‘How was your mum?’ Dad asks as I get into the car. Lady’s in the back seat and she dives into the front to say hello by licking one of my knees. ‘The doctors didn’t have much to report this time.’

‘Fine,’ I say, stroking Lady until she settles into the footwell, my mind swirling with thoughts of Mum and her family, and the dreams. I spent way longer in the dream this time, but when I woke up only a few minutes had passed. Kind of like in Narnia, when Lucy goes through the wardrobe during a game of hide-and-seek. She’s gone for ages and ages, but when she gets back they’re still playing.

‘Did you speak to her?’ Dad asks as we pull out of the car park.

‘Who? Mum?’ I look up, a little alarmed. Is he testing me?

Does he know?

Dad raises his eyebrows. ‘No, the Queen,’ he says, smirking at his own joke, and I realize obviously he doesn’t.

‘Not really . . .’ I say, not sure how to explain that I usually spend the whole visit asleep. ‘Should I?’ I turn to him, my brown eyes meeting his blue.

Dad shrugs. ‘I was just doing some reading about –’ he hesitates, and I know he doesn’t want to say the word ‘coma’ – ‘patients, and how you can help them recover.’ He explains everything he’s read to me.

I try to listen, but my mind is far, far away. In Kuwait.

I check the temperature in Dad’s car and see it’s almost freezing outside. I find it hard to believe that moments ago I could feel the warmth. Smell it. It smelled just like Mum’s perfume.

Three visits to Mum, three times I’ve had these strange dreams. Except, these aren’t like any dreams I’ve had before. Usually my dreams are hazy, and what happens in them is random. These are different . . . They play out like a story. But how are they happening, and why?

Then it hits me.

‘Dad?’ I bark, making him jump.

He turns to me, eyebrows creased.

‘Is it OK if we stop by Mum’s flat, just for a minute?’

A pause.

‘Of course,’ Dad says, and his voice is softer than I’ve heard it in years.

It sounds like it did that time school called up to say I had fallen over and broken my two front teeth. Dad came rushing in, wrapped me up in his arms, and told me how brave I was.

A while later I jump out of the car. ‘I won’t be long,’ I promise.