‘I’ll get it,’ he called to the Gods, who were too busy squabbling over whether to make straight or curly chips to hear him.

Elliot pulled open the front door.

‘Hi,’ he said. ‘How can I—’

‘Elliot?’ cried the man before him. ‘Oh, thank God!’

And before Elliot could object, the man had pulled him into his arms in an embrace that had been ten years in the making.

‘Elliot?’ Zeus called, rounding the corner into the hallway. ‘Where are— Oh.’

Elliot wriggled free of the strong arms to take a look at the man standing in the hallway. The man who he hadn’t seen for most of his life, but whose presence stirred deep, happy memories. The man who had lost his freedom trying to save his family. The man who looked just like him.

‘Dad?’ Elliot whispered.

Dave Hooper nodded, his eyes glistening, mesmerized by his son, running his hands over his face, down his arms, as if his fingers could atone for all the years of being unable to touch his boy.

Elliot heard Zeus usher his family out of the hallway and into the kitchen.

‘Are you OK?’ Dave asked through choked breaths. ‘Are you hurt?’

Elliot looked into the warm, caring eyes of his father. His real father. The one Josie had been so desperate for him to find. And somehow, he knew the real Dave Hooper was a good man.

‘I’m getting better,’ he said, his own tears starting to flow.

‘Oh, Elliot,’ sobbed Dave Hooper. ‘I’m here now. And I will never leave you again. You hear me? You’re safe. I swear it.’

And Elliot allowed himself to be pulled back into his dad’s strong embrace, where he was quite content to stay for as long as it took for their mutual tears to travel from sadness to regret to happiness at last.

They laid Josie’s body to rest beneath her favourite blossom tree in the orchard, next to Wilfred and Audrey. As the vicar spoke warm words over her final resting place, Elliot felt his dad’s arm around his shoulders. He couldn’t stop the tears that were pouring down his face, but he had a sense of cleansing, as if they might just help him to heal in time.

The vicar addressed the small gathering of Gods and mortals in front of him.

‘Would anyone care to say a few words?’ he asked.

Hermes approached the graveside, leaving Zeus and Hephaestus to comfort his weeping sisters.

‘See ya, J-Hoops,’ said Hermes, laying the vast wreath of spring flowers that Athene had created. ‘You are one epic mega-bosh of a super-babe and I’ll never forget you. Laters, potaters.’

The Messenger God came back to Elliot and raised his hand for a high-five, then immediately snatched it away when Elliot tried to return it.

‘Too slow,’ Hermes whispered with a wink, giving Elliot a playful punch on the chin.