After everyone went to bed I went out onto the back deck to see whether I'd left my book out there. Jose was out in the garden. She didn't look up at all - just kept chewing whatever it was, snarling as she chewed. I walked over, talking softly, calling out - as I got closer she moved onto her haunches, backed away, turned the snarl towards me. It was a kid's t-shirt she was shredding, one of Tolley's, and she kept it under her paws as she moved. I went to bed and shut the door. About two in the morning I heard her come up the hall, her nails clicking as she approached the door. She scrabbled and whined for a while, then walked away.

The next morning Lacey came in before I was up and crawled into the bunk bed with me. I had been awake for most of the night, just watching patterns in the mattress overhead, but I'd dozed off for a while with the dawn.  I was thinking about Jose. In my doze I kept thinking I'd heard her moving beside the bed, scratching or licking herself, but she wasn't there. I thought she would come in once the door was opened, but she didn't.

"How was your night?" I asked Lacey, snuggling in to her flannel pajamas.

"AWFUL," she groaned. "Anna got sick and threw up - did you hear her? And then Ian's dad rang first thing this morning. His mum's worse."

"Is Ian okay?"

"Worried. The doctors are saying it's dicey, and his dad's not in a good way - all vague and dithery. We wanted to ask you something."

"You want to go?"

"Ian has plenty of leave owing, but we can't take Jose of course - that's the only problem. And the rabbits. And the builder's supposed to come on Thursday to finish the kitchen, and if there's no one here he just bloody won't..."

"But I can stay, it's no problem."

"Well, no problem except we want to see you! I like seeing you with the kids - and we just haven't had enough time, again."

"But maybe when you get back, I could stay a bit longer - we could see how it goes?"