Could the Lakeside Courtyard act as a filter and send applicants to Bennett? Enclosed is a list of professions and trades Jesse Walker feels should be filled, especially since the offices and businesses already exist. I do not think all these professional vacancies need to be filled immediately if a suitable candidate is not found, but I think an effort must be made if we want to build a mixed community here in the same way you are creating one near Lakeside.

—Tolya

P.S. Barbara Ellen is doing well. I have encouraged her to write to her family, and I was told by a Crow working in the post office that she did send a letter on Sumor 26, but she may not write as often as her family desires because she is busy making new friends and is equally busy taking care of all the house animals that were left behind. With so many pets, as she calls them, needing new homes—or at least new caretakers—she suggested giving a dog, cat, or bird to every new resident as a welcome gift. I am trying to discourage this idea without telling her that new terra indigene residents might think she was giving them an easy dinner.

CHAPTER 3

Thaisday, Messis 2

Out of sight of the females in the apartment, Simon paused at the open doorway and listened.

“That does it for this place,” Eve Denby said. “This cream color isn’t exciting, but it’s a good neutral, and doing all the apartments in the same color sure makes it easier.”

“Personal touches will add the color,” Twyla Montgomery said. “Besides, I don’t think any of the tenants are going to want to go out and spend the money right now to buy different paint and do this work again on their own.”

“You got that right. My instructions were to clean and paint and make sure everything was in working order. The plumbing works. So does the electricity. And may the gods bless them, the Others purchased new appliances for all the apartments, including a washer and dryer installed in each of the basements of the two stone apartment buildings as well as the two-family.”

“One washer and dryer shared by the folks living in four units? You planning to assign laundry days for each unit?”

“If it comes to that. I’m thinking more of a sign-up sheet to reserve the washers and dryers if someone wants or needs a particular time or day. Besides, there are coin-operated machines in the Courtyard’s social center, as well as a launderette in the Bird Park Plaza. Tenants can enjoy cooperation and convenience, or they can take their laundry elsewhere.”

Simon thought that sounded fair. A laundry pecking order. Not that dissimilar to feeding on a deer—the dominant members of the pack had first choice. It would be interesting to see how the females taking up residence in the apartments sorted out their dominance.

While this talk about laundry was interesting, up to a point, he had a reason for coming over to the apartment building before going into the meeting to talk about the e-mail he and Vlad had received from Tolya Sanguinati.

He stepped into the apartment and waited for the two females to notice him.

“Mr. Wolfgard.” Eve wiped her paint-smeared hands on a rag. “Give it a day for the paint to dry, and Sierra and her girls can move in.”

“Kitchen is clean, cupboards and floor, and the dishes and the rest are put away,” Twyla added. “It was thoughtful of you to supply the basics.”

Simon shrugged. The Business Association had a lengthy discussion about how much they should provide to their tenants. In the end, the decision was based on the humans who would be living in those dens. Ruthie and Karl Kowalski had already lived together in a different place before being driven out, so they hadn’t needed much beyond the appliances when they moved into the top floor of the two-family house that sat between the two stone apartment buildings. But Merri Lee hadn’t had anything of her own but clothing, books, and personal items, and Nadine Fallacaro had been burned out of her den and lost everything but a couple of boxes of business papers. So he and Henry and Vlad had gone to the Bird Park Plaza with Ruthie and Eve Denby to purchase basics: glasses, silverware, cooking utensils, four-place settings of dishes, pots and pans, bed linens, and bath towels. They purchased the basics for each of the eight apartments, even though only four were about to be occupied.

Maybe five. That was the reason he had come over here—to get an answer about the fifth apartment.

He looked at Twyla. “Have you decided which den you want?” Lieutenant Montgomery had taken a ground-floor apartment in the building to the right of the two-family house. Sierra Montgomery and her pups had been assigned a second-floor apartment on the opposite side of the building—at Montgomery’s request. Nadine Fallacaro and Merri Lee had taken the ground-floor apartments of the other stone building.

There had been some hesitation in agreeing to have two females residing in a building that had no male occupants, but they were across the street from the Courtyard, where there were plenty of sharp-toothed males who would respond to a call for help, and two of the males who were residing in the other buildings now owned by the Courtyard were police officers. Three if they counted Michael Debany, who wasn’t quite living with Merri Lee yet but was around enough to be counted as male protection.

This not quite living with a female was being watched with great interest by most of the Courtyard’s residents. Until now, the Others had never interacted so closely with humans as to be able to observe mating rituals.

And Simon had more reason than the rest to observe those rituals. He found it encouraging that his living arrangement with Meg was so similar to Debany’s arrangement with Merri Lee because it meant a Wolf behavior didn’t have to change in order to be viewed as human.