A Werewolf for the Residents' Meeting

How it begins

The werewolf requested curtains in writing.

Mina appreciated that.

Most tenants considered a leaking tap sufficient reason to send seven voice messages before breakfast.

Lucas Reed supplied measurements, fabric requirements and an apology for the unusual specification.

Moonproof.

Mina read the word twice.

Then she called him.

"Is that a brand?"

"No."

"A thermal rating?"

"Not exactly."

"Then I may need an explanation."

He arrived at the residents' meeting carrying biscuits and a sample of very heavy blue cloth.

For the first twenty minutes, he was the most considerate person in the room.

He moved chairs.

He listened to the treasurer.

He did not interrupt the discussion about bicycle storage even when it reached its third example.

Mina had begun hoping the curtain problem was simple.

Then the developer unveiled the rooftop observatory proposal.

Lucas put down his biscuit.

The projector showed his flat transformed into a glass viewing room.

"An extraordinary opportunity," the developer said.

"For whom?" Mina asked.

"Everyone."

Lucas looked at the blue cloth.

After the meeting, he stayed to stack chairs.

"I can move."

"You haven't been asked to."

"People usually prefer it."

Mina looked at the redevelopment plan.

His bedroom was labeled underutilized space.

The application described the building as empty after dark.

She knew the night nurse in flat six, the baker on the second floor and the man who could not sleep unless he heard his neighbor's television.

Nothing about the building was empty.

"What happens under a full moon?" she asked.

Lucas took a breath.

Then he told her.

She listened without moving the chairs.

When he finished, she picked up the cloth sample.

"We'll need a better supplier."

He looked surprised.

"That's your first question?"

"No," Mina said. "It's the first one I can usefully solve."

Outside, the moon rose above a building full of people who had already found reasons to stay.