She turned on the coffee-maker in the kitchen and returned with two cups and saucers and a little pot of sugar cubes and a tiny pitcher of cream on a small black tray. The cups and saucers were white with little black carnations hand-painted on them. The sugar pot was decorated in a common blue china motif. The knob of its lid was gold. The little pitcher was silver. David picked up one of the cups.

"Where did you find this creature?"

"Paris. Last year. When I was on my sabbatical. I found them at a shop in a back alley. It was one of the hardest shops to find. I was fortunate to find it." A slight smile of triumph briefly lighted her features. Then she concentrated her eyes on David. "Why do you ask?"

"I was just curious."

"Oh." Janet rolled the dice and studied the board. She bore off two more stones. "When we're done, we'll talk about the shadow," she said. "Is that okay?"

"I think I would like to play another game."

"Not me. I'd rather talk about the dark side."

"I'm tired of the dark side," said David. "Aren't there other things we can talk about? What about the weather - that's a fail-safe topic. 'How's the weather today?' 'Fine.' 'Is it going to rain?' 'Maybe.' Perfect."

"I'm sick to death of weather," Janet answered wearily. She brushed her hair off her shoulders. She had dark brown hair. She felt it was a material correlative of the dark side.

"Janet, what did you mean when you said, 'I can make walls talk?'"

She excused herself to retrieve the coffee. She returned with a white plastic coffee-pot and poured out a cup for each of them.

"I have a story. Would you like to hear it?"

"Certainly."