Dora is meditating as deeply as she can to hold Agnes in a space of strength for what is coming. The sisters begin to hum a song quietly. It lilts in and out of the footsteps. They hear another set follow behind them and then a third, smaller. They somehow seem to be coming from the belly of the building, from the guts of the basement and from an echoey spiderwebbed attic – all at the same time. Mr Udnam shakes. Agnes nods at her husband to give the man a throw. He cannot pass out yet. Archie awkwardly drapes a woollen shawl around his shoulders. In all the years she has practised. In all her days! It turns out we each only have one true calling! For some it is a love affair, limbs entwined. For others it is their child, or a house that meant more to them than any other, or a job. Saving someone unexpectedly or overcoming fear. For little Agnes Campbell – it was a natural-born skill that made all the other children not want to play with her. It made her afraid in every class she ever sat in – that one day she’d be pointed out and dragged from the classroom and taken to prison or the mudflats. She has practised day in and day out regardless. Let people know through her work – that this world is far from all there is. Energy resides in flesh only as long as the earthly plane ties us to it. Those we love or miss or need or hate or want answers from – they are not gone, they are just not here in physical form. Agnes has played her part. Healing those so weary with grief they cannot go on. She can feel last remnants of thunder rumbling across the dark crags of Arthur’s Seat. Little kids unable to sleep, faces pressed to windows or under blankets. She wants badly to hold the two younger sisters. But you can’t do that with spirit. What she can do is hear them. Do whatever she has to do to allow this to play out. She feels other spirits coalesce. Those who have looked after her all through her childhood. They too are gathered in this room and worried for her. Archie’s ancestors stand behind him. Dora, too, is surrounded by the people of her past. It is how it is – all of the ancestors convene, especially when we need them. A light appears behind the sisters, leading all the way back to the one light.

– Dear God, let these girls finally reach their true home tonight.

– Amen, says Dora.

Archie crosses himself.

He never does!