Aila put on her parka, snowpants and boots to go to Cal’s house. She stepped outside the double doors of her apartment building into the dense ice fog, so thick she could barely see the cars at the far end of the street. An intake of cold air make her cough. She pulled her scarf up over her mouth and nose, and stepped carefully down to the ice-covered sidewalk. Aila looked east to Matthew Street and was momentarily blinded by the sun.

She crossed the road, looking for those crazy cabs or SUVs that seemed to speed no matter what. Nothing. She walked to the shoulder-high snow banks, then around them, and up a gravel-sprinkled driveway, a shortcut to Matthew. The wind was brisk and for a few minutes she walked backwards into the cold, still puffing with the exertion of walking uphill.

Anxiety continued churning in her gut: indecision, fear, the future – what did Cal have to show her? All he’d said was that she should come ASAP , and that the package with her name on it would change her whole view of life.