

"Parrots are our teachers. It was a parrot that taught us the alphabet."

"Who else?"

"Kingfishers are our kings. Owls are engineers. Sparrows are the infantry, the armoured infantry are finches. Pigeons are the sergeants...," Cristobal continued.

"And what are you?"

"Hummingbirds are among the special forces. We're the scouts."

"What do you do?"

"The kings tell us what we should do. We have missions."

"What do you have to do?"

"The first day I was born I spent with my mother. The second day I had to move, then I started school and got briefed. On the third day I learned the alphabet and reading. On the fourth day we studied athletic ability, because I have to fly and swim a lot. We all had our adaptability and observation skills monitored and then we were sorted into good and bad hummingbirds. I was a good hummingbird! Then there was the aptitude test and I passed it! Then we were taught to navigate and had to do a 40-km flight, then we had LRRS Part 1, and I had to see you, yesterday I had LRRS Part 2 and today we had camouflage and concealment tactics."

Viktor nodded, though he did not understand anything.

"Tomorrow I have LRRS Parts 3 and 4."

"What is LRRS?"

"Long Range Reconnaissance Scout."

"I have bio and sports in the morning," Viktor said.

"Where is your school?"

"In D9, five stops on the bus."

"Do you take the bus?"

"No, Oded takes me in the car."

"Is Oded your friend?"

Viktor shook his head. "No, he works for my mother. He always goes shopping, repairs everything that makes the studio clean and makes coffee for the guests."

"And who was your best friend before I became your best friend?"

"Gem, the son of a woman who works for my mother. He was my best friend. He's already 10 and we go to the same school and play together."

"I've never had a best friend," Cristobal said, lowering his head.

"You're always visiting famous people, like Maradona."

"Right," announced Cristobal moving to Viktor's shoulder. "Let's go back," he said. "I'm hungry, cold and tired and have to write a report about tonight at home."

"When will you be back?" Asked Viktor.

"In a few days. Now I have to learn more for my exams, then I have to visit Nelson Mandela."

"Who's that?"

"I don't know. He's on my schedule. I haven't read his file yet."

Then Cristobal escorted Viktor home. When they were in his room, they said goodbye and Cristobal hugged Viktor.

He fell into bed, exhausted from the exciting night, and fell asleep immediately.

His mother was shocked the next morning when she saw him lying on the bed still dressed in his dusty street shoes and winter jacket, and she subjected him to a long monologue about how this would be the fourth time she had to change the sheets in one week.
Filament

"It's awfully hot," moaned Helena. "I'm going to close the window so we can put the air conditioner on."

"No, don't!" Said Viktor. "The wind's blowing into the car and it cools it down!"

"Viktor, I'm closing the window," repeated Helena while she pressed the button to turn the air conditioner on.

"No! I want this open so I can look outside."

Helena turned to Viktor, fixing him with a menacing look. Quickly Viktor rolled up the window, clasped both hands in his lap and presented the image of perfect behaviour.

It was an extremely warm afternoon. The streets shimmered in the sun and the trees remained motionless in perfect calm. Only the car seemed to generate any wind and Viktor found that fascinating. Nothing moved, not the wheat in the fields nor the trees, but still the car seemed somehow to generate a mighty wind that blew in through the window as Oded drove along the highway.

As they approached D2, the fields began to give way to paved roads and the trees slowly transformed into houses and then high-rises. Oded headed for the parking garage of the shopping mall and drove alongside the ticket-machine. Viktor was allowed to open the window in order to lean out and push the button for a parking ticket. Helena needed lime green beads, lime green thread and a lime green top for a dress for the mayor's wife, who wanted to wear it for the inauguration of a new garden centre. In the haberdashery department, Helena stood with a small basket in her hand in front of the shelves and inspected everything carefully, while Oded and Viktor stood next to her in a state of utter boredom. When shopping the rules stated any movement more than five metres away from Helena was strictly forbidden.

The last time they'd all been at the mall and Helena had been in the sewing department, she'd allowed Viktor and Oded to go to the toy department. There Viktor had examined everything and had been especially fascinated by "The Constructor", a toy that could turn into a robot, a car or a skyscraper. He hadn't really had any idea how to form any of the above but Oded had sat with him on the floor between the shelves and showed him the secrets of the Constructor's transformation process. Oded had been taken by a sudden need to go to the bathroom and so had told Viktor that he should wait by the toys for him, adding that he would be right back. Viktor had looked in the meantime at a magician's set in which there was quite an assortment of items. There had even been a small hat, a moustache and a black cape, items that so roused excitement in Viktor that he forgot Oded's instructions and instead rushed off to find his mother and tell her about the set. Unfortunately, when standing before the escalators and seeking the sewing department, Viktor had picked the wrong one and ended up in the men's department, where a plethora of suits and sweaters and pants surrounded him. He ran through the whole floor, but couldn't find the sewing department anywhere. Continuing on in his excitement he therefore took the escalator again and this time ended up in the electronics' department.

Finally panic began to take hold as he became aware that he had lost his way and furthermore than he had no idea where the sewing department was located in relation to the electronics' department. He had been about to flee once more to the escalators when a noise had distracted him, a tune that he knew and that drew him off in search of its origin.

Soon he came upon the source, a game console standing ready for customers to have a trial run. From the machine came the familiar theme tune from Indiana Jones and upon the screen stood the following, awfully tempting message: "Continue Game", a message accompanied by the choices of an OK or Cancel button. Viktor looked around, took the joystick in his hand and pressed the green button. A small figure in brown clothes and a brown hat appeared, running through a pixelated landscape. Your job was to guide him through this world and therefore make him jump over stones, valleys and car wrecks, run through gorges and over skeletons. He could climb mountains where huge black spiders lurked and either jump over the spiders when they got too close, (never a good idea because no sooner had you escaped than the spider was back to bite you and take one of your lives), or run up to the spider, draw your whip and kill the beast, (the option Viktor preferred). At one point though, the spider having been killed in the above manner, more spiders had appeared and, though Viktor had managed it masterfully, he had then wanted to jump across a valley but didn't give himself a good enough run up and jumped both too much in the air and not far enough in width, falling therefore into the valley. Viktor had briefly feared that he'd be dead and the game therefore over but, amazingly, he hadn't died but instead fallen into a hole in the bottom of the valley and ended up in a cave full of gold coins and treasure chests and crowns and golden goblets, all of which were guarded by a horrid Minotaur. Viktor had stood with his heart pounding and pulse racing in front of the screen, wondering how he could get passed the fearsome Minotaur when, at the edge of his consciousness, a voice that boomed through the shop's loud-speakers cut through the excitement to claim his attention.

"A little boy is missing. 7 years old, small stature, dark hair, Name: Viktor Abies". The voice stopped and, even more to Viktor's astonishment, the shop was then filled with his mother's voice, which boomed: "Viktor, find a cashier and tell her your name."

Viktor was startled, dropped the joystick and ran out into the aisle. When he was about to turn on the main concourse, he slipped. After all, running fast around a steep curve on a smooth polished floor was a complicated affair. His shoes squeaked on the linoleum, causing him to first stumble before losing his footing completely and landing in a shelf full of CD-ROMs. The long thin shelf swayed and then toppled over and hit another big shelf, this one full of external hard drives. Knocked by the force, a couple of the hard drives fell to the ground and shattered. A 20-pack CD-ROMs also fell, this one landing edge first on Viktor's neck, causing him to also collapse and hit his head on the floor.

He felt terribly dizzy and saw a few people suddenly looking anxiously down at him. He wanted to get up and run to the nearest checkout as his mother had commanded, but before he could even raise himself off the floor he was overcome once more by dizziness and promptly vomited all over himself. A man in a red vest wiped the vomit off him, picked him up and carried him off somewhere. Everything went black to Viktor and he leaned his head onto the man, took a deep breath, and found that the man smelt good. He knew the smell, in fact his father smelled similar, a smell Viktor believed was due to something called Odakoloin.

When he opened his eyes again, a man was leaning over him and shining a flashlight into his eyes. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw his mother looking down with a worried expression on her face. Next to her stood a pale, anxious Oded. Viktor got a plaster on his neck and a bit of iodine on the laceration on his forehead. Helena got a bill for the two broken hard drives and the four other hard drives now deemed unsellable thanks to being coated in Viktor's vomit. She passed the bill without comment to Oded who, looking rather upset, glanced at the sum before resignedly taking out his wallet and heading to the checkout.

Helena's only response was silence, an ice-cold silence that filled the car on the way home. In such conditions, Oded and Viktor got the message, adopting its warning to each and every other time they went to the mall, therefore making them ever well-behaved and motionless in the immediate vicinity of Helena at the shops. Resigning themselves to following her every step while looking at buttons and thread and needles and wool and patterns and darning thread and wadding and shoulder pads.

When Helena was finished, she stowed the bags in the car and drove to the Customs Office. There Oded and Viktor stayed sat in the car while Helena went in to pick up a delivery. The hustle and bustle of Hedera Helix on a Saturday afternoon was a blur of cars, people, dust and noise. A hotdog vendor yelled "Hot Dogs!" A couple of cars honked a car in front whose driver hadn't noticed the green light. A group of women walked past, looking as if they would quarrel before they smiled and laughed loudly. The heat was unbearable, with Viktor sitting in the back, sweating, the sun glaring its way into the car. The radio was on.

Oded hummed and sang _"cuz you gotta have faith faith faith, you gotta have faiiiith"_ and drummed on the steering wheel. A bead of sweat ran down his neck.

"Hey Viktor," he exclaimed after a while, "you see back there? There's a slushy-seller". He pointed his finger to the left.

Viktor looked, saw nothing and asked, "What's that?"

"You don't know slushy?" Asked Oded.

Viktor thought, then shook his head.

"What? You don't know what a slushy is?" he exclaimed.

Viktor shook his head again.

"Ok." Oded rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a handful of coins. "I'll be right back. What's your favourite colour?"

Viktor thought. "Blue," he said.

"Stay here, and please don't move from this spot, ok?" Oded turned to him and looked at him pleadingly. Viktor nodded.

Oded left and Viktor tried not to move. A minute later, he came back and had two big cups in his hands. In one cup was a thick red drink and in the other a thick blue one. He handed Viktor the blue one and took a long sip of his own red one.

"That's a slushy! Try it."

Viktor held the cup with both hands and condensation bubbled on the outside due to the coldness of the drink. He tried it cautiously. It was a sweet drink, like lemonade, but it was made almost all of tiny ice crystals that melted in your mouth. He held the clear plastic cup up to the sun and the liquid inside shone a bright, aqua blue.

"That's cool," Viktor said, thrilled.

"I told you! Slushies are the best, especially on such a warm day." Oded held his cup to his head and rolled it along his forehead.

Viktor did the same. The cold plastic was pleasant and he rubbed his face on it. He took another sip and then another longer one until the cup was half empty.

Oded was chewing on his straw, humming and looking out the window. Viktor looked at the world through the blue liquid in the cup. Everything was heavily blurred and blue. He held it again up to his head and then down to his neck, where he almost spilled it before catching it just in time.

Oded flipped the sun-visor down, looked in the mirror and laughed. Then he turned to Viktor and stuck his tongue out. His tongue was blood red. Viktor crawled forward to the passenger seat, flipped the sun-visor down and stuck his tongue out. It was glaring blue, just like his lips.

When Helena came back she wasn't expecting to find her son with an outstretched blue tongue, rolling his eyes back and forth, growling like a rabid monster and brandishing claw-like fingers. She looked at him disapprovingly, turned the same disapproving look on Oded, who bashfully grinned with red teeth, and said, "What crap have you been feeding him?" She didn't wait for an answer however and instead instructed Oded to head inside where three boxes were waiting.

The warehouses of the Customs Office were huge rooms full of boxes, containers, crates and bulkily packaged items. Viktor watched as Oded dragged the boxes out of the hall and stowed them in the trunk. Helena was talking to a man who held a clipboard in his hand and wrote something as they spoke. When Oded was finished, he stood next to Viktor's open window, leaned against the car and lit a cigarette.

"Are we done?" asked Viktor.

"I think so," replied Oded and blew the smoke perpendicular to the sky. "Then it's on to Samuel's."

Samuel was the family barber. He had his shop in D8, near the cinema, and had been cutting Viktor's hair for as long as Viktor could remember. His father also had his hair cut there, as well as the entire staff of the studio, and even Helena went there for a trim or to have her hair massaged with a deep conditioner. Viktor liked it there. It was a small shop with four chairs, four mirrors, and a small couch with a coffee table before it, strewn with magazines and catalogues. Samuel was a white-haired, bearded, rotund man who was always cheerful and making jokes.

Today, however, Viktor noted with horror that Samuel had a new employee at the store. Someone he had never seen before. A total stranger. He clung to Oded's leg while Helena welcomed the stranger and told her how fantastic she looked. It turned out that the foreign person, Linda, was the daughter of Samuel and had recently returned to Hedera Helix to train as a hairdresser alongside her father. As it turned out it was to be she who would cut their hair that day, a revelation that caused Viktor to tug at Oded's pants and whisper, alarmed: "I don't want her". Oded crouched down and whispered back: "Why not". Viktor shook his head in horror. At that moment, Samuel came out of the back room, Helena greeted him loudly and Samuel hugged them all. Viktor thought that his ribs would break and his lungs would be crushed and he'd be suffocated from Samuel's smell of tobacco, aftershave and ammonia.

"So! What have we here?" asked Samuel. He ruffled Viktor's hair and said, "Less", tousled Oded's hair and said "Less! With sideburns?" And just as he was about to turn to Helena, she waved her hand, sat down on the couch and began flipping through a hair-catalogue. She asked for a coffee and told Samuel that she wanted to discuss something with him.

"Awesome!" proclaimed Samuel. "Linda is wonderful hair dresser so she shall take care of the men while we chat." He went into the small kitchen, came back with a thermos and two cups and sat down next to Helena. Viktor tugged excitedly at Oded's leg, but at that moment Linda came over, smiling widely and shaking out a cape like a torero holding the red cloth out to the bull. Viktor pinched Oded firmly on his thigh. When he winced and looked down at him, Viktor shook his head one last time in despair. "Oh come on, Viktor," whispered Oded, "It's no bother. Look how pretty she is. It's Samuel's daughter! She's nice," but Viktor pinched him again and whispered, "No!"

Oded squatted down, held Viktor by the shoulders and said, "Ok, I'll go first. You watch and if you think it's ok, then she can cut your hair as well. If not, then we can ask if Samuel can, when he's done with your mother." Samuel and Helena sat on the couch eagerly discussing about something in the catalogue.

"Ok," whispered Viktor and stood at some distance from Oded, who headed over and took a seat in the barber chair. Linda was smiling and talking and had heavily made-up and sparkling eyes and very long blond hair. Oded was also blond, but Linda was very, very blonde, it seemed as if she had quite a lot of gold in her hair, the tresses sparkling and shimmering with a few small butterfly clips fluttering back and forth as she moved. Viktor noted with regret that Oded seemed quite happy, excitedly talking to Linda as she laughed at something, ran her fingers through his hair, held up the tips and snipped away. Oded chatted, Linda chatted too and Samuel and his mother added their own chatter and laughter to the mix.

Viktor wanted to go home but he knew that he had nowhere to go as he couldn't just walk out thanks to Helena and Samuel being sat right next to the front door. He knew as well that the bathroom had no window, the kitchen either. He went to his mother, waited until she finished her sentence, and whispered in her ear: "I don't want a hair cut". She looked at him confused and said only: "Look, Oded is ready, go on."

In fact, Linda had already taken off Oded's cape and was brushing his shoulders and neck. When she was finished, she beamed at Viktor, curtsied and spread her hands in the direction of the chair, as if simply being seated there would offer some wonderful new experience.

Viktor took a deep breath and walked slowly to the chair. He knew there was nothing else he could do and so he decided that he would accept his fate. He climbed onto the chair and sat still as Linda secured the cape around his neck.

"Well, my sweet, let's cut your hair shall we?" Linda ran her fingers through his hair and looked at his head from all sides. He looked up at her and she beamed at him as if he were the greatest person in the world.

Then she sprayed his head with water, ruffled his hair, and combed it before beginning to cut. She talked all the time and asked him about his school and his friends, all of which Viktor found a bit invasive, but, as it was Samuel's daughter, he didn't want to be rude so he replied as politely as possible and as detailed as necessary to her questions. She told him she was 22 years old, and had moved recently from Salix Alba because she didn't like it there and couldn't cope with her mother. Now she lived with her father and wanted to learn the barber profession. She found Hedera Helix a little boring, but so far she had settled in well and when she finishes her training and has saved up some money, then she wants to go abroad, far away, perhaps to France or California. Viktor thought that was weird, but he was careful not to contradict her because, after all, she had a pair of scissors in her hand.

He suspiciously and vigilantly watched Linda and her hand movements with the scissors, sceptically analysing in the mirror her every move. Eventually, he came to the reluctant conclusion that she would probably not kill him by ramming the scissors into his neck. She was nice, he had to admit. She told him about a scooter she wants to buy and promised to take him for a ride one day. As she bent over him, brushing her golden hair on his arm, he couldn't help but notice how good her hair smelt, so different from Samuel. Although her hair also had an ammonia smell to it, there was also a perceptible floral and fresh scent. He continued to watch her hands with the scissors, but instead now focused on her long, pink-painted fingernails and the many rings on her fingers. Then he looked at her face, which he had been deliberately ignoring, as if he would shrivel and die upon looking in the face of such evil. She had very big eyes and a powdery colour on her eyelids, which looked very pretty. He looked then at her top, a white, buttoned shirt like those that Samuel wore, only hers was smaller and stretched in the upper body.

Viktor analysed her breasts. He knew the breasts of his mother, Emilia, and the other women in the tailor's shop. Once he'd come into the changing room because he'd wanted money from his mother. A woman had been standing on a pedestal in only her bra with Helena kneeling before her. Upon seeing Viktor's gaze fastened on the woman's bra, Helena had stood up and walked briskly up to him before throwing him out of the room. Linda had smaller breasts than his mother, and larger breasts than Emilia. As she bent over him, her right breast pressed against his right shoulder and her golden hair lay on his arm, tickling him. The flowery scent enveloped him and he decided that he only ever wanted his hair cut by Linda in the future. He looked in the mirror at Oded who winked at him. Viktor wanted to wink back, but he was afraid that Linda would see him, and that she then might think he had secrets and so wouldn't like him anymore. When she was finished she said "Tadaaa!" and pulled off the cape. She held a round mirror behind him so that he could see the back of his head and he climbed down from the chair, shook her hand and said "thank you." She made a small curtsy, and a few strands of her hair brushed against his cheek.

Then Viktor went to the toilet with Oded, because Helena commanded them to do so. While they washed their hands, Oded kept talking in an excited whisper about Linda. He said that Viktor should invite her to his birthday. Viktor's birthday was in two weeks and in a few days he would have to tell his mother who he wants to invite. The prospect of Linda coming, and possibly bringing him a gift he found exciting, even though the idea of asking her filled him with nerves. Oded gave him a couple of tips and they practiced a bit. Oded was Linda and Viktor was Viktor and he had say "Hey Linda, in two weeks it's my birthday! Want to come?". When he'd mastered the sentence without error and without mumbling they went out. Viktor stood in front of Linda, who was about to cut another man's hair, and repeated the memorised sentence loud and clear. Linda went to her knees, embraced him and said: "Of course, darling! Sure I'd love to come. How old will you be?" Viktor said eight and she said "Oh my, you're already such a big boy! I'm looking forward to it". Oded remarked casually, "Hey, I'll see you there then, cool!"

When they were in the car, they had to re-close all the windows, but Viktor didn't care. He looked at the passing scenery and dreamed of his birthday and of all the people who would come and maybe bring him gifts. Oded looked equally dreamy and grinned at the road. Meanwhile, Helena looked dismayed at a page in her thick notebook and wrote down a few numbers. They were on their way to Salix Alba to visit Grandpa Gideon. Grandpa, Helena's father, lived in a small house next to a rapeseed field. Viktor did not know whether he liked Grandpa Gideon or not, but he was his mother's father, so it was really a matter of course that he had to be liked.

They sat on Grandpa's terrace and drank lemonade. Oded and Grandpa smoked and Grandpa and Helena talked about something boring. Once Viktor tuned in however, especially when he heard the word 'joke'. His grandpa loved to tell jokes.

A young man moves to America to work there. His old father lives in Iraq. The son writes his father a postcard:

"Hey Dad. Everything here is great and exciting! How are you?"

The father writes a postcard back:

"Hello son, everything is the same. I'm fine, I still have problems with my knees, they hurt and I can no longer work in the garden, even though I have to dig up all the bloody weeds and plough ready for reseeding."

The son then writes:

"Hey Dad, go into the garden and dig at the point we discussed. There you can find the box of money and the bomb. You know what to do."

A few weeks later came a postcard from his father:

"Son, I do not understand what's going on. The CIA and Interpol were here and have dug up my entire garden! For God's sake, what was that? What happened?"

The son wrote back:

"You're welcome!"
Microspore

The next evening Cristobal came over with his backpack. He flew in slow and cumbersome, flopped down on the bed and lay there panting for a few minutes until he caught his breath again.

"I'm still young, my muscles aren't yet pronounced," he justified himself. "Plus the backpack is very heavy. I was so excited that we'll do our homework together that I brought all the books I have!"

Viktor sat on the bed and spread his school books around them.

"What do you have for homework?" Asked Viktor.

Cristobal solemnly took out his homework book and examined it. "Summarise the Fourth Chapter of TFJ. Do the three tasks on page 57 of Anatomy of Reptiles. Summarise the 15th century history of birds. And weight training." He took two dumbbells from his backpack. "I need to get to 100 before the next PC session!"

"What is PC?" Asked Viktor.

"Physical Condition."

"And TFJ?"

"Theoretical Foundations of Jurisprudence."

"Is PC like sport?"

"No, sport is for fun because you play football or something. PC is proper training and you get in trouble if you don't manage the tasks. Those who fail PC have to stop going to school!"

Viktor nodded.

"I always do the written homework first and only then my PC training, because after the dumbbells I'm always so tired."

"How many can the best people do? How many do you have to do?" Asked Viktor.

"In order to get your degree you must be able to do 3000. But the record is 4200, I think."

Viktor was impressed.

After this bit of chitchat they got on with their homework. Viktor had no homework that night but, as he'd agreed to their Best Friends' Deal and one part of that deal was to do homework together, he simply repeated some old homework he'd already finished. Cristobal wailed again and again. He had problems with the Theoretical Foundations of Jurisprudence, an area that Viktor could offer no help in at all owing to his inability, even after countless attempts by Cristobal to explain, to understand what jurisprudence actually is.

Cristobal soon demanded something to eat, stating that he needed energy before weight training. Viktor proudly presented a packet of oatmeal, for he had read in his biology book that birds like to eat grains and oatmeal. Cristobal was so pleased that he sat down in the open bag and wallowed in it for a while. Viktor meanwhile made a jam sandwich. Bread and jam were Viktor's favourite foods, he could eat them day and night. After trying all the available types of jam (Oded had scoured all the shops in the whole of Hedera Helix in search of new jams), Viktor was settled and focused on raspberry and plum. But, if at other times he had to settle for other varieties, that too was okay as he was not particularly picky. This intimate love relationship with jam would persist throughout his life.

Cristobal managed only 78 dumbbell lifts, but he said PC-hour was in three days and so he still had plenty of time to catch up.

"Besides homework, what else do you learn in school?" Asked Viktor.

Cristobal took out his schedule:

Monday: Biology, Agent Service, Navigation, Attack Technique

Tuesday: PC, Self-Defence, Law, Diplomacy

Wednesday: History, Navigation, Agent Service, Biology

Thursday: Attack Technique, Governance, Law, PC

Friday: Self-Defence, History, Agent Service, Tactics

Saturday: Tactics, Law, Governance, Diplomacy

Sunday: Agent Service, Biology, Attack Technique, PC

"In the afternoon we always have an internship in various departments. And in the evening we always have a foreign visit, so we have to go visit our assigned people," said Cristobal.

Viktor inspected the timetable, comparing it with his own, "Why do you do so much attack and defence?"

"Because..." Cristobal took a deep breath, "because... because without those I'd never get very far in life. There are only winners and losers in this world. The winners are attacking and can defend themselves. And the losers who can't defend when attacked will lose and die."

Viktor nodded and was impressed. "So if I want to be the best, then I have to learn attack techniques and learn self-defence?"

"If you don't want to die early, then yes," confirmed Cristobal.

Viktor's introduction to martial arts began, a pursuit that was much easier in terms of convincing his parents than his attempts to learn the harp had been, even if at first they would only let him learn Karate. He was later able to expand his knowledge with various Kendō sword and stick fighting art forms.

To Cristobal's statement: "If you don't want to die early, then yes," Viktor replied: "Then I'll also learn attack and defence."

Cristobal rejoiced and clapped his wings and cried: "Then I won't have to practice on my own! We can practice together, you'll show me what you learn and I'll show you what I learn!"

Viktor rose into in the euphoria and shouted, "Yes! We'll be the best!" Then he said: "Show me something to practice now."

Cristobal took a notebook out of his backpack. "The first lesson in attack technique is as follows," he read the following steps:

"Always watch the eyes of your opponent.

They are prophecies about his future movements"

Having clarified what 'prophecy' means and after the verdict was discussed in detail, they practiced a little. Viktor was the aggressor (because it was his first lesson) and Cristobal defended himself (because he'd already had a few lessons).

It was an unfair fight however because Viktor had no idea about attacking techniques and was much too large, not to mention he allegedly cheated. Cristobal was much more experienced and able to fly, but was at a disadvantage because he was so small. They stopped the exercise but still, though it was his first lesson, it'd made an impression on Viktor.

Cristobal flopped on the bed and complained: "I'm so hungry that I'm going to die!"

"You've just eaten almost all the oatmeal pack!" Marvelled Viktor.

"Yes... but I'm still young and I need food. Besides," he added, "we hummingbirds have a very high metabolism."

"Why?" asked Viktor.

Cristobal took his biology book from the backpack and opened it on the first page: "Hummingbirds fly with 80 wing beats per second, their heart beats 500 times per minute, and their respiratory rate is 250 breaths a minute."

Viktor did not understand what the numbers meant, but he nodded. Cristobal let his notebook fall and threw himself on the bed, whimpering so much that Viktor ran into the kitchen before returning to ask: "What do you want?"

"Honey," whispered a tortured Cristobal. "Or Snickers," he cried excitedly.

There were no Snickers so Viktor quickly pulled a jar of honey from the shelf and ran back into the room. For Viktor though it would prove to be a bad decision considering the fact that it was very expensive imported Spanish orange blossom honey and even worse luck in that Cristobal loved it. When Helena found the empty jar in Viktor's room the next morning, she gave him quite a telling off, saying things like: "For such a jar of honey I have to sew and sell two dresses, have you any idea how much work that is?" and "There are four varieties of honey in the kitchen, why did you have to take this exact one?" and "Did you really eat the whole glass? If so then keep it up and all your teeth will fall out!"

