HEARTS OF CHILDREN AND THE SPIRIT OF THE 

She wondered for a while if dead people could belong to things (like cars, for example — she'd learned that a lot of people died in road accidents ) but it didn't seem to happen like that. Trina peered into as many cars as she could, but none of them ever had anybody interesting inside.

Sometimes she glimpsed people who looked promising — like the little boy following a man who got off the bus in front of her one day, or the skinny kid hanging around with a big gang of boys outside an off licence — but it wasn't easy to get a chance to talk to them.

Then she had a marvellous idea: she could go and visit people in prison! They certainly wouldn't be rushing off anywhere else, and they were bound to have really fascinating stories to tell her.

Her mother, unfortunately, was horrified at the idea. She sat Trina down and said it was kind of her to think of doing nice things for disadvantaged people, but that it wouldn't be appropriate. Trina tried to argue, but she wouldn't listen. She didn't understand at all.

It was so unfair.

***

Henry Kelsey was Trina's three-doors-along neighbour. He was eighty-six, and he definitely looked it; he had wispy white hair, watery eyes, and baggy skin that seemed too big for his body. He'd had a wife called Peggy, but she'd died a month ago (of cancer, Trina heard, and since Peggy hadn't come back it must have been true) so now he lived on his own.

Trina helped him with his shopping and tried to get him to tell her more about cancer, but he didn't like to talk about it. Sometimes he got upset, and sometimes he said things like, "You're too young to worry about anything like that, sweetheart," which was dumb. She tried to explain that she wanted to, but he just gave her a sad smile and patted her on the head. Trina couldn't understand what was wrong with people. They were so frustrating.

She wondered if he had cancer too, because he looked kind of sick, so she asked her mother if he was likely to die soon. Her mum looked unhappy, and said it was possible, but that she hoped not. Trina hoped not, too. It would be such a waste. Cancer was her very favourite disease, and she really wanted to know what it had done to Peggy Kelsey. She didn't want Henry to die before she got old enough to hear about it.

She thought about the problem for a while — there had to be something she could do — and then she had another marvellous idea.

***