Once inside the house, she unexpectedly threw her arms around her mother and started to cry again. “When you and Craig were building this house and I saw the second bedroom, I always thought you were building it for me, but I only slept in it a few dozen times… now it turns out you were building it for my Shell.”
“Who, darling?”
“Oh, that slipped out. Seashell, or Shell for short, it’s what I call my baby, but please don’t tell anybody. There’s only three of us who know her name: you, me and Shell and she patted the spot where her baby was growing.
“That’s a lovely name, darling. ‘Shell’ – ‘Hoi’ – yes, it has a nice ring to it. Would you like to sit in the garden, or get some sleep?”
“I am tired, though probably more from the travel than the baby, but I can sleep later. Some iced miner
