Aminah sits up straighter. ‘I’m good at tests,’ she says a little smugly.

I laugh. Mum’s ridiculously clever.

The girl rolls her eyes. ‘Not that kind of test.’ She nods over at the cats. ‘If you can pet one of them, you can come back.’

‘And if I don’t?’

‘Then this was all a dream,’ the girl whispers spookily, holding the torch up to her face.

Aminah gulps. ‘Fine,’ she finally says. ‘I’ll do it.’

Aminah stands up, her shoes noisily grazing against the ground. Immediately one pair of eyes disappears as the first cat bolts.

The girl lets out a low murmur. ‘Not a good start,’ she teases, the smile evident in her voice.

‘Pass me the torch,’ Aminah says, gritting her teeth. She holds it under her arm, takes her shoes off one at a time, and creeps silently across the sand.

I follow her, careful to be quiet too.

The second cat, the smaller of the two, is much braver. It’s poised, ready to run, but it looks curious too, eyes locked on Aminah as she inches closer and closer.

She’s now less than a metre away and the cat takes a couple of steps back.

Aminah changes tack. She sits down. As soon as she does the cat stops, watching her.

‘What are you doing?’ the girl calls.

‘Shhhh!’ Aminah says, but the noise has scared the cat even more, and it bolts into the leaves after its mother.

‘You lose,’ the girl says coolly.

My heart sinks. I wanted her to win.

But Aminah’s not given up yet. She ignores the girl and focuses instead on her task. She watches the cats peer out at her from the bushes.

She takes the torch and shines it just in front of where the cats are sitting. She darts the light left to right.

A minute passes.

Two.

Nothing.

Then, a tiny paw.

Both of the cats jump out of the bush to chase the light.

Aminah holds the torch over her head and directs it closer and closer to her until the cats are playing less than a metre away. She clicks her tongue. Both cats look up at her, alarmed, as if surprised to see her there. Then Aminah puts her left hand out, palm up, beneath the cats’ mouths. They sniff. And she takes her chance.

She strokes the smaller cat – the braver one – first. It pulls back a little, until it realizes she isn’t going to hurt it. And then, rather abruptly, it leans into her, purring.

The second cat lets her pet it once, before retreating back into the bushes.

Aminah turns and points the torch at the girl. ‘I win!’ she says triumphantly. She settles back into her old spot and puts her shoes back on.