According to more of the nocturnal policies at Freedom Fields, a girl could not knock on the door of another girl's room after eight at night. However, if the other girl was evidently not asleep, with her door open and the bedroom light switched on, then she would be permitted visitors who did not talk at a level above a whisper. If this situation was not in existence, then nobody, not even a member of the orphanage staff, could visit a girl's bedroom after eight o'clock. These extensive nighttime measures were enforced with strict consequences, in order to provide the quietest possible sleeping conditions for even the worst victim of insomnia.

Ann's jumper was in fact a long necked skivvy into which she tucked her thick red straight hair, deep down into the concealing material, so that it would not wave about or get caught on any small parts of the jacaranda tree. Wanda's door was closed and her bedroom light was evidently switched off. Ann had closed her own door and used the knowledge that she had, of where things were, in order to dress herself in the moonlight. She had opened the window as quietly as she could at eight o'clock, obscuring any faint sounds with the noise of her slight coughing, a biological necessity which was one of the exceptions to the rules of the Hush between the Eights.

Ann climbed silently out onto the ledge and stole over to the edge of Wanda's windowsill and peeked into the room. She could see Wanda's silhouette covered by a blanket and a sheet. Ann then reached the short distance to the near branch of the jacaranda tree and gripped it with her left hand. Then she maneuvered herself onto the branch, wrapping her legs around it. From there, she could work her way down to the fork and the lower branches like a monkey. Reversing this process later on would see her back in her room by morning.

She continually checked the building for nearby lights as she made her way to the bottom, also testing that each downward climbing movement had an upward climbing substitute motion which would enable her ascent to her room later on. She finally reached the bottom and then decided on a roundabout movement.

"The other walls may well have rooms with lights on even now. So my best bet is to go straight out to the bushes and trees now. I'm least likely to be seen if I stay on this side of the building," she said to her tiny audience of one.

Ann removed the torch from her neck, leaving Wendell to hold onto the top of her jumper, and put it into her right hand. Fortunately the batteries had been held in place by the powerful spring at the negative polarity end of the torch.

"And the rest is easier," said Ann, as she moved towards the trees at a fast but tiptoed pace, "Although there's always other trouble. Still I am not likely to get attacked anywhere near Freedom Fields. What sort of mugger would be out in that tonight? What sort of crazy person would inhabit a darkened bush? No fool would be wild enough to do that ... except me, of course."

Wendell laughed, but his tiny voice did not carry beyond Ann’s nearby ears.

Ann did not laugh. Even a soft giggle could be heard clearly in the still of night by anyone with an open window.

"With any luck, they all feel the cold enough to shut it out tonight," said Ann, "It's a good thing I wore stockings under my skirt and sox. They're a special kind of thick winter stockings."

Ann O’Malley made her way into the trees, still feeling her way in the dark until she was about ten meters in. Then she lit the torch briefly at the beginning of each stretch of pathway and then memorized the route she would take next, in order to travel in the dark as much as possible, which conserved her battery power in the torch.

"I could have brought spare batteries, but this way I don't need to... Ah, this is the way we often go, and tonight I am going to go further, much further, far enough to explore this forest properly... What about wild beasts?" said Ann, as she stopped and hesitated before going any further, "No. There couldn't be any really dangerous animals here, not even at night. Otherwise it would not be safe to take the younger girls for daytime trips in here."

Another flash of the torch.

Another walk for several meters.

Ann accepted the many thoughts going on in her mind. She may find nothing, just a dead end in the trees shortly beyond the orphanage's usual walking limits. On the other hand, she may explore vast hectares of forest and still find nothing. Those possibilities did not matter. At least she could tell herself that she had explored the forest thoroughly, and at night.

"Anyway, what could possibly happen to me out here?" thought Ann.

She passed the furthermost point of the orphanage's previous explorations and continued on into the forest.