“No, don’t you see. It’s a really good idea. You don’t get it: with all that palaver earlier it’s not going to take long for people to realize that you’re as blind as a bat. I’m pretty sure some people suspect already. Do you think Van Gogh is going to miss such a golden opportunity to bring us down? A concert will shut everyone up, especially if it looks like you’re reading the score.”

“Actually that’s not such a bad plan… Maybe you’re right… The important thing is to gain time. We’ve only got to hold out for three more weeks.”

Her eyes were shining like little candles. I noticed that her shirt was buttoned wrongly: details like that could catch us out too.

She sighed.

“There’s another problem.”

“What?”

“The road safety drill. I’ll have to drive – bike or go-kart. Either way it’s a disaster.”

At this point I was clean out of ideas. If she made an excuse to go and see the nurse, there was a risk she might be examined and get found out. I was still an amateur, compared with Haisam, who was always at least fifteen moves ahead of his opponent. I thought it best to say nothing. You can often be credited with intelligence if you keep your mouth shut and look mysterious.

The outcome of our visit to the head was that I would be made to sweep one of the corridors and Marie would give a free concert for the whole school, including parents. Ah well, horses for courses!

At the end of the morning I wound up at Haisam’s, completely bushed. I didn’t even have the strength to go to the canteen. Moral anxieties are far more exhausting than physical exertion, I find. I felt totally drained. Haisam was sitting on a tiny chair with his elbows on the table, looking at the chessboard as though he was trying to hypnotize it and get it to cough up all its secrets. His enormous stomach, packaged in his inevitable checked shirt, was touching the edge of the table.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing?”

“Just nothing. It’s the start of the Sabbath. We’re not supposed to do anything, so I’m not doing anything.”

“One day, you really will have to explain to me why half-Egyptian Turks observe the Sabbath. And anyway I thought it didn’t start until the evening?”

“I can start it whenever I like. For me, midday on Friday is when it starts, because as a chess player I’m always one move ahead. There’s nothing to explain. And it doesn’t bother anyone. Does it bother you, for example?”

“I really couldn’t care less. Anyway, I barely know where Turkey is: on the map I got it muddled up with India.”