Ducks swam towards her, hoping to be fed, but she didn’t notice them. She strolled across a footbridge, then past a row of houses on the other side of the stream. She stopped at one house with a garden. She put her bags down to catch a better view through the shrubbery.

There were children playing in the garden. She watched them for a while before ringing the bell. Then she looked at her watch and moved on quickly and with determination.

She came to a colourful area, with renovated houses, and trees and fountains surrounded by flowerbeds.

He followed her through the area to a roundabout. An enormous willow, its branches reaching down to the ground, towered at its centre.

Passing a café, she said hello to a few of the customers on the terrace and crossed the street to a shop. She stopped in front of it.

A man was closing up, pulling down a metal grille over the window. He took a coat down from a hook on the wall with a long rod and carried it into the shop. When he came back out, he spoke to her. As if realizing he had forgotten something, he disappeared into the shop again to return with a package tied with string. She accepted the package gratefully. He took it out of her hands and unwrapped it. He stepped back and proudly held a figurine out towards her, turning it this way and that. He showed it to her up close and from a distance, watching her face as he did so. As he rewrapped the figurine, she stroked his cheek, then said goodbye. A moment later she was closing the door to the next house behind her. The man watched her go, checked the grille over his shop window and finally left.

People came out of the café, and others entered or sat on the terrace. In her building, too, there was coming and going, the door opening and shutting with a sound he liked.