Summary:

“She likes to haunt my freezer,” Ilya says, as Shane shuffles out of his Reeboks and into a pair of Ilya’s house slippers.

It had seemed like a joke, when Ilya first brought it up. Their last morning at the cottage, dropped casually as they scrambled eggs together in the kitchen, a parting gag for the road. Oh, by the way, you know that dead mother I told you about? The one who killed herself and left me to find the body? Yes, okay, so, she is also a ghost and she haunts me. Well, my house, really. No, I am serious, Hollander! I am so serious, Russians do not joke, please! You do not believe me? You do not trust me? Fine. You will come over to my place some time and I will show you. She likes flowers, please bring daffodils.

Shane brought the daffodils.