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feet and gave the nun her hand. Ruth smiled at her and something in the frown on Lorraine’s face seemed to become softer. Like butter slowly melting if she left it out on the windowsill.
    The nun-girl gave a deep sigh of satisfaction.
    “Good, that’s more like it,” she said. “Now, let’s begin.”
    Ruth wondered what exactly it was that they were going to begin, and she glanced at Lorraine to see what she was doing. Lorraine gave her a small, unsure smile, and Ruth was so shocked she actually smiled back. What on earth was going on?
    The next moment, she was standing in a small kitchen painted a grubby yellow colour and facing the sink. The window above it was so dirty that she could hardly see through it so she had no idea where she might be. The smell of stale fish was so strong that she wrinkled her nose and tried to breathe through her mouth.
    A voice behind her made her jump, and she turned round, her heart thumping.
    “What do you think you’re doing, my girl?”
    The woman who spoke was tall and scraggy, with dirty blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. Hands on hips, she was scowling. She reminded Ruth of someone but she couldn’t think who. Ruth didn’t know what to say, but then she saw the woman wasn’t staring at her, but at someone on the other side of the kitchen table. Someone hunched over, clutching a mug decorated with a pink cupcake and sobbing quietly.
    Ruth knew even before looking that it was Lorraine. She was just like her mother, who had started to shout now, whilst waving a piece of paper in her daughter’s face.
    “How could you do such a thing? You know how I feel about it. You know how horrible it is. You’ve seen that. All these years with the way things have been here should have taught you something. About how not to treat people. And you shouldn’t treat people like that, should you? Not how your teacher has said that you do. Lorraine, I’m ashamed of you, really ashamed. The last thing I wanted you to be was a bully. The last thing I want is for you to take after your father. Didn’t we hope that we were free of all that? And now look. Look at what you’ve done.”
    When Lorraine’s mother finished shouting, she slammed the piece of paper down on the table, dragged out the kitchen chair and plonked herself down opposite Lorraine. Ruth couldn’t understand why neither of them could see her, as she was only an arm’s length away from them. Maybe that was part of the origami nun’s magic. Slowly she reached out and patted Lorraine on the shoulder, but the sobbing girl didn’t notice her. Her mother too wiped one hand over her eyes and looked as if she was trying hard not to cry as well.
    Ruth glanced at the letter and then she looked again. It was a letter from the headmaster at her school asking Lorraine’s mother to come in to see them as Lorraine was thought to be a bully. Ruth blinked. Suddenly what Lorraine’s mother had been saying made sense. Because Lorraine was a bully, and Ruth was the girl she bullied. She knew all about that . Her face grew hot. It didn’t look like Lorraine’s mother was happy with her daughter either and she started to speak again.
    “Look,” she said, taking hold of Lorraine’s hand. “I didn’t mean to shout at you. We’ve been through so much, you and me, and I didn’t want you to end up like this. You know I love you, but why are you bullying this poor girl, Lorraine? Why would you want to do such a thing?”
    Ruth wanted to know that too so looked at Lorraine but she didn’t seem ready to talk. She just shrugged and mumbled something.
    “What’s that? What are you saying?” her mother asked her.
    Lorraine coughed and shrugged again. “Dunno. Dunno why I do it. Ruth’s different, that’s all.”
    “Different? How?”
    A long pause during which Ruth almost forgot to breathe.
    “She’s dumb,” Lorraine said in the end, her voice only a whisper.
    “Dumb? Do you mean she’s stupid? But that’s no reason to hurt someone,