‘It’s like being in The Secret Garden, isn’t it?’

She was right. This wasn’t like any normal vegetable patch. It was huge, taller than both of us. We played hide-and-seek, and pretended we were Jack, climbing up the beanstalk into giant territory. Except a very real giant – or so we imagined at the time – in the form of Elle’s neighbour threatened to call the police when he saw us there.

‘I was just getting my Frisbee,’ Elle said sweetly.

It worked, and we didn’t even get in trouble.

Still, Elle’s not here right now, even though I wish she was.

She would know what to do.

I rush towards the gate and pull it open with a great big creak. But it’s almost as if something is trying to pull me back, like an elastic band stretching as far as it can go.

And I swear I hear a voice whisper, ‘Come back, Safiya.’

But when I turn round to see who spoke, no one’s there.

I’m not sure what to do with myself once I’m away from the house. There are rows of equally giant houses to my left and right, a park across the street framed with palm trees, and a corner shop that sits on the other side of it.

It seems to be open. Maybe I can ask them to tell me where I am. Maybe they can explain why it’s so hot, why there are trees I’ve never seen in England before, and why I keep hearing someone call my name.

I don’t seem to have anything on me, even though I could swear my phone was in my pocket when I got to the hospital.

I run across the street, eyes darting left and right, looking out for people and cars. But as my foot hits the pavement on the other side of the road, the corner shop starts to shake and crumble. The roof sinks in and the walls tumble down, down, down, like a sandcastle washed away by the ocean.

The park turns to ash. Replacing it is a barren wasteland of sand for miles, mounds of it everywhere.

I turn round, but the house has disappeared too.

Before I have the chance to panic I hear another voice, a different one this time.

‘Visiting hours are over, love,’ someone says from a distance.

Chapter 5

I whip my head up. I had been sitting next to Mum’s hospital bed, my head resting just next to her right arm.

‘Sorry to wake you,’ the nurse, Amanda, adds. I try to make sense of my surroundings again. ‘I’ll give you five minutes,’ she says, before retreating behind the curtain.