She cleaned the stove and swept the floors. She began digging in the space behind the apartment where they grew turnips and potatoes, saying, ‘We must have a pond. Running water. A river would be good.’ Crystal brought water from the well. She set the bucket beside her mother so that in the evening she could run her fingers through it. She liked the sound it made, she said. ‘What came out of Lop Lake? Where did you put it?’ Crystal asked her time and again. She’d looked for the object in their rooms but needed time on her own to search properly. ‘It looked like a stone or an egg or something …’ ‘I don’t know,’ her mother would say with a smile, ‘but it was wonderful by the water, wasn’t it?’ ‘Do you remember catching something?’ ‘No. Did I? I don’t remember.’ It was impossible! And now they were seeing Grint that night. How would Crystal explain if he noticed the change in Effie? She handed her mum a long black scarf. It had become their custom to cover their hair in an attempt not to draw attention to it when they went out.
