"I'm on every island," she replies, perhaps a little smug, from her spot on the porch. Even so, she feels more trapped than ever. The endless ocean that spreads out from these islands is so much harder for her to travel over than that broad desert that had surrounded them before.

The porch extends from a side door above ground. The house, being mostly upside-down, is entered from a door that would otherwise have been the loft window. So from her location above, she waves him closer. "Come inside, out of the cold," she says, as she heads inside herself to go and let him in.