The Outside Girl sat next to us on the bench, watching us like a totally unskilled spy who didn’t even know how to spy. I know how to crochet, she said, and then Mama L sounded just like the Mean Aunt and she said, Aren’t I supposed to get some time alone with him? I mean legally, which was basically her new favorite word. The Outside Girl looked hurt which was weird and she said, I’m just doing my job. I’m trying to defuse the tension. I’m trying to be an advocate for Perley. Did it ever occur to you that I’m not your enemy, Ms. Marshall? But Mama L said, No, that didn’t occur to me, and she threw a flaming axe at the Outside Girl’s forehead or that’s the kind of look she gave her. The Outside Girl moved to the next bench, but she was still close enough to hear what we were saying.

Mama L took a breath. Are you cold, Perley? she asked me. Yes, I said. Are you too cold to learn to knit right now? she asked. No, I said, because something about the way that Mama L held that yarn so solemnly, so royally, made me want to knit so bad. Mama L took out two gleaming needles like Bilbo Baggins’s dagger. Her fingers flashed and there were loops up and down. Then she taught me this rhyme, In through the front door, Round to the back, Down through the garden, And off pops Jack. Every time she said And off pops Jack, she put a loop on the other needle and pretty soon I could do it, too, because I am a genius.

But there was a problem. I knew that Mama L wanted to tell me something besides Down through the garden, besides And off pops Jack, I knew that she wanted to tell me something that she couldn’t tell me with the Outside Girl sitting right there listening and totally wishing she could be our knitting friend when all she could do was crochet and who even cares about crocheting, no one even knows who invented it, I could actually hear the ancient fishermen laughing at her. But still, we were under heavy surveillance.

So I said to Mama L, Send.

What? she asked.

Don’t you remember ElfQuest? I asked.

Of course I do, she said. I read those books with Mama K before you were born. Didn’t like them all that much, but I read them.

Whatever you want to tell me, just send what’s in your mind to my mind, I said. I’ll hear you. I’ll understand what to do.