Abruptly and as if triggered by the raised voices of her carers, Flo’s own voice rises through the octaves. ‘Erce! Erce! Erce!’

‘Come away, Izz. Now!’

‘Erce! Erce! Erce!’ Flo cries out again.

Morag is unruffled and casually tosses a comment to Jess. ‘She does that sometimes. Means you’ve disturbed her.’

‘Izzy, what did I just ask you to do? Come away. Now!’

Izzy continues to ignore her mother and only stops smiling at Flo to chorus the old woman’s cries. ‘Erce! Erce! Erce!’

Morag announces self-importantly, ‘She was a clever girl, our Blossom. All them languages she could speak. Still does. Bits of them. You can see how many books she’s got. Piles. Half ain’t in English. Shame it comes to this, though, eh? Don’t matter how many books you’ve read.’

Jess stomps across the room to snatch Izzy’s arm and pull her to a safe distance. ‘Come away, I said. You deaf? We gotta get going.’

Old Flo watches Izzy being tugged away and sends the girl on her way by shrieking another, ‘Erce! Erce! Erce!’ Before encoring with, ‘Gods cannot be contained inside walls.’

Izzy yanks her arm free of her mother’s hand and races back to stand behind Flo’s chair. ‘I want to help with Flo.’

At first startled, then embarrassed by her daughter’s uncharacteristic disobedience, Jess manages to gather herself enough to wither Izzy with a stern look. ‘Get here.’

Slowly and sulkily, Izzy stomps to Jess but only to pass by her and head out of the living room.

Delighted by the spectacle, Morag roars with laughter. ‘Little Madam! That’ll be Blossom’s influence!’

Jess follows her sulking daughter to the front door. With her fingers gripping the latch, she hesitates and turns to call to Flo from the hallway. ‘Flo. See you tonight.’

Flo doesn’t react. Her attention has drifted once more to the garden and the early morning sun that blesses it.

‘Bye bye, Flo!’ Izzy calls out.

In the distance Flo’s head turns swiftly at Izzy’s summons. She beams from her chair and waves a twisted hand before using it to trace a circle, clockwise, in the air. This she crosses with invisible spokes. ‘Merry meet.’

Jess can only watch dumbfounded and a little hurt. An anguish that only increases when Izzy fashions the same circle in the air and crosses it with spokes. ‘Merry part!’

‘They’s like two peas in a pod!’ Morag roars.

With a quick downstroke of her own hand Jess angrily interrupts Izzy’s gesticulations, then hurries the recalcitrant girl out the door, one hand applying pressure to her back. A touch that infuriates Izzy enough to shout at her mother, ‘Stop pushing!’

19