“Right now it’s just me and Bin Bin.”

“Frog needs to be outside.”

“Bin Bin likes life indoors.”

“This is how it starts, Illandra,” Filomena put her bread on the table. “I had me a rooster – Rikel – best rooster you could imagine. Feathers soft and straight. He’d nip at my nose to wake me before he’d start to crow, considerate little fellow. We had a bond. But these things always get out of hand.”

Illandra’s eyes widened, her spoon stopped halfway toward her mouth, “Pardon?”

“Oh not like that, you hussy! Get your head out of the trough!”

Illandra sat down to her bowl of stew, rabbit and cabbage, one of her favourites.

“Rabbit, Filomena?” she asked, “What’s the occasion?”

“Felt like rabbit.” Filomena answered through a mouthful of cabbage. “You find yourself a man yet?”

Illandra groaned, “No.” Illandra’s maidenhood was a frequent topic of discussion at the table. Filomena was a firm believer that prolonged virginity was the cause of facial warts, and was sure that Illandra had only a year or two left before her first would appear.

“You best get on that, it’ll only get harder if your first wart comes in.”

Illandra forced her eyes down to look at her bowl rather than at FIlomena’s blemishes.

Dinner with Filomena was part of the renter’s agreement. If Illandra was in the vicinity of the cottage around the dinner hour, she was to sit down and share a meal with Filomena. And if she wasn’t in the vicinity on too many occasions, there would be trouble. While Filomena insisted that the rule was because cooking for 1 was difficult and she refused to waste good stew, Illandra was sure that the hag simply wanted the company. She had been with her for nearly a year and could see that Filomena didn’t really need the 20 pieces she charged, she let out the garden room because she liked having someone else in the house with her, who was happy to be there.

Being the local hag was surely something of a downer.

“Illandra!”

Illandra jumped at the hag’s shout, “Alright, Filomena!” she shouted back. She hurried to return her lock box to its rightful place atop the chest of drawers, knowing that Filomena would wait to eat until she arrived, no matter how long she took. She leaned in to give Bin Bin the instructions he was to follow during her absence. “Stay in our room! Frogs all look just about the same, so I might not be able to recognize which one you are if you hop off and I have to find you later on. Got it?”

Bin Bin chose not to dignify that with a response.

“Good.” Illandra scrambled out of her room and didn’t slow her pace until she had reached Filomena’s kitchen.

A difficult task, but well worth the sleeping mat, work desk, wash basin, and chest of drawers.