She waits, this startling visitor, beaming and expectant. I review the local conditions. The dishes are dried and put away. I’m washed and brushed, my clothes clean. My first tablet of the day is having its usual marvelous effect on my breakages. It probably won’t get any better than this.

“Please tell Ellen,” I say, “that you would not be de trop.”

“Okay! If she sees my bike at the gate, she’ll come straight in. She won’t be long but obviously she lags behind on the hills. Being so much older. Is that a water pump? May I have a go?”

“By all means.” I’ve worked out the least distressing way to push the handle down, but it’s still a trial. “Would you mind filling a couple of jugs for me?”

She sets to work, coaxing a higher and more rhythmic squeak out of the pump than I’ve yet managed, talking nineteen to the dozen all the while. “Ellen told me your house fell down while you were inside it, and an archbishop saved your life! Gosh, what a turn-up. There, that’s the jugs. Can I fill up anything else? Saucepans? Great. I wish Upton Hall School would fall down. While it was empty, of course. The girls are a nest of vipers and vixens but I wouldn’t want to kill them. What about those plastic bowls? You can’t have too much water. My dad’s away in the army, you know. And my mum’s at the Laurels, so I go to Ellen’s when we’re allowed out. Did you know Ellen rescued me from the flood? Were you here in the flood? It was fantastic, the whole school was underwater. Anyway, she took me to her house. It’s lovely there. So warm, you can’t believe, and we had shepherd’s pie . . .”

I become distracted by my growing unease. I’ve got no idea what I can say to Ellen. It had been almost impossible to refuse Penny, but perhaps I should have. There’s nothing I can give Ellen.

“. . . And I bet you can’t guess where!” Penny lets go of the pump handle at last and beams at me.

“I’m sorry, Penny, what were you saying?”

“Ellen’s going somewhere, and I bet you can’t guess!”

“You’re right. I have no idea.”

“Singapore!” She claps her hands. “I know! I’ll miss her to death but isn’t it groovy?” Her eyes dart to the window. “Look, there she is, coming now.”