Rona's telephone rang. Not the landline, but her mobile: she reached across the sofa to the coffee table, turned the T.V. down, picked up the 'phone to look at the display: Hannah.

"Hi" Rona said when she answered it.

"Hi, Rona" said a voice that wasn't what Rona had been expecting. "It's Sacha."

"Oh. Sacha. Hi." Sometimes Rona forgot that Hannah and Sacha shared a house now.

"You're back in Melbourne then? I heard you'd been away."

"Yeah, I was back in Sydney for Christmas."

"Oh, right. That must've been nice."

Rona paused: a moment of indecision about how much truth to reveal. "Yeah" she said eventually, "yeah it was all right."

"Well that's great. I'm glad to hear it. Listen, Rona . . . There's something I've gotta tell you."

Rona rolled her eyes. What could be happening now? Still, after everything she'd been through recently she felt strangely unconcerned: it couldn't possibly be as bad as her father's stroke, or the period before that. "What is it?" she asked confidently.

"It's about the Word on the Street. Listen, I bumped into Ashleigh a little while ago -"

"Lucky you."

"Yeah. Anyway, she told me: it's shut down. Rona? The Word. It doesn't exist any more."

Well that was a melodramatic way of putting it, Rona couldn't help but think. She sighed. "Yeah, I figured something like that had probably happened."

"You did?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's not hard to imagine it happening."

"No."

"It was pretty much inevitable, the way Si ran things."

"I guess so."

"But, still . . ."

"Still . . ." Sacha scratched her head. "Are you okay?" she asked. She was glad she wasn't there: it was easier over the 'phone. Less awkward.

"I'm . . ." Rona paused again. Had to think about it a while. "I'm okay, actually" she said eventually, a little amazed at herself.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Really. You know what? Four, five, six months ago, maybe I would've been cut up about it. Pissed off. Depressed. But now . . . it's like, whatever. You know?" Rona shrugged. "It was there. We had a bit of a ride for a while. But it was always harder than it should've been. Maybe it wasn't before time, you know? Maybe it's just time to let it go."