fear

ivan woke up he was in a strange room he wasn't afraid this was surprising especially to himself because ivan was afraid of everything but in this strange room he felt no fear baba yaga entered the room ivan wasn't afraid "is everything all right?" she asked "yes," ivan answered casually "except that i would like a canary instead of a parrot i do not care for its inane jabbering and would prefer a sweetly warbling canary" she looked him in the eye "that is not possible" "i think it is very possible" ivan stared back boldly "no" ivan blinked he felt all his fears returning like snakes waking up in the sun or ice cubes melting in a glass of lemonade the old woman closed the door and poor ivan collapsed whimpering on the floor as the parrot squawked happily and kept up its chatter all through the afternoon as ivan expired / after a while the witch returned and replaced the parrot with a canary