She got up slowly, and began to wander aimlessly up toward the Village. What could she do? Of course Lani was underage, but Ann would never think of forcing her to go home on that basis. She had to convince her headstrong, young daughter that it was better for her, better for all of them if she came back. But how?

Suddenly a desperate thought came to Ann's frantic mind. It was an outside chance, and she didn't know whether she could even force herself to do it, but she had to try. She walked quickly up to the Village, strode purposefully to the main meeting hall, and found Moses sitting on the porch, staring vacantly into the bowl of a freshly smoked pipe. He looked up after she'd called his name twice, and smiled distantly.

"Hello, Ann."

"Moses, can you tell me where I can find Bob Seikerd?" Ann had discovered the man's name during her argument with Lani.

"Who?" Moses replied blankly.

"Bob Seikerd… Bob… Lani's friend." Ann's tongue stumbled over the last word.

"Oh, yeah, Bob… let's see. He left here just a little while ago."

"Can you tell me where he went?"

"What?"

"Can you tell me where he is now?" Ann asked slowly, infuriated by his seemingly indifferent attitude.

"… where he is now…?" Moses echoed, his voice trailing off as his eyes wandered to where a small bird had perched on the railing of the porch.

"Please, Moses," Ann pleaded with exasperation. "It's very important."

"What? Oh yeah, sorry… let's see… oh yeah right, he went down to the Pool."

"To the what?"

"The Pool… oh you don't know about that." Moses stood up sedately and pointed vaguely towards a path that led out of the clearing. "You just walk on down there, and you'll come to a little pond. That's the Pool. I mean, we call it the Pool, but its not a real swimming pool. Although, we do swim in it, so I guess it must be a pool… right?"