Jess locates the nightdresses and selects a fresh garment from the pile. When she raises several of the clean, thick towels from the rear of the deep linen cupboard, an unusual object at the back of the dark space catches her eye. A collection of sticks and a wooden bowl.

Jess creates a shadowy gap in the wall of towels, bed linen and nightwear, and reveals another small shrine. Similar to the installation she discovered in the dining room tunnel the night before, this wheel is woven from sticks. A grotesque and primitive arrangement that has been deliberately hidden. At the centre of the circle lies another aged linen parcel, stained by what resembles old blood.

Aghast, Jess can only stare for a while at the grotesque centrepiece, the parcel, before reaching inside the cupboard to gingerly finger the dirty linen bundle.

If Jess was to look around the open door of the closet and into the bathroom, she would see Flo’s entire body gradually rise from the bath water at the very same time that she raises the parcel.

Flo maintains a cross-legged position. In mid-air.

Flo levitates above the steaming water.

Wall tiles are visible beneath her folded legs, as skinny as a calf’s. Nothing supports her weight. She sits in empty air. Her wasted arms rise at her sides and she turns her palms to face the ceiling.

Only Izzy can see how much Flo has altered physically. The woman’s aged face appears deranged and fearsome, yet somehow elated at the same time. And as Flo grins so horribly she reveals yellow teeth, embedded in black gums.

Izzy watches in childlike awe to the beat of the water dripping from Flo’s hovering body. And, as if instructed by Flo, she also holds her little arms and hands in the same position as the elderly woman who is suspended above the old bathtub.

Wincing with distaste, Jess unwraps the parcel. Hair-clippings, a man’s cuff-links and a pair of desiccated, shrivelled lumps, about the same size as human eyes or testicles, lie inside the stiff wrapper.

Disgusted, Jess drops the parcel, then shoves it back onto the twig-wheel and seals the shrine with a stack of towels. She backs away from the cupboard and slowly closes the door.

Matching the smooth speed of the closing door, Flo’s levitating form descends through the air. And, with a rippling sound, her body re-enters the water of the bath.

Distracted by her shock, Jess hasn’t seen the unnatural movements of her patient and pushes the cupboard door fully closed until she hears a click.

Inside the bath, Flo resembles her old self again. She turns her head to Jess on the landing. ‘Out now.’

As if summoned by her master, Izzy leaps off the stool to offer assistance.

24