January 1997. Zender’s Die Winterreise goes on with all kinds of surprises, loud and soft, shouted, brassed, stringed, clanged and thumped. Pregardien’s singing is a revelation. But the main event of the evening is the crying. Ending up in bed with Max this night would not shock Lola. But to cry together? She hasn’t been prepared for that degree of intimacy on the first date. On the way back over the Hungerford Bridge both she and Max look up at Ursa Major. This time she too thinks of it as the Big Dipper. Now it’s standing on its handle, so that whatever was in it has poured out. Is Max already someone to be seriously reckoned with? Despite youthful romances Lola has never given her heart completely and for ever. If she finds herself at the edge of This-Is-It she won’t be afraid to leap. Is that edge getting closer?