To this Viktor replied that a hummingbird had eaten the honey, an answer that caused Helena to roll her eyes and say, "Stop always contradicting me!"

Viktor decided that he would no longer mention Cristobal and that he had to watch the hummingbird's eating habits in the future.

His mother stood in her open robe with a knee-length nightgown underneath. Her hair was quite dishevelled from sleep and so she was not a very pretty sight, those unadorned lips and the bags under her eyes producing a furie-like appearance. All in all she might not have been Cristobal's Catherine Zeta-Jones, but Viktor noticed for the first time that his mother was beautiful. And that the more she shouted, the more beautiful she became.

So he said "Fuck the honey!" Then he added, "The stupid jar can go fuck itself!" – A phrase he'd learned from Gerald van den Berg. He'd understood that it was a phrase that could summarise the anger of an adult, especially when things were against them.

Helena calmed down abruptly. She stood there petrified, staring at him with wide-eyes. Then she took two huge steps with her huge legs toward to him, knelt down in front of him till her nose touched his and he had to squint to look at her. She took his ear between her thumb and forefinger, pinching firmly and pulled him even closer till their two noses were crushed and she whispered, "If I ever hear something like that from you again then I'll put you under my big sewing machine and sew those lips tight shut. Do you understand me?" She answered her own question by forcing his head up and down in a nod.

"What's going to happen if you say something like that again?" She asked in a whisper.

"You're going to sew my lips together with a sewing machine," Viktor whispered back.

Then she let go of him and said with the most normal voice in the world: "You'd better get ready, you're late for school."

Viktor went with a red ear to school and decided that some of the words in his vocabulary he'd better keep hidden till he was old enough to get the bus by himself.
Megaspore

At the end of the following week, Viktor woke up very early in the morning, quickly brushed his teeth, made his bed and then waited for his mother dressed in his Bruce Wayne tuxedo.

When she came in to wake him he greeted her with a happy grin and she laughed and hugged him. "Yes, my dear, today is your birthday. Congratulations!"

It was Saturday, and Viktor could not imagine anything more beautiful than to be eight-years old on a Saturday.

"Come on then, breakfast first, Viktor," she said as she tied his tie. "And don't you dare get that suit dirty. Now, who are we? Are you James Bond again?"

"No. Bruce Wayne," Viktor replied.

She made him strawberry pancakes and allowed him to put as much jam on them as he wished. As he ate, she put his birthday cassette on which featured an infinite loop of a men and women's choir singing "Happy Birthday" upon a background of laughing children's voices and fanfare. This cassette, which was older than Viktor himself, was such a vital part of his birthday celebrations that he felt he simply couldn't be a year older without it. In fact, he was sure that it would accompany him throughout his life, marking each and every passing year with the same repeated singing. After all, for Viktor, he felt he was only a year old at the exact moment the tape stopped.

After he had eaten – Helena also allowed him to lick the plate clean, which normally he was never allowed to even consider – he looked at her expectantly.

She laughed, reading his desire instantly. "No Viktor, only this afternoon."

Although he also had a celebration planned for Monday in school, today was to be his adult birthday. As such there was a party was planned for the afternoon. His father, grandfather Gideon, Gerald van den Berg, Marco, Emilia and the staff from the studio would celebrate with him. Additionally, at the special request of Viktor, the cleaning lady from Bresolino Views, Rocco, Samuel and Linda were also invited.

After breakfast, the women came up from the studio to help Helena clean the big house as Oded was given a shopping list and had to take Viktor along.

In the beverage store Oded drove him around in the big cart. Apart from the usual boring drinks, Viktor was allowed to choose his own drink and so Oded heaved a whole box of 'Crazy Cherry Fizzo' into the cart.

No one knew where Oded came from, nor what he had done before he arrived in Hedera Helix. In fact it was as if he had just appeared one day four years ago when, at the door to the studio, he'd asked Helena if she had any work for him. She had asked him if he could sew, and when he said no and she was about to turn around and walk away, he pleaded with her: "I'm desperate, I need the money! I have a driving license, I can clean, cook, make coffee. I'm fast and reliable and able to lift heavy boxes. Please!"

At the time Oded had been only 17 years old and, with his blond hair and blue eyes and clumsy, scrawny figure, he had looked so lost and desperate that Helena's resolve had softened immediately and she'd hired him on the condition that he had to first complete a three month unpaid trial period. He had been allowed to live in the attic and eat with the studio staff and, when he had passed the test of time and convinced Helena with his diligence, overflowing energy and warmth, she had asked him a to stay on as a dogsbody: running errands collecting materials, keeping the studio clean and being a janitor, chauffeur and babysitter.

From that point on the rumours, of course, began to circulate. According to various guesses based on his strange accent and Nordic appearance, people believed he came from either Norway or Sweden and was certainly one, if not all, of the following: on the run for murder; sought by Interpol for robbery; or Helena's prodigal son from another marriage. Everyone expected that he would one day set fire to the studio, kidnap the children and vanish. Of course, none of this gossip was true, but that didn't stop the slow evolution of the rumours into more stoic beliefs that he was either a terrorist, spy, agent, psycho killer, Helena's lover or a crazed rapist.

The truth was that before Oded planted himself in the Aquifolium Street and became a permanent member of the small population of Hedera Helix, he was a globetrotter. His appearance and the manner of his speech arose from the fact that he came from Åland, the autonomous Finnish archipelago in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden. When he was 14, he'd run away from home due to the monotony of life on those 6757 islands and, along with a few friends, they had set off on a world tour. After falling ill with cholera in Papua New Guinea, spending a few days in jail in South Africa, and blacking out in Ecuador, they had all eventually gone their own separate ways. Two of his comrades returned to Åland, one went on the road in the U.S., and Oded continued his wandering. After hitching a few boat rides, riding a few trains, wandering for a few weeks and thumbing down a few trips, he'd randomly reached Hedera Helix. When his friends had departed Oded had begun to feel travel weariness sink in and as such he'd actually been looking for a place to settle down, somewhere he could get a job and earn a bit of money. All of this had then landed him one day in the Reconquista. Rocco had suspiciously and grumpily served him a slice of apple pie with Russian beer before the foul-mouthed bartender had gone out on the road to yell at someone angrily. The tailor studio two doors down had just received a large shipment of bolts of cloth and as such a big truck was blocking the whole road. Oded had taken his bottle of beer outside to have a look at the source of the noise. A few little kids had been running around as three tiny Asian women and two small Arab-looking men tried to drag the large bolts of cloth into the studio. The whole action was being monitored by a very large, very beautiful and very severe-looking woman who stood with hands on hips, her hair tied strictly to the back of her head, making sure that none of the cloth so much as brushed the ground. On impulse Oded had run to the truck, grabbed a roll of fabric and, before anyone could protest, began carrying it into the tailor shop. He then repeated the process only this time relieving a thin, small woman of a particularly heavy box that almost went tumbling to the ground when he nearly tripped over a small, dark-haired boy who stared wide-eyed at him before darting to grasp hold of the severe woman's leg, all the while not taking his eyes off Oded. It was after this ordeal, when all the cloth had been carefully taken inside, much of it by Oded, that the teenage traveler had begged Helena for a job.

On that day, on that glorious Saturday when a little boy was to turn eight, the whole world seemed to sparkle and shine. They stowed the crates in the car and then drove to a large supermarket in the commercial area. Though out of the way, it had all the things they would need for the party that afternoon and the one that was approaching on Monday, as such Oded had his standing purchase instructions from Helena on a shopping list, but Viktor had his own ideas about what food he wanted to have on birthday. Consumed therefore by dilemma, the two of them ended up being stuck in the candy department for two and a half hours as each piece was discussed in detail. Both Oded and Viktor had their own advantages and disadvantages when it came to discussions: Oded was patient, loved children and loved to debate; Viktor was very well behaved and loved to negotiate. Even so, two and a half hours was proving a bit too long even for the patient Oded and, having looked at his watch and noted that he was running late, he had begun to fear Helena's ire.

Viktor wanted Yummi Teddies, Trolli Spaghettini, Blue Snake Skins, Spiderman lollipops, Sherbet Powder Rods and Atomic Flavor Monster Miracle Balls. As all Oded had on his list was 'A small box chocolate bars' and 'a small box lollies', he was justifiably hard to persuade. Viktor, however, was quite insistent and so, when he knew that there was going to be no easy way to convince Oded, he turned to the oldest trick in the book, namely adopting the meek disappointment of a broken child and letting a few tears well in his eyes as he whined: "Ok, then I do not want anything any more, let's go."

From the corner of his eye he saw Oded lean his head against a shelf and close his eyes. Oded was in a real dilemma. He did not want to mess with Helena, especially not today of all days, yet nor did he want to disappoint Viktor on his birthday. On top of it all, it was almost noon, they were really late, and the customer service reps were always passing the aisle looking at them suspiciously.

"Listen, Viktor," Oded said finally. "I'll buy you everything."

Viktor looked up expectantly.

"I'll buy you anything you want, but then I have to leave because your mother will fire me. You know her, you know that if you don't do what she wants, then she turns on you. So how about we make a deal, I'll buy you everything, but then you have to help me pack as soon as we get home so I can disappear immediately, especially before your mother kills me. Ok?"

Viktor stared at him.

"I've got to pop to the bread department over there and get the baguettes. I'll leave the cart here and so you pack everything that you want into it. But hurry up, we're late enough as it is," Oded said before going to get the bread.

When he came back there was only a small box Spiderman lollies and a small box of Atomic Flavour Monster Miracle Balls in the cart. A bashful Viktor stood nearby.

"What, is that all?" Said Oded.

Viktor nodded furiously and pushed the large cumbersome shopping cart away from the candy department.

Viktor detested change, and if Oded were to go, then that would be a vast change, one in which everything would be confused. Who would drive him to school? Who would pick him up? Who would drive the car and who would help his mother in the studio? Viktor could not justify such a big change and furthermore didn't want to be riddled with guilt should anything bad happen. On top of it all he liked Oded, and he knew that his mother liked him too. In fact even his father liked him, and he knew that Hala and Gem and the others also liked him and Oded – unlike the other adults – could play and was funny. Viktor, therefore, weighing all this up against his desire for candy, decided that sacrificing Oded just wasn't worth it.

Having said all that, Viktor was still angry because he had lost. It was only a slight anger though, as his defeat was tempered somewhat by the box of Yummi Teddies he had not only sneaked into the cart, but that went through the check-out without even so much as a raised eyebrow from Oded. This small victory was further enhanced when, upon reaching home, the teddies were unpacked without any realization from Oded nor his mother.

Oded, however, found himself requiring a cigarette to calm his nerves once all had been unloaded into Helena's kitchen, and as such ducked behind a tree in the backyard. The incident at the supermarket had gotten to him. The fact that Viktor, the son of the boss, renounced his heartfelt wishes for him: that he would never have thought of. Of course, he most likely would not have been fired if they'd returned with a basket full of candy, suffering instead only from a severe telling off. But still for Oded, who had a sentimental streak, the fact that Viktor had given up his heart's desire for no other reason than the fact that he liked him; that in itself was too much for him. Especially when compounded with the fact that, for the first time in years, it gave Oded the feeling of belonging to a family. This incident strengthened his loyalty to Viktor immeasurably.

None of this even reached Viktor of course, as all the excitement concerning the adult party, his birthday, and the turning of eight years old relegated the incident in the supermarket to a place far beyond care. Viktor, should he have thought about it, no doubt would never have envisioned the scene that was developing outside under the dying whirl of Oded's cigarette smoke and the partial shade of the tree he was hidden behind. Oded, with the tree acting as witness, swore solidarity, chivalry and undying loyalty to the Abies family. Perhaps it would be prudent here to mention that Oded was a great lover of the Middle Ages, so much so in fact that he always used his vacation time to go to Salix Alba and attend the annual medieval market. Camping among the other recreationists, he wore strange clothes (Helena had made him a Houppelande and a felt hat with pheasant feather), spoke to the others in a strangely twisting language, paid with thalers, and spent most of his time laughing heartily with brotherhoods and sororities. Taking cue from these role playing affairs, he thus wholeheartedly engaged in his new found role of knight and protector to his adopted family and their little prince. Furthermore, that afternoon he donned his Houppelande and plumed hat, a fact that no one even noticed in the presence of the two employees from Bahrain who wore their dishdashas, the women from the Philippines who wore colorful dresses, Viktor running around as Darth Maul, Hala as Minny Mouse and Gem as a Power Ranger.

While Oded was swearing semper fidelis in the backyard, Viktor was helping his mother in the kitchen. They were making something that, truth be told, Viktor had no idea about but, seeing as it was his birthday, he was sure would be fantastic. First he was required to wash his hands, then sit down, put on an apron, and reduce three packets of biscuits and two pie crusts to crumbs. It was fun. Viktor put the biscuits in the palm of his hand and made a fist, all while he roared and hissed. He imagined that he was Godzilla, and as such that he was stumping through the streets crushing cars and anything else that got in his way.

Once there was a pile of crumbled pastry before him, he had to beat egg yolks until they were foamy. Once more using his imagination, he envisioned that the mixer was a drill and that he had just found a vein of molten gold. Once that task was complete, the whole affair was mixed together and turned into dough. Viktor had to wash his hands again before he was able to knead the whole mixture together. He took dough in one hand and, clenching it into a fist, watched as worm-like dough oozed through his fingers. That the point of this whole action was not apparent did not matter, all that mattered was that it was birthday and he had a premonition that this porridge had something to do with that special day. In the midst of such a belief, he cared not when his mother generously poured rum into the mixture and he was required to shape the dough into small balls before rolling them in shredded coconut and pressing into each a little, candied cherry. The end result was indeed pretty, but reeked of rum and coconut. Viktor did not like rum nor coconut but, as he was now a big boy and eight years old, he thought it was perhaps about time he began to like rum.

"Viktor, this is not for you," his mother cried as he tried one. Viktor, grateful for this message but thinking it came a bit too late, was pleased nonetheless as he was further excused from forcing himself to like the foul tasting rum balls.

Hamid, the tailor from Bahrain, was summoned in order to extend the dining table, change a bulb in the living room lamp and take the presents out of the kitchen to hide them under the now elongated living room table.

While Viktor was sent to have a bath, Helena made cheese skewers and spread a feta and tapenade mix onto half-cut baguettes. Oded, meanwhile, was sent to Rocco's in order to pick up the apple pie and Viktor was relishing his new age by attempting to wash his hair himself. Back in the kitchen, Helena took the chocolate cake out of the oven, covered it with chocolate glaze and put eight candles on it, then had to abandon everything to run to the bathroom and rescue a crying Viktor (his attempts to shampoo his hair had ended with most of it going in his eyes and striking him with the fear that, at only eight, he was to be forever blind). Tackling the problem head on, Helena took over the washing of his hair before sending him to his room to finish getting ready himself. As it was 2 o'clock and the guests were due to arrive at 4, she still had a multitude to do and so, sitting at the sewing machine, she exhaled and tried her best to relax.

The first guest to arrive was Rocco. By then Helena had put on a summer dress and some make-up, doing her hair in a high, open braid rather than the tight bun she favoured. This was all topped off by a generous perfume cloud. Rocco wanted to flee back to his bar when he saw that he was the first guest, but Helena ordered him to come in and directed him to the sofa. Rocco, as fearful of Helena as anyone else, did as he was told and, dressed as he was in his best suit, put up with both Helena's disapproving glances at his short hems and her insistence, which came every time he saw her, that the hems could easily be extended in her capable hands. All of this was done while she made coffee, filled it in thermoses and reprimanded Rocco for not bringing along his mother. Although Rocco was three years older than Helena, he felt reduced in her presence to nothing more than a little boy. As such he soon got up and went next door to the Reconquista in order to grudgingly force his surprised mother to come along. He had left both his guitar and the wrapped gift for Viktor in the living room as he went and the birthday boy, dressed and scrubbed, sat on the sofa and stared at the package, kept from opening it only by the knowledge that his mother's eyes were upon him from the kitchen.

All at once the people from Bresolino views arrived in a flurry. Gerald van den Berg had picked up both Marco and the cleaning lady and, on the express road to D4, they had met Emilia and Viktor's father. As that little motorcade had driven into Aquifolium Street, Viktor had gotten quite beside himself, especially when they had come pouring into the studio with so many presents. In fact, his excitement had peaked somewhat with his jumping up and down and the putting on of his birthday cassette. When at last the studio people arrived, Grandpa Gideon showed up and the living room was full with all the gifts on the living room table and everyone talking at once, Viktor had danced in his Darth Maul costume to the birthday song, and everyone had clapped him and laughed and to Viktor the world had never been so beautiful.

Even with everyone having arrived, however, Viktor was not yet allowed to open his presents. Instead he had to watch as the usual small groups formed. The dressmakers and Emilia sat at the table drinking coffee and talking all at once. His father, grandfather, Gerald van den Berg, along with Hamid and Malek, the two tailors from Bahrain, all stood with a glass in hand by the window which looked at the square in front of the house and talked about cars (or at least Viktor suspected that they did, as in front of the house were a multitude of cars being pointed at, gestured to, and otherwise motioned toward). Marco and Oded sat on the floor and talked animatedly about something while Rocco, Rocco's mother and the maid were quite lost on the couch. This slight problem was solved quite quickly however when Rocco was called to the window to answer a technical question on his car and Rocco's mother and the cleaning lady found that they both knew Russian, a discovery that ended with the two of them delving into a conversation masked in an outlandishly secret language. Viktor was creeped out by their jabbering. Helena buzzed from one group to another, pouring coffee, talking to everyone, and spreading her perfumed fragrance.

After a while of all this small talk, Helena came in with the cake, lit the candles and everyone sang for Viktor, who clung to the leg of his father and nearly fainted with happiness. They all kissed and hugged him and he thought his heart would burst. Then came the gifts. Viktor took a deep breath and told himself, as he had earlier when getting dressed, that, with such an advanced age, one must of course preserve countenance (the word 'countenance' he had learned from Emilia and she had explained it in such a way that he actually understood what it meant).

Viktor stood in front of the pile of boxed gifts and slowly and cautiously opened the wrapping paper so as not to tear it. He liked wrapping paper, it was always so colorful and so pretty and reminded him of birthdays and as such he thought it a pity that it was easy to tear, to crumple and then to toss in the trash.

He looked first at Rocco, the hulking, sullen Rocco, who stood looking completely out of place in his wayward suit, occasionally grumbling to himself, and then at the awkwardly packed, crumpled gift, already with dented corners and little tears. The wrapping paper was not really wrapping paper, but aluminum foil, and around it all a piece of packing cord was bound as a loop. Viktor imagined Rocco in his dimly lit, smoky bar at the counter, trying to pack the gift with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth and his brow impatiently furrowed. This scene so emotionally overwhelmed him that he ran to Rocco and hugged his leg. Rocco knelt down and hugged him back. Viktor got lightheaded from Rocco's embrace, which seemed to squeeze the air out of his lungs and threaten to crush his ribs, but he put his head on Rocco's shoulder, breathing in the Rocco smell of nicotine, beer and aftershave and whispered, "Thank you Rocco" to which Rocco grumbled something unintelligible in reply.

Viktor then moved around and hugged everyone. His father picked him up and held him for a while and kissed him on the neck. His mother raised him also and covered his face with lots of kisses. Gem looked scared and backed away, but Viktor hugged him anyway. He hugged the small, thin Hala gently, and she hugged him and gave him a little touch of peck on the cheek. In turn, he embraced each of the studio staff, then Oded, who spun him through the air. He then embraced the wonderfully fragrant and pretty Emilia before Gerald van den Berg picked him up and left him dangling from the feet down. Marco gave him move a cautious embrace then the cleaning lady laughed and said something garbled with a hug. Finally, Rocco's mother enveloped him with her apple pie scent.

Once all this was done he was finally allowed to unwrap his presents. He chose the biggest first. The studio employees had all pitched in and had bought him a bicycle. Helena was so touched that she got tears in her eyes and, in a mirror of her son, hugged and kissed each of her employees in turn. Viktor was so excited that he got on the bike and peddled a few laps in the living room until his mother told him that he could only use the bike outside. From his father he got a huge chemistry set. Viktor did not know exactly what to do with it, and everything looked very complicated, but he nonetheless emphasized his joy several times so as not to offend his father. Helena gave him a model airplane to assemble, making him extremely pleased. From Gerald van den Berg he got a football autographed by Ruud van Nistelrooy which made him dizzy. From Galina, the cleaning lady, he was given a pirate ship together with some small pirates and Viktor was instantly looking forward to taking the whole lot in the bath with him. Emilia gave him a huge, thick children's encyclopedia, which he did not find so exciting, but to which he hid his disappointment and instead tried to look awfully grateful. Rocco's battered gift contained a rusty cigar box with some pyramids and men with turbans on it, in the box was a season ticket for the circus, which was to begin in two weeks – Viktor loved the circus and, as he felt he could never get enough of it, he was as such beside himself with joy. When he was told what a season ticket meant he could not believe his ears and everyone had to repeatedly tell him that it actually means that he can so often go as he wants and pay nothing, no matter how many times he goes. Finally, he got from Marco a remote controlled car.

Viktor sat amidst his gifts, looked at everything then looked at everyone and he almost wanted to cry with happiness. He managed to keep his composure however and instead dealt with the remote control of the car to distract himself.

Everyone soon slinked back into their small groups. Viktor sat on the floor and played with Oded, Marco, Gem and Hala. Oded was fascinated by the model airplane and as such examined the blueprint. Marco was impressed with the chemistry set and, after reading through the instructions, he revealed to both Viktor and Gem the secrets behind the many powders and vials. Viktor did not understand everything, but words like "explosion" and "color change" sounded quite promising. Hala leafed through the children's encyclopedia and looked at the pictures and Oded read to her the entry for 'butterflies'.

Rocco's mother and the cleaning lady, Galina, stayed on the couch with their plates of cake and whispered in their strange, creepy language. Oded and Marco managed to eat between them, two complete baguettes, 12 cheese skewers, a whole cup of olives and each a piece of cake along with two slices of apple pie and eighteen rum balls.

Sometime later, while Oded and Marco were assembling the pirate ship, there was a sudden loud cry from the table where the grownups were sitting. A ripple of varied reactions spread around the room as Viktor winced and thought everyone would die immediately thus ending his birthday, Rocco's mother sent a hand to her chest in fright and Galina yelled something Russian as her face went as white as a sheet.

At the table however the reaction was a different story as Viktor's father laughed and slapped Malek, the tailor from Bahrain, on the back. Emilia cheered as Maricel and Donna clapped and Helena wiped a tear from her eye. To all this Gerald shouted, "you think we didn't know?" and even Rocco had a hint of a smile on his face. Only Andala, the youngest seamstress, sat crimson and embarrassed in her chair, while Hamid hugged Malek and shook his hand.

Viktor ran to the table and demanded, "What is it? What is it?"

It had been confirmed what had been speculated for a long time: Andala and Malek were a couple. Gerald and Maricel had not only managed to wring from both a confession, but on top Malek had announced that they were secretly engaged and wanted to marry soon.

Viktor listened very carefully, because he liked Andala and Malek. He had never been to a wedding and only knew about them from the movies. Andala was a niece of Maricel and the two of them had come together to Hedera Helix from the Philippines. She was small and very thin and Viktor found her very pretty. She had beautiful eyes and very long, shiny hair and she always stood in the workshop kitchen and cooked lunch for everyone, putting aside some extra for Viktor knowing that he would have it when he came home from school. Furthermore, it had been Andala who had embroidered the 'S' on Viktor's Superman costume.

Malek, however, was Helena's favorite in the workshop. He was the only one Helena really trusted when it came to customizing complicated patterns or dealing with very expensive materials. As far as Viktor could tell, Malek was also very good looking. He had brown skin, not as brown as Gerald van den Berg, but darker than Viktor's.

What Andala and Malek had in common in Viktor's opinion, was that both shared a small speech impediment. Andala could utter no F, instead always making it sound like a P. And Malek could not say P, which always sounded like a B. Despite these inadequacies however, they could both pronounce letters which Viktor did not even know existed at all. A letter similar to 'N', which seemed to come from the nose, and guttural sounds which always made Viktor choke when he tried to say them.

Rocco soon took out his guitar and sang 'Drive', making it a cheery and summery version that got everyone both laughing and singing along. After he sang 'Closing Time', and, as everyone knew the song by heart, the women took over the background vocals and the men sang along with Rocco. Though the lyrics had little to do with birthdays, the melody was happy enough and everyone started to dance, meaning that Rocco had to play it four times in succession due to popular demand.

When the clock finally struck 11, everyone took their leave. Hugs were offered around and Malek was beaten on the back as Andala got kisses and Viktor's hair was boisterously ruffled.

Though Viktor was still feeling wide awake, his efforts to help his mother clean up meant that he was soon falling asleep standing up with a trash bag in his hand. Later, when laid asleep in his bed, he did not hear Cristobal knock on the window pane. Cristobal then turned to a couple of tricks that he had learned in his training and managed to open the window.

He put a small gift that was wrapped in white paper and a red bow on Viktor's bedside table and put a small orchid flower beside it. He stayed a while and watched the sleeping Viktor before moving a single strand of hair from Viktor's face and finally leaving him to his slumber.
Monoecy

Cristobal came the next evening, fluttering outside the window to attract Viktor's attention. Viktor was so pleased that he stumbled over his new children's dictionary in an effort to rush to the window. Having hurt his knee and thus riddled with pain, he was forced to hobble the rest of the way to the window.

"Congratulations on your birthday!" Cried Cristobal, turning pirouettes in the air. Viktor bounced up and down in spite of his painful knee, and cried, "Thank you for the gift!"

In the small package that Viktor had found next to his bed that morning was a small round structure, woven of many bird feathers in every color imaginable. Viktor had no idea what it was, but he didn't care. It was very nice and it was from Cristobal and it looked awfully delicate and fragile. Cristobal said it was a fringe of hair, that Viktor could wear on his head like a crown. Furthermore he said, with proudly puffed out feathers, that it had been made purely by hand.

Viktor showed Cristobal everything that he had been given for his birthday. Cristobal inspected each gift carefully and repeatedly announced, "I want one as well!" Then the two of them played with the remote control car before looking up the word 'Hummingbrid' in the encyclopedia. Cristobal unfortunately then declared that he had to leave.

"I have to urgently visit a few people," he said.

"Who?" asked Viktor.

"First of all Maradona. And then I have to visit someone called Desmond Tutu."

"Who's that?" Asked Viktor.

Cristobal shrugged, he had no idea.

"Is he famous?" Asked Viktor.

"I think so,"Cristobal said. "He's won a few prizes a couple of times."

They looked in the children's encyclopedia to see if it would offer any further clues but found no Desmond Tutu.

"Is he a boxer?" Asked Viktor.

