Anna picks the dirt off her sundress, pouting her lips as she does so. Blond hair has come out from under her braids and covers a grubby face. She didn't sink into the soft soil as hard as Alex, who had run up to her.

“I won't do it again. I promise you.

Alex really hopes that Anna will be able to appease her delight. It was not enough that tomorrow she went to play with a lion's brush or decided to stroke a baby elephant, and in the end she was bitten or trampled into the ground.

“Can we just go for a walk? she says quietly, and then...