Lady Kraken raises one bony finger and points upwards.

“It’s my cameraluna,” she explains. “In the tower. It lets me keep up with the doings of our strange little town.”

I blink and don’t know what to say. What’s a cameraluna?

“Let us pay close attention for a moment,” says Lady Kraken, turning a brass wheel on a black control box attached to the arm of her chair. The model of Seegol’s Diner grows larger as we zoom in, almost filling the tabletop. But with that it grows fainter, too, and it’s hard to see anything clearly now. Lady Kraken leans in closer.

“Now what, Mr Lemon, do you suppose that is?” She points her crooked finger at a patch of darkness to one side of the pier.

I lean in closer too, wondering what I’ll see, and what’s expected of me. The image starts to fade in and out, but then I see it: something darker than the shadows, crouching on the pier. Something big. It begins walking – no, creeping – towards the diner. It seems human, until…

“Is that a tail?” I gasp.

Two lamp-like orbs blink in the darkness.

“Are those eyes?”

“Then you do see it?” Lady Kraken grabs my arm. “Mr Lemon, tell me we’re not dreaming!”

The shape rears up, and I see rows of what could be quivering spines, and something that might be a grasping claw. But before I can be sure, the image on the table flickers, fades one last time and then winks out. The shaft of light from the ceiling is extinguished and the dust motes collapse.

“Curse the clouds!” shrieks the old lady, frantically twisting the brass wheel in both directions. But nothing happens. The table is just an ordinary table again, with a thick layer of dust on its surface.

It’s very dark in the room now, but there is a paraffin lamp near by, turned low. I give a polite little cough and turn it up, filling the room with warm light. Lady Kraken is still staring at the table.

“Did you see it, Mr Lemon?” she says again. “Did we?”

I scratch my head, making my cap go all wonky. “I saw something,” I say. “But I still don’t know how I could see anything at all. What’s a cam— a cameraluna?”

Lady Kraken lets go of the control wheel and narrows her eyes, as if seeing me properly for the first time.

“There are lenses in the tower on the roof. Special lenses. They collect the light of the moon, and project it down here. From the tower I can see the whole town. Well, almost the whole town…”

The old lady grasps the paraffin lamp and holds it up. I sense the shadows stretch up behind me as she wheels closer.

“Remind me, Mr Lemon,” says Lady Kraken. “How long have you been here?”

“Um. About five minutes?”