It was a few days later that the desire to talk with his playmate overcame his sense of how close he had come to death and he crept back, vowing to bolt if the situation looked dangerous. It wasn’t possible that he had been betrayed by her. He just couldn’t believe it. He had to find out.

That was the day he found the letter. Sneaking to the bush was difficult as the forest had been burned in various spots, but he had spotted the white of something in a joint of the bush he normally hid in and curiosity drove him to it. He waited until dark, as his friend had never appeared and, sneaking in, recovered the letter and bolted back to the safety of the dark womb he had grown up in.

He couldn’t believe that she was unaware of what had transpired and decided to write her back with the explanation. On the hope that perhaps she would get it, he left it in the same joint he had found it in, but folded in the shape of a box, just for her.