‘Hi, Mummy.’

‘Grandma says you had a bad dream?’

‘Yes.’

‘What was it, do you want to tell me?’

‘No.’

‘A lot of the time, you feel better if you tell someone. Because then you realise it wasn’t so scary.’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘Okay.’

‘But I can tell you about another dream I had.’

‘I’d like that.’

‘It was like a nightmare too, but only a bit.’

‘Okay.’

‘It was about a turtle.’

‘A turtle?’

‘Mm. I found a turtle. But it was just the shell, it was empty, just like a little bowl. And when I showed it to Daddy, he said there was a turtle in it, but that it was hiding, really far in, because it was dying. And then he pulled it out and you could tell it was dying because its face was all mouldy.’

‘Yuck.’

‘And it smelled awful.’

‘I hope Daddy threw it out.’

‘I don’t know. I woke up.’

‘I had a bad dream too.’

‘Mummy. Where are you?’

‘At my friend Susso’s. The one who’s missing. Remember how I told you she’s missing. And that I have to find her.’

‘But when are you coming back?’

‘Soon.’

‘I want you to come back now.’

‘Can I talk to Nana.’

The other end went quiet but before her mum could say anything, Diana had ended the call. She looked at the phone and noticed her thumb was trembling. Her heart rate was up because she knew she wasn’t alone in the kitchen.

He was sitting on the threshold. Upright with his front paws pressed against his chest. His ears were pricked up like two long horns leaning against one another.

She waited and it seemed like the squirrel was doing the same. She put the phone down on the table.

‘If you’re wondering where Susso is, I can tell you,’ she said.

The squirrel raised its nose as though it could divine the meaning of her words by sniffing them.

‘She’s in a village called Rumajärvi.’

The animal got down on all fours and stood that way for a bit before doing a one-eighty.

‘I’m going up there to get her back.’

Now it was looking at her.

‘And there’s room in the car, if you want to come.’

She poured out her coffee and put the mug in the sink. She could feel the squirrel studying her the whole time. When she headed toward it on her way out of the kitchen, it slunk aside and quickly leapt up the stairs.

She put her shoes on and went outside, leaving the door open a crack behind her. She walked over to her car and waited; after a while, the squirrel came bounding toward her through the grass. She smiled at it then, but she didn’t realise until she felt the pain in her cheek.

I had a message and when…