We burst out laughing and went into a big glass maze, still with our moustaches. You had to be really careful, or you banged your nose against the transparent panels. There were some kids bawling because they’d lost their parents: they could see them but couldn’t find a way of getting to them. It was as though they were learning about exile for the first time. Perhaps it wasn’t that different from life: there you are, endlessly tormented as you circle around each other, trying to touch without ever getting close. Marie and I concentrated hard as we weaved around the maze together. But there came a point when I looked back and realized she was no longer following me. There was nothing but emptiness, which is a disorientating feeling.

Marie was actually a few metres behind me, helping a little kid to get up. She was wiping his nose with a tissue all splattered with blood. I was reminded of my blackbird. Then the mother turned up and took the kid away in her arms, sounding off about the maze being a load of rubbish and whose idea was it to invent something so stupid? After that, Marie and I tried to get back together, but we made the mistake of both moving at the same time, so that we kept going past each other. It really felt like we were getting close, and then at the last moment we’d find ourselves separated by an invisible wall. At first, it made us laugh, but after a while not so much – in fact we started to panic. I tried to keep still and guide her from a distance, and then we tried it the other way round, but nothing was working. We couldn’t find a way of reaching each other. It was as though we’d lost every possibility of guiding, helping or even understanding one another. We ended up in a blind alley, separated by a plexiglass panel. There was a wide, desperate sort of smile on Marie’s face. Was this real or was I dreaming? I couldn’t tell any more. She put her hands on the panel with her fingers spread out, and I put mine against hers. It was as though we’d both been pinned there, face to face, on either side of the glass. We stayed like that for some time gazing at each other: we found it impossible to draw apart, as though we were looking at ourselves in a mirror. Eventually we got back together outside. The sun was shining and you could smell the candyfloss. We went on the bumper cars and Marie wanted to drive.

“You see, this could be the last time I’m able to do anything like this…”