"I don't know. I hope not!"

"Then maybe he's a racing driver."

"Cooool!" cried Cristobal.

When Cristobal was gone, Viktor left his room in order to brush his teeth and, feeling a bit tired still from the day before, he wanted to lie down but froze when he heard a strange noise, a kind of creaking, coming from under his bed.

Viktor went through all sorts of possible options as to what it could be and, though he wanted to cry for his mother, he remembered that he was eight and, having learned all about self-defense from Cristobal, he decided that the existence of a possible monster under his bed was nothing in fact to fear.

He lay flat on the bed, letting his head hang down. This pose, meant to offer him more protection, in fact backfired when he leant too far forward and ended up sprawled on the floor, his head now fully under the bed.

Thankfully though there were no monsters, but instead a lizard sitting in Viktor's old sneaker.

The lizard was mostly inside the sneaker, sitting there as if it were sitting in a big comfy chair, one arm on the top of the shoe as if it were an armrest. It looked out of bored, half-opened eyes at Viktor and said softly "Good evening, Mr. Abies."

Viktor was quite surprised. Never had anyone ever greeted him with a "Good evening," before, nor for that matter had anyone ever addressed him as "Mr. Abies". He, of course, knew his own last name, but so far he had been known his entire life as either "Viktor", "Viktor Abies", "son of Helena Abies" or "son of Mr. Abies" but never himself as "Mr. Abies".

In fact he was quite confused at first, thinking that perhaps the lizard was only looking at him by accident and instead meant to address Viktor's father who would suddenly appear. Only when the lizard looked at him impatiently and repeated in a very articulate way: "Good evening, Mr. Abies," did Viktor know that it was him who was being addressed. This realisation brought about a rather polite reply from the boy who said: "Good evening."

Viktor knew that he shouldn't really be so surprised, after all he was 8 years old now and as such the world had changed, meaning therefore that it was perfectly reasonable for him to be addressed with such adult language.

The lizard sighed with annoyance and slowly climbed out of the shoe and out from under the bed, Viktor in turn sliding out before him.

"How are you?" the lizard asked casually.

"Good," Viktor replied, before adding a dutiful "And you?"

The lizard offered him a brief bored look, slowly walked around the room and looked at everything. "I wanted to have a short look around here myself tonight" he said.

Viktor did not quite understand what was meant, but said: "Welcome", just as Helena and Oded did whenever new people entered the store.

"You're a clever one," the lizard said disapprovingly and walked across the room. It was a beautiful lizard, metallic green with a broad orange stripe on its back. It walked past the pirate ship and circled the model airplane.

"Since when has this bird been yours?" It asked.

"Who? Cristobal?"

"Whoever. The hummingbird."

Viktor thought but did not know quite what to answer and so said: "He often comes to visit me."

"That is clear to me. But since when?"

Viktor thought once more then said hesitantly: "Since about three weeks ago."

"Oh. You don't say." The lizard sat down on the children's encyclopedia. "Stand up, I want to see you."

Viktor stood up and the lizard examined him from top to bottom.

"Mr. Abies, what has this bird discussed with you?"

Viktor did not know what to say, so he said, "We always play."

The lizard sighed and looked with a bored air at its fingernails.

Viktor was silent. The lizard was so mature and authoritative that Viktor thought it a good moment to apply the rule often preached by his mother: "Speak only when spoken to".

"I'll take my leave now. Thank you," said the lizard, and then added: "Have a good evening, Mr. Abies. We will be seeing each other again someday," before it climbed out the window and disappeared.

As soon as the lizard had left Viktor thought about this and ran into the hallway to look at himself in the mirror, he wanted to see what the lizard had been examining, and yet he saw nothing of any interest.

The next day, his mother sent him to sign up for karate club. Her main motivation in doing so was to try and curtail Viktor's constant insistence.

Oded drove him to the club, a small, two-storey building in D8 near the cinema.

The cinema was showing that night "Some Like it Hot", further evidence unfortunately of its relatively pathetic out-of-date lineup. Once a month it showed what could be considered a 'new' film, albeit a pirated copy and so mostly in very poor quality. Sometimes you'd have the outline of peoples' heads thanks to the video being made in one of neighboring Salix Alba's cinemas with the aid of a sneaked-in video camera. Quite often on those nights, for want of any other source for the latest movies, the cinema was so full that people would sit in the aisles and on the floor, some even standing or cramming on to already occupied chairs. Those who required a more flexible timetable, comfort, or who generally just wanted a normal movie experience, went to Salix Alba.

Viktor had actually only been in a movie theater a couple of times. The first time had been two years ago when he and Oded had gone to see 'Dumbo'. The movie was not a new release and the cinema was quite empty, most people having either already seen it, or in no rush to owing to it being repeated every few weeks. For Viktor though, the movie took second seat to the big screen, the bag of popcorn and the general atmosphere of being at the movies. The only other movie he'd seen had been 'Honey, I Shrank the Kids'.

Now, as they walked past the cinema, he looked at all the posters that hung yellowed and tattered on the wall. They were mainly posters of black and white movies that failed to generate any real interest in him and the only coloured posters looked a bit too adult for him and so also failed to capture his imagination.

That was until he came to one of the last posters, however, and came face-to-face with a man standing in a jungle, holding a machine gun and looking very cool.

"Oded", Viktor declared. "I want to see this movie!"

Oded looked in the direction indicated by Viktor's finger. "No way Viktor, I don't think so," he said as he pulled Viktor away.

"Why not?"

"I think Rambo's not for you."

"Why?"

"The film is very violent, Viktor."

"There's a lot of blood?"

"Yes, and a lot of people die."

Viktor pondered this. He'd already seen movies where people died, but by the time this argument sprung to form he found that they were already in front of the leisure center.

Oded filled out the form proffered by the lady sitting at the reception desk. After this Oded showed him the dressing room, showed him where to go, and then promised to return in two hours. He was in a hurry, because Helena was waiting impatiently at home to be driven to the Customs' Office. A new shipment of materials had arrived and whenever this happened she tended to be very irritable.

Viktor headed to the dressing room where a few guys were already changing, and when he was ready, he sheepishly followed them to the training room.

The coach was called Angh Park and he looked very foreign.

Viktor remembered his time in Singapore and such a terrible dread filled him that he almost bolted in a run away from the gym.

But Angh Park looked surprisingly nice, very friendly and not at all like any of Viktor's memories of the stern people in the police office in Singapore, all factors that helped to calm him down.

Angh Park introduced himself. His name was Angh Park, he came from a land called South Korea (Viktor noted to himself the country so later he could look it up in his children's encyclopedia), he was 29 years old and reportedly had every belt. Viktor thought to himself that he too had quite a few belts at home.

After this the boys had to introduce themselves in order. Since Viktor had placed himself at the farthest point left of Angh Park, he had the misfortune of going first.

He thought for a moment and then said. "My name is Viktor Abies, I'm eight years old and I come from here."

"Why do you want to learn karate, Viktor?" asked Angh Park.

Viktor thought again, and, deciding not to say anything about Cristobal, he replied: "I want to be the best and learn about attack and self-defense."

Angh Park was impressed. "Have you ever done something similar?"

"Yes, I've been practicing at home."

"What have you been practicing?"

"I've been practicing a few things. Always watch the eyes of your opponent, because they are prophecies to his future movements," (Viktor had tied the guide Cristobal had given him on his bed and read it every morning after waking up and every night before he went to sleep).

Angh Park looked pleased. The other boys stared at Viktor.

After everyone had presented themselves Angh Park showed them what they will learn. He talked again about belts, and Viktor began to see that belts apparently were something like medals, furthermore that black was supposedly the best color.

Viktor watched then as Angh Park performed a few movements, and he was completely thrilled by it all as it looked exceedingly cool. Everything Angh Park did was performed very quickly, his legs and hands and arms cutting through the air before he turned on one leg while the other leg smashed into an imaginary head, his fists smashed the air, he took a run and ended up with angled leg to the chest of an imaginary opponent. Viktor decided that Angh Park was the coolest person in the world.

They had to warm up first and so began with ten laps around the hall. After this they had to make some circles with their arms, touch their toes and stretch their legs. Angh Park talked all the time and stressed the importance of warming up and stretching, and that they should never forget to warm up properly.

"Run! Run a lot. And run on a regular basis," he cried, as they began to stretch the muscles on the inside of their thighs. "Running strengthens the body. Running gives you energy and clears the mind. Running gives you endurance and stamina. Running fills your brain with oxygen, makes your blood clean and makes your thoughts crystal clear and razor-sharp!" They had to do a few pushups after this and then circle their shoulders and stretch their arms over their heads backward. "Run. Run as much as you can and as often as you can. Then make sure you always have a good stretch and make your muscles supple and ready for karate!"

They had then to line up in rank and file before Angh Park announced:

"Karate begins and ends with respect!"

He stated that Karate is a martial art whose emphasis is on agility, quickness and strength.

"You will not learn how to beat each other up here. You will learn to control yourself, to possess your body and tame your mind. The control of the mind is the path to the goal. At the same time control is the goal itself."

They all nodded and tried to control their minds.

"There are many methods that can be applied, and these you can learn over time. Only by knowing can you be successful and maintain dignified control. Only what we know and understand is controllable. The mind dwells in the body. The first step to controlling the mind is to control the body. Running and meditation are the basic elements of this control. Our course allows you to get to know your body, and meditation allows you to get to know your mind. Only by knowing can you be successful and maintain dignified control. Karate begins and ends with respect!"

Each of the guys had to repeat the sentence "Karate begins and ends with respect". Angh Park then made each and every boy repeat the sentence again so he could be sure they didn't forget nor make a mistake.

"There are in this world no shades of gray in human relationships", Angh Park said, and placed himself before them all. "Two counterparties are never on the same level. There is always a higher party and a lower one. Senpai and Kohai. Accordingly, there are no 'winners' but only Senpai. And there are no 'losers', but only Kohai."

They all nodded even though they understood nothing.

Then they showed Angh Park the welcome ceremony. In pairs they had to front up to each other, with closed heels and feet, directed at 45° to the outside. Then they had to kneel with thighs that formed a V, put their hands on their thighs and make a very straight back. They then had to close their eyes and breathe deeply. Then they had to put their left hand on the floor, put their right hand next to the upper body, and bend it till it their forehead touched the fingers and then they had to say what was something of a respectful greeting each other "Ossu".

"Karate begins and ends with respect!" Angh Park called out and they all shouted "Ossu!"

Viktor was completely thrilled by everything and still filled with euphoria when Oded picked him up. He cried in the car constantly "Ossu!" And explained to Oded, and afterwards to his mother, in detail all about the welcome ceremony while he kept repeating "Karate begins and ends with respect!"

Helena listened carefully and watched with some amusement as Viktor knelt before her, touched the ground with his head and remained quite still, thinking to herself that in fact perhaps this whole karate thing was not too bad.

That night Viktor was kneeling in his room and stayed for almost an hour with closed eyes in the welcome position, trying to breathe deeply and firmly and to control his mind. When Helena looked in, having found the peace coming from his room quite disturbing, she saw that he was practicing what he'd learnt and with wide eyes she very quietly closed the door again. Then she looked up to heaven and sent a silent prayer of thanks while hoping that Viktor would forever have fun doing karate.
Mitosis

Viktor and Cristobal were playing cards.

It was a game that Cristobal had invented. To play you first shuffle the cards then deal them out evenly. Each player then counts how many kings they have and the one with the most wins. After a few turns however, the game became quite boring. As Viktor didn't know any other card games, Cristobal invented a new one. As such the cards were once again shuffled and dealt, this time with each player only receiving five cards. The aim was then to see who had the highest number once the face value of each card had been added together. Once the cards had been shuffled and dealt out, they counted up their scores. Unfortunately though, even after playing this game for a while, it also soon became quite boring.

Cristobal was then suddenly overcome by a whimper inducing, apocalyptic and primeval hunger, a hunger so fierce that the two of them had to head to the kitchen in hunt of food. Viktor made a jam sandwich while Cristobal looked in the fridge and all the cabinets before settling on honey. After they retreated back to Viktor's room, sat on the floor and ate.

"Oh, I forgot!" Viktor cried suddenly. "A lizard visited me a few days ago. He sat in my shoe, looked at me and then went away."

Cristobal froze, turned pale and fluttered in horror. He began to cough and almost suffocated till Viktor slapped him on his tiny back. This stopped the coughing fit but unfortunately Cristobal passed out, making Viktor extremely anxious and dizzy with fear as he thought the bird had in fact died. He put Cristobal on the bed and lay down himself until everything stopped inclining horribly to the right like a sinking ship. Sometime later Cristobal awoke and began to cry. This did nothing to settle Viktor's nerves, nor his beating heart, and so he ran to his backpack and took out his asthma spray. He inhaled deeply and gave Cristobal a blast as well. When they had both calmed down, Viktor asked what was going on.

Cristobal could not talk properly, instead he was hyperventilating and stammering unintelligible things.

"What is?" Viktor cried in a trembling voice.

Cristobal gasped: "It's started! Bad things will happen now. Bad bad things!"

Viktor took another blast from his asthma spray.

"Viktor, do you know who this lizard was?"

Viktor shook his head and chewed on a corner of his bed cover.

"Did he tell you his name?"

"No."

"Did he say anything?"

"He said 'Good evening', and looked at my toys and asked about you and then he went."

"Did he do anything else?"

Viktor shook his head.

"How did he look?" Shouted Cristobal.

Viktor had to describe the lizard in as great a detail as he could, while Cristobal noted and recorded everything in his notebook.

Cristobal then flew a few frantic laps around the room, screaming: "Viktor, lizards are members of the 'Reptiles Association Against Sola Fide'. It's all very complicated, and you wouldn't be able to understand it all just yet, even I don't really understand it. But what is important and what you have to try and understand is: they are very, very evil animals. Do you understand? Very, very evil!"

Viktor nodded. "Very, very evil animals," he repeated in a whisper.

"Yes, Viktor, very, very nasty animals! I'll report that this lizard came to see you and they'll analyze what it means. Very likely... oh my God...," Cristobal collapsed, cried and whimpered something completely unintelligible.

Then he sniffed and said, "Very likely it will visit more often now and it'll do terrible things to you, very very terrible things, so very, very terrible things, things you can't even imagine. Terrible, you understand, terrible!"

Viktor nodded and took yet another blast from his asthma spray.

"They taught me what to do, what to tell you if this ever happened." Cristobal stammered. "But I've forgotten. I had no idea this would happen so soon. Everything's happened so early! Ohgodohgodohgod, I've forgotten!"

Cristobal massaged his temples, staring intently at the ceiling as he kept muttering "Reptiles Association... Viktor... Reptiles Association... Viktor..."

Then he suddenly hopped on the bed, fluttered around the room and turned a few spirals in the air and shouted, "I've got it! I remember, I remember!"

He collapsed on the bed in order to try and get his breath back before he demanded an atlas. Viktor ran into the living room and dragged a large atlas back to the room. Cristobal flipped to the last page, where a large white island was laid out.

"Do you know where that is?" asked Cristobal.

Viktor shook his head.

"That's Antarctica, you know, the South Pole."

"South Pole," repeated Viktor.

"Exactly, Antarctica. Look, there is Abramskaya, the stronghold of the League of Birds. It's our headquarters and where the generals live: the Emperor penguins. Our complete storm trooper squads are there as well: the snow petrels and giant petrels and silver petrels and shearwaters hooks and many others."

Viktor looked at the small dot that Cristobal was pointing at.

"I will now say something important," whispered Cristobal. "Something very, very important. Are you listening to me?"

Viktor nodded vigorously.

"Not far from Abramskaya there is a place called Cahuc. Here, you see these mountains? These are the Admiralty Mountains. Cahuc is not far away. It's a place that doesn't appear on any maps, so no one knows it's there, only the League of Birds. Cahuc, listen Cahuc! That's the name of the place. This place is very cold and very dark, there are no plants and no animals, because it's too cold and dark for them to grow. But Cahuc is the safest place in the world, Cahuc is incredibly safe, 800% safe, do you understand?"

"Cahuc is good," Viktor said.

"Right! Cahuc is very, very good. That's right. Now listen to me. These reptiles will always be coming here and doing terrible, terrible things to you. I'll show you a way to escape it, a way that you can always go to Cahuc when it becomes unbearable. There you'll be out of the firing line and can wait till everything's safe again. I'll report back tonight and there are some special command causes that I'll adapt in order to show you what you can do. We expected this to happen at some point, but that it'd happen so quickly or so soon, no one would have ever thought."

Viktor nodded even though he had no real idea what Cristobal was on about.

"I have to go, Viktor. I have to report all of this. Before I do though, we better check everything and search the room. We'll make sure it's clean."

Viktor thought to himself that they would just check to see if the room was clean, but he soon saw that Cristobal meant make sure there were no lizards hiding anywhere. They looked everywhere and ransacked every drawer and examined every corner, but the room was apparently reptile free. Viktor had to promise that he would from now on always keep the window closed and always search the room just in case someone was hidden somewhere.

Cristobal gave Viktor a tight hug before he flew away.

Viktor quickly closed the window and then stood there, staring through the glass at the twilight beyond. He was confused by everything and tired, deeply tired. He watched the birds in the trees outside his window. There were mainly small brown birds, whose name he did not know, and among them a few blackbirds. They sat silent and motionless in the trees. Viktor did not know how long he stood there, staring out, trying to sort out his thoughts and take control of his mind from the confusion, but no matter what he did he failed. The sky was black and the stars glittered, the street lamps spread their dull light. A few birds joined the others and sat down on the branches, he heard an owl. It seemed to Viktor as if there were more birds in the trees now than there had ever been before. He often looked out the window but he had never really paid much attention before to exactly how many birds would gather in the trees and as such he wasn't sure if there were more or not. He felt like someone was watching him and he craned forward to better peer out the window.

Suddenly, there was an abrupt movement. Viktor was so startled that he fell backwards and at that exact moment a dozen magpies flew to his window, sat on the window sill and looked vigilantly around. He saw a few hawks sitting in the tree, and three eagles hovering in the sky. A pair of big eyes glittered in the dark tree and he heard several owls hoot.

Viktor got scared, closed the curtains and went to bed. He pulled the blanket over his head and wanted to fall asleep very quickly. Sometime later he looked out from under the blanket and saw that it was 1 o'clock. He walked quietly to the window and pulled the curtain carefully aside and looked out. The magpies were still there, sitting on the window sill restlessly while looking constantly in all directions. He peered past them at the tree and, though it seemed to be quiet and empty, he soon saw it was filled with birds. A few eyes flashed at him and he heard a deep owl's hoot.

He went back to bed, cried a little, and then finally fell asleep.
Haploid

The next day Viktor was very confused.

He'd slept very badly, and could not eat any breakfast. His mother, upon seeing the half eaten bread and jam – the jam even being blackberry and therefore Viktor's current favorite – had reacted with alarm, putting her hand on his forehead and looking at his throat for any sign of illness.

His troubles didn't stop there though as, in school, he miscalculated a math task that he had to solve in front of everyone on the board. He had to divide '345' by '5', which, any other day, he would have found easy. This day however he just couldn't think of how many times '5' went into '45'. He stood there, chalk in hand, and tried his best to think, but his brain did not seem to want to work. Eventually he simply took the first numerical combination that came into his head and, thinking that '5' went into '45' 34 times, he decided on the number '90034'. The teacher looked at him in surprise and asked him why he thought the answer was '90034'. Viktor thought about it for a minute and, not knowing why but thinking that '900' was in fact too high, he rubbed it out and replaced it with '70' thus giving the figure, '7034' which, apparently, was also the wrong answer. The teacher as such sent him back to his place.

During the break, he sat on a bench and tried to eat, but nothing really had any flavor and so he ended up dumping the contents of his lunch box into the trash. Shortly after, Gem and some others asked him if he wanted to play volleyball, but he simply waved them away and went back to starting at the floor. Gem came over and asked what was wrong before then inquiring if he had to throw up again. Viktor got upset by this and ran off to seek solitude in the bathroom. He locked himself in a cubicle and tried to control his mind, but it was too crampt and the floor was too dirty for him to get in the right position, so instead he ended up leaning his head against the wall. When the bell rang after half an hour he was more thankful than he thought he could be.

When he got home, everything was just as out of sync. There was no lunch ready for him, his mother was yelling into the phone and Oded was discussing something in frantic tones with the others. He heard such words as 'union' and 'value added tax' and other indefinable things. This was too much for him.

His mother covered the phone up briefly and whispered, "Go to Rocco's, honey. We've got too much to do here but you can get something to eat there". She then promptly went back to screaming away on the phone.

As Oded and the others didn't notice him and he was in fact hungry, he grumpily took his backpack and walked out of the chaotic studio.

Rocco was sitting in the sun on the stairs in front of his bar, absently strumming his guitar with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He looked up in surprise when he saw an angry looking Viktor arrive and declare, "I'm hungry!"

Rocco asked no questions and instead led Viktor into the kitchen where his mother was baking.

She gave him a plate of potato stew and two slices of bread, all of which Viktor took to a table in the bar and ate in silence. This food, at last, tasted normal and as such he even asked for a second serving. When he had finished, he thanked Rocco's mother for the food, even going so far as to shake her hand, an action that prompted a sigh and a hug from her.

He then sat down next to Rocco on the steps and watched the road. There was nothing going on. The owner of the small store across the road seemed to be having some problems as he angrily waved one hand in the air while holding a phone to his ear and shouting. The sun was very warm and Viktor was sweating in his school sweater, his eyelids became heavy and soon he ended up falling asleep.

Rocco was surprised when he turned to Viktor and saw him with a reclined head, open mouth and dribble of salvia coming from his bottom lip.

When Viktor woke up in the late afternoon, he was in a strange room that he didn't know at all and fear gripped him tightly.

But when he saw the well-known guitar in the corner, he calmed down. He stayed lying down in the cool for a while as, not only did he still feel strange, but he was convinced he must be getting sick.

He could hear Rocco's voice downstairs, grumpily telling some customers that not only did he have no margaritas and noodles, but that none would ever appear on his menu. Viktor got up and did his best to make Rocco's bed look tidy, rearranging the sheets and pillows. His backpack was standing beside the bed and Viktor glanced into it to see if everything was still there. Thankfully, Rocco had not stolen his school supplies as everything was still in its place.

Rocco's apartment was big. As it was directly above the bar, it was as big as the bar and kitchen downstairs. The bedroom was huge as well, as big as Helena's entire apartment. Viktor knew that there was another floor above, and that Rocco's mother lived there.

He felt the need to look at everything in more detail, but didn't dare, because his mother had once given him a long, terrifying monologue about snooping. Instead, he took his backpack and went down. The stairs led down directly to the bar and he saw a few people sitting at tables and it all it smelled like apple pie.

Rocco waved at him, gave him a piece of pie and another piece wrapped in a napkin for Helena, and sent him home.

Sunset was a short process in Hedera Helix with no long drawn out dusk. As soon as the sun touched the horizon, it was then gone in less than ten minutes and the residual light disappeared almost instantly. Viktor had already observed the sun in other parts of the world. In Helsinki, it never seemed to want to go away at all. As such it would be bed time, 10pm, and the sky would still be as bright as day. In Canada it had been the opposite, or near enough, as it had been dark already by 3pm. Viktor found these two countries very creepy with those strange machinations in the sky. He could not imagine why someone would ever want to live in such places. In Hedera Helix, it was bright in the morning when he woke up, the sun rising at an ever reliable 6am. In the evening the same was then true as the sun set every day at 6pm. To Viktor, light meant it was time to be awake, dark, time to be asleep. In Canada it'd been dark when he woke up and dark when he went to sleep. In Helsinki it'd never gotten dark. All in all he had no plans to ever have anything to do with either country again.

Now, on the short way home, Viktor was also not satisfied with the situation. It was almost dark, but he had slept all afternoon and that made everything feel back to front. Waking up means you have the whole day ahead of you, not that you have to go back to sleep again soon.

It can all go fuck itself, thought Viktor.

At home he found his father sitting with his mother at the kitchen table, both of them brooding over a stack of papers while occasionally tapping something into a calculator.

Normally, Viktor would have been pleased as punch to see his father at his home, but today he just grunted in passing to his astonished parents and disappeared behind a slamming bedroom door.

He thoroughly looked under his bed and searched the whole room before drawing the curtains to and laying down with his back to the window and with a Spiderman comic in hand, his homework the last thing on his mind.

Tonight, he had no desire for any visitors.

But the disaster was to come the next morning.

Even before he opened his eyes, he was frightened and knew that it was going to be a crazy day again. Oded was in his room saying something. Viktor tried to ignore him and fervently tried to control his mind. He gathered that his mother reportedly had an appointment with the regulatory body in Salix Alba. As such Oded had to take over the shop, then drive around and other such nonsense.

Viktor reluctantly pulled himself out of bed, reluctantly cleaned his teeth, and reluctantly went with Oded down to the studio, where he reluctantly sat with Hala and Gem in the kitchen and extremely reluctantly ate his breakfast.

He felt ill and almost gagged twice during breakfast. Maricel had made porridge and, although Viktor had nothing against porridge, that morning it was for some reason quite unbearable. To be first woken up by Oded, even though his mother had woken him every day since birth. Then to not eat breakfast in his own kitchen, where he could watch Helena's hectic running around or her lazy newspaper reading, but in someone else's. Then to have porridge rather than bread and jam, which he had had for breakfast since he had teeth. Then to even be eating with strangers, not that Gem and Hala were strangers, but early in the morning everyone was a stranger who did not look like Helena. All of it was just too much.

Viktor stared at the table cloth with a mixture of despair and hostility. It was an ugly tablecloth. An ugly, ugly tablecloth. A perverse, disgusting, despicable tablecloth. He gagged once more. Gem asked him something, and Viktor's response was just to jump slightly and look right then left before mumbling and delving back into his examination of the tablecloth as he spooned porridge into his gagging mouth. It was a hideous tablecloth. At the edge of his consciousness, Viktor was aware that his mother had the exact same table cloth directly above him because she had ordered a 20-meter roll of the material from China and all the employees had helped themselves. But that was beside the point, what was important was that it wasn't his mother's table cloth, not on his mother's table nor in his mother's apartment, and as such it was horrible.

Viktor sighed as Oded proclaimed that they should all get ready to leave for school. He looked outside, it was raining. The raindrops pounded softly on the window and he saw a few birds in the trees, all of whom sat with ruffled feathers.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to control his mind. He knew that Cristobal would come in the evening, or at least he hoped as such, and he could not wait. He thought of his next karate class as well and looked forward to it.

He whispered softly "Ossu!", took his backpack and followed Oded and the others to the car.
Phytohormone

Viktor and Cristobal closed the gate behind them and walked quietly down Aquifolium Street. Rocco's Bar was dark and quiet, a single light still burning on the first floor as they passed.

