I sat on Vaisey’s bed next to Jo’s curtain and said, “Are you okeydokey, my little friendette, do you want to arm wrestle or something? You like that.”

There was a pause and then Jo’s voice came through sounding like she was under a blanket. She said, “What if I never see him again? He’s the first boy I’ve ever kissed.”

Then from behind her curtain Flossie said, “Why, sometimes on hoooottttt nights, I’m just a-setting on the stoop to get some air … or is it stooping on the set? I can’t rightly say. I don’t know what ah do, it’s so goddam hooootttttt. Hey, open a window, y’all.”

Fat chance. It was about minus fifty, and anyway, you can’t open the windows because mostly there aren’t any. It’s just frames covered in clingfilm. Another Bob DIY job to cut costs. This whole place is falling down.

Jo said from behind her curtain, “I knew he was too short in the first place. When I first saw him, I said, didn’t I? I should never have trusted him. You can’t trust short people. Look at clowns.”

I was going to have to be firm to be kind with her.

I went and pulled back the curtain.

I said, “Look, Jo, well, not to, you know, upset your applecart and so on, but you yourself are quite … you are quite, you know.”

I patted her head.

She said, “Why are you patting my head?”

I looked down at her as she looked up at me. I said, “Well, you know, because I can.”

Her face went all dark and red. I stepped back.

She said, “Are you saying I’m short?”

I said, “Well, no, I’m just saying that shortness is not a reason not to trust people. There’re lots of other reasons not to trust them, but …”

Jo wasn’t listening, she was just getting redder. She stood up on her bed and looked me in the eyes and said, “Maybe I am a normal size and you are a giant girl with … with … big nobbly legs!!”

Oh, that was a bit mean.

Jo drew the curtains around her bed again really violently. Huh.

Vaisey had been lying down kicking her legs about when she sat up and said, “I think Jack might like me still, don’t you? He smiled at me a lot, didn’t he, and said ‘see you at the gig’? And he gave me the thumbs-up when I waved the plectrum, didn’t he? It was a proper smile, wasn’t it? Crinkly. You’ll come to The Jones’s gig with me on Saturday, won’t you, Lullah?”

I said, “Well, I—”

Flossie flung back her curtain and came cavorting out in her new bra and pants.

Crikey and yikes!

She walked up and down in front of Vaisey and me, swinging her hips around and shaking her corker holder. Still speaking in her ridiculous Southern drawl.

“Phew. It just gets so damn hooooottttttt in October in Yorkshire that I often walk about in mah underwear … just like those goddam Brontë sisters.”