“OK, but –” the woman’s voice suddenly takes on a tinge of anxiety – “shouldn’t we be able to see her by now? Didn’t she say she’d wait over there on the harbour wall?”

The man takes a torch from his pocket and flashes it over to some place off to the side. Some place Violet and I can’t see through this tunnel into the past.

“What woman?” Violet says, turning to me. “What woman are they talking about, Herbie? Who is Wendy?”

But all I can do is give a shrug to end all shrugs, and look back at the scene before us. The scene where now Violet’s parents are running.

“Wendy!” Peter Parma is calling. “Wendy, where are you?”

And then the scene switches to the harbour wall, where Vi’s parents are staring down into the water below. Beside them are two pairs of shoes, but it’s clear they have more urgent things to think about than changing out of their boots.

“Where is she, Peter? Where’s our daughter?”

Peter Parma’s face takes on a sudden expression of fear. “Sebastian!” he says. “He said I’d pay a heavy price if I kept my discoveries from him. But surely he wouldn’t…”

“What do you mean?” Violet’s mum looks frantic. “He threatened you?”

“Wasn’t there another boat?” says Peter, pointing down the quayside to the water. A single motor launch is bobbing there. “There were two when we got here.”

Just then, far out on the horizon, a motor coughs into life. A small fishing boat is just visible in a bank of approaching mist. It turns and heads out into the open ocean.

“Oh, dear gods!” Violet’s dad gasps. “Sebastian, what have you done?”

Then Violet’s parents are running.

“No!” says Violet, still clutching the egg and shaking her head. “This isn’t right. I wasn’t taken away in a boat. I was left in the hotel.”

Now, through the tunnel, we see Violet’s parents running down steps in the harbour wall, to the motor launch. In a moment, the engine roars and the launch – with Violet’s parents aboard – speeds off to where the fishing boat has already vanished from view.

“Mum, Dad!” Violet calls, tears streaming down her face. “You’ve misunderstood. I’m right here! Don’t go!”

But both boats have disappeared in the bank of fog.

The scene fades as the tunnel collapses.

The mist begins to dissipate.

“No!” Violet cries. “This is wrong. I don’t want to see the past. I want to see now. I want to see where my parents are NOW!” And her face twists in fury as she grips the egg even tighter.

The mist roars back around us, angry red now, whipping Violet’s hair, and nearly throwing me off my feet. A new tunnel starts to form.