They walked along Pacific Road, crossed Holoarktis Square, walked past the cemetery on Cherry Avenue and walked along Azores High Street. It was pitch black, the streets deserted and the only signs of life being the occasional lit window of a house and the odd car that drove past them.

The meeting he'd had earlier that night with Cristobal had been both solemn and unsettling. With sunset had come the usual troupe of magpies, all settling themselves on his window sill. He had looked beyond them and seen a couple of large birds that looked like eagles, all slowly making their rounds in the sky as they did each evening. He'd closed the curtains, immersing himself in his children's encyclopedia when, having just read the entry for Easter Island, he heard a soft knock at his window.

At first he hadn't wanted to look, thinking the knock came only from the magpies' constant patrolling. When the knocking had continued however, he'd had little choice but to go to the window and pull the curtains open a tiny bit in order to peek outside. The magpies were of course in their places, haughtily arranged in their rank and file, though at their centre stood Cristobal, looking in at him anxiously.

Viktor was worried about opening the window, fearing that if he did so the magpies would come pouring in as well. Such fears had to be put aside however as Cristobal looked at him urgently while knocking repeatedly. Viktor opened the window just a crack and Cristobal flew in.

"Don't worry, they won't hurt you," the hummingbird said before he sat down on the bed.

"Who are they?" Asked Viktor.

"Who?"

"The birds."

Cristobal brushed his left wing and said: "Magpies belong to the Guard Battalion."

"The what?"

"The Guard Battalion. The guards. The protectors."

"Why?"

"They're smart and see and hear a lot. Oh, and they have a good warning cry and alarm call."

"What are they doing here?"

"They are guarding you. Abramskaya issued a special command and declared you the highest priority. That command states that you have to be guarded now."

"Why?"

Cristobal flew to the window and pulled the curtain open just enough for him to be able to peer outside. He pointed to the trees beyond the window and said: "Those Blackbirds there, that's the Corvusbrigade - Jackdaws and Ravens and Crows. The Corvusbrigade is part of the fighting force. Those big birds there in the sky, those are the Falconiformes, they belong to the Air Force that's guarding the area."

Viktor had joined Cristobal and was looking at all the birds outside.

"The Owls," Cristobal pointed at the glowing eyes in the branches and leaves, "they are the combat support troops of the engineers. A couple of Owls belong to the Physical Protection Regiment of the Air Force and the others are in charge of scouting the area, making sure that we know all we can and are ready should there be an emergency."

He pointed to the many small, brown birds. "They are the infantry. Throttle and Sparrows and Woodpeckers and a few other birds."

Viktor nodded, though he was quite overwhelmed.

"This is all that we could put together in such a short time. Soon enough though our other troops will be mobilised. So don't be scared if you see more birds coming over the next few days. They'll do nothing to you, they're just there to guard the area and keep an eye on you."

Viktor nodded.

Cristobal flew back to the bed, sat down and sighed.

"I'm so tired," he said. "The last few days have been exhausting. In fact it's been fifty-two hours since I last slept. I was taken to Abramskaya by a condor and it's so cold there. Sooo terribly cold, I almost died!" Cristobal's shoulders slumped, and he stared at the blanket.

"What did you do there?"

"I had to see the Emperor penguins. They wanted to see me in person and hear my report. After that we had to unlock Cahuc and take care of some final preparations." Cristobal sighed again. "I don't know the last time I ate something. On the flight there and back I had special training with no breaks. In fact the only thing we got to eat was just a pre-packaged sandwich. Do you have anything to eat?"

Viktor ran into the kitchen and came back with a jar of honey. He watched as Cristobal greedily ate it, thinking about everything and nothing as he didn't know what he should be thinking about, focusing instead on Cristobal as he lapped up the honey.

Afterwards, Cristobal had said he wanted to go for a walk to which Viktor had asked whether it was safe to go outside. Cristobal had answered, "Your neighborhood is currently the most secure place in the city!"

"Can you put me in your breast pocket?" Cristobal had asked as Viktor put on his jacket. "I'm so tired and cold."

Then they had walked, Cristobal wrapped in a handkerchief in Viktor's breast pocket, his head just poking out as they had crossed onto Azores High Street.

"Look," he said, pointing upward at the large birds of prey who were circling around and following overhead. Around them trees and bushes rustled while various birds flew silently from tree top to tree top.

They turned onto Quercus Street and stopped before a large rhododendron. "This is so pretty, isn't it?" Cristobal said wistfully. Viktor nodded. "But it can't be eaten as it's toxic," added Cristobal. "Even daffodils. And primroses. And hyacinths. And violets." He sighed. "So many beautiful flowers are poisonous, it's such a shame."

They arrived at a large square that, though lit from all sides, lay abandoned and empty. Viktor sat down on a bench. It wasn't cold, a warm breeze was blowing and the sky was dimly lit by stars. It smelled like chamomile, Cristobal noted, which was a smell he liked, and he flew a few slow laps around the square and chirped softly. A few birds answered him quietly from the surrounding bushes and trees.

He came back and sat down on the arm of the bench. The two of them sat there for a while in silence, enjoying the breeze and the scent.

"I reported the lizard that visited you, passed on his description as well," Cristobal said. "Our intelligence services have looked into it and they know who it was."

Viktor waited for Cristobal to speak again, but when nothing more came he was prompted to ask, "Who was it?"

Cristobal still said nothing and Viktor didn't dare to push, the two of them instead remaining sat there for a time in perfect silence, side by side as they looked at the square in its bath of delicate orange light from the street lights. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance.

Finally, Cristobal flew up and sat down on Viktor's shoulder.

"The lizard is called Edison. He is the deputy chairman of the Reptile Association Against Sola Fide."

Viktor nodded.

Again some time went by before Cristobal continued.

"We, the League of Birds, are at war with the reptiles and their Association Against Sola Fide. We have been for millions of years but since the last Convention of Noahrk we've been in a kind of cold war. They don't attack us, and we don't attack them. Both of us just go our separate ways, avoid each other and not interfering in the other's business."

"But not anymore?" Asked Viktor.

"Edison shouldn't have come to you. That's a breach of the convention, of all we've adhered to in order to keep the peace. We still don't know why he came to you, nor what they want nor why he visited you. But either way it was a breach of the convention! You are our responsibility and he interfered with that, something he just can't do."

There was silence again.

"We've considered the matter and sent them a message with a request for a conference in Galiläeo to discuss it. We're waiting for their answer, and until then we have proclaimed the highest state of alert."

Viktor kneaded his fingers, hesitated, then finally said. "I just don't get it, I just can't figure any of it out!"

Cristobal snuggled up against Viktor's neck and said, "Me neither. I'm 29 days old and have only just started my training and it's all overwhelming me. We're all overwhelmed by it. No one would have thought that it could ever have happened so fast. We are constantly watching, constantly waiting for an attack – when I first started to visit you, we knew that there could be a confrontation one day, that's accepted as part of the job, but that it could happen so fast... no one was prepared for that."

"Why am I being visited?" Asked Viktor.

Cristobal thought about it and finally said, "The League and the Union are enemies at war, but we cannot fight each other directly. The Reptiles Association is just too strong. They have the crocodiles and alligators and anacondas and cobras and a lot of terrible armies, all of which are very strong and very dangerous. They are so strong, you can't even imagine it. But we can fly and they can't, so they can't touch us if we only take care. The whole thing then just creates a stalemate and this is what helps us all to survive. They are strong and we can fly. We can't attack because our strongest and largest birds, all the birds of prey and ostriches and albatrosses and condors, none can beat the crocodiles and alligators. But then they can't attack because they can't follow us into the air. There was a battle once, but I've not learnt all about it yet. In any case: it was terrible and bloody and all of us were almost wiped out, then there was the Treaty of Abramskaya and we agreed to a cease-fire. So we went out of our way and each developed on their own so we settled in peace. Well, not always. There has always been conflict between Abramskaya and Copernika – that's their stronghold, it lies somewhere in the jungle of the Congo, but I've never been there. Because we have to defend ourselves, but can't fight each other, we have to look for allies. So we visit people. And they visit people. And we are trying to build and maintain alliances ready for when something happens. And sometimes...," Cristobal looked unhappy. "Sometimes it happens that we choose the same allies by mistake and then a dispute arises. Or they are watching us and using a malignancy, they infiltrate our alliances and steal our people to be on their side."

Viktor nodded. "But I won't be friends with the reptiles, I promise," he said.

"It's not that simple," Cristobal said softly before saying nothing, instead just staring straight ahead. A few birds were chirping and an owl called. Cristobal suddenly flew away and Viktor saw him hovering by a tree before he frantically flew back a short while later.

"It's late, I have to leave and you have to sleep. Come on, I'll walk you back."

In his room, Viktor stood in the dark outside the window, Cristobal stood on the window sill and they looked at each other. No one said anything and the Magpies watched the surroundings.

"I'll go now, Viktor," Cristobal said.

Viktor nodded.

"Take care of yourself. Don't be afraid of the birds, they are there to protect you. Always remember to check you room, even when it all looks clean."

Viktor nodded.

"And don't forget that you have to tell me everything. No matter what happens, you have to tell me. The more we know the better we can act. So if a lizard or a chameleon or a gecko or any kind of reptile comes your way, tell me that instant. As quickly as possible. If I'm not there, then you can tell the magpies or any other birds, it doesn't matter who, it'll get back to me."

Viktor nodded.

"Ok?"

"Ok," Viktor said. "What can I do?"

"Nothing. Take good care of yourself and be attentive. Observe everything and always have your eyes peeled. And continue to do karate! That's very good. You have to physically train and be strong, that's important. Ok?"

"Ok," Viktor said.

Cristobal flew up to him and hugged him. Viktor hugged him back. "I'll always watch over you, always. I promise. I will take care of you. We, the birds, we are now your best friends," Cristobal said.

Once Cristobal had gone, Viktor remained at the window. The magpies outside ignored him and watched instead the backyard, turning their heads back and forth like a pendulum. He saw a few larger birds that flew from tree to tree. They came and went, disappearing into the bushes before coming out again to walk around on the lawn. High in the sky he saw blurry movements.

He closed the curtains and turned on all the lights in his room: the ceiling lamp, night lamp next to his bed, the goldfish lamp on his dresser and the two flashlights that he possessed. Once this was done he looked under the bed, climbed on a chair and looked on top of the cabinet, pulled all his clothes out of the closet and looked in every corner, stuffed the clothes back into the closet and looked through all his toy boxes. He looked in his backpack and in his shoes, looked in his tractor and the pirate ship and the plane and in the cars and diggers and fire engines, but no one was there. The room was clean.

He pulled on a pair of pajamas, brushed his teeth and wanted to lie down, but decided to do a few pushups first. He managed 14 before he thought his arms would explode and burst into fire. Then he crouched down and performed the welcoming ceremony, whispering "Ossu!" He tried to control his mind. His thoughts were a cloud of birds and reptiles, each thought coming so quickly that he was not able to gain any control over them and calm himself down. So he sat down on the bed with his children's encyclopedia and looked up the entry about reptiles.

He learned that reptiles are cold-blooded animals, meaning that they always have differing body temperatures. When it's cold, then they're cold. When it's warm, they're warm. People always have the same temperature, around 36 degrees. But with reptiles it's always different and so they are constantly changing their temperature. Viktor was creeped out by that. On top of it all they have scaly skin and funny eyes and a tail and four legs, except the snakes, who don't have any legs. Snakes, lizards, turtles and crocodiles are reptiles. A snake can grow up to nine meters long and can weigh up to 200 kilos (the Great Anaconda of South America). Snakes can smell with their tongue, have poison in their fangs and their mouths can open so far that they can swallow their prey whole.

Viktor slammed the encyclopedia shut, threw it in the corner and lay down. He couldn't sleep and he was thirsty but he didn't dare go into the kitchen. He had to go to the bathroom, but he didn't dare go there either. He heard some noises from outside, noises that were probably just from the magpies marching on the window sill, but it was all too much for Viktor and so he buried his face in his pillow and wept.
Meristem

"Second rule" Angh Park called out. "The second rule is: In karate there is no attack!"

The boys nodded their heads obediently.

"Every first and every last movement is defense. A karate fighter is not fighting to beat an opponent, not fighting to hit them nor even fighting to win. A karate fighter is fighting not to lose. A karate fighter controls his mind, controls his body and thus controls every single move. Nothing surprises him, nothing throws him off course, nothing scares him, nothing intimidates him. The one who attacks is weak. It is he who defends himself, he is a true karate master."

Viktor liked that.

"You are now men of Dō. The better you become, the less importance you place on yourself. Gichin Funakoshi was the greatest karate master who ever lived. The True Sensei. He developed modern karate and created the 20 rules of karate, Shoto Niju Kun. Do you know what he said about the second rule?"

No one answered.

"Master Funakoshi said, 'If a man of Dō receives the first Dan, he is full of gratitude and bows his head. When he receives the second Dan, he will bow his head and his shoulders. When he receives the third Dan, he will bow to the waist then quietly go home, so no one sees him.

"But, if a little man receives his first Dan, he will run home and tell everyone. If he receives his second Dan, he will climb on the rooftops and shout it to everyone. If he receives his third Dan, he will jump into his car and drive through the city honking his horn.' Do you understand?"

No one nodded.

"What is the first rule in karate?" Asked Angh Park.

"Karate begins and ends with respect!" everyone cried.

"Correct! The second rule is similar. A karate master is always respectful and not a mindless killing machine that beats people up. Are you going to be stupid? Are you going to use karate to hit those around you?"

"No!" they all cried.

"Will you be like the little man?"

"No!" they all cried in chorus.

"Will you be aggressive and disrespectful like the little man?"

"No!"

"Are you going to strike first like the little man?"

"No!"

"No! You will never strike the first blow, for the second rule states that there is no first attack in karate. What is the second rule in karate?"

"In karate there is no first attack," they all cried.

"What is the first rule?"

"Karate begins and ends with respect!"

"And the second rule?"

"In karate there is no first attack!"

"Very good! And why is there no first attack in karate?" asked Angh Park.

A boy named Emil raised his hand. "Because we have respect and we don't beat people up. We are only defending ourselves when someone else makes the first attack."

"Very good," cried Angh Park. "What is the first rule?"

"Karate begins and ends with respect," they all cried.

"And the second rule?"

"In karate there is no first attack!" They all shouted as loud as they could.

"Wonderful. And what do we do now?"

All were silent and looked at Angh Park with open mouths.

"What we always do before we do karate?"

Viktor put his hand up and said: "Welcome ceremony and Ossu."

"Yes, we do that as well. But what we do before we start karate?"

Emil pointed out. "Warm up."

"Right! First we must warm up. So let's run ten laps around the hall. Not fast. It's not about who is the fastest. We run two laps as slowly as we can. Here, the slowest is the best. Then we run two laps a little faster. I set the pace and you run after me. Then we run a little faster, just a little bit faster than the round before. Then the very last round, that round we run as fast as we can."

They all ran together. Angh Park ran in front and the rest followed him. Now and then he shouted, "What's the first rule?" Or "What's the second rule?" And they all called out the answer. Then he would cry, "Are you a small man?" And they would all declare, breathlessly, "No!" Angh Park would then call out, "Are you true men of Dō?" And they would all shout "Yes!"

When they were finished and stood around sweating and out of breath, Angh Park asked them what they will do now. "Stretch", answered Viktor and Angh Park replied, "Very good!"

Angh Park circled his shoulders and circled his arms and wrists and touched his toes and did some squats, some pushups and sit-ups and stretched out on the floor and made many strange movements. He showed them something called the 'Sun Salutation' which was a sequence of different movements, and they did it until everyone had memorized the movements. Then Angh Park said that the Sun Salutation is a very good exercise for controlling the mind and that they should do this exercise as often as possible at home.

Then Angh Park showed them the Senkutsu Dachi, the basic position. They stood with an angled front knee, stretched out their arms and clenched their fists. Angh Park went around and corrected anyone who didn't have it quite right. He pushed their backs straight, put legs further apart or closer together, angled knees, stretched legs, showed how fists should be clenched, moved shoulders and complained about long fingernails, saying that long fingernails are not a part of karate and that instead they must always be short and clean.

Then they had to shake a little and jump on the spot before getting into the Senkutsu Dachi position again. Angh Park in turn went back and corrected their stances once more. Then they had to shake and jump around before again going back into the basic position. Then they had to form pairs, stand in front of one another, and greet each other saying "Ossu". They then positioned themselves in Senkutsu Dachi again. After, they performed two Sun Salutations and Angh Park dismissed them. He stood in front of the group before they went, bowed and said "Ossu", to which all of them did the same, bowing and saying "Ossu".

On the way home in the car with Oded, Viktor told him in great detail what he had learned in his karate hour. At home he showed his mother all the movements and explained to her the second rule. She was very pleased at his enthusiasm and, as a reward, she allowed him to ride his bike for a bit outside.

He cycled on the sidewalk of Aquifolium Street, heading up and down while looking at everything. Other than two parked cars however, there wasn't much to see. It was evening and very quiet. He wondered if he should go a little further, perhaps to the Pacific Road. But he didn't, knowing that if he did Helena would find out and that would be the end of his life as he'd be under house arrest forever. Helena always found everything out. Everything! No matter how secretly he tried to hide it. It was even as if the more secretively he tried to do something, the faster she would find out. Viktor was a bit creeped out by that. Adding to his creeped out feeling was the sense that the birds were at that very second watching him. He looked at them sitting in the trees and rustling in the bushes or flying in the sky and didn't dare do anything illegal.

That evening, in his room, he performed the Sun Salutation. Even though there was no sun, as it was evening, he knew that it was somewhere in the sky and that it would come back the next day, so he did the exercise in the hope that it would speed up the sun's return. Maybe people in Canada should also do this exercise, he thought. If all the people in Canada performed the Sun Salutation all the time, maybe the sun wouldn't leave so often and it wouldn't be such a strange, dark land.

He stood straight, folded his hands over his chest, then stretched his arms up, bent down and touched his toes, crouched down and held the back of his right leg. He moved his right leg forward and stretched his left leg backward, making an upside down V with his body. Then he lay down, made an upside down V again, touched his toes, stretched his arms up and clasped his hands back to his chest.

Then he formed the welcome position, put his hands on his thighs, whispered "Ossu" and closed his eyes. Behind his eyelids he saw Angh Park, the boys from the club, Oded, his mother, Cristobal and all the birds, the lizard in his shoe. Then he saw snakes that were nine foot long with gaping mouths that could swallow everything. Crocodiles and beasts with gaping mouths. Viktor was very nervous and anxious, but he tried to control his mind and focus. He thought of his father, and that he would go to the company tomorrow. Marco would be there and they would do their homework. Then he would talk about football with Gerald and tell him about karate. He would see Emilia, who he knew would be looking pretty, and the cleaning lady who would tell him something unintelligible, and he was glad. It occurred to him that Linda had not come to his birthday. This thought surprised him, he had completely forgotten. This frightened him. Linda! She didn't come to his birthday, even though he had invited her. This made him sad. Maybe she didn't know where he lives. He wondered when he would need to have his hair cut again and made up his mind to get her to write down his address. Maybe he could go with Oded to Samuel's, just to visit Linda. A couple of crocodiles and snakes and lizards crept into his thoughts one by one, and he tried to push them aside, but it all made him grow nervous again. He made a list in his head of what he had to do the next day:

Tell Oded his decision about Linda. Tell Gerald about karate. Say to Galina, the cleaner, 'Dobri dien', the exotic new words he had learnt from Rocco's mother. Tell his father about karate. Tell Gem about karate. Perform the Sun Salutation. And go running. He decided to go running every day. He decided to practice the Senkutsu Dachi, so that he would be the best next week in karate. It occurred to him that Angh Park didn't want any of them to be the best. Only the little man wants to be the best. But if he secretly practiced at home and then in the karate hour was the best inconspicuously, perhaps Angh Park would not notice. He thought about when Cristobal might come by again, thinking that perhaps he would come the next day. He wondered if he should put some honey out for the Magpies, but he didn't dare. He thought that he hadn't been wearing his Darth Maul costume enough, with the make-up and everything, and so he made a mental note to ask his mother if he could wear it during school time. He thought about the circus and that it was due to come very soon. That made him happy so, with closed eyes, he smiled a little to himself.

Viktor stood up, bowed, whispered "Ossu" and went to bed. He read in his children's encyclopedia about karate and then about China and Japan, and then about Batman. Then he decided to take the book with him to the company to show Emilia.

He got up from bed and went over to the window. He looked at the trees and the sky. It was windy outside, and so the birds had all fluffed up their feathers and held the trees' branches with their claws. He looked down into the courtyard, but couldn't see any reptiles. He searched his room, but also found no reptiles.

He didn't dare sleep in the dark that night, so he turned on his goldfish lamp, lay in bed and looked at the shadows of the goldfish and the starfish as they glided on his ceiling and walls. He couldn't remember who had given him the lamp but guessed it must have been Helena and so he made a mental note to ask her tomorrow. He tried to count the starfish, but got confused because they moved and revolved along the walls and across the ceiling. He stopped at 56, thinking that he was sure there weren't that many starfish on the lamp. He wondered if fish and starfish were reptiles, but as far as he remembered none of them had been in the children's encyclopedia. He decided to look it up again tomorrow, or to ask Marco or Cristobal. He thought about the Magpies in front of his window who, from time to time, made noises. He wondered if chickens were reptiles but he was pretty sure they were birds, for they had wings. He made a mental note anyway to ask Cristobal, just to be safe. If they were birds, he would then ask if it was ok that he eats chicken. A few days ago Andala had made roast chicken, a week before it'd been stuffed chicken. He remembered how the stuffed chicken had been positioned on the plate as Hamid had cut it with a knife. That stuffed chicken was very tasty and Viktor also thought roast chicken was great as well, but he did not know if he was allowed to eat someone from the League of Birds. He wondered if perhaps it was good to eat reptiles, because that would mean that there were then fewer of them in the world. He decided to ask Andala if she could cook a reptile.

All these thoughts about reptiles however only served to make him nervous again and he quickly looked under the bed once more, thankfully seeing that there was nothing there. For safety, he looked again in the closet and in his toy boxes and in his backpack and shone the flashlight in his shoes, but there was nothing there.

He quickly performed a Sun Salutation, whispered "Ossu", lay down, looked at the fish and the starfish until his eyes were tired and he fell asleep.
Pollengrain

Viktor was sitting with his father in the canteen of Bresolino Views, telling him about his karate lessons. Immanuel Abies found everything on the subject very interesting, and as such Viktor had a lot to explain, especially concerning the two rules he'd learnt. His father tried to say "Ossu" and Viktor corrected his pronunciation before standing up to show his father the Senkutsu Dachi and the welcome ceremony. He wanted to show him the Sun Salutation as well, but his father wouldn't let him lie down on the dirty canteen floor so instead he returned to the table to finish his steak with peas and carrots. He wanted to skip the peas and carrots and go directly to the creme caramel, but his father insisted on him finishing all his vegetables. As such he wasn't allowed to even look at the creme caramel till each pea had been eaten and the plate was therefore completely empty.

His father told him something about microscopes and telescopes and Viktor listened attentively while resolving that night to look up both words in his children's encyclopedia. His father told him about a telescope called the 'TEAM 0.5', adding that the management of Bresolino Views were very interested in this telescope and therefore were going to fly out to a conference in California in three weeks to see it. Supposedly, this model was the best in the world.

"Do you want to come with us?" His father asked.

Viktor asked where California is. When he heard that it was in America, and he in turn remembered that Canada is in America, he said no politely, saying that he had no time because he had too much to learn for school.

Then Immanuel Abies told Viktor about a surprise he was planning for Helena's birthday in two weeks. He had already held some secret discussions with the studio staff in which he had outlined his plan for them all to take a trip to the seaside. Viktor, however, did not share his father's enthusiasm. The last time he'd been at the sea, he'd gotten some pretty bad sunburn. And sunstroke. And stepped on a broken shell that caused his foot to bleed. Helena had had to get her tweezers out to extract the bits of shell and Viktor had screamed like a baby from the pain.

His father went on to explain that, as the sea was by Lantana Camara, a three-hour drive from Hedera Helix, they could set off very early in the morning and spend the whole day there before driving back in the evening. Viktor thought to himself and made some calculations, coming to the realisation as he did that this would equal about ten hours by the sea. Ten hours meant a lot of sun, a lot of wind, and a lot of shells. He carefully informed his father that he thought the sea wasn't such a good idea, but Immanuel Abies ignored his son's comment and continued talking.

Viktor asked him when the chance arose who was going to go.

"So far the studio people have all promised to come. Grandpa Gideon is also coming. Oded will take the studio car, I'll drive my car, so all up we can take ten people."

Viktor once more did some calculations: He, his mother, his father, grandfather Gideon, Oded, Gem, Hala... that already made seven. Adding then Maricel, Donna, Andala, Hamid and Malek, there was no way they could fit as seven and five were twelve and there were only ten places.

"Can Marco come?" Asked Viktor.

"If he wants to," Immanuel said, scooping his creme caramel from the plate with a spoon.

"Can Rocco with come with us?"

His father looked at him, shrugged his shoulders and said, "No idea. I guess it depends if he has to work that day."

"Can I invite Linda as well?" asked Viktor excitedly.

"Who is Linda?"

"Linda! Samuel's daughter!"

"Samuel? The barber?"

"Yes. Linda is doing her training with him."

"The blonde girl?"

Viktor nodded

"I don't think she'll want to go to the beach with us."

"Can I ask Angh Park?"

"Who's Angh Park?"

"My karate teacher!"

"I don't think he'll want to come either."

"Can I ask him?"

"If you want."

"Can I ask Gerald van den Berg?"

His father laughed. "Gerald has to work, that I do know."

"Can I ask Emilia?"

His father laughed again and shook his head.

"I want Galina to come along!"

"Who's Galina?"

"The cleaning lady!"

"Which cleaning lady?"

"The one who cleans your office!"

"Oh, her. No Viktor, she has to work as well."

"Can I invite Emil from the karate school and my class?"

His father laughed uproariously and put down his spoon. "Viktor, we only have 10 seats in the car and so we can't take every single person you know. Don't forget as well that it's your mother's birthday and so she picks and chooses who comes along."

Viktor nodded in crestfallen understanding.

"Come on, Viktor. Eat your dessert. I've got to get going to a meeting."

Viktor quickly spooned his creme caramel into his watering mouth and declared once more that it was the best food in the world. He and his father then took their trays to the tray trolley and left the canteen.

After he had ensured the security of the company with Gerald van den Berg, Viktor asked Gerald what the term 'Guard Battalion' meant. Gerald used both Ruud van Nistelrooy and Mark Bommel as examples, and after Viktor not only understood, but also made a note to himself to read up on Holland in his children's encyclopedia. He realised that he knew nothing about Holland and didn't even know what the difference between Holland and the Netherlands was. What he did know was that the Netherlands had the best football team in the world, this he had learnt from Gerald. As he had already seen Marco coming in the entrance hall on the security monitors, Viktor took his backpack and joined Marco in order to go to the top floor and the empty conference room where they could work on Viktor's homework.

