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should call in and find her gone. But it was not Kate. It was Sally, rather impatient at having to leave her television program, with a message from Kate for Laura saying that Kate would be home a little late. Once the message was delivered, Sally added an invitation to Laura to come and watch television, pointing out that if Jacko woke up and cried they would probably hear him from next door, but Laura was not even tempted by this, for she was worried, and also rather hurt by Kate's delay. Perhaps something had gone wrong with the car, she thought.
    Kate was about three-quarters of an hour late that night and when she did come home she did not come alone. The long-haired man, the single customer who had been in the shop — reading and not buying— was with her.
    "We've got a guest," Kate said unnecessarily. Laura stared at her for she looked mischievous and much more lively and lighthearted than she usually was after a Thursday night. She didn't kick off her shoes and collapse into a chair, resting her elbows on the table while she ate her fish and chips. She unfolded them from their shawls of newspaper with the flourish of a waiter uncovering the specialty of the house.
    "Isn't that classy!" she cried. "Laura, I think it's going to be delicious tonight."
    The man's name was Chris Holly.
    "Short for Christmas?" Laura asked, but apparently his full name was Christopher. He had an American accent which sounded strange in their New Zealand living room.
    "This is just fine," he said. "It shows you can't afford to take any day for granted. I was feeling very remote, far away from almost everything, and then I heard that name. I could scarcely believe it."
    "What name?" Laura asked Kate.
    "Fangboner!" Kate said. "Chris asked me if he had overheard correctly and I had to admit that we did have a baby-sitter called Mrs Fangboner."
    "She just has to be Dracula's aunt," Chris said, "or even his sister."
    "I think Dracula was an only child," Laura said. "He doesn't sound to me like a man who had brothers and sisters. I think he drank blood because he thought
    everything in the world was his to begin with."
    "How could you leave your baby with a baby-sitter called 'Fangboner'?" Chris asked.
    "Desperation at the time," Kate replied, "but actually she's very kind."
    "She tortures her garden," said Laura in a sinister voice. "That uses all her energy. And somewhere there's a husband Fangboner who's had the name even longer. We never ever see him though. She might have his skeleton hanging up with one of those plastic covers that keeps the dust off velvet coats."
    "The mystery of Mr Fangboner!" Chris said. "Anyway, Laura, we got talking about books, and on the strength of all that I took your mother out to have a drink with me and since I couldn't talk her into having dinner with me, I cunningly talked myself into having dinner with her. I professed an abiding love for fish and chips and I have to admit these are very good fish and chips."
    "It's not always as good as this, though," Kate said. "It's a lucky night."
    "Lucky for me, anyway," Chris Holly said. "I hope you don't mind a dinner guest, Laura?"
    "No!" said Laura, but she minded dreadfully. Just after her father had left them Kate had gone out with several men, but part of the happiness of the last year was that she had stopped doing this and had seemed content to spend her time with Laura and Jacko.
    The thought that a fish and chips night (a night of successful fish and chips into the bargain) had to be shared with a stranger who was trying— Laura recognized the signs — to be particularly nice to her, not because he was interested in her, but because he was interested in Kate, filled her with anxious discontent. Chris's was an understandable niceness, but was still something she was compelled to suspect.
    "How's Jacko?" Kate asked suddenly. "I knew there was something I had forgotten to ask."
    "He's asleep," Laura said. "Mum, there's something wrong with him. I don't think