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flying any more as she could feel ground under her feet. Lorraine must have felt it too as she gasped and glanced down. Then up again at the strange growing nun, and down again before staring at Ruth.
    “What have you done?” she asked. “What’s going on?”
    Ruth shook her head and shrugged as hard as she could to show she really didn’t know what was going on either. She could see Lorraine was trembling hard and wondered what she should do. Ruth didn’t want her to start screaming again. She really couldn’t bear that. What would her great-aunt do if she were here? Even better, and seeing as she was actually here, what would the origami nun do?
    It came to Ruth in a moment. She stepped round the shape of the nun, reached out and took Lorraine’s hand. Heart beating fast, she squeezed it. Lorraine glanced round at her with a frown but didn’t pull away. Together the two girls watched the nun to see what would happen.
    What happened was this: the nun grew taller and taller so she was nearly up to Ruth’s knees. She grew even wider too, and the crinkly paper filled out so it looked like clothes being worn by a very small girl. Then her face filled out, eyes and nose and lips and ears, and the nun’s habit fitted her perfectly. Ruth laughed as the girl got taller, and to her surprise Lorraine laughed too. Soft lights danced around them all and Ruth was sure she could hear a faint singing from somewhere but she didn’t recognise the tune.
    Finally the nun was as tall as the two girls, and was in fact a girl herself. Blue eyes and a smiling mouth, but Ruth couldn’t tell what colour her hair might be as it was hidden under the headdress.
    She and Lorraine couldn’t stop staring at her. The nun-girl smiled even more widely and nodded at them.
    “Hello,” she said. “It’s lovely to see you. I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you both. I’m the origami nun.”
    “But…but…” Lorraine began to say, and Ruth couldn’t help but laugh silently. She’d never seen Lorraine lost for words before.
    “But I’m a toy and you didn’t think I could come to life, did you?” the origami nun replied, winking at Ruth. “But, you see, when the magic is strong enough, that’s just what I do. Though it had a lot to do with my new friend, Ruth.”
    The nun-girl gave Ruth a huge warm hug, and just for a moment Ruth caught the smell of vanilla perfume, just like her mother used to wear. Her eyes filled with tears that she didn’t think she could bear and she began to cry. Great teardrops that she couldn’t remember crying before as she’d been trying to be so brave since her mother went away. After a while, as the nun-girl kept on hugging her, crying felt good. Ruth didn’t know how long she was crying for but, funnily enough, after she’d finished, her insides felt lighter.
    When the nun-girl let her go, Ruth dried her eyes with a hankie the magic nun lent to her that was yellow and red and green and blue all at the same time. She saw Lorraine was sitting on the ground, frowning.
    Before Lorraine could speak, the nun-girl marched over to her and pulled her to her feet.
    “Now then,” she said, her voice suddenly stern, “none of that nonsense, Lorraine! I won’t hear any cruelty in my world, even if you don’t say it aloud, and, as you’re both guests here, you have to play by my rules. Ruth, give me your hand.”
    Ruth trotted up and obeyed. The nun-girl’s fingers felt cool and fragile, like the lace her great-aunt loved so much.
    “And, Lorraine, you give me your hand please. The two of you have a lot to learn from each other, and I’m going to use all my power to make sure that happens.”
    It was funny, Ruth thought, how the magical nun looked like a girl, but spoke like someone much older. Maybe that was part of how magic worked?
    Lorraine looked as if she was going to disobey and not get up at all, which Ruth thought might be a bit too brave a thing to do. But in the end, Lorraine got to her