Chapter 25I boarded the number twenty-three motor coach and rode it for five or six minutes. I disembarked at Krechma Street, walked north a block to Spietszka and began to look for number ninety-eight, second floor. The houses sat neatly, looking well-tended with the remnants of cultivated gardens. Unlike the inner part of towns I was used to seeing, there was no laundry hung outside or animals kept in the yard. Quiet stateliness permeated the neighbourhood. The exterior of the three-story home had been painted recently. I glanced up at the second floor windows and thought I saw some movement, the jostling of a curtain perhaps. My mouth had gone dry and my heart felt like I'd been skipping rope for ten minutes. I trod up the steps to the front door, turned the heavy glass knob and stepped
