She says no more, but Lewis can hear excitement in her voice, as if letters are the rarest of things. He's been here a month now, and has spoken to no one, apart from his mother service apartment in hong kong, has had no phone calls, certainly no letters, nothing at all from Anna. He pictures her, lying in their bed, her face shocked and tearful, just as the morning he left her.


“There's a letter for you”, his mother shouts, hearing his footsteps on the stairs,
“I've put it on the table.”


He takes his mother tea, and finds her sitting at the back of the house, facing the window and the view over the strand. She has a woollen shawl wrapped around her nightie, and pink slippers on her feet. She looks unbearably frail.

    “The days are getting longer”, she says, nodding at the light creeping in over the sea. She has said this every morning since the first one. The idea occurs to Lewis that he might still be here come winter, when she'll say, The nights are drawing in. The thought fills him with dread.

    She doesn't ask who the letter's from, and as soon as they've had their conversation about what he will do today, he takes the letter upstairs to his room. The envelope has been steamed open.
Inside, there's a sheet of folded paper and another envelope with just his name on it, which has also been steamed open. Lewis . She might look like a little old lady, but she hasn't changed. He decides not to confront her. The second envelope contains a note from the Headmaster, suggesting that he might like to come in and discuss matters Server Rack. The plain folded sheet is from Anna. It says: “Geoff Harris dropped this by. He asked about you. I didn't know what I should tell him. Everyone's asking about you. What should I say?”