After Lois had completed what was referred to as her epic voyage to the little wharf that once served the land around Bank Top farm, the celebratory evening went on until the early hours. Eventually Astra who had curled up in the window seat, stirred as Lois, who had been sitting next to her, moved to head back to spend the rest of the night on her boat.

 “I should keep you company,” Astra said sleepily. “It's not fair for you to be all alone.”

“I'm fine,” Lois replied.

“So am I,” Miranda, added. “She’s right, and she'll only fret if she doesn't keep you company. Mind you look after her won't you Astra.”

“I will,” the 10 year old daughter of two of the founders smiled. “I'll get a hurricane lamp and we can go off across the meadow.”

“It's very kind of you,” Lois said as the pair walked across Bank Top land, over a stile and across another meadow to the little wharf area where the 17 ft Glass fibre boat was moored. “But I don't really need looking after.”

“I said you looked sort of sad, but not sad sad though,” Astra replied, her face illuminated by the soft glow of the lamp. “Mum thought you might get lonely all the way down here.”

“Well, we'd better get aboard and sort the cabin out, or you might end up sleeping on my typewriter” Lois smiled. “I keep some of my stuff on the bunk I don't sleep on.”

“It's very tidy,” Astra said as she helped Lois rearrange things. “And really cosy,” she added.

“I always think of your Auntie Linda when I get back here. It was so kind of her to just give me her boat when she headed back to Bank Top.”

Lois smiled.

“You call her your Fairy Godmother,” Astra laughed.

“Everyone has one I think, and if they don't then they should do,” Lois smiled. “Now, how about we get that sleeping bag rolled out and turn in. Mind you brush your teeth though. There's a little washbasin under the cover on the starboard side and the bog is on the other side. It's all fresh and clean so don't worry. There's some spare toothbrushes in the locker above the sink.”

When both had done their ablutions, Lois turned the light off and both got into their sleeping bags, after which Astra was very soon sound asleep as her unofficial Auntie sat and watched the pattern of the moonlight reflected from the canal and onto the curtains. Soon she too was asleep.

Lois was the first to wake the following morning, and sat quietly reading her book as her guest snored lightly in her bunk. The story seemed so real to her in its descriptions that it took her mind into the age when the country was still at war. She imagined herself putting on assemblages of sweaters to keep the cold out as she carried cargo along the waterways as a substitute for the folk that had been called up to be killed and wounded for their country.

“What are you thinking?” Astra said sleepily.

“Not much,” Lois smiled brightly, the kind of brightness that the young girl could see straight through. “I was just having a read.”

“You were, about ten minutes ago,” Astra replied, with a directness that could only come from a child. “Then you closed your eyes. I thought you were going to cry but you didn't.”

“Not much gets past you does it,” Lois smiled, ruffling Astra's hair. “If you want the truth, which you always do don't you. Well I was thinking about all those boater families. The ones that were born to it and would live their lives in that world. Like it was different to anywhere.”

“You're going to say something like then something bad happened,” Astra frowned. “It was the war wasn't it. Mum Dad and Mad Dave talk about it sometimes. Like when they think I'm not listening.”

“I won't lie,” Lois smiled. “There wouldn't be any point. Yes, the book is about three women around my age, younger perhaps. They were doing war work on the canals. I was just thinking of all those people that went off to fight. The ones that came back to work on the boats again. Sorry Astra but they just got shat on. I remember writing something like that in an essay for uni. I used a bit more of an academic term for ‘shat on’ though.”

“You say funny things like Auntie Linda, but I get it,” Astra replied. “They came back from the war and found that someone wanted to close the canals that they relied on for just about everything. There's some people that just like to make a big mess up and it isn't fair.”

“And there's others like you and your lot here that really do care, and make a difference, so that's good. You're like a little beacon yourself, a little Diya in a dark night,” Lois said with a warm smile.

“We do Diwali here,” Astra said as Lois lit the stove. “We have a lot of festivals and stuff, we invent a few more or combine them. There's a lot of people at school think we're weird, you know, the Freak Farm kids. Even the teachers try and get us to tell them how horrible the place really is. Some of the others though, they really get it and think we're really lucky.”

“One light, light that is one though the lamps may be many,” Lois replied.

“Dad's got the record that song's on,” Astra smiled. “Mad Dave and Linda have played it on the banjos. “She's got a really good singing voice.”

“People don't always understand,” Lois said. “Not this, you know, here. Most people understand some good toast and a mug of hot chocolate though,” she added, handing Astra a plate and setting the two drinks on a small pull out table.”