She reaches out and takes the book from my hands and curls her fingers around it.

‘I miss my mum too.’

My heart starts to crack and I bite down hard on my lip to try and stop myself from crying.

‘I’m sure you do.’

‘Do you still remember her?’ she says, in her little voice.

I nod slowly. ‘I do but it was a long time ago now and I wish I’d made a memory jar like Rusty as I’m sure that I’ve forgotten a lot.’

Lola traces her finger over the jar embossed on the front. I wait for her to say more but she opens the book and turns each page following Rusty’s journey again on her own.

I look over at Arnold, not knowing if I should offer to read it again or to read something else, and he does a little movement with his hand to say just let her be. She looks at the pictures again and again and we wait for her to say something, but she doesn’t.

When it gets to the end of the session and Lola has read the book twice to herself, Arnold starts to pack the other books away.

‘It’s time for us to go now. But we’ll be back next week. Would you like to keep any books until then? We’ve got a good one about a fairy who gets stuck in a tree, or one about a talking pencil case?’

‘This one,’ says Lola. She clutches the book to her chest. ‘I want to keep this one.’

‘It’s a good choice. Rusty is a very wise squirrel,’ I say.

We get up out of our stools and say goodbye to Lola before heading out into the hallway where Kate is waiting for us.

‘She spoke to you,’ she says, trying to keep her excitement at bay. ‘Does that mean it’s working?’

‘It means it’s early days.’ Arnold pats her on the arm. ‘But it’s a good sign. Hang in there.’

I do a double thumbs up with my hands and Kate grins. I can’t stop thinking about it all the way back to the library.

Claudia’s there talking to Adrian when we make it back.

‘How did it go tonight?’ she asks, whilst she helps us unload the books back into the storage cupboard. Lola’s a pupil at Claudia’s school and whilst she hasn’t taught her, she knows what happened to her mum.

‘Yes, it went well,’ says Arnold, with a pause. ‘Lola spoke to us.’

‘She did?’ Claudia stops what she’s doing and looks up and we explain what happened. ‘Small steps, but such an encouraging start. Which book was it?’

‘One about a squirrel and a memory jar,’ I say.

‘Had us both going. I even shed a tear.’ Arnold raises an eyebrow and heads off to go and talk to Adrian.