She seems like she wants to say more when we’re interrupted by a wild shriek. Babet and her friend rush into the room, pulling to an abrupt stop, giggling and puffing in front of Ma.

“You’ll never guess what we’ve just seen!” Babet exclaims breathlessly.

Ma clasps her hands together, leaning forwards. “Oh, what?”

“An enormous stick insect, this big.” Babet laughs, holding her hands a foot apart.

Ma smiles, reaching out to feel the hand span. “Well, I never. And where did you see this enormous creature?”

“In the turnips,” Babet explodes. “Leho, you’ve got to come and see it.”

“Yes, Leho,” my mother echoes, turning to me. “You go, son.”

“All right.”

The kids skip out of the room and I’m about to follow them when my mother says quietly, “And Leho, send Jorzy along to see me. There are things I would like to discuss with him.”

I’ll give my brother the message, but whether he’ll come or not is a different matter. So many secrets. It’s not good to have so many secrets in a family.

* * *

A couple of days later, me and Bit are having a heated though whispered debate in a corner of the room Bit shares with his mother. We’re in-between a dark dresser and Bit’s bed, the faded patchwork cover neatly pulled up to the pillow.

“What do you want to go there for?”

“I told you – to see.” Ever since I saw the house on the river, I’ve had an idea. It’s a foolhardy idea, true, and it scares me to even consider it, yet I long to be brave and fearless – like my parents once were.

“You’ll get caught,” says Bit, disgusted, “and then they’ll throw you in a wild camp.”

“I won’t get caught,” I tell him, “and they don’t put boys my age in the camps.”

“They will this time!” His eyes are hard and pinched.

“Don’t be such a coward. All we’re doing is a little spying.”

“I am not a coward,” he protests. “Besides, what d’you need me for? You can go by yourself.”

“Come on, where’s your sense of adventure?”

The dog, sitting between us, turns her head each time either of us speaks, as if watching a ball being lobbed through the air.

“I don’t want to get caught. There’s only me and my mother now, and if I got caught, she’d be all by herself.”

With a frustrated sigh, I give up. You can’t beat that kind of argument. I flop onto Bit’s bed and link my hands behind my head. Bit sits in a chair by the dresser, and the dog rests her head on his knee.