“He said he had a friend, his friend was a bear too, and his friend was stuck way up in the hedge, he climbed up there and couldn’t get down, and he needed me to help him get down because he was scared when the daytime came people would see him up there and want to shoot him and he had to get down while it was still dark, and I had to help him.” Another pause.

“So did you?”

“Oh yes, the bear that came to my room said it was very important, so he helped me climb out the window and he carried me down to the ground and then I took him to the garage and he helped me carry the ladder over to the hedge where his friend was. His friend was crying and crying.

“So,” and she took a deep breath, “I climbed up the ladder because the bear was too scared, and I told him to stop crying and he did, so then I carried him down to the ground again, and he was really happy.”

“What happened after that?”

“They helped me put the ladder back in the garage and then the first bear carried me up to my room and put me back in the window and I went to bed.”

She stopped, considering, then decided the story wasn’t finished. “They said thank you, though, and they said they’d come back sometime and do something for me, so I guess I’ll see them again.”

I was terribly pleased by her imagination; always she had more than Elliott, who was likely to tell the same story over and over when he found a particular favourite, and it was rarely his own, but one I had read to him.

I made all the beds and often carried laundry downstairs to the basement and the washer and dryer; Katie trailed after me everywhere, asking questions — why was I washing my nightgowns, how did nightgowns get dirty anyway when you only wore them to bed, what time was it, what time would Elliott be coming home from school, how long away from now was that, (I think she must have picked up my mania about time, for it seemed always to be on her mind) and what would we do with the rest of the day? I had to listen, answer all her questions, and I had to do it carefully, not flippantly, or she would be hurt.