A middle-aged string of a man with silvering hair hurried into the waiting room. ‘Stacy, is there something wrong?’ Tamsin dropped Stacy to the ground with a pulse of awe and exhaustion. ‘Sorry to barge in like this, doctor, but I need to know something.’ ~ * ~ Piri’s mother watched with amusement as her daughter, all of six years old, stomped back and forth across the room, collecting all the things she would need on her adventure. It was a one-room home, with a small en suite bathroom behind a plastic curtain. The pair of them slept in the same room, cots along the wall and a common table for the preparing and eating of meals. They had one door, and a small window that Piri wouldn’t be able to look out of until she was fully grown. ‘What about a blanket? You’ll need to stay warm,’ she suggested and Piri went to her bed and folded up her blanket. ‘You should take some food too, Piri.
