Thousand: Six Hundred Forty-Three

nervousness, maybe because. No, it couldn’t be because anybody said anything funny. “Go ahead,” the thing says after a silence. “Go on in.” “I thought you wanted to go in.” The thing laughs again, longer this time, and the girl doesn’t. “Are you afraid?” the thing asks. “Of you?” “Of anything?” “I guess I’m afraid of tigers,” the girl says. The thing stands up on those weird gangly legs and walks past her, the girl turning so it doesn’t get behind her. It settles down. “There’s no one left at the dormitory, you know,” it says. “What makes you think