Kasia cried out and ran to the window.

"Get that friend out of here right now!"

Kasia backed up against the window, trying to stop Panda from going through the hole.

"Come here!" her mother ordered. Her voice was like a net, thrown out over the trembling child, hauling her in. Kasia fought the authority in her mother's voice. She pushed against the picture and felt the paper slipping through the hole. Her hands went instinctively outwards to stop herself falling but she was already overbalancing.

She screamed as she fell.

…………………………….

"It was a nasty fall," said the doctor as he walked from the ward. The nurse beside him finished ticking some notes on a paper sheet and clipped it to a wall.

"Good thing in a way," she said, "They might never have known, if she hadn't screamed."

"Yes," agreed the doctor, "Er, has the Welfare rep been yet?"

"She's coming at ten."

"Good." said the doctor. He opened the door and went on down the corridor.

Kasia lay in the bed, wishing he would come back. Her eyes were still red from her crying, and her head still rang with the sound of the ambulance siren. The flashing red lights of the police cars still blazed in her memory, and she could still feel the strong hands of the people as they lifted her on to the stretcher, and then came the nightmare ride to the hospital, with the city flashing by outside the small window.

Panda stood at the end of the bed, smiling at her.

"Looks like you won't be needing me from now on," he said, "You've got a nice clean bed, and lots of friends, and soon you'll be living in a brand new home. That's wonderful, isn't it?"

"I guess so." Said Alicia, drifted back to sleep.