Ducking under a low branch, I step just inside the trees, on to the crackly, brown forest floor, the child’s cries a siren call. Leaves crunch beneath my feet, decades of winter seasons lying dead on the ground as I dodge the sharp ends of branches that threaten to tangle in my hair, following the distant cries. Brambles claw at my legs as I take another step in, trying to follow the sound but the further in I go, the quieter the cries become until I can no longer hear them. I find I can see the house from here, can see how close someone would need to get before they could watch us. A bird calls from high up, a monotonous ringing shout and I take one more step deeper inside. I feel that tugging in my lower belly, the way the witch’s ladder called to me when Rav threw it out, the urge to go deeper into the shadowy, damp-smelling trees almost overwhelming.

‘Excuse me?’ A shrill voice reaches my ears and for a moment I almost laugh, thinking it’s coming from my house, that I am calling to myself, both the watcher and the watched. ‘Hello? Are you there?’

Turning and peering back through the trees, I see there is a woman standing next to the baby in the pram, her hand on the handle, a worried face peering back at me. Shit. The baby. I forgot about the baby. Heart thundering in my chest, I run the few metres back towards the edge of the woods, branches snatching at my clothes and pulling at my hair.

‘Sorry,’ I pant, emerging from the trees like a mad woman. The lady, a woman I don’t recognize, looks at me in shock. ‘Sorry, I’m here now, you can let go of the pram.’

‘Is this your baby?’ She frowns at me, and I raise my hand, brushing back my hair. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes, fine.’ I try to smile, try to stop my breath from catching in my throat. ‘Sorry, I thought I heard something in there. A child. I live the other side, you see …’

‘Right.’ She looks me up and down. ‘Well, you can’t go haring off and leaving your baby by the side of the road. Anything could have happened.’

‘I was only a few paces in, I was gone for a few seconds.’ Tears fill my eyes and I blink rapidly. By trying to protect my family, I have done something completely stupid and put my baby at risk. ‘I didn’t mean …’

‘No, well …’ The woman looks into the pram, seemingly uncomfortable with my tears. ‘Maybe you should get him home now, eh?’