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preferring instead to use a tiny utility supermarket on the edge of the new estate. Only the children seemed to travel from the estate to the village and back again.
    Before they reached the development, the children veered off onto a muddy track, which led to several large fields and an abandoned quarry. Huge, jagged cliffs rose up like broken teeth on the far side of the quarry before the smooth lines of the fields and woods continued once more. The bottom of the quarry was flooded from years of rainwater, creating a large pool. Bushes and grass grew in cracks on the ground and along the walls of the cliff face, as though an army of vegetation was advancing over the bare stone.
    The children spread out, some playing hide and seek, some scrambling over the rocks, while others hunted for blackberries amongst the brambles. Some of the boys piled into an old, burnt-out car that had been abandoned on the water edge twenty years before. Teddy was in the driving seat making engine noises, while his passengers flung themselves from one side of the vehicle to the other on the ancient seats, making the car rock from side to side. Beside them, Patch leapt and barked, wagging his long tail.
    The afternoon wore on. The children swapped activities regularly, so the boys in the car went to hunt for fruit in the bushes, while those playing hide and seek moved to the car and those who had already filled themselves on delicious, swollen blackberries rested in the shade of the huge boulders. Many stripped off their outer clothes in the surprisingly warm March weather to swim in the pool. They shrieked and laughed as they splashed and paddled, frequently running out to the rocks to rest before plunging back into the water.
    Pandora took advantage of one break to ask a question that had been bothering her. “What did you mean earlier, when you said you can’t talk to grownups the way Teddy did?”
    “Oh, you know,” replied a boy, stretching his legs out and examining his scabbed knee. Many knees were similarly grazed after a hectic afternoon on the rocks. Sarah and Anne had already taken a tumble each, to no harm. “You’re not supposed to talk to grownups unless they speak to you first, and you certainly can’t just ask someone if they’re coming to play without asking their parents’ permission first.”
    “Really?” said Pandora in surprise. She wondered why any adult would object to being spoken to by a child.
    “Really,” said the boy with a shrug. To him, it was just the way the world worked.
    Pandora went for a walk around the edge of the quarry. She was the eldest there and felt a little lonely. As she walked, she saw a man some distance away, standing in a small grove of trees at the edge of the quarry, looking at the children below. She squinted at him, trying to make out who he was and what he was doing, but he was too far away and the sun was shining on her face.
    She quickened her pace, shading her eyes with her hand, but she still couldn’t make out many details. At that moment, the man saw Pandora looking at him and he leapt backward as though bitten, flinging an arm up to his face. Something swung around his neck and caught the sun with a bright flash and the man was gone, running away through the trees.
    Pandora sprinted after him, but she knew it was no good. She was too far away. By the time she reached the trees, the man was long gone. She stood, panting, and looked down on the quarry. From here, she had a perfect view of the children playing below. Feeling uncertain and worried, Pandora made her way back down.

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    The next day, their first Sunday in the village, the family was awoken by the church bells pealing out at seven in the morning.
    “Gawd,” groaned Pandora groggily as the din pulled her from a strange dream. Something like a woman, but with snakes instead of hair, had chased Pandora through a dungeon filled with statues. As she ran, a blue light had permeated the area, almost