“Yes!” said Sina. “Yes!”

“Did you call the Canadian Space Institute?” I asked.

“No. As I said, I’ve never told anyone. And no one else has ever mentioned seeing such a thing to me. I’ve carried it in here.” She pointed to her head, then her heart, then her head again. There seemed to be some confusion with Mrs. Hornby about where she was carrying it. “All these years.”

Well, we stood there the way people do when gathered after a disaster, as if not knowing quite what to say about it, but being united by it all the same.

Then Miss Macy spoke. “I was a Brownie leader, you know. Am a Brownie leader.”

We looked at her but said nothing. It was just like Miss Macy to start spouting non sequiturs at such a moment.

“I need to take the girls hiking and camping.” Miss Macy went on as if we hadn’t just heard the most extraordinary story. “Would you mind it if I took them on your property, Sina? It’s so big, you see, and there must be so many promising places. And we could go for little practice hikes before camping to make sure the wee things are up to it. As you know, I walk there often myself, but I want to see how far my little troop can go.”

“Uh, all right,” said Sina and then jerked her shoulders straight as she came out of the spell.

“Yes, I must be off,” said Mrs. Hornby and picked up her mail and trotted out, leaving us with dozens of unanswered and probably unthought-of questions.

But we hadn’t time for them because Miss Macy went on, “You see, I’d really like to take them out soonish. The weather’s so fine and they’re out of school but will be back in school during the summer when we’d usually go. Would that be okay? Could I just come over now and then with a trial tyke when I get a second and do a little preliminary scouting?”

Two things occurred to me here. First, what did Miss Macy mean by “when I get a second”? As far as I knew, all she ever did was hang out at Brookman’s and go for endless walks on our property. Did she mean take a break from her coffee breaks? Take time out from her long walks for a long walk? Second, it was amazing that anyone would entrust their daughter to her, especially to go on potentially dangerous hikes or overnight camping trips. But then again, I knew from bitter experience that no one ever wanted to be a Brownie leader. Our school had tried to get a Brownie troop going when I was seven, and no one, but no one, would come forward. Of course there was a war on. Women were having to take men’s jobs as the men were shipped off to fight, so there were few left to tend the home fires let alone lead Brownies. And when they did get home from some job or other they had taken over for a man and had made dinner, helped with homework, done the laundry etc., the last thing they wanted to do was head out to the school gym to lead a bunch of seven-year-old girls in campfire songs and lecture them on the virtue of cookie sales. But apparently now they had Miss Macy. Maybe they were so grateful that if they lost a Brownie or two in the process they figured what the heck.