When they were done and they still had more than half an hour left, Viktor demanded that Marco tell him something about reptiles. Marco told him about dinosaurs and the Galapagos tortoises, supposedly the animals with the longest lifespan in the world. This was all very interesting to Viktor, but he had the feeling that none of it was very relevant. He asked about lizards and Marco said that if you cut the tail off a lizard, it grows back. Viktor was very creeped out by that. Marco then told him about chameleons that could change their colour depending on the colour of the ground or the wall or the tree they were on, and therefore can hide themselves excellently. Viktor began to sweat. Marco interpreted this horrified expression as fascination and promised to take him to the zoo in Salix Alba. Viktor had already been to the zoo with Marco and he remembered all the fun they'd had. All the animals had been behind bars or glass and as such he thought it might in fact be a good idea. After all, not only would the reptiles be imprisoned, but Marco would be there as well.

When their time was finished, Marco brought Viktor to Emilia where he was seated on a chair to whittle away time while she was occupied on the phone.

Emilia was quite different to his mother when she was on the telephone. Helena Abies had only two forms of talking on the phone, both of which depended on her motivation. When she was involved in an unimportant conversation that she viewed as wasting her time, choppy sentences and monosyllabic words were employed. If, however, she was to be found screaming, cursing or issuing commands, one could easily assume it was either an upsetting or anger inducing conversation. For any conversations that lay in-between these two categories, it was Oded who took over the talking, for Helena had quickly realized that Oded's friendly and patient attitude was very well received by the customers, meaning that he was designated the 'kindness and similar matters' speaker.

In contrast, Emilia spoke slowly and with elongated words, smiled all the time and flirted constantly, made compliments, wished people a wonderful day and promised all who were at the end of the line that he or she would have the highest priority, adding that Mr. Abies would look into the matter as soon as possible and that she would immediately, of course, and without delay, forward the message, and furthermore ensure that the matter would be dealt with promptly and to their absolute satisfaction. She had long, painted pink fingernails and a sparkling ring on her left hand. Her nails clacked as she tapped on the keyboard and her long, black eyelashes peeked lasciviously over the small thin glasses tenderly placed on her nose. A wonderful fragrance filled the room from a mingling of the lilies in a large vase, Emilia's perfume, and the open windows. Viktor recognised in the scent chamomile, or perhaps gasoline, he wasn't exactly sure which. Surrounded by Emilia's singsong voice, Viktor became drowsy and began to doze. He was woken when Emilia stroked his cheek and said, "My Sweet Sparrow, you were sleeping so deeply. I have to close the office now as it's time for me to go. Are you going next door to your father? He's busy but he knows you're waiting for him."

She gave him a chocolate, a kiss and rushed away. Viktor sat at his table and looked at his fingers under the microscope. His fingernails looked very long and dirty. Viktor remembered that long and dirty fingernails were not good for karate and that Angh Park would be very angry if he were ever to see Viktor's fingernails under the microscope. As such he chewed the ends of his nails and then scrubbed what remained with soap in his father's small bathroom. Finally, he looked at them once more under the microscope. Although they looked a bit better, they were now a bit jagged and the cuticles were torn. He decided to ask Emilia the next time he saw her as her fingernails always looked so beautiful.

Soon Galina came with her cleaning carts and greeted him effusively. Viktor tied out the "Dobri dien" he had learnt. She touched his chest and said something Viktor interpreted as an expression of joy. She sat down on the chair next to him and began to talk incomprehensibly. Viktor tired to focus and watch her lips, but he didn't understand a single word. When she finally finished, he nodded vigorously and said again "Dobri dien". Galina laughed, hugged him and began to chat about something while emptying the trash and wiping the desks with a cloth. Viktor said "Ossu", the only other exotic word that he knew.

Later Viktor was sitting on his bed reading in his children's encyclopedia about both microscopes and Holland (which reassuringly was not in Canada nor near Helsinki), after which he made sure that the magpies were still there and that the trees were full of birds. Then there was a knock. Viktor slammed shut the children's encyclopedia, threw it in a corner and ran to the window. He let Cristobal in and ran into the kitchen and got some honey, because Cristobal had collapsed on the bed, exhausted, and whined that he was dying of hunger. He made himself a jam sandwich, even though he was not hungry. When this was all done, he sat down on the bed with Cristobal and they ate together. Viktor remembered something and he asked, "Are chickens birds?"

Cristobal nodded. "Yes, they're birds."

"What do they do?" Asked Viktor.

"Roosters are in the infantry. They're really good fighters! And the chickens are among the scouts, collecting information, providing eggs and chicks for infiltration, observing our allies, looking out for reptiles and giving us information."

Viktor thought about all the chickens that famer Hugo had in his farm. Helena always sent Oded to the farm to buy eggs and sometimes allowed Viktor to go with him.

"Can I eat chicken?" Asked Viktor.

Cristobal took a sip of honey. "Jennifer Connelly asked me that very same question! She eats nothing from animals."

"Can you eat chicken?"

"Yes," Cristobal said. "There are so many chickens, it's not really a problem. Phoenix says: ' _Everything that lives and moves about, will be food_.'"

"Who is Phoenix?"

"That's our God! Our resurrected and reborn god. He was burnt and died, but he lives on and on."

Viktor nodded.

"Phoenix said that everything that liveth, is our food. So you can eat chicken," repeated Cristobal.

"Even reptiles?"

Cristobal turned pale and stared in horror at Viktor. He grimaced and stammered: "E-eat rep-reptiles!"

Viktor didn't say anything else as Cristobal's reaction seemed to point out well enough how stupid a question it had been.

"Why would you want to eat reptiles?" Cristobal choked out.

"I don't know," Viktor said.

"Phoenix said, ' _And every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten. Whatever goeth upon the belly, and whatever goeth on four or more feet among all that creep on the earth, you shall not eat, for it is an abomination. Purify your souls to not be a monster and do not be defiled by them, or ye should be defiled. For I am the Lord your God. Therefore ye shall hallow yourself, that ye are holy, for I am holy, and you shall not defile your souls with any creeping animal that creeps upon the earth_.'"

Viktor nodded.

"If you eat a reptile, then that will sink into your soul and contaminated it," said Cristobal with an air of repulsion.

"All right," Viktor said, thinking to himself. "But reptiles live and move, don't they? Didn't Phoenix say we can eat whatever lives and moves?"

By now Cristobal was both hyperventilating and clutching at the bed sheets. "But not reptiles!" he shouted.

"But if you eat a lot of reptiles, then there will be less of them on earth and that's good, if there are less. Right?"

"But Phoenix said that what creeps is a monster and pollutes the soul!" whimpered Cristobal. "He even said that lizards and chameleons are unclean and whoever touches them shall be unclean until the end. No matter what, you can never eat reptiles! In fact, I'm not hungry anymore. I feel sick," wailed Cristobal and pushed the jar of honey away.

"I'm sorry," said Viktor. Cristobal turned the other direction with a concerned and disgusted look.

"I'm going to Lantana Camara," Viktor said before telling Cristobal about his mother's birthday.

Cristobal listened attentively, making notes about the date and writing down the name of the city. He then said it wouldn't be a problem as he would mobilize the gulls, providing Viktor therefore with an escort for the way.

Viktor remembered something. "Are there any crocodiles there? Crocodiles live by the sea."

Cristobal turned pale and tottered dizzily back and forth. "You can't go there!" He breathed in a horrified voice.

"Why not? Are there crocodiles?"

"You can't go there! I'll talk to the seagulls and the owls, they'll explore the area first and see if there are any crocodiles. Once that's done I'll tell you if it's safe for you to go!"

"I've never seen a real crocodile," Viktor said. "Maybe I'll go to the zoo with Marco, there are reptiles there."

"Why in God's name do you want to see reptiles? You've seen Edison, that should have been terrible enough!"

Viktor thought to himself that Edison wasn't all that terrible, but he suspected that he wasn't allowed to say such a thing. "I want to know the enemy," he said finally.

The answer was apparently a good answer, because Cristobal thought for a moment and then nodded vigorously. "Good. Good idea. I like that! You'll go there with a big man, right?"

Viktor nodded.

"And the reptiles are locked up, right?"

Viktor nodded again.

"That's ok then. We do that sometimes. We fly into zoos and use the reptiles there for training purposes. There are always big birds there as well which take care of us and so far nothing has happened."

That night they took another walk. They returned to the dimly lit, nameless place beside Quercus Street and then carried on walking till they got to the circus. They arrived at the field and stood at its edge, a barbed wire fence separating them from many caravans and metal rods with tents and equipment that signaled the beginning of the circus. A pair of white and black horses stood at the edge of the field and grazed on the few tufts of grass that grew there.

"I have a special pass for the circus. It begins in a few days, I can go as often as I want and it costs nothing," Viktor said.

"Cool," replied Cristobal and asked if he could with him one time. Viktor promised that he would hide him in the breast pocket of his jacket one day and take him.

They stood at the barbed wire fence and watched as a few men put a tent together in the glow of some headlights. A pair of black ravens or crows or blackbirds – Viktor could not tell them apart – came flying over, sat down on the field, pecked at the soil and crowed from time to time. They looked steadily in Viktor and Cristobal's direction.

"What are they saying?" asked Viktor. Cristobal floated in the air and looked intently at the black birds.

"They say that there is a big yellow python in the circus." He listened intently and then said: "And some iguanas."

"What's an iguana?" Asked Viktor.

"Like a lizard, but much larger. And they often have a beard on their chin or their head."

"Are they bad?"

"Viktor! All reptiles are bad. Just remember that," whispered Cristobal.

Viktor nodded.

"But the ravens say that the python just works and lives with a woman. They called her Pythia."

"The snake?"

"No, the woman. I must report that. We must add Pythia to the database, if she's not already there. That's only a stage name, so we need to check her family and friends. If she's an ally of the Reptiles Association, then her friends and family may also be infiltrated so we have to be careful and add them to the enemies list as well."

Viktor thought about it. "Are my family and friends also infillerated?"

"Infiltrated!" Cristobal corrected him. "So far, not yet. They're all clean. But we keep it in mind now that you're particularly vulnerable. If you notice that someone likes to talk about reptiles or owns a reptile, you must report it to me immediately so we can protect you."

Viktor thought about Marco, who knew a lot about reptiles. He wondered if maybe Marco was dangerous and made a mental note to watch him closely from now.

A wind came and blew coolly across the field. Cristobal climbed into Viktor's breast pocket and they went back slowly. Viktor had to stop a few times so Cristobal could sniff flowers or drink nectar. He flew in the gardens of some houses and talked with a couple of small brown birds who followed them from tree to tree.
Testa

Viktor stood next to the car with a bicycle pump in his hand, and his floating tire and water wings lying at his feet. He watched as his father attempted to stow the coolers, barbecue and drink crates into the trunk.

"Viktor, you'll have to deflate that tire and those wings. We can't take them like that," said his father while heaving two crates into the sparse space.

"But I've just pumped them up!"

"Even so, you'll have to let the air out, they're much too large to fit. We can pump them up again when we arrive."

"But... but they're already done!"

Viktor's father stopped and looked at his son. "They'll never fit like that. Look, they'll end up taking up too much space."

Viktor looked helplessly at the rubber ring. "I have to let the air out?"

"Yes please," his father said, returning to the packing.

"Why?"

"Oded!" called his father. Oded came running out of the house. "Stow these things in the car, please. We have to fit everything." Oded rummaged in the luggage compartment in order to try and find some more room, moving the coolers, beverage crates, barbecue and two travel bags, all with no success.

"Viktor, you need to get the air out of those things. There's no way they'll fit like that. Large swimming devices plus a small car equals no room for everything. Large has to be made very small to fit into small."

Viktor pondered on that and found it all very complicated. "What?" he whined, not understanding.

At that moment his mother came out of the house and stood in front of the two open trunks. She put her hands on her hips and looked at everything with a frown.

She watched Oded as he tried to strategically place all the items.

"We don't need the crates. Take the bottles out and put them under the seats," Helena said. He took out the crates and stuffed the bottles under the seats.

"Viktor, air out, now" Helena said.

Viktor bent down and quickly let the air out of his swimming devices.

"You take this car," she said to Immanuel. "I'll be in the front. The back's for small, thin people: Viktor, Gem, Hala, Andala and Hamid. Oded, you drive the other car. Grandfather in front, in the back the rest."

"Five in the back?" Viktor's father asked, startled.

"Yes, they're all very thin, they'll fit."

"But there're only three seats and three seat belts!"

"Viktor and Hala share a belt, Hamid sits in the middle. And then Andala and Gem share a belt as well."

Malek and Andala wanted to sit together, Viktor and Gem wanted to share a seat belt, and Hala wanted to sit with her mother. But all such qualms fell silent as Helena announced "We're leaving!"

The thin, small people squeezed themselves into Immanuel's car according to Helena's instructions. Viktor was fully pressed against the glass, Hala appeared to have lost her limbs, Hamid had dislocated both his elbows against his chest, and Gem sat half on Andala and half on Hamid.

They drove off, passed the Reconquista where Rocco, who was sweeping the road in front of the bar, waved to them.

As they turned onto Pacific Street, Hala whispered to Viktor, "I have to pee." Viktor whispered back, "Me too!" But neither of them dared say anything.

They drove past the fields and the circus. Several small tents were set up and the skeleton of the main tent stretched its iron frame toward the sky. Once they were on the freeway, Helena rolled the windows up, turned on the air conditioning, and searched for a station on the radio. She turned the dial from beginning to end and back again, then stopped at a station where "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by Kamakawiwo'ole was playing. Viktor knew the song and had even seen a picture of Kamakawiwo'ole. He had been creeped out by that picture. Oded, who had been there when Viktor had seen it, had told him that Izzy was very nice and talented and already dead. After that Viktor liked the songs.

Immanuel and Helena were talking about something boring, Hamid and Andala were talking about something that was even more boring, Gem was sandwiched between the two of them and Viktor could not see him as he couldn't even bend forward. Hala peered over Viktor's shoulder to try and look out the window, but she couldn't see much because Viktor was bigger than her. He tired to lean back and press himself into the seat while Hala leant forward a little and smiled gratefully at him as she looked outside.

Viktor looked at Hala's face. She had the same golden-brown skin color as Maricel, Gem, Donna and Andala. He thought that probably all the people in the Philippines had such skin. Viktor had looked the Philippines up in his children's encyclopedia and had been horrified when he read that it was a broken country. It was totally broken, completely shattered and tattered. There was a large part at the top, a small part at the bottom, and in the middle it was broken up and consisted of lots of small pieces. He'd then run quickly into the living room and taken out the atlas and looked at a large map. He knew that all the Filipino people he knew came from Quezon City, and so he found the city on the map. It looked like it was on a part of the country that would vanish soon and he thought it was no wonder all the employees from the Philippines had left and come to Hedera Helix. Viktor had then looked at Bahrain to see if everything there was in order. Unfortunately, he'd realized that it was an island, and Viktor was creeped out by islands. Islands with all their water were a suspicious matter. If you wanted to run or to get away, then you couldn't as you'd end up in the sea and drown, or you'd be eaten by sharks. Or crocodiles. Bahrain also appeared to break apart at the top, and Viktor came to understand why Hamid and Malek had come to Hedera Helix. Viktor had then looked up Hedera Helix for safety's sake, but it was not an island, thank God, and as far as he knew there was no danger that it would begin to break apart. Once Maricel had told him while he was playing with Gem and Hala that they would take him with them the next time they went home for a vacation. Viktor had politely declined and said he would no doubt have a lot to do from school so he wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

"Look," whispered Hala and pointed outside. In a wheatfield was a large scarecrow. There were a lot of black birds standing on its arms. "What is he doing?"

"It's a scarecrow," Viktor said.

"But what is he doing?"

"It's not a real man. He's stuffed with straw and he's there to keep the birds away."

"Why?"

"So they don't eat the fields."

Apparently the scarecrow's tactics weren't working as, if they were, the birds would no doubt not be sitting on its arms. In addition, Viktor knew that birds were not stupid. They visit people and forge alliances, they can tell if people are good or bad. He also knew that black birds belonged to the armoured brigade, and he suspected that the league would not have any stupid birds for a brigade.

Viktor craned his neck and looked at the sky. He saw birds there, high in the sky and seeming to follow the car. He then saw a few flocks somewhat lower in the sky, flying in V formation. Cristobal had told him the evening before that the gulls and owls had explored and analyzed the beach of Lantana Camara, and come to the conclusion that there were no crocodiles there and so Viktor had been given permission to go. This had relieved him of an added pressure, the problem of how he would have told his parents that he couldn't go with them to the beach.

"I go on vacation and take my car," said Immanuel Abies before he explained to them the rules of the game. It took a while for Viktor and Hala to understand how the game worked.

"I go on vacation and take my car and my bag with me," Helena said.

"I go on vacation and take my car, my bag, and my swimming rings with me," Viktor said.

"I go on vacation and take my car, my bag, my swimming rings and my swimsuit with me," Hala said.

"I go on holiday and I take my car, my bag, my swimming rings, my swimsuit and my toothbrush with me," Hamid said.

"Why do you take your toothbrush?" asked Gem

"Because you have to brush your teeth. You never brush your teeth?"

"But we are only there today, we'll come back in the evening. Why do you want to brush your teeth there for one day?" asked Gem.

"Shut up and play on. I can also say that I take my bath with me," Hamid said.

Gem looked at him confused. As he continued, he forgot the bag and bathing suit and lost the game. "This is boring," Hala whispered in Viktor's ear. Viktor nodded.

"I need to pee", she whispered.

Helena turned around quickly and glared at her. "Hala, you have to pee?"

Hala nodded.

"We'll stop at the next truck stop," Helena said.

"The next one is in 52 kilometers. There was a sign just before."

"Can you wait half an hour?" asked Helena.

Hala shook her head bashfully.

"Stop when you can then, we'll have to go to a field," Helena said.

Immanuel Abies drove a few more minutes, then stopped at the roadside. Oded parked the car behind them and came running up. "What happened?" He cried.

"Some of us have to pee," sighed Immanuel and lit a cigarette. Hala ran to her mother and they went into a sunflower field. Helena asked, "Who else?"

Viktor shook his head.

"Viktor?" Helena asked with raised eyebrows.

Viktor ran into the field and peed. He looked up and wondered why sunflowers were so big. They were huge, nearly four times as tall as he was. He saw a couple of birds flying over him and heard a couple of deep crows from the field.

As he went back to the car, he saw Grandpa Gideon peeing as well. Gem had found a large black beetle and he came running up with it, Hala screamed and Viktor clung to the leg of his mother. Maricel slapped Gem's hand and the large beetle flew into the sunflowers.

"Children, what a beautiful day!" declared Grandpa Gideon, putting his hands on his hips and bending backwards to strech his back and to look up at the sun. Viktor felt that he looked like a sunflower. Grandpa Gideon was very tall and long-limbed and towered over everyone.

The road was very quiet, only a few crickets chirped in the grass aside from the occasional crowing of a raven.

"Can I have a sunflower?" asked Hala.

"When we come back, we can stop and you can get one," Helena said, and directed her into the car.

"Can I as have one as well?"

"No. Viktor! Get in!"

The sun shone on Viktor's side of the car and he kept his head to the sun and closed his eyes like Grandpa Gideon had on the field. Behind his eyelids pranced a few light spots and everything was made of gold.

Eventually, the landscape changed. The sunflowers and wheat fields gave way to a gentle, hilly landscape of sand and shimmering purple heather plants. After a while, Immanuel exclaimed, "Look there!" pointing to a point on the horizon. Everyone craned their necks to look, and, after a while, Viktor saw something blue glittering in the sunlight.

The small, shiny blue spot on the horizon grew steadily till it filled the entire field of view.

"The sea," breathed Hala.

They parked at a small bay, got out and Hala jumped up and down and shouted, "The sea! The sea!"

Viktor took his swimming rings and water wings and the pump, Gem had to carry two bottles, Hala her tiny pink bag and Oded carried the rest He struggled with the heavy barbecue and coolers, unstrapped the umbrellas, which had been fastened to the cars' roofs, and rammed the rods in the sand. Then he found a few shady pools of water in the rocks and put the bottles there to keep cool. He put the barbecue on, and stowed the cooler in a few more shady spots he'd found. He pumped up the tires and the swimming armbands. Then he wanted to spread the mats on the floor but Helena knocked them out of his hands and snapped at him that he should stop immediately, for today he would for once learn how to relax.

The women were just coming out from behind the rocks where they'd changed and they already had their swimsuits on. Viktor analyzed their breasts. Helena won, she had the biggest and Viktor was very proud of that.

Viktor ran on the beach and had to hop from one foot to the other because the sand was very hot and shells lay scattered everywhere. His mother gave him his beach slippers. Then she ordered him to sit on the blanket and she covered him with a terribly smelly cream. When he complained, she said that it did not stink, that is was an aloe vera fragrance. Viktor decided that his mother had bad taste where scents were concerned.

Viktor remembered that the last time they'd been by the sea he'd had very bad sunburn and in the evening he'd had to put stinky yoghurt on his face and on his shoulders. As such he also made sure that he was covered in cream. He then moved and told Oded not forget to do his shoulders and that everyone should make sure they put a lot of cream on their noses.

Then they went into the water and Viktor was careful to always stay close to his father or to Oded. The sea was at first very cold and Viktor gasped, having difficulty breathing and thus he wanted to go back to the beach, but after a while the water felt warmer. Viktor watched as his toes sank into the sand and the waves sloshed against his feet. He went in a little deeper and watched the sparkling water swirl around his knees. A few drops of water glistened on his thighs, shining in the sun. He bent down and dipped his hand into the water and brought it up to his nose to smell it. It smelled salty and when he licked his finger they tasted salty too.

He ventured further forward and when the sea was up to his chest, his father picked him up. He sat on the hip of his father who then bounced him up and down. Viktor cried when he got water in his face, and his eyes burned and he swallowed some water, but when his father laughed, he knew he wasn't going to die, so he laughed and clung to his father's neck.

He looked at Hala, who was clinging to Oded's neck, and Gem, who was sitting piggyback on Hamid. They went even deeper into the sea. The waves were stronger and they rose and fell in the water. Viktor tried to swim by himself, but he struggled with the waves and his head kept going under till he thought he would die, but his father picked him up. Viktor rubbed his eyes, which were burning terribly from the salt water and he coughed, the water in his nose hurting. His father hugged him so tightly that Viktor thought his bones would break and he then kissed him so hard that Viktor thought his cheek would be torn into a hole.

"Look, gulls," called Immanuel, pointing to a pair of seagulls sitting on the water that were being rocked back and forth by the waves. Viktor wondered if the gulls were normal, or if they were the league gulls patrolling the beach and stopping the crocodiles.

When they were back on the beach, Viktor went to his mother and wanted something to drink. Helena was wearing a green bathing suit with a floral cloth tied around her waist. She had a strict bun tied at the back of her head and the rest of her loose hair was tucked on the top of her head with a clamp, a few strands fluttering freely in the breeze. After he had satisfied his thirst, Viktor hugged his mother and she squeezed him tighter than his father had and once more Viktor thought he would shatter and explode.

He sat down next to Hala. Gem and Oded were building a castle and Hala asked Viktor if he wanted to go with her and collect shells. Viktor noted that shells were dangerous and that they could cut his feet which would cause him to bleed. Hala begged him and took his hand and pulled him and he had no choice but to go looking for shells in the sand and among the rocks.

Viktor picked up a shell, but it moved between his fingers and he saw something slimy retreat into it and he screamed in terror and threw it away. Hala said that it was a live shell, like a snail, and that an animal lived inside. He looked at it as it lay on the sand then suddenly began to move. Viktor was creeped out by that.

Hala was holding a big red clam and she said that it was only a small part of a larger shell, which was normally closed like two hands and inside you could find a pearl. Viktor was surprised that she knew so much about shells. "Do you know Ariel?" she asked. When he shook his head, she said that she would show him the video, The Little Mermaid, and then he would understand.

They found a dried starfish and a pair of red stones. When they found a dead fish, both were terrified. Viktor wondered if the reptiles had killed him, and he looked around anxiously. The beach was lonely and deserted and only if they looked in the far distance could they see another family.

"It's so beautiful here," Hala said, looking out to sea.

Viktor nodded.

"When I grow up, I want to live by the sea," she said. "I'll play every day in the sand. And when I grow up, then I swim alone. And I'll collect shells every day and wear them as earrings." She held two sea shells beside her ears and Viktor thought that she looked adorable.

"I'll have starfish as pets. Not dead starfish, but live ones." she continued. "I'll also have Flounder and Sebastian, they'll be my friends and play with me like they did with Ariel. I'll have starfish clips in my hair." She held the dead starfish in her hair, it sparkled golden in the sunlight and Viktor felt that she looked very pretty with her long, black hair.

"Can you braid hair?" Hala asked and ran away briefly and returned with a handful of bright green seaweed. It was quite slippery and smelt terrible, but Hala insisted that it smells wonderful. Viktor decided that women have a very poor sense of smell. He then had to braid her hair and incorporate the seaweed in the braid because she wanted to have green hair. Viktor wrapped a few strands of hair with a few strands of seaweed and tied the end of the braid. It didn't hold though and fell apart leaving Hala's head a tangle of seaweed and hair. Viktor, however, found that the light green looked very pretty in amongst the black.

She then wanted to pick a few of the white flowers that bloomed in a small bush on the sand dunes to make a bouquet for her mother, so Viktor did the same and also picked a bouquet for his mother as he remembered that it was her birthday. Hala put a few flowers in her hair and put one behind her ear and Viktor thought she was rather beautiful.

Oded and Gem had now built an impressive castle. It consisted of 17 towers and a long wall that ran around the outside. Gem had sculpted a few streets very carefully around the towers and Hala then gently pressed some small shells into the towers and hummed a song to herself. Viktor stood there, watching her and he thought that she was very nice with the song and the shells, flowers, starfish and seaweed in her hair.

Smoke suddenly blew over them and Viktor tensed, afraid that the crocodiles were coming, hiding themselves in a blanket of smoke. He looked around, alarmed, and wanted to run but then he saw that Oded was standing by the barbecue and fanning it to get the coals hot, making the smoke as he did so.

Hamid, Malek and Viktor's father also stood around the barbecue. Viktor saw Maricel and his mother standing with their feet in the sea. The waves swept around their knees and they slowly walked up and down the beach. Gem stood by his castle and was busy making tiny windows in the towers with a small stick. Viktor was startled when he realised that Hala was nowhere to be seen, and he wanted to scream that she was lost before he saw her in the distance sitting in the sand. He went over to her and she was making shapes with some sand moulds. Already she had countless butterflies and stars and apples and pears and they spread like a large rug around her. Into most of them she had pressed objects: small flowers in the butterflies; small shells in the stars; little red stones in the apples; and into the pears small pieces of seaweed.

