Outside, Aminah sits on the set of swings I saw last time and lets herself cry. I try to pat her shoulder to comfort her, but my hand goes right through her.

I think for a moment about the rules in this dream in the same way I would approach one of my games. I can’t touch anyone and they can’t see me. But I can pick things up, like the bracelet, and brush my hands against the leaves on the walls.

I sit on the swing next to Aminah and it jiggles around, but she doesn’t appear to see that either.

Aminah rocks gently to and fro, letting her feet graze the ground, until her tears dry up and she falls silent.

But the sound of someone singing cuts through the quiet.

‘Hello?’ Aminah calls, looking around her.

Silence.

Then: ‘Ow!’

Something lands hard on Aminah’s shoulders. She whips her head up to the right, searching for the source. She doesn’t spot it, but I do. Just about.

Two cats rush under the shelter of one of the cars.

They had come from somewhere beyond the courtyard wall and had used Aminah as a landing pad. From down here all you can see are palm trees beyond a great big wall. They hold more of the silver branches that line the house.

The singing has stopped now, and is replaced by the light padding of feet on sand.

‘Hello?’ Aminah tries again. She pulls an old slide up against the wall, climbs to the top, and peeks her head over.

I do the same, leaning through her body to look over too. For a moment it’s like we’re the same person.

Over the wall is a long, hidden alleyway filled with all sorts of overgrown trees, which create a tunnel-like arch across it. Each end is blocked by concrete, concealing it from the outside world. Aminah and I spot a short-haired girl just as she starts climbing the wall into the courtyard of one of the other houses.

Aminah starts to call for the girl, but her own name echoes from somewhere behind us. We turn at the same time.

Zaina struts up to the slide. ‘You got in trouble!’ she teases, Aminah’s bracelet dangling from her wrist. I look down at my right hand, but the bracelet is gone.

Aminah sighs and looks back, but the girl has disappeared.

And in that moment everything else disappears too. The house, the courtyard, Aminah and her sister.

And suddenly, instead of the slide, I’m sitting on the hospital chair next to Mum’s bed, her hair as curly and as wild as it was when she was thirteen.

Chapter 10