“I don’t remember this,” he said, smiling despite himself.

“Well, you practically did. Come on, give us the grand tour of el mercado – we want to see a typical Mexican marketplace.”

He gave in. Why not? It wasn’t as if he had anything else to do with his time, now that he was no longer searching. The thought brought a wince of pain; he pushed it away.

“All right,” he said. He raked his hair back; he could feel the curls hanging over his forehead, annoying him. “The first thing, I think, is that we go and find something to eat.”

“Ooh, good idea,” said Amanda. She had dark hair and eyebrows that were too perfect to be natural. “Lead the way.”

The bright chaos of the marketplace enveloped them: vendors shouting their bargains; the smell of spicy food cooking; crowds of shoppers. Seb had been in Chihuahua for almost two weeks now. After his decision at the orphanage, he’d hitched a ride with the first truck he’d seen to wherever it was going, but had somehow felt compelled to get off here – so strongly that he’d almost shouted at the truck driver to stop. It didn’t make much sense to him now; the town was as dusty and run-down as he remembered. Still, he supposed it was as good a place as any to figure out what to do with the rest of his life.

The problem was, he had no idea – all he knew was that ever since he’d arrived in Chihuahua, he’d had a feeling there was something he was supposed to be doing. It was a constant irritation, like a bee buzzing at his head.

They got tacos and wandered around the stalls. Lucy kept close to him as they walked, frequently touching his arm as she and Amanda chattered about the Copper Canyon train trip their group was taking the next morning, to see the plunging