Once she was upstairs in her room Rona shut the door to keep the music from downstairs out. For someone who didn't take that much of an interest in music, Miranda sure liked to have it up loud.

There was a letter from the bank on Rona's bed. Rona found it strange that the bank would fuss so much over an account that had so little money in it. There were some bills there, too, inked in with hand-written details of who had paid what and when; Rona's name was absent from all of them. She might have to borrow some money from someone. The thought disheartened her and she didn't pursue it, lest it lead her to a dangerous place from where, she knew from recent experience, escape was not easily gained.

Still, finding the zines had been something. Rona had cringed when she'd first opened the box and seen what was inside, especially when Miranda had asked to look at them, but when Rona had read through that first one off the top of the pile it didn't seem so bad. And if the whole reason why she'd stopped doing the zine was that she hadn't felt like a local - well, that argument couldn't apply now, surely? Now there was a thought. But it was impractical - how could she afford the materials? It was fine when she could just duck into her dad's office and use the photocopier, or into uni, but now what was she supposed to do? Go to the newsagent, use their copier, pay fifteen cents a page or whatever it was these days? Money was tight enough as it was. Still, she had a bunch of old copies. They weren't too badly of their time. Maybe she could distribute them . . .

Her 'phone beeped with a message: it'd be Matt. He no longer rang her doggedly every night to make sure she was okay, but he still checked in on her pretty regularly. She picked up her 'phone and read the message. It said:

hows things

good, she typed back, guess what i found my zines

thought youd lost them, came the reply.

found them Rona started back, then paused before pressing the 'send' button. She couldn't afford this, either. call me, she added.

A moment later Matt did so. "So that's pretty exciting!" he said straight off the bat. "Are you excited?"

"I dunno" Rona answered. "I guess. I mean it was a pretty big part of my life for a while."

"I'd love to see them" Matt said. He'd long suspected that Rona was only claiming they were lost so that she wouldn't have to show him, so he was surprised when she said:

"Okay, well next time you come around I'll give you a few. Miranda's got the box."

"Miranda?"

"I'll tell you later" Rona said.

"So" Matt asked, "are you gonna start writing it again? I always told you you should."

"Yeah, you did" Rona agreed. "I dunno, probably not. But . . ."

"Yeah?"

"Well, I've got a whole box full of back-issues, and I'm not doing anything with 'em . . ."

"Do you want me to put them in the shop?" Matt asked.

"Yeah" Rona smiled, "okay, why not. I mean, if it's okay with your boss and everything."