Viktor thought that it was all incredibly pretty. Hala seemed not to notice him, humming to herself while decorating her sand moulds. Her tiny hands up to her elbows were covered with sand, her long loose hair dragged in the sand while she perched over her moulds and the hair tips were white with it. Her legs were caked with sand to above the knee and she looked as if she had white lower legs and her pink swimsuit was not pink in some places, but the white-brown of wet and dry sand.

Viktor ran to the flower bushes in the dunes and picked as many flowers as he could before running back to Hala and giving them to her. She was so pleased that Viktor rejoiced even more upon seeing her that happy. He watched her as she put his flowers in the butterfly wings.

"Do you want to make a butterfly?" she asked him, and handed him one of the butterfly moulds. Viktor made a butterfly and while Hala decorated it, he made another one. And then another one. He tried to make as many as he could. Hala beamed and smiled and her teeth gleamed in the sun and her hair gleamed as she tossed it over her shoulders and Viktor suddenly felt a bit dizzy.

When it was time to eat, Viktor watched Hamid cut open a large fish, taking out the spinal column. Viktor imagined the dead fish growing legs and running around spineless and boneless and he was creeped out by the image of it.

After dinner, everybody took a nap, but Viktor decided that he would not sleep because when everyone was asleep, then there was no one to take care of the things, to watch out for thieves or kidnappers or crocodiles, so he took his hat, put it on, found the suntan lotion and put it on his shoulders, his chest and his face and sat down with his father's sunglasses on. He crouched beside the sleeping people and watched Gem as he moved in circles around his castle.

He looked toward Hala's butterflies and was horrorstruck when he saw that the water was much closer to them then it had been before. He went over to them and saw that the water was in fact creeping steadily closer. He knew from school that there was a low tide and a high tide, the water coming and going and coming again, constantly crawling back and forth across the sand. Viktor ran to the garbage bag, took out a large, flat plate and returned to carefully lift the butterflies and stars out of the sand and put them further away. A few broke and crumbled but Viktor just remade them so it wouldn't upset Hala. After he'd brought all the 46 butterflies and stars and apples and pears to a safe distance, a distance where he hoped that the sea would not come, he ran to Gem and told him about the rising water.

"I know," Gem said irritably, "Fucking sea! I'm building a dike!"

Viktor helped him build a dike. He took the roll of garbage bags and they tried to waterproof the castle. The bags and the sand wall kept the water out for a while, but then the sea swept over the dike and flooded the streets of the castle.

They stood and watched as the water swelled in the streets and, for a short time, it looked as if a huge castle complex would stand in the middle of a lake, then the largest tower tipped over, taking three more smaller towers with it, and then the whole system collapsed.

Oded came up to them, and they all stood with their ankles in the water and watched it turn to a pile of sand.

"You heard about Atlantis?" Oded asked Gem, who shook his head, sniffed and wiped his nose on his arm.

Oded walked with them along the beach and told them the story of Atlantis and Viktor found it all a bit creepy. He looked out at the sea and imagined the golden city glittering beneath the waves. He remembered that when he had been in Venice his mother had told him that the city was sinking into the sea a few centimeters every year. And Gerald van den Berg had told him that the Netherlands were called the "Neverlands" because more and more water would come each year and as such the 'low countries' would sink a bit lower underwater. He thought about the Philippines and Bahrain, which had already broken apart and would probably soon fall into the sea. Viktor was glad that Hala and the others lived in Hedera Helix because there was no sea that could ruin everything.

Later they all went to the main beach of Lantana Camara, which was 20 minutes away. There were quite a lot of shops and stalls there and Oded bought them all an ice cream. Gem wanted a chocolate one, Hala took strawberry, and even though Viktor really wanted the blue bubblegum one, he asked for a strawberry one as well. After the first lick, he noted that he didn't really like it and would have preferred the bubblegum one, but he knew he couldn't throw it away and buy a new one as Oded would be upset. Hala was happy as she ate her ice cream and so Viktor licked his and said nothing, glancing at each bin as they walked along. Suddenly he pretended to stumble and as he did his ice cream flew out of his hand and he exclaimed "Oh no! What a pity!" as it landed with a splat on the sand. Hala offer him some of hers and as he licked it he decided that strawberry was the best flavour ever.

A few crabs ran past them in the sand, running sideways. The gulls screeched and circled in the sky and floated on the water or sat on the rocks. He saw his mother and his father walking in the distance on the beach, they were both alone, and Viktor found the sight beautiful. Hala danced in the water and a small wave came and broke at her ankles. The water droplets rose into a fine mist and the sun shone through it and for a second it seemed as if Hala was surrounded by a hundred tiny rainbows. Viktor thought his heart would shatter into a thousand pieces that would become rainbows themselves. A big colorful beach ball danced on the surface of the water and glittered in the sun.

Grandpa Gideon went with them to the rocks and showed them a tiny pond that had formed between the stones which was full of tiny fish. He sat down and dipped his feet into the water. The small fish arrived and nibbled on his toes and Viktor wanted to run screaming back to Helena that Grandpa Gideon was being eaten by fish, but his grandpa just laughed and said that it tickled and he should try it too. Viktor hesitantly took off his beach slippers and dipped his big toe into the water. A tiny fish came and nibbled on it and it didn't hurt at all, so Viktor put his whole foot into the water and when he saw that he wasn't in fact dying, he submerged the other foot as well. It tickled and felt weird and he asked Grandpa Gideon why the fish did it. His grandpa said that they would take away the dead skin and that after they would have very beautiful feet.

The sun was making a slow descent toward the horizon and Viktor thought it was soon time to go home, but the others were still sitting on the beach, smoking and talking. His parents were back now and laughed and told him something boring. He saw his mother smoke a cigarette as well which was odd because she usually never smoked, but then he remembered it was her birthday and that no doubt she did because it was her special day.

Oded was knee-deep in the sea and looking at the sunset over the pink and orange water. Viktor went to him and they stood for a while in silence. "One last swim before it gets dark?" he asked Viktor. Viktor nodded and they went into the sea. When it became too deep for him and he tried to tread water with difficulty, Oded took him on his back and waded deeper in. The waves rose and fell on them, pushing them first toward the beach and then back toward the sea. Viktor clutched Oded's neck, burying his face in his golden hair to protect himself from the salt water that burned his eyes. "I got you, don't worry, I won't let go" Oded said to Viktor who pressed his face close to Oded's head through his hair and closed his eyes as a wave went over them and they were forced underwater. For a moment he thought he would die, but the horrible feeling disappeared and he knew that nothing could happen to him as long as Oded was there. Everything was always in perfect order when Oded was there.

Eventually, when it was already dark and the only light was the light of the moon and the distant lights of Latana Camara, they packed and headed home.

In the car, Viktor looked out the window as they drove in the dark, and he thought to himself that the day had definitely been a million times better than last time, especially as the shells and the sun had kept to themselves.

The radio was silent, his mother and his father were talking quietly, Hamid and Andala were talking even more quietly, because Gem was asleep. Viktor saw that Hala was also asleep, her head tilted slightly to the side, to his side. He pushed his arm forward, propping her head up, so that they had something like a pillow. She moved a little, turned and her right hand fell on his thigh with an open palm face up. She had a few sandy crumbs on hand, which glowed whitish in the light of the street lamps. Viktor brushed them away gently with his index finger. Hala muttered in her sleep, and her palm closed on Viktor's finger. He tried to pull the finger away but Hala held it firm. He didn't want to pull too hard, otherwise she might wake up. Soon though the pressure subsided and Viktor could have pulled his finger away easily. But instead, he left his finger where it was, and tried not to move.
Gametophyte

Viktor stood at the window and looked outside. It was already dark, cooler evenings signaling that autumn was well and truly making itself at home.

Most of the trees he could see were covered in yellow or brown leaves, here and there scattered amongst them were also some red ones. The ground was equally covered and the leaves crunched underfoot.

Viktor had just returned from running and he had to bathe because he was so sweaty. His routine was to go 30 times up and down Aquifolium Street, starting very, very slowly at first, just like Angh Park made them at karate practice. He then slowly increased his speed and on the last four laps he had to run as fast as he could. Rocco had been sitting on the stairs in front of the Reconquista and he'd looked up at one point from his guitar and yelled out: "What the hell are you doing, Viktor?"

"Running!" gasped Viktor as he ran past him for the twelfth time. Eventually a few customers had arrived and so Rocco had gone inside, appearing briefly a bit later to check whether Viktor was still running. When he saw that he was, he just shook his head with irritation and went back inside.

Viktor returned to the backyard and did some pushups, managing 18 and so two more than the last time. Then he performed a Sun Salutation, practiced the welcome position and the Senkutsu Dachi, all while calling out "Ossu!" as loud as he could. He finished then with another Sun Salutation. Maricel looked out when he was half way though and watched him for a while before yelling to someone in the tailor shop behind her, "Nothing. Just Viktor doing his gymnastics."

Now, after his exercises were complete and he had bathed, Viktor stood at his window, watching the magpies on the window sill, the owls in the trees and the eagles in the sky. He felt tired and hot and clean and he was happy. He was waiting for Cristobal to come, but as the clock chimed 10pm, he turned his light off and got into bed. Just before he fell asleep however there was a frantic knocking on his window. It was a hard, fast pounding, quite unlike any of Cristobal's previous knocks.

He ran to the window and pulled back a corner of the curtain to peek outside. Thankfully it was Cristobal and so Viktor opened the window and the hummingbird flew in and shouted, "Close the window, quick!" Viktor slammed the window shut.

Cristobal threw himself on the bed and panted for a while. Finally he breathed "food!" and Viktor gave him a jar of honey which he had earlier hidden under the bed. Days before he had been shopping with Oded and had managed to persuade him to buy four large jars of honey. Oded had asked in astonishment why he needed so much honey and Viktor had said inconspicuously "I have to eat it for karate."

Cristobal ate fast and hectic, choking from time to time in his hast. Viktor was nervous.

When Cristobal had finally eaten enough, he let himself fall on the bed and breathed in and out a few times.

"Viktor, the Reptiles Association wants to meet you," he whispered sometime later, his beak still pointed at the ceiling.

Viktor stared at him wide eyed.

"They want to meet you," Cristobal yelped.

Viktor continued to stare at the bird.

"Tonight. Right now!"

Viktor took a deep breath and tried to say something, then he exhaled deeply and remained silent.

"We have to go right now," Cristobal said and finally raised himself off the bed before fluttering into the air.

"Why?" Viktor asked finally.

"I don't know! I just received the order earlier. I'll take you there, they want to meet you at the well lit place we've been visiting lately. Not the last time though, the time before that. The little square. Do you remember it? It's not very far."

"Place Holoarktis?" Viktor asked.

"Yes! That's it!"

"Why do they want to meet me?"

"I don't know! Maybe they want to see you or something. The kingfishers and the emperor penguins have both signed the order, they've approved it, so it's definitely nothing bad!"

"And if something bad happens?" Viktor asked.

"Don't worry. All the reserves from the bird of prey division as well as all the albatrosses that are in the area will be there. And the complete Corvusbrigade. And all the roosters that live within a twenty mile radius of here. There will be so many birds I don't think they will even think of trying something."

Viktor blinked and then whispered hoarsely. "But I don't want to go."

"You have to Viktor. If the kingfishers and the emperor penguins issue an order, then you have to follow it. Besides, it can end badly if you leave the Reptiles Association waiting and not show up to the meeting. You have to! Come on, put on your jacket, we have to go!"

Viktor walked slowly to his closet, took out his jacket and put it on slowly. Cristobal urged him to hurry up. He pulled his sneakers on, wrapped a scarf around his neck and reluctantly followed Cristobal outside.

There was a night fog lingering as they walked along Aquifolium Street in the same way they had 31 days before. Along Pacific Street and Cherry Avenue they went and in the distance they could see the lights of the little square, Place Holoarktis. Viktor felt scared and numb and stared apathetically into space.

"What do I have to do?" he asked Cristobal as they drew closer.

"Nothing. Just be polite and answer when they ask you something. And when I tell you something, then do exactly as I say. Be attentive and careful and everything will be fine."

Viktor nodded, took a deep breath, whispered "Ossu" and entered the square. It was empty and deserted, no one was there. A few yellow and red leaves swept across the open space.

Cristobal directed him to a bench and sat down. "Now we wait," he said. Viktor wrung his hands together, wishing he had his asthma inhaler while watching a few leaves dance about the square.

Eventually, he saw many eagles and hawks hover and other very large birds land in the square and on the backs of the benches to the left of them. The trees around the square came alive and were suddenly covered with large ravens and crows and jackdaws and magpies. He heard several crows and hundreds of roosters as they came and stood in a circle around the rounded square. He saw a lot of yellow and blue small birds, much more than he could ever count, who also settled in the trees. Budgies, suspected Viktor. He had never seen budgies, but he knew of them. The eagles looked aggressively from left to right, the falcons remaining rigidly straight-backed. A huge flock of pigeons came flying in and scattered all over the square till the whole floor was coloured grey. Lots of owls followed, a few sat on the free places in the trees while the others remained in the air. The largest group followed in which there were many small brown birds. Sparrows, suspected Viktor. Viktor had never in his life seen so many birds at once, not even in a zoo. The sky was also filled with fluttering animals and Viktor was amazed to see that there were other hummingbirds, all of which floated on the spot. Cristobal murmured: "Don't be afraid!"

Once it seemed all the birds had arrived, a leaden silence fell over the square. The birds on the ground had fallen into formation according to not only size, but also rank and file. In the middle they allowed for a narrow corridor. A large duck came flying in and circled the square chattering loudly. The raptors responded with a shriek. Then the roosters crowed with a collective voice. When they had finished, the blackbirds in the trees followed. After the owls hooted and the pigeons cooed and finally the sparrows and parakeets squawked. The duck flew down and settled at the forefront of the formation, near the narrow corridor. It was quiet again and Viktor saw a little blue bird circle the place before landing on the pavement and then walk down the corridor which led to where Viktor and Cristobal were seated. The birds were all motionless and silent, staring straight ahead.

"That's James, a kingfisher. He's a king," Cristobal whispered in Viktor's ear. "Stand up!"

Viktor stood, Cristobal flew up and landed to stand on the pavement and wait until the kingfisher came to them both.

"Your Majesty, King James, Advanced Scout Cristobal reporting Viktor Abies as ordered," Cristobal said quickly and smartly.

"At ease," the kingfisher said softly and all the birds relaxed together. Viktor didn't relax and didn't know what to do.

The kingfisher flew up and hovered in front of Viktor to examine his face.

"Hello Viktor," the kingfisher said in a deep, sonorous voice.

"Hello. Good evening," said Viktor. Adding hurriedly, "Your Majesty."

"Did Advanced Scout Cristobal inform you as to the reason you are here?" The kingfisher asked.

Viktor nodded, though besides meeting the Reptiles Association he had no real idea why he was there.

Viktor thought the kingfisher was beautiful. His head and back were of a particularly impressive neon-blue and his chest was a deep brown-red. He had an elongated beak, round little button eyes and he fluttered elegantly in the air.

"The Reptiles Association Against Sola Fida expressed an interest in meeting you three days ago at our conference in Galiläeo. The request was put forth legally, publically and in our presence. As such we could not refuse them their desire. Thus, here we are," the kingfisher said.

Viktor nodded.

"I'm James, son of Joseph, third vice-leader of the community and a member of the Imperial Guard of the League of Birds."

Viktor stared at the bird. When he said nothing more, Viktor suspected that it was his turn to speak, so he said: "I am Viktor Abies, son of Helena and Immanuel Abies and I live here." Then he added: "I'm eight years old and in the third grade."

The kingfisher bowed his head then moved on. A little sparrow came flying up to him and chirped some information. The kingfisher said something to the sparrow and the sparrow flew to the duck and said something to her. The duck then flew up and quacked and the remaining birds in the square froze and remained standing frozen, staring blankly ahead. Cristobal flew back to Viktor's shoulder and whispered excitedly: "They're coming."

Viktor held his breath and craned his neck, but he couldn't see anything. He thought he would faint, and his stomach felt like a hard lump of stone.

"They're here!" whispered Cristobal and Viktor felt his heart thundering in his ears.

Then he saw them.

A giant turtle, flanked by a tiny yellow snake and the lizard that had been sitting in Viktor's shoe, appeared behind the formation and headed down the corridor of birds toward Viktor. It took a while for them to cross the square because the turtle walked very slowly, and the snake slithered along slowly, and finally the lizard too came along slowly, one foot after the other.

When they finally reached Viktor, they stopped three steps away from him and looked up.

Cristobal hovered in the air at eye level with the turtle and said quickly to all of the reptiles:

"Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman, Mr. CEO: The League of Birds hereby notify the Reptiles Association Against Sola Fide that their stated desired to meet Viktor Abies has thus been fulfilled."

The turtle chuckled and looked good-naturedly at Cristobal. "Hi James," it said to the kingfisher, who was standing stiffly next to the duck with a hostile expression.

"Oh yes, the League is always so formal and correct," the turtle said and looked around. "Admirable," it sighed. Its big, kind eyes wandered around, taking in all the birds. "Everyone so well presented, very impressive."

It sighed again. "How unfortunate though. This whole intimidating demeanor was not at all necessary. We only requested an informal, unofficial conversation after all. For example there are three of us, without an escort and thus defenseless and exposed. I would think this would present itself as a vote of confidence. Yet it is still a pity that only the third deputy of the League could make it," the turtle said with a sideways glance at James. "I would have thought it more pleasing if his honour Matthew could have joined us tonight. At the least Luke. But well, so be it."

The turtle looked up at Viktor and smiled.

"Hello Mr. Abies, I've heard so much about you. I think you've met my deputy, this is Edison." The turtle nodded toward the lizard, who bowed his head and said in his languid way: "Good evening, Mr. Abies."

"This is my C.E.O, Newton," said the turtle, pointing to the tiny, yellow snake. The snake beamed up at Viktor with a big smile and said, "Good evening, Mr. Abies."

"And I'm Charles. I am a Galapagos turtle and Chairman of the Reptiles Association Against Sola Fide." He smiled at Viktor who found he couldn't help it: he found Charles very nice. He reminded him a little of Rocco's mother with his kindness and shriveled face.

"Do not be afraid, Mr. Abies. We come with nothing but peaceful intentions and want only to get to know you. You may sit down if you wish," said the turtle.

Cristobal whispered "Sit down!" and Viktor sat down on the bench.

"How old are you, Mr. Abies?" asked the turtle.

"Eight," said Viktor.

"Oh, then you are already big! Are you therefore at school?"

"Yes. I'm in the third grade."

"How wonderful, the third grade! Do you like going to school?"

Viktor nodded. He was still nervous, but it was proving to be not as terrible as he had imagined.

"What are your favorite subjects?"

Viktor thought then said, "Biology and sports."

"That's wonderful. I'm very pleased. Biology is a wonderful and a very useful subject. Revealing and enlightening. Wouldn't you agree, Edison?"

The lizard nodded.

"What is your favourite sport then Viktor?"

He thought about it and said, "I like karate and running. And I like football."

"Excellent, excellent! Is that not wonderful, Newton?"

The snake nodded and beamed as if it were the most wonderful thing that he had ever heard in his entire life.

Viktor smiled back. He found the little yellow snake very pretty. His skin shimmered and sparkled in the light of the street lamps.

"How are your parents?" asked the turtle.

Viktor hesitated for a moment and said, "Good."

"What do they do?"

Viktor didn't really know what to say and looked anxiously at the reptiles.

The turtle chuckled. "What are their jobs, Viktor?"

"My mother sews and my father is... he builds microscopes," Viktor replied.

"That's wonderful, I am pleased. Both are very honorable professions. What do you want to be when you are older, Mr Abies?"

"A karate teacher," Viktor replied.

Charles laughed, Newton and Edison laughed along with him. "That's a good idea," Newton said and curled into a spiral. "Physical education is a brilliant thing. The best thing for a boy like you!"

Charles nodded his large, heavy head. "Yes, that's right. Health is invaluable. Always make sure you keep healthy, Mr. Abies. That's very important."

Viktor looked from Newton to Charles and back to Newton, and they all nodded.

"So you are a local here, a native?" asked Charles.

"Yes," Viktor replied then he thought about it and added. "My grandpa lives in Salix Alba and my mother lived there as well, then she came here."

"Fantastic," nodded the turtle.

"How long have you had contact with the League of Birds?" Edison asked.

The kingfisher flew forward from his perch on the back of the bench and shouted: "I declare the conversation now at an end."

"Mr. James, the highest ranks of the Reptiles Association have come all this way this evening to meet with you and get to know Mr. Abies," Edison replied irritably. "And then you deny us the conversation with him that was promised?"

"Viktor is our area of responsibility and we decide with whom he can talk and with whom he can not," James said in an icy tone.

"Yet the League sends its third deputy as well as almost the entire local army in order to demonstrate not only an insult to us, but also to express what seems to be some kind of a threat. I must say, your aggressiveness and manipulation is a hindrance to cooperation and our peaceful cohabitation. Furthermore, the systematic character assassination that is continuously employed against us is both a farce and an offense, both of which are utterly unacceptable," Edison said.

"That's enough! League: break ranks," cried James as he flapped his wings furiously.

"Enough!" Charles announced before the birds had time to react to the order. "Please enough! I ask you, gentlemen, please. Enough."

"No! We do not have to put up with your insults," cried James.

"We did not want to offend you. If we did in any way then we apologise. Do we not, Edison?" said Charles.

Edison bowed his head. "I apologize and express that I may have been taken out of context and appeared misleading in what I said."

"Either way, this meeting is canceled. We are now leaving," announced the kingfisher.

"James," Charles said soothingly, "let a rift not come between us. The League and ourselves have a long history that goes back very far. We are brothers after all, you are our sister group. The Archaeopteryx..."

"No," shouted the kingfisher, and all the birds cried out together, it was such a terrible noise and occurred so suddenly that Viktor put his hands to his ears and ducked his head.

"No," James shouted again. "There will be no more talking!"

"But we all have the same ancestors and that you can not deny, James. We are brothers, we should..."

"No, we do not have the same ancestors," roared the kingfisher. "How dare you, how dare you?" James let out a long scream, and the roosters crowed angrily, the birds of prey flew up and circled around the square, the pigeons fluttered excitedly with their wings and the black birds shrieked deafeningly. The owls flew up and readied themselves to pounce on the reptiles.

"Depart," shouted the kingfisher. "Retreat!"

All the birds took off and the sky was a mass of feathers and wings.

Viktor was consumed with such fear that he dropped to the floor and crawled under the bench.

"Viktor," Cristobal shouted at him. "Go! Run home! I'll come when this is over. Go! Run!"

Viktor stood up and took one last look at the turtle, the snake and the lizard.

Then he turned and ran as fast as he could, as fast as was possible.
Nucellus

Viktor performed the Sun Salutation then sat down and tried to control his mind, thinking of the five elements as Angh Park had instructed them to do for homework. Viktor said the names of the elements aloud: Mu, Huo, Tu, Jin, Shui.

Wood, fire, earth, metal, water.

"Mu, Huo, Tu, Jin, Shui," he whispered several times.

During their warm-up run, after Angh Park had lectured them on the five elements, the karate instructor had made the boys loudly sing out the words while running 20 rounds, doing so to ensure that each memorized all five.

Angh Park had said that a true sensei, a real sempai, a real master of karate, must not only know how to fight, but must also know all the rules of Dō. Though he then took time to explain those rules, Viktor found he did not understand anything. The only thing he knew was that it is important to not only run and perform karate moves, but also to dominate Dō and therefore to control the mind. Anything additional to that he didn't really grasp. Thankfully, judging by their confused expressions, neither did the others in the class. Especially when Angh Park began to talk about Eastern philosophy, Yin and Yang, I Ching, Tao Te Ching and other exotic stuff that made no sense.

Finally, Angh Park had talked about the five elements, and this had been something that Viktor had understood. Everything in the world is made of the five elements, every person and every tree and every house. As such karate too is made of the five elements and each movement has a different element.

Earth-movements are stable, firm and strong. Your stance is that of a rock and the enemy cannot move you. Water movements are fluid, they glide and confuse the enemy and allow you time to look at everything and think and observe. At the same time you are everywhere and nowhere and strong and uncontrollable like a wave. Fire movements are dynamic, active and determined, and, when performed correctly, offer the opponent no chance. Angh Park told them all to think about the Five Elements when they were at home and to ensure that they understood and learnt each by heart. Once this was achieved then they should perform a movement for each element, making sure as they did so that they thought about the meaning of that element and how it affected the movement.

Viktor therefore sat on his carpet, closed his eyes, and tried to control his mind by thinking about water, metal, wood, fire and earth. He hadn't really understood wood and metal, so instead he concentrated on water, fire and earth in order to determine which element was best.

There was a knock at his window. Viktor sat in motionless silence, hoping that Cristobal might not notice he was there. He hadn't seen the hummingbird since the night with the reptiles and the truth was he didn't really want to see him either. He was scared and didn't want to know any more about reptiles or birds. In fact he wanted to have nothing to do with any of them anymore. Instead he wanted to control his spirit, to think about the elements and then later perform a few Sun Salutations before going to sleep. Nothing more.

There was another knock and Viktor thought about the water element and tried to imagine a wave and how he himself was a wave. He had read in his children's encyclopedia about giant waves that were called tsunamis. These waves were as large as multi-storey houses and they could swallow an entire city and all the cars and people and trees. Viktor was creeped out by that. But at the same time he secretly thought it was also very, very cool. Still, even with that in mind he was glad that Hedera Helix was not by the sea.

He heard another knock, this one louder than the last.

Viktor sighed, stood up and walked to the window. He pulled the curtain aside carefully and saw Cristobal hovering in the midst of a group of magpies.

"Viktor! Open the window! What's going on?" Cristobal shouted through the window pane.

Reluctantly Viktor opened the window a crack and let Cristobal fly into the room.

"Why didn't you answer me?" panted Cristobal as he lay down on the bed.

"I'm sorry. I was in the living room, I didn't hear you," Viktor said.

"I saw your shadow through the curtains. You were sitting on the floor," Cristobal said reproachfully with a frown.

Viktor shrugged his shoulders sheepishly.

"Don't you want to be my friend anymore?" Cristobal asked tearfully.

"No, it's just...," Viktor said.

"Then why didn't you want to see me?"

Viktor stared at a piece of lint on the carpet and moved it back and forth with his big toe.

"If you want, I'll go and never come back," Cristobal said.

"No," Viktor said.

"If I go," Cristobal continued, "then I'll take the magpies and all the other birds with me and there'll be no one left to look after you when the reptiles come. The crocodiles and alligators and cobras and pythons and..."

"I don't want you to go," Viktor said, annoyed.

Cristobal flew up and hugged Viktor with his little wings.

"You're my best friend," Cristobal said. "I've been trained since birth to take care of you. I'll be a good friend, a best friend. I'll do anything for you and I'd die for you. Die!"

