She crossed the lawn and scaled the steep concrete steps as quickly as she could.

The realization that this entire adventure had been a grave mistake, which had been nagging faintly at the corners of Rhiannon’s attention from the moment she boarded the bus to come here, fully erupted the instant she crossed the threshold of Hyacinth’s house. What she was feeling was not the threat of immediate danger, but something vague, something dizzying in its menace. The nearest Rhiannon had ever felt to this sensation was déjà vu. She wondered if she had perhaps dreamed this reunion with Hyacinth years ago and was just now discovering that her dream had been an omen, a warning to avoid this detour on her life path. But it was too late now to heed.

“Just throw your coat anywhere,” Hyacinth said as she shut and bolted the door. “Would you like something? Water or tea?”

“No, thank you.” She kept her coat on.

Hyacinth moved down the little hallway and snapped on the kitchen light, revealing a countertop piled with unwashed dishes and rows of hanging cupboards with their doors open, flaunting their vacancy. Queen Midas was evidently nearer to Old Mother Hubbard.

Glancing discreetly through the archway to her right, Rhiannon saw a living room that was empty except for a folding lawn chair whose seat held a stack of rumpled magazines. The kitchen was as lacking in furniture and appliances as it was in foodstuffs. Rhiannon noted a small hotplate and a barstool stationed before the warped countertop. And that was all.

“I apologize for the state of the house. Don’t think I’m not aware of the fact that it has seen better days.”

“Oh…I…” stammered Rhiannon. “Are you in the process of flipping it?” she asked, her voice soaked in hope.

“No,” Hyacinth replied. “I’ve been living here for some time now.”

“What about your money?” Rhiannon immediately regretted her choice of words and scrambled to reframe her panicked interrogation. “What I mean is, surely you can afford to live a bit more comfortably than this.”

“I have before. I hope to again. But the money’s gone.”

Rhiannon wished that the woman’s tone wasn’t so cheerful.

“I’m confused. I thought you had this excellent advisor, that the advice he’d been giving you was sound.”

“Oh, it is. It’s very sound indeed. The fault lies with me, not my advisor.”

“How so? Did you not take their advice?”

“For a long time, I did. As my father did before me and his father before him. But it’s all about correctly interpreting the message. That’s the key. I’ve not been interpreting the messages properly, obviously. Or maybe it’s that the nature of the messages has changed.”

“I don’t follow.”

Hyacinth stood leaning against the cluttered counter, studying her guest, scrutinizing her.