You’ll see I’m wearing my red shoes. I don’t know why – they feel lucky, somehow, like nothing bad could ever happen when I’m wearing them. And carry some coloured powder paint or sand (you’ll see I’m using sugar crystals) to mark the points around the circle. Black, north; white, south; yellow, east; red, west. Scatter the sand all around the circle to pacify the little wind gods.

Now for the sacrifice – frankincense and myrrh. That’s what the Magi brought, you know, for the Jesus-baby in his crib. I guess if it was good enough for the Jesus-baby, then it’s good enough for us. And gold – well, I’ve got some chocolate squares wrapped in gold paper, which ought to be OK, don’t you think? Zozie says the Aztecs always used to offer chocolate to the gods. And blood, of course – though I’m hoping they won’t want much of that. A pinprick – ouch – OK, that’s all – light the incense and we’re ready to go.

Now sit in the circle, legs crossed, and take your peg-dolls one in each hand. You’ll need a bag of red sugar crystals to scatter on the floor for drawing in.

First comes the sign of Lady Moon Rabbit. Pantoufle can keep that sign for me, here at the edge of the chalk circle. Then we draw Blue Hummingbird Tezcatlipoca, for the sky on my left side, and Red Monkey Tezcatlipoca, for the earth, on yours. Bam stands guard on that side, with the sign of One Monkey next to him.

There. That’s ready. Isn’t it fun? We did this once before, remember? But something went wrong. It won’t this time. This time we’re calling the right wind. Not the Hurakan, but the Changing Wind, because there’s something here we need to change.

OK? Now draw the spiral sign in the red sugar on the floor.

Now for the invocation. I know you don’t know the words, but you can join in the song all the same if you’d like. Sing—

V’là l’bon vent, v’là l’joli vent

That’s right. Softly, though.

Good. Now the peg-dolls. That one’s Roux. You don’t know Roux, but you will soon. And that’s Maman, see? Maman in her pretty red dress. Her real name is Vianne Rocher. That’s what I whispered in her ear. And who’s this, with the mango hair and the big green eyes? That’s you, Rosette. That’s you. And we’ll stand them all here in the circle together, with the candles burning and the sign of Ehecatl in the middle. Because they belong together, like the people in the Nativity house. And soon they’ll be together again, and we can be a family—