Viktor looked helplessly at Cristobal and said, "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me, Viktor. We are best friends and best friends are there for each other" the little bird said before adding, "do you have anything to eat?"

Viktor gave him a chocolate bar left over from his school lunch. Cristobal looked at it with a mixture of reluctance and disgust before he asked what it was. Viktor told him that it contains cookies, caramel and chocolate.

When the little bird had finished the caramel and the chocolate and left the biscuit part, he sat down on the bed.

"How are you?" He asked.

"Good," Viktor replied.

"Do you need anything?" Asked Cristobal.

"Like what?"

"No idea. Just that if you did need anything, then you should let us know. We can get you anything you want. Anything. No matter what."

Viktor nodded.

"Let me know if you think of anything. Don't forget that we are here to fulfill your wishes, to make you happy."

"Ok," Viktor said.

"The League had a conference." Cristobal said, his tone changing. "The Reptiles Association has declared war on us."

Viktor didn't really understand what this meant and so he asked, "Why?"

Cristobal fluttered his wings furiously and flew a few frantic laps around the room, screaming, "Why? You ask me why?"

Viktor was scared and kept silent.

"They insulted us! Didn't you see it for yourself? They insulted James, a king! And then they insulted us even more and now all the birds are offended and angry. They said that we have the same ancestors. Did you hear that? "

Viktor nodded.

"They said that we are descended from reptiles. This is so terrible, soooo terrible!" Cristobal flew so many agitated circles around the room that it made Viktor dizzy.

"They said that we are descended from the same ancestors. This is the worst insult that there is! We are not reptiles! How can they say that? We are birds! We are descended from Phoenix. We have never had dandruff and crawled on the ground nor have we ever looked as disgusting as them! Phoenix made us, each of us individually. He created us in his image and gave us our colorful feathers and made us the masters of the skies. We are beautiful and we fly! And they are ugly creeping things and are disgusting! Disgusting!"

Viktor nodded.

Cristobal sat down again, quite out of breath and panting. He asked: "How would you feel if someone told you that you're garbage, and that your whole family is trash, and that your ancestors were garbage?"

Viktor thought about it and imagined himself standing in front of a garbage can that was in fact his Grandpa Gideon.

"It's an insult!" Cristobal called out again. "Disgusting!"

Viktor nodded.

"I'm your best friend, right?" asked Cristobal.

"Yes," replied Viktor.

"And you're my best friend, right?"

Viktor nodded.

"The League of Birds will always be there for you, always looking out for you and will always do anything for you and will always and anywhere protect you and watch over you. I promise, I swear to Phoenix and on my life!"

Viktor nodded again.

"The reptiles are evil in nature. They lie and say nasty things and are evil and sooo bad! They are crocodiles and alligators and pythons and cobras and terrible snakes that are poisonous and swallow everything! Have you ever seen a crocodile?"

"On television."

"Did you see how evil they are? They have huge mouths and big sharp teeth and kill everything! Do you think we look like crocodiles?"

"No," Viktor said. He thought of the beautiful James, and of how beautiful Cristobal was. He thought of the large, beautiful, creepy eagles, the budgies and the peacocks which he had seen once at the zoo.

"No! We do not look like disgusting reptiles! So how can we have the same origin? This is such a terrible insult!"

Viktor nodded.

"So the Royal Guard has been thinking and they decided that it amounts to a declaration of war. The Reptiles Association wants war with us and that is why they offended us in such a way."

"So what will the birds do now?" Asked Viktor.

"We are still thinking. In any case, we have proclaimed maximum alert. The Royal Guard is thinking about what we should do next. We have called up all the harpy reservists. They will now be drawn in and wait for instructions."

"What are they?"

"What?"

"Harpy?"

"They are big, horrible birds. They are our elite killing commandos. They are used only in an emergency and in war. They're like eagles and hawks, but much larger and waaaay more powerful! They are so strong that you can't imagine it. Even we are afraid of them sometimes. I have always been terrified of harpies. At the beginning of the world, Phoenix flew to hell, and he took demons and made harpies from them."

Viktor was very creeped out by this.

"We don't have many harpies, so we only use them in exceptional situations. And now is such a situation! It was such a horrible, horrible insult!" Cristobal flew up and turned a few laps around the room excitedly while shouting: "Horrible!"

Viktor made a mental note to look up harpies in his children's encyclopedia.

Cristobal sat down again, massaged his temples and thought. "But, I'm here for a different reason, to tell you something else. But... what was it? Oh man, I've forgotten!" He thought hard and ran in a circle on the bedspread.

Viktor tried to control his mind and kneaded his pillow anxiously.

"Ah," cried Cristobal after a while. "Cahuc! I have to tell you about Cahuc." He flew up and turned a few happy loops around the room.

"What's that?" Asked Viktor.

Cristobal sat down and looked in horror at Viktor. "You don't remember? I told you about it before."

Viktor thought hard.

"Antarctica! I even showed you Abramskaya on the map. Nearby is Cahuc, the safest place in the world. There are no reptiles there because they would die instantly at the South Pole as it's the coldest place in the world."

Viktor remembered and exclaimed, "Yes!"

"Cahuc is now approved. You have all access rights to it. The League of Birds has vowed to always take care of you and protect you and as such they have opened access to Cahuc for you. You can go there when something bad happens. If you ever have anxiety or are threatened or if something happens to you then you can escape straight to Cahuc where you can hide. No one will be able to find you there and as such you can wait there until it's all over, until it's safe again. Then you can come back."

"But Antarctica is so far away. How do I get there?"

"That's why I'm here today. I was told about the decision yesterday and then trained to show you how to get there. That's what I'll show you now."

Viktor nodded.

"There's a point in your brain which is connected to Cahuc." Cristobal buzzed around Viktor's head and pointed to a spot on his skull. "Here."

Viktor put his finger on the spot but there was nothing there.

"We'll practice. I'll show you how to do it. You have to concentrate a lot, and if you concentrate hard enough, then you can find the point."

Viktor listened to Cristobal's instructions, focusing on the point as he concentrated. He remembered that a few months ago he'd had a blinding pain on the exact point Cristobal was showing him now. He tried to remember where the pain had been and concentrated even harder.

"Did you find it?" Asked Cristobal.

Viktor nodded and closed his eyes.

He could sense the small, ugly dark spot, the small piece of hardened tissue in his brain.

He concentrated even harder and then he could see the small, ugly dark spot as well. It was like a small black marble lying in the coils of his brain. A Venus moving in front of the sun.

Then he was there as well, there with the ugly, dark spot. He felt the point and realised that it was open like a doorway and all he had to do was simply go inside, to pass through it.

"Do it now," called Cristobal.

Something flashed in Viktor's brain

When he opened his eyes, he fainted from fright.

His consciousness returned slowly and as if in a dream and he heard Cristobal's voice."Viktor! Viktor, wake up! Viktor," shouted the bird. The voice pulled him out of the heavy inertia, and he opened his eyes, blinked a few times and thought he was blind.

Everything in front of his field of vision was white. He blinked a few more times but everything remained white.

His eyes were watering. He closed them till they stopped burning and then opened them again.

Something disheveled fluttered in front of his field of vision and he recognized Cristobal, a strong wind hurling the bird back and forth as he tried with all his might to remain still in front of Viktor's face in the air. His blue and green and pink feathers were such a stark contrast to the white that they hurt his eyes.

He closed his eyes again because they were watering so much and burning so much that it seemed as if they would melt.

"Viktor, stand up! Stand up, or you will die! Get up!" he heard Cristobal cry from afar.

He opened his eyes again and Cristobal was in front of his face, fluttering back and forth. The bird shouted something but this time Viktor did not understand the words as the wind was so strong it seemed to steal and hurl them away.

"Get up," he finally understood.

He rose and tried to get up, but the wind pushed him back down.

"Viktor, stand up!" Cristobal was now at the side of his head and shouting in his ear. "Please, please, please get up!"

Viktor tried again, pressing his body against the wind and he managed to sit up. He closed his eyes and rubbed them with his fists. The wind was blowing so much his skin felt as if there were thousands of tiny needles stabbing him all over.

"Yes, good! Very good! Stand up! Viktor, get up completely. We have to walk!" Cristobal pointed a wing in a certain direction and was blown away. He came back a few seconds later, battling hard against the wind, beating his tiny wings as he cried again, "Get up!" His voice sounded as if it came from miles away. Then it was as if he could only hear a whisper far, far in the distance. Viktor could see that Cristobal was saying something. It was as if the wind were playing ping-pong with the words. Or as if the words were confetti and the wind was swirling them around.

"Please get up, Viktor! Please, we must get to the cave! Get up and follow me now!"

Viktor pushed the floor with his hands to raise himself and he noticed how his fingers sank into something soft. When he looked at the ground, he saw it was covered in snow.

He closed his eyes, waited until the burning subsided, then wiped the tears from his eyes and stood up.

He took a few steps towards Cristobal, who once more cried something inaudible to him. He then slipped and landed face down in the snow.

The small needles that still plagued him transformed into huge hammers that pounded him as he lay there.

He pushed himself up and managed to stand. He heard Cristobal screaming into his ear, "Careful! Go very carefully. It's slippery. Follow me slowly. Slowly!"

He made small cautious steps and followed Cristobal. From time to time a powerful gust of wind hit him and swept him away, but the little bird always returned and flapped with all his strength against the wind.

Viktor put one foot before the other and made sure it was stable on the frozen snow before he lifted his other foot and put it forward.

He closed his eyes every few seconds and stood, waiting until the burning subsided and he was able to wipe the tears away and continue, following Cristobal.

It was difficult to breathe. The wind had such an immense strength that it forced its way into his mouth and his nose and made it almost impossible to exhale. It seemed as if his nostrils and his lungs were blocked, clogged up. Viktor thought he would choke and he was dizzy, but he pulled his sweater over his nose and mouth and it was a little easier to breathe.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his eyelids, then stumbled back and landed hard with his knee on the frozen ground. He writhed and screamed, but the wind took his words, his cries of pain, and threw them away without care.

Cristobal fluttered next to his ear and shouted something before he too was flung back by the wind and Viktor saw him lying on the ground some distance away. The hummingbird scrambled up again, and flew as ferociously as he could against the wind to once more draw level with Viktor.

Viktor forced himself up as best he could and crawled on all fours in the direction that Cristobal flew. He saw a small mountain in the distance; or at least he thought it was a mountain. In the midst of the white ground, the white sky and the white air, it was little more than a contour that looked like a large rock.

He lowered his head, closed his eyes and crawled on. His sweater slid down from his mouth and the wind crashed into him like a stone thrown in his face.

He writhed and pulled the sweater over his face once more. He breathed and rubbed his eyes before he began to cry.

He heard Cristobal call something through the wind and he pulled the sweater down from his eyes and looked up, but the wind was so strong he was forced to look down again as his eyes burned.

When he could finally manage to look up, he saw Cristobal pointing to a small dark hole in the rock. Viktor nodded and crawled on.

To his left, something else caught his eye and he looked to the side and saw a withered tree, its black speckled white branches like hard bone jutting upward and bent back and forth by the wind.

"Viktor! Just a little further, we're almost there," shouted Cristobal. "Can I go under your sweater? Please?"

Viktor lifted his sweater and Cristobal flew underneath. Viktor put his head back into the neck and looked at Cristobal clinging to his undershirt beneath the material.

"Oh Viktor, oh my God, I'm dying," shouted Cristobal.

Viktor burst into tears.

"Viktor! Don't cry, we're almost there! You can see the mountain. There's a cave and we need to get in there!"

Viktor thought he would collapse but he continued to crawl. Now and then he looked outside to make sure that they were still going in the right direction.

Soon he felt hard rock under his hands and knees, and he realised that sharp little stones were cutting his hands and piercing through the fabric of his pants.

He stood up and walked on. The wind was a bit weaker now, reduced in its force by the mountain which stood like a curtain before them. He saw the opening in the rock, recognizing it by its darker color which stood out from the white.

"Go inside," Cristobal cried as they reached the cave and he crawled out from under the sweater and flew into the rocks. Viktor followed him inside. The wind was still strong at the cave entrance but as they went deeper inside it weakened, and soon enough it died completely.

Viktor collapsed on the floor and pressed his fists into eyes. He pulled his knees to his chest and began to sob.

Cristobal stood on the floor next to Viktor's head and put his little wings around him.

"I want to go home!" Viktor sobbed between two burst of tears. "I don't like it here! I want to go home!"

Cristobal said nothing and waited until Viktor had calmed down.

When the crying fit was over, Viktor stayed lying on the floor, staring at the rocky wall and sniffed.

"Are you alright, Viktor?" Asked Cristobal.

Viktor sat up, banged his hands on the floor, winced at the pain and shouted: "No! I want to go home! I hate it here!" He sniffed again and then said quietly: "I don't like it here. It's terrible. I've never been to such a horrible place. I want to go home." His voice trailed off and he began to cry again.

"Viktor! No, don't say that. Today it's very windy here but it's not always like this. It's just the wind. The wind is always very strong here, but it doesn't come often. Don't worry."

"I don't want to be here!" Viktor shouted as he struck the floor again.

"Viktor! Listen. Cahuc is very important. You have to always remember this place, remember that you can come here when you need to escape. Maybe you'll never need to come here. That would make me very happy. But just in case something happens and you have to leave, then there's no safer place for you than here. Nobody will ever find this place. No one! Only we know where it is. Just us and don't forget that reptiles would never survive here. They can't stand the cold and would die immediately. Here you are safer than anywhere else in the world. Do you understand me?"

Viktor wiped his nose on the sleeve of his sweater.

"Really, Viktor. Believe me. Today it is exceptionally windy. It's not always so bad. Here, when the sun shines, it's quite bearable. And if it is windy then you have to come to this cave as fast as possible. This is Hammerfest Four. That's the name of the mountain."

Viktor looked around.

It was a small cave, so small that the rear wall and the end of the cave could be seen with the naked eye.

"Why isn't it cold in here?" Asked Viktor.

"What do you mean? It's awfully cold," Cristobal said.

"I read in my encyclopedia that Antarctica is the coldest place on the planet."

"It is!"

Viktor looked down at himself. "But all I am wearing is my sweater and I'm not cold. Well, not very cold anyway."

Cristobal looked at him and thought.

"I don't know."

"It doesn't feel like the coldest place in the world."

Cristobal shrugged. "I'm cold. Very cold!"

"I'm cold as well. But if I go out in winter in Hedera Helix with only this sweater on then I'd be freezing. And Hedera Helix is not in Antarctica."

"No. Hedera Helix is not in Antarctica," Cristobal said.

Viktor didn't understand it.

"Why am I here?" He asked.

"Didn't I tell you already? You are hiding here."

"Why?"

"If anything bad happens then you have to come here, to hide."

"But what happened?"

"Nothing yet. We're just here to make sure you know where to go and how to get here."

"How do I get home?"

"The same way you got here."

"Can we go back then?"

"Of course we can, but we'll have to come back again."

"Why?"

"You have to bring some emergency stuff here: Warm things to wear and something to eat which is not perishable. Normally the League would make sure that there are things for you here, but for now it's not a bad idea for us to bring a few things here, just in case."

"Will I have to come here often?"

"If you're lucky, you'll never have to come. But we still have to prepare in case you do. We have to bring a few things here and then practice coming and leaving. Hopefully after that you'll never have to come back again."

"Ok," Viktor said.

Cristobal once more showed him how to find the small, ugly dark spot.

Viktor closed his eyes.

There was a sudden flash in his brain and when he opened his eyes he was back in his room.
Endosperm

Immanuel Abies parked his car outside the studio.

Normally he would kiss Viktor and say goodbye, but this time he turned off the engine, pulled out the key and took off his seatbelt.

Viktor sat in the passenger seat and looked at his father, confused. "What's happening?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" asked his father as he turned the steering wheel until a small 'click' sounded.

Viktor looked at his father as he opened the glove compartment and took out a small folder. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"I need this folder, so I'm taking it out."

"Why?"

"I'm coming in with you."

"Why?"

"I've got your mother's tax return."

Viktor didn't like the sound of that.

His father had been driving him home since he could remember and it had always been the same routine: from the company home, a goodbye and a kiss, wait until Viktor went into the house, and then drive away. Viktor would then always wait at the small window in the front door and watch as his father reversed, drove back a bit and turned around onto Aquifolium Street. At this point his father would wave again and Viktor would wave back through the little window before turning off the lights in the stairwell and going upstairs. This was a well-rehearsed ritual, one which Viktor had done so many times it was ingrained in his very being.

"Come on Viktor, get out," said Immanuel Abies as he pressed the button to unlock Viktor's seatbelt.

Viktor got out reluctantly and waited on the sidewalk while his father took a briefcase from the back seat and closed the car.

His father took him by the hand and they walked up the small footpath to the front door.

"I have my keys in my backpack." He took his backpack off, set it down and pulled out a long ribbon that was attached to the inside of the backpack.

"That's my key," he said. "I'll open the door then we can wipe our feet and go inside."

His father laughed and said, "Very good."

They walked the three steps up to the front door.

"Here's the light." Viktor pressed a switch on the wall. A light came on inside the small porch. "You can turn the light on from outside and from inside. So we can turn it on out here and then we can turn it off when we get inside."

"Impressive!" His father said. "But don't forget I've lived here as well."

Viktor pointed to a couple of flower pots that were in the porch.

"Mom planted those."

"Really? Are they flowers?" asked his father.

Viktor shrugged.

"We will have to wait and see what grows there then shall we."

Viktor nodded.

At that moment they heard a small meow and a bright figure came out of the bushes.

"This is Kennedy," Viktor said.

"Well well, so Kennedy is still around. Good old girl," his father said. He crouched down, stretched out his hand and Kennedy came running and purred as he stroked her head.

"Kennedy lives here," Viktor said. "In the backyard."

"Yes. I know Kennedy, Viktor."

"But she hasn't lived here forever. She used to live with Rocco but he kicked her and so she left."

"Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Hmmm. Well, we won't do that, will we?" he said to the cat. "Come on Viktor, it's cold out here. Let's get inside."

Viktor sighed, then turned to the door and opened it.

"These are the stairs. You have to go up them then you reach the apartments. If you go through this door then you'll be in the tailor shop."

Immanuel Abies laughed loudly and uproariously, then said, "All right. Thanks for the tour. I've been here many times before, you know."

"I know. But you don't live here, so you don't know what everything is. This is the light. Look." Viktor pressed the light switch and the light over the front door went out. The staircase was now dimly lit by the little light which reached them from the streetlights outside.

"These are my sneakers. I went running yesterday but mom said I have to leave them on the stairs and can't take them into the apartment because they were wet and covered with leaves," Viktor said as they passed a pair of dirty sneakers on their way up.

"Where did you go running?" Asked his father.

"Outside," Viktor said.

"That's nice." His father went passed him up the stairs and arrived at Helena's front door.

"Wait," cried Viktor.

His father paused. "What?"

"Wait." Viktor ran passed him, opened the front door and went in first.

"Mom," he shouted and ran into the living room.

His mother was sitting at the big table with various papers and folders spread out in front of her. She took her reading glasses off and said, "Hi Viktor."

"I brought Dad!" Viktor announced.

His mother laughed, stood up, ruffled her son's hair and went out into the hallway to where his father was hanging his jacket on the coat rack.

"I'm glad you're here," she said before she hugged him.

Viktor stood in the living room doorway and watched them suspiciously. His father was just as tall as Helena, but that was where the similarities between them ended. While Helena was broad and muscular, Immanuel Abies was very thin. Long and thin, like a withered branch. Helena however was like a tree trunk. His mother's hair was long and red while Immanuel Abies had short, dark brown hair. Viktor had inherited this color from his father. Everyone always told him that he looked exactly like his father and he too thought the same. He'd asked his mother once why he looked so much like his father, and she had told him that dark genes were more powerful than red ones. He'd hadn't quite understood what she meant and she'd seen the confusion in his features and explained that he should try mixing dark brown and red together in art class at school and see what happened. He'd done exactly that and straight away seen what his mother had been trying to explain as the colour came out a dark brown.

"You want something to eat?" His mother asked his father.

Before his father could answer, Viktor called out: "We have peanut butter!"

Helena laughed. "Viktor discovered peanut butter yesterday."

"Really?" His father said. "And it's tasty?"

Viktor nodded.

"I'd like to try some of that," said his father.

Viktor nodded again. "Shall I make you a sandwich?" He asked.

His father came to him and hugged him. "Yes, that would make me very, very happy!"

Viktor ran into the kitchen, climbed on a chair and took a bag of bread from the bread box, then moved the chair to the cupboard, climbed onto the counter and took down the peanut butter and a jar of raspberry jam. He then went to the table, put everything down, ran to the drawer and pulled out his knife. He was not allowed to use a normal knife, so instead he had his own special one. It looked like a knife, but the edges were much rounder and not as sharp. He pulled the chair back to the closet, took down a plate, ran back to the table and put two slices of bread on it.

On one side he smeared a thick layer of peanut butter and on the other a thick layer of raspberry jam. He then put the peanut butter spread slice onto the jam one. He'd found out that morning that if he did it the other way around, and therefore put the jam covered slice on the peanut butter one first, then you have jam pouring down the sides and making it very sticky. But if you do it the other way round, the peanut butter makes sure the jam doesn't drip as it's thicker.

He pressed the slices of bread together, then carefully cut it into four triangles, put a fork on the plate and ran back into the living room.

His parents were sitting at the table. Viktor stood irresolute next to them and waited until his mother made room for him. Then he put the plate down and shouted "Wait!" before he ran back into the kitchen. He took a glass from the cupboard with his chair, filled it with milk and then took it carefully back into the living room where he set it down next to the sandwich.

His father laughed and took Viktor in his arms. He pressed him so hard that Viktor thought his skeleton would implode.

Then his father ate and talked with his mother about boring stuff and Viktor stopped listening as the speech was not about himself. He rested his head on his father's chest and after a while fell asleep.

The next morning his mother woke him up and he followed his normal routine. He brushed his teeth, got dressed, and was about to go into the kitchen when he almost had a heart attack upon seeing his father coming out of his mother's bedroom, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Viktor stood petrified in the hallway, staring at his father.

"Good morning, Viktor," Immanuel Abies said, walking past him and ruffling his hair before he went into the bathroom.

Viktor remained open mouthed in the hallway, staring at the closed bathroom door until it opened again and his father came out.

"Are you ready for school yet?" his father asked him as he went into the kitchen.

His mother came out of the bedroom, putting her hair up as she did so.

"What's Dad doing here?" Viktor whispered angrily.

"Papa slept here last night," his mother said.

"Why?"

"We ended up working until very late last night."

"But why didn't he drive home after?"

"It was getting late. And it was very dark. It's not good to be outside when it's dark. You know that."

Viktor thought about it and had to admit that it all sounded quite understandable.

Helena went to the kitchen and Viktor followed her. His father was standing in front of the fridge and looking inside.

"Are you looking for the coffee?" his mother asked before she opened another cupboard and gave him the tin of coffee.

"Wonderful," said his father. He spooned some coffee into the coffee machine.

"I'll have a coffee as well," announced Viktor.

Helena rolled her eyes and said, "You certainly will not." She left them to return to the bedroom.

Viktor sat down at the table and watched as his father poured water into the coffee machine and then pressed the red button to turn it on. A few minutes later the coffee began to bubble through the filter.

"Mama always puts the water in and then the coffee," Viktor said.

His father was leaning on the counter as he asked, "Really?"

Viktor nodded.

"So, did I do it wrong?"

"Yes," Viktor said.

"Do you think it'll still taste good anyway?"

Viktor thought about it and shrugged.

He looked at his father's feet with their long toes and tufts of hair. "Mama says you can't walk on the tiles barefoot!"

"She's right," his father said. "You can't walk on the tiles barefoot. I'll catch a cold if I'm not careful." He went into the hall and looked in the shoe cupboard and took a pair of Helena's flip-flops out and slipped them on.

Viktor found it confusing that his father was wearing his mother's shoes. "Those are Mama's shoes," he said.

"It's ok. I'm only borrowing them. Before I go I'll put them back in the cupboard, okay?"

His father turned to the coffee machine, took two cups from the cupboard, poured coffee into them before placing them on the table and asking: "What do you have for breakfast, Viktor?"

"Froot Loops or jam toast."

"And what will you have today?"

Viktor thought, and then said: "Froot Loops."

His father went to the counter and took out the box of Froot Loops. He then went to the refrigerator and took out the milk and put it in front of Viktor before finally he went to the cupboard and took out a bowl and a spoon.

"No," Viktor said. "Not that one."

"What do you mean?"

"Not that bowl."

"Which one?"

Viktor pointed to the closet and said, "The Red one with Spiderman on it."

His father took out the Spiderman bowl, put it in front of Viktor and put the other one back into the cupboard.

He then sat down at the table and watched as Viktor ate his Froot Loops. His mother came back into the kitchen, sat down and held her cup of coffee in her hands.

A silence fell over them all which was strangely uncomfortable for Viktor. He felt like he was being watched and chewed carefully as a result. Each crunch of Froot Loops between his teeth sounded like a crash and so he tried to eat them as softly as possible.

His parents began to talk about something and Viktor bent his head over his cereal, and peered over the edge of his bowl to watch them.

He found it all very strange.

His mother sat there with an ambitiously loose hairstyle and her coffee cup between both hands. She was smiling brightly. His father had only a T-shirt and boxer shorts on rather than the suit he normally always wore. He too was smiling brightly. They were talking about something terribly boring but both looked as if they were having the time of their lives. Viktor couldn't remember if the three of them had ever had breakfast together before. He knew that his father had lived with them for a while, and so he suspected that they must have had breakfast together a few times. But the fact that he couldn't remember made him grow confused.

As far as his memory stretched back there had only ever been himself and his mother at breakfast. There were exceptions of course, like when he had had breakfast with Maricel or Oded in their small apartments. But the fact that there was someone else sitting there with him and his mother in his mother's kitchen at breakfast was very strange, and as such Viktor did not know quite what to make of it.

"I'll go get myself ready, then I'll take you to school, okay?" His father said before he got up and walked out of the kitchen.

Viktor stared aghast at the retreating figure.

"Dad's going to take me to school?" Viktor whispered in horror to his mother.

"Yes," she said.

"Why?"

"He has to go to work now anyway, so he'll just drop you off on the way."

"What about Oded?"

"What about Oded?"

"He always drives me to school!"

"Yes. But today your dad will take you."

"Why?" Viktor whispered, horrified.

"Don't you want him to take you?" Asked his mother.

Viktor thought about it and said, "No, I want him to."

"Good. Well, go and get your school stuff."

Viktor sighed, put his spoon down and stood up.

"Viktor," his mother said as he walked past her. She grabbed his arm. "What's going on? Is everything all right?"

"Yes," he whispered.

"No it isn't. What is it?"

"Nothing," he whispered angrily.

"What is it Viktor?" Asked his mother.

"Nothing," Viktor repeated irritably. He tried to shake his arm free. "It's just that everything's different now. That's all!"

His mother laughed. "Nothing's different and nothing will be. Now, go and get your things or else you'll be late."

Viktor rolled his eyes and went to get his backpack.

Once they were in the car and on their way, Viktor realized that he had forgotten his lunch.

"Never mind," his father said. "I'll buy you something on the way."

"But Andala always makes my lunch," Viktor said.

"Well, we can't go back now so I'll buy you something. It's no problem."

"We can go back! You just have to turn the car around!"

"You'll be late for school and I'll be late for work if I do that."

"But my lunch is back there!"

His father looked down at him with a confused expression before he looked back at the road and drove on.

"My food is always in the kitchen. Not in the kitchen with Mama, but downstairs in the tailor shop kitchen. There's always a meal for me, one for Gem and one for Hala. You were supposed to go down there and get it for me. That's what Oded does. He does that every day and I never forget my lunch."

"Ok, I'll remember. But look, tomorrow you can have Andala's food. But we've already gone too far now, we can't go back or you'll be late for school."

"But I can't eat it tomorrow! It'll be no good then!" Viktor said with irritation and he couldn't understand why his father didn't know such a thing.

"You won't have to eat today's food. You'll get something fresh."

"What about the sandwiches from today?"

"Andala will just throw them away."

Viktor was horrified. "You can't just throw them away! You can't throw away food"

"Then we'll give them to Kennedy," his father said as he turned onto the big main road to D9.

"This is the wrong way," Viktor said.

"What?"

"This is the wrong way. The school is the other way."

"No, when we go this way, we only need to turn at the end of the main road and then your school is already there."

"No," Viktor said firmly. "Oded always drives the other way."

"He may well do," sighed his father. "After all there are a lot of roads and so you can have a lot of options."

"We'll get lost," said Viktor.

"Don't worry. I promise you we'll get to school without getting lost."

"But it takes too long and if I'm late I'll get into trouble!"

"Don't worry, this is actually the shortest way."

"But you don't know where my school is! We'll get lost," Viktor said nervously.

They stopped at a red light and Immanuel Abies lowered his head, put it on the steering wheel and sighed.

"Here," his father said after they had driven a bit further. He pulled into a parking spot and stopped the car.

"But this isn't my school," Viktor said.

His father laughed. "I know. Over there's a bakery. I'll get you something for your lunch and then we'll continue. Stay here."

His father got out and while he was away, Viktor wondered if he should just take his bag and walk the rest of the way to school by himself. But he was scared because he didn't know exactly where his school was. If his father had driven down the normal route, the way Oded always drove, then he would know the way and could go by foot, he thought angrily.

When his father returned, he had a large brown paper bag in his hand and put it in Viktor's lap. Viktor looked inside. Five sandwiches in cling film lay there along with two chocolate bars, an apple, a tangerine and a large bottle of orange juice.

"That's not my lunch," Viktor said.

"I know, but it'll do you for today. There's a whole range of different things so you can have a look through and see what you fancy."

Viktor took out a sandwich and looked at it. "But this one's with cheese. I don't eat cheese," he said.

"What do you mean you don't eat cheese?"

"I don't like it!"

"We had pizza in the cafeteria the other day. There was a lot of cheese on that and you didn't mind."

"Cheese on pizza is ok. But if it's cold like this then it's no good, it stinks."

"Then you can just swap it with one of your friends. There's one with chicken as well."

"But I don't eat chicken either."

"Then you can just eat the bread."

"But I don't like this kind of bread!"

His father braked the car in the middle of the street and turned to look at his son as cars honked and drove around them.

He stared at Viktor for a few seconds, before Viktor lowered his head and looked down ashamed. He took his wallet out of his pocket, pulled out a few bills and put them in Viktor's lunch bag. "Here, now you can just buy yourself whatever you want at your school kiosk." He drove off again.

Viktor said nothing anymore. When they arrived at school his father parked the car and got out. He unbuckled Viktor and helped him put his backpack over his shoulders.

"Ok Viktor, have a nice day. I'm sorry if it was all a bit chaotic today with your food."

Viktor hesitated, then hugged his father's leg and pressed his face against the black pinstripe fabric.

His father crouched down, hugged him and gave him a kiss on the neck.

"I love you, Daddy," Viktor said, and then ran through the school gate. As he ran up the stairs and looked back, his father was still sitting in the same place, looking toward him.

Viktor waved, his father waved back, put his fingers to his mouth, kissed them, and threw the kiss as if he were a pitcher in baseball game. Viktor dropped the bag with his lunch in it, took an imaginary baseball bat in hand, aimed at an imaginary point which flew towards him and then struck. His father acted as if he were wearing a baseball glove and looked toward the imaginary kiss as it flew through the air. He stepped here and there and then caught the kiss with much dramatics. He held the imaginary glove and the imaginary kiss to his heart and waved to his son.

Viktor smiled and kissed his hand. This time he pretended that his kiss was a basketball and as such bounced it in front of himself. He did this a few times before he pretended his father was the basket and threw a three pointer. His father waited, poised, caught the ball and pretend to slam dunk the kiss.

The school bell rang and Viktor picked up his lunch, waved to his father and thought his heart would explode into a thousand pieces and rain down like confetti in the final of the World Cup.
Perisperm

"Karate begins and ends with...?" Angh Park called out.

"Respect," cried the boys as they ran their warm up laps around the hall.

Angh Park had steadily been increasing the amount of warm up laps they did and, though the starting amount of ten had already been increased to twenty, it now went up even more to thirty laps.

"What doesn't exist in karate?" cried Angh Park.

No one replied. Finally, Viktor gasped: "Punching?"

"Yes, karate is not punching. But: In karate there is no first...?"

"Attack!" Cried the boys.

"Very good! What is there not in karate?"

"A first attack!"

"Now we run faster," cried Angh Park before he increased the pace.

"Karate is a helper of ...?"

"Justice!" Cried the boys.

"You are men of ...?"

"Dō," cried the boys.

"Ossu!" Angh Park called out and the boys all replied: "Ossu!"

"Now faster," called Angh Park and the group of red-faced, sweating, panting boys ran after him.

"Who is the Great Sensei?" Angh Park asked.

"Master Funakoshi Gichin," the boys replied, panting and gasping for air.

The boys stopped and huffed and staggered as Angh Park picked up a big bag and started distributing skipping ropes.

One boy said, "Haha, those are for girls!" And everyone laughed and no one wanted to take one of the skipping ropes. Angh Park told them that Rocky uses a skipping rope as it was one of the most important exercises in boxing. He then took one of the ropes and preformed a dizzying combination of step-variations, the rope rotating so fast that it was almost invisible. After this short display the ropes became interesting again and all the boys clamored to have one.

The ropes were soon employed in their warm up as they had to do a few jumps with them to further loosen up, then they had to lie down on the floor and stretch their legs.

They lay on their sides and had to raise one leg up and down twenty times. They then turned around and lifted the other leg up and down twenty times. Finally, they had to bend their legs while lying on their head and hold that pose for a minute before they had to sit down and stretch their inner thigh muscles.

Once this was done Angh Park picked up his kicking shield and reminded them of the kick exercise that he had taught them last lesson. He added that as they had been given the task of practicing the exercise at home, he wanted to see who had managed to master it by having a competition.

Everyone grew nervous.

They boys had to stand in a neat row toward the back of the hall. Angh Park stood in the middle and explained the rules. Every boy was to stand when it was his turn, balance himself on one leg and kick the kicking shield with the other. The winner would then be the one with not only the most kicks and the best balance, but also the smoothest performance.

The first boy in the series, Leon, looked both excited and pale and he went to Angh Park and stood on one leg.

"Yoi," exclaimed Angh Park, a word they had learnt the week before which meant 'Caution.' Leon looked at his karate teacher with a mix of fear and confusion.

"Leon! What is the first rule of karate?"

Leon put his leg down and said, "Karate begins and ends with respect."

"Correct. So what did you forget?"

Leon looked at him with his mouth open.

"Karate begins and ends with ...?" Repeated Angh Park.

"Respect," Leon said.

"So," asked Angh Park.

Leon cried "Oh!" He ran back to his position at the beginning of the line, formed the welcome position, said "Ossu", went forward to Angh Park and bowed. Angh Park also bowed, and then said, "Yoi!" Leon stood on one leg and performed four kicks before he lost his balance and fell over. He stood up and was just about to return to his place with the waiting boys when Angh Park told him to stop.

"Karate begins and ends with...?" The teacher asked him.

"Karate begins and ends with respect!" Leon said. He bowed, said "Ossu", waited until Angh Park also bowed, and only then did he return to his place.

In turn each boy performed the same ritual, bowing to Angh Park before they performed the kicks until they lost their balance, gave Angh Park a final bow, and then returned to their place in the line.

Even though Viktor managed seven kicks, he didn't win. A stocky boy named Mahbub, who looked exactly like Gerald van den Berg, managed fifteen kicks before he fell over. Viktor decided that he needed to eat more so he could have bigger legs to stand and kick on.

In the evening Viktor found he was too tired to practice. His back was sore and so were his legs, so sore in fact that he could only perform a laborious Sun Salutation before he sat down cross-legged and tried to control his mind.

He could hear his parents talking in the living room. When Viktor had come home after karate, he had found his father sitting at the living room table with vast quantities of paper and folders before him. He was in the midst of typing something into a calculator when Helena's voice called out from the kitchen: "I'll kill him!"

"Who's she talking about?" Viktor asked his father after he had given him a big hug.

"Oded," his father answered.

"Why is she going to kill Oded?" Viktor asked, horrified.

"Because he didn't take care of the receipts and now we've lost some," his father answered.

"We're missing twenty-four receipts!" his mother said as she came into the room. "Twenty-four! Could you go upstairs and see if he's in his apartment, Viktor?"

Viktor ran up, shouting as he looked for Oded that Helena wants to kill him so he better hurry up. Oded looked worried but he went upstairs anyway, Viktor excitedly following behind him.

Oded stood in the living room in front of the table, Helena scolded him and jabbered on about boring stuff with boring words like 'accounting', 'receipt', 'debt' and 'transaction'. When it became apparent that Oded was in fact not going to be killed, and as such nothing exciting was actually going to happen, Viktor grew bored and so headed to his room.

Later, after his Sun Salutation and with his stiff legs not being helped by his cross-legged position on the floor, there was a knock at his window and Viktor hurried to open it.

Cristobal flew in and threw himself on the bed.

"Oh my God, oh Phoenix!" He cried, panting. "We won! We won!"

Viktor was excited and nervous at the same time. "What?" He cried.

Cristobal was panting and gasping for air so Viktor waited until the little bird had caught his breath. He then gave him a candy bar and some orange juice and waited until Cristobal had gobbled it all up greedily.

"We've done it, Viktor," Cristobal exclaimed before he performed a few excited, happy circles around the room.

"What have we done?" Viktor asked, equally excited but perplexed by the whole affair.

"We won!"

"Won what?"

"We won the war!" Shouted Cristobal, turning pirouettes with joy.

"Cool," Viktor yelled out before he jumped up and down on his bed.

Cristobal performed some funny bouncing motions in the air as his tail feathers hummed loudly

Viktor flopped on the bed and Cristobal fell onto the pillow next to him, exhausted. "That's great," Viktor said. "Does that mean that everything's over and now everything's ok?"

"Yes," cried Cristobal.

"Cool," said Viktor.

"We killed Charles," announced Cristobal.

Viktor felt an icy coldness come over him and take away his breath. He sat up and blinked.

"What?" he asked.

"We killed Charles," Cristobal exclaimed, grinning.

"Charles the turtle?" Asked Viktor.

"Charles the Galapagos turtle. Chairman of the Reptiles Association Against Sola Fide for 190 years," confirmed Cristobal. "We killed him! We finally did it! It's a miracle! It's a happy day! It's the most wonderful day we've had in soooo many centuries!"

Viktor stared at Cristobal as goose bumps prickled all over his skin.

"What is it Viktor? Why aren't you rejoicing?" Cristobal cried out.

Viktor tried to say something. He opened his mouth, closed it again and felt like his head was completely empty.

"Charles is dead?" he asked.

"Yes! Didn't I just tell you! Isn't it amazing?"

Viktor tried to speak but only managed a few quiet mumbles before he finally formed the word, "Why?"

Cristobal looked at him aghast. "Why what?"

"Why did you kill him?" Viktor pressed out.

Cristobal slapped his forehead. "Didn't you listen to a thing I've said? I explained everything to you before, about how evil he was!"

"But... but...," stammered Viktor. "But he wasn't that bad! What happened wasn't that bad. You killed him because he offended you?"

Cristobal stood petrified, staring at Viktor. He finally began to speak, slowly and with an icy coldness in his little voice: "He didn't just insult us. He offended our king. And he offended Phoenix. He tried to say we were the same, to ridicule us with his lies. On top of all that he represented Phoenix as a liar. And he insulted us. Abused, humiliated, degraded, defiled, vilified, insulted and hurt us."

He was staring at Viktor with open horror as he explained this. "A judgment was made and written into an executive order in Abramskaya. The Grand Inquisitor of the Emperor Penguins himself, his Eminence the Campo XII, residing in the Holy Office, he ordered that the harpies were free to enact vengeance for this case of heresy."

"I thought that birds couldn't fight against reptiles, because birds can fly and reptiles are much too strong," said Viktor.

"Yes! But sometimes there are happy exceptions. Charles was old and weak and very slow! In addition, Charles was always careless with his escort, he wouldn't have alligators and crocodiles as protection, he said that it was too childish. Now he knows how childish it is!" Cristobal laughed and flew a few laps around the room.

Then he sat down again on the bed. "The harpies visited him last night, very late at around 3am when he was already sleeping. They quickly overwhelmed him and tore off the underside of his shell and then torn him to pieces! They wanted to eat him as well but that was banned. They are not allowed to feed on garbage. In addition, the punished should remain visible to the other heretics, so that the other reptiles can see what happens when they insult us and get scared."

Viktor looked horrified.

"Poor Charles," he said.

Cristobal almost fainted. "What did you say?" He shouted.

"I said, 'poor Charles'. He was nice and friendly and very old. He definitely didn't mean to insult you. Perhaps he would have apologized if you'd asked him."

Cristobal shook his head vigorously. "Viktor, the reptiles aren't always so kind, don't be fooled into thinking that! They have crocodiles! And alligators! And caimans! And poisonous snakes that bite you and then you die horribly! Then they swallow you!"

"But Charles didn't look as if he would do that," Viktor said.

"But Charles was their leader," shouted Cristobal. "Charles was the chairman, he always told the crocodiles and alligators and snakes that they should kill us!"

"So what happens now?" Asked Viktor.

"Nothing. They're scared now and so will stay away from us and our areas of responsibility."

"Aren't you afraid that they'll take revenge?"

Cristobal laughed. "Oh no, what can they do? We are now in a period of exterme alert, so we're already prepared. In addition, we can fly and they can't. Have you ever seen a flying crocodile?"

Viktor thought about it and was relieved when he couldn't remember any flying crocodiles.

"We're sure that they will kill a few flightless birds: kiwis and rheas and cassowaries, but that doesn't matter, they're not really important. And there are other flightless birds, like ostriches. They can defend themselves and run very fast."

"So it's all over now and all is well again?" Asked Viktor.

"Yes," cried Cristobal. "Everything is great! We finally have our peace!"

"Who's the new boss of the reptiles?"

"The new chairman of the Reptiles Association Against Sola Fide will be Edison as he's the vice-chairman. But you've seen him, he's small, smaller than a pigeon. How ridiculous! And now he won't dare to do anything because he knows for sure what will happen if he does and he's not stupid."

Viktor thought about it for a while, sighed and said. "Ok."

When Cristobal finally had to leave because he had an important appointment, Viktor went to his parents, said good night, went to his room, turned off his light, turned on his goldfish lamp and went to bed.

He looked at the goldfish and starfish as they glided on the walls and ceiling of his room and thought about the war, about the birds, about Charles, about the alligators and crocodiles. Then he thought about Hala and how she had had a starfish in her hair at the beach, and the sand which had glistened on her cheeks in the sunlight and how she had said that she wants to live by the sea. He thought that he too would like to live by the sea when he's older.

He'd build a boat and go out every day and go swimming. He'd be able to swim really well and so the waves wouldn't bother him. Then he'd go fishing and catch fish. He didn't like fish, but he knew that Hala liked them so he'd bring her fish and that would make her happy. He'd pick flowers for her as well because he knew she liked flowers and was always pleased with the rhododendron bush that grew in the backyard. She was always picking daisies as well and taking them to her mother. She was always filling the watering can with water and pouring water on the cloves and the daisies. She talked sometimes to the large hibiscus flowers, which Viktor though was silly, but which was also somehow nice. As he watched the goldfish and starfish circle around his room he remembered that Hala had said at the beach in Lantana Camara that she wanted to show him a movie about some kind of shells and so he resolved to remind her of her promise.
Embryogenesis

The next morning, Viktor brushed his teeth and then went into the kitchen only to find his father standing in front of the coffee machine once again.

"Did you sleep here again?" He asked, startled.

"Good morning to you too, Viktor!" His father said. "How happy I am to see you."

Viktor sat down and looked at his father as he poured water into the coffee machine.

"Do you not have a home anymore?" Viktor asked.

His father laughed and sat down. "Yes, I still have my apartment."

"Then why don't you live there?"

"We were working on the tax return until late again last night and so it was better for me to just sleep here."

"Do you live here now?" Viktor asked suspiciously.

"No," said his father simply. "Would you like it if I did live here?"

Viktor stared at him and was overwhelmed by this question.

At that exact moment his mother came in. Her hair was still loose from how she'd slept and so it flowed behind her like a red tail. This was very strange to Viktor as normally, once his teeth were brushed and he was seated in the kitchen, his mother would enter fully dressed and with her hair immaculately styled. To see her therefore with loose hair and still dressed in her dressing gown was very unusual.

"Mom, does dad live here now?" He asked her.

"No. He doesn't have a room here so where would he live? But if you annoy me and don't do what I tell you, then I'll throw you out and your father can have your room. He can play with your toys and read your books," she said.

His father laughed loudly and uproariously while Viktor stared at her in horror.

"That was a joke," his mother said, ruffling his hair.

"Viktor," said his father while he smeared a little butter onto a crisp bread, "Would you mind if I came over again tonight?"

Viktor thought, then said, "No."

"That makes me happy," his father said. Viktor looked at his father as he crunched a bite into the crisp bread.

"When are you coming over tonight?" Asked Viktor.

"After work," his father said, chewing.

"What time?"

"Hmmm. Maybe around half past five."

"All right," Viktor said.

His father smiled at him.

"How long will you stay?" Asked Viktor.

"Do you mind if I stay the night again?"

"No, it's ok."

"I was thinking," his father said. "Perhaps after work I come here, pick you and Mom up, then we can go and get something to eat and maybe go see a movie. What do you think?"

Viktor thought. "Where?"

"I don't know. There's a new Lebanese restaurant that your mother and I would like to try."

"Ok," said Viktor.

"And then we can go to the movies," his father said. "I think they are playing 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids' here at the moment, but your mum said you've already seen it."

"That's true... but I'd like to see it again," Viktor said excitedly.

"Perfect," his father said.

"Well, you'd better go and get ready for school," his mother said.

"Are you going to take me again?" Viktor asked his father.

"No, Oded's taking you today," Immanuel said.

"Why?"

"Because it didn't really go to plan yesterday. We went the wrong way and I forgot your lunch. Your mother suggested therefore that I shouldn't drive you anymore," his father said.

Viktor was already tugging on her sleeve and pleading, "Please, please let dad drive me again. Please!"

"Viktor, go get your backpack, Oded is waiting for you. Papa isn't dressed yet. By the time he's ready you'll already be late for school. Papa's coming this afternoon."

"Half past five," cried Viktor.

"Half past five," his father confirmed.

And indeed at 17:28, Viktor saw his father's car pull into Aquifolium Street, go passed Rocco's bar and stop in front of the tailor's shop.

Viktor ran down the stairs, flung open the front door and ran into his father's arms at exactly 35 seconds and 29 minutes past five.

"You're here," said Viktor.

His father picked him up and hugged him so tightly that Viktor thought all the air would escape from inside him and he would burst like a balloon before falling to the ground a bit of empty rubber.

At that exact moment his mother came down the stairs and Viktor was struck by how pretty she looked. Her hair was braided and it hung in a plait over her shoulder, the red presenting a nice contrast to her turquoise blue dress. The dress had only thin straps that showed off her muscular arms and its knee-length hem combined with her high heels to emphasize her strong calves. Viktor knew the dress as Helena had made it herself. Once it had been finished, Andala had added some small beads and embroidered a thin border of white oriental pattern to the hem and neckline. Viktor also noticed that Helena's huge chest was shown off well by the dress.

"Mum's looking very pretty today," he announced to his father.

His father laughed and said, "That's true, your mother looks breathtaking." Immanuel Abies went to Helena and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "And she smells fantastic as well," he added.

Viktor had his Bruce Wayne suit on. His mother had actually laid out jeans and a sweater for him, but Viktor was convinced that casual clothes were not fitting to the occasion.

They drove to the Lebanese restaurant and from a distance they could already see that it looked quite outlandish. The inside was equally ostentatious and the waiter wore a funny outfit and had a funny foreign accent, all of it combining with the decorations to make Viktor decide he didn't like the place.

He got a 'homemade Lebanese lemonade' to drink, which he thought was sour and odd.

Following their drinks, millions of little dishes were served to them, all of which were full of strange things, most looking like porridge, even though they tasted nothing like it. Viktor learned that one of them was a puree made from chickpeas. He dipped his bread into it suspiciously and found that it actually tasted quite acceptable. The eggplant puree tasted the same, odd but not all too bad. The pine nut puree however broke the trend, as this was one that he didn't like. After these three came a whole array of other purees that Viktor tried, deciding as he did that one of them, the cheese puree, tasted the best. He also found that he really liked the pomegranate seeds and was allowed to eat these all by himself.

After a while a large plate of meat came on which lamb had been cooked on a long skewer. His father took some off for him and put it on his plate.

As Viktor chewed the meat he looked at his parents.

His father had a suit on, as he always did when he went to work. But today it was a new suit, one that, along with a blue tie, seemed to shimmer as if the silk were alive. He saw as well that his father must have paid a visit to Samuel's, as his hair was cut a bit shorter and neater than it had been in the morning. His father took a sip from his glass and said something to his mother and they both laughed. Viktor looked at his mother, who sat completely relaxed, chewing elegantly as her eyes shone and he noticed that her eyelashes were very dark and very long. Viktor knew about mascara and that women used it when they wanted to be pretty. Her lips had a slight pink tinge and the light danced on them with a sparkle.

Viktor found it great to sit with his parents and eat while they both laughed and rejoiced. That made him happy.

He ordered a dessert, yogurt with honey and nuts, and while he ate it he thought that Cristobal would love it.

In the cinema Viktor sat between his father and his mother and watched 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' for the third time. He'd already been twice with Oded, Gem and Hala, but that didn't bother him as he loved the movie.

He watched while Amy, Nick, Ronald and Russell ran as little tiny mini people through the garden, were attacked by ants and almost eaten. His father said that he had already seen the film when he was younger. The film had been running almost every week for twenty years in the Hedera Helix cinema.

After the film they drove home. As they walked up the stairs, Viktor asked: "Are you going to have breakfast here tomorrow morning?"

"If you'd like me too, then yes."

Viktor nodded. "Yes, I'd like that."

His father picked him up, bent down as they walked through the door frame and carried him up to his room.

"Good night, Viktor. Sleep well," Immanuel Abies said.

Viktor embraced his father's leg, buried his face in his pants and squeezed tight. "Good night, Papa."

"I love you, Viktor."

Viktor kissed his father and said, "Me too."

Viktor had just started to fall asleep when he heard a strange muffled noise from outside and an angry, long-drawn out hoot. After that came the sound of some other birds, but it didn't sound like the chirping he normally heard from outside.

They were frantic. Hectic and fearful.

Viktor thought first that perhaps Cristobal would appear, but no knocking came from outside his window yet still the sound, the roar of the birds, sent a chill down his spine.

He went to the window and pulled the curtain carefully aside.

On his windowsill lay three magpies and in the dim light from the street he realized that they were lying in a dark pool, each with a weird twisted neck.

Suddenly he heard his mother scream, "Immanuel Immanuel!"

Something fell over and smashed, something that sounded both large and heavy.

He heard his father scream from his mother's bedroom, but it wasn't a normal scream, it was a terrible roar that echoed through the house and seemed to have no end.

Viktor ran to his door, yanked it open, ran down the hall and pulled his parents' bedroom door open.

One side of the wall was covered from end to end with a thick splash of blood. Viktor saw an arm lying on the ground and knew it was his mother's. The nails were painted blue like hers had been that night and the ring she wore on her middle finger caught the light of the lamp and glittered.

He saw his mother lying without an arm on the carpet, her intestines were torn from her stomach and spread before her. Her face was no longer there, but Viktor recognized the hair and the dress. Her scalp was hanging loose and from it he could see something grey and covered with dark, thick blood.

His father lay on the bed, or rather his body without the left leg and without the left hip and with nothing remaining of his whole left side. Viktor knew it was his father due to the suit the right side still wore.

His father's head lay on the floor at the foot of the bed, its eyes wide and white while the mouth formed a silent scream.

A huge pool of blood had formed on the white linen of his mother's bed and it dripped in slow motion from the cloth that hung over the edge of the bed, dripping into a pool on the floor.

In amongst all this carnage, amidst all the blood and limbs were quite a lot of crocodiles and alligators and caimans. A small caiman was just that second climbing in through the open window and it stopped to stare at Viktor. A crocodile swung its tail suddenly and it smashed into his mother's nightlight, sending it to the ground with a crash. Another crocodile was chewing on the leg of his mother. It jerked its head to one side and Viktor heard a loud crack.

From far away Viktor heard someone call his name. He winced.

_"Viktor! Go! Leave! Viktor, go! Go_ ," shouted Cristobal, hovering above his head from the ceiling.

_"Leave Viktor! Right now_ ," shouted Cristobal. " _Just leave_!"

Viktor closed his eyes.

Something flashed in his brain.
Viktor opened his eyes and found himself in the midst of endless snow and a wind that almost swept away his consciousness.

He began to scream and lost control of his body, his thoughts and his reactions.

He felt something warm running down his leg but didn't stop screaming.

The wind threw itself around him and he fell sideways and landed hard, bashing his chin on the floor.

Viktor buried his fingers into the ice, pounded his head on the floor and screamed until his voice broke and grated in his throat.

He continued to scream and punch the snow and ice.

He sat up, looked around, saw nothing but white, the distant hills and the silhouette of the withered tree.

He banged his fists on the ground, opened his eyes so far that his pupils stuck out –

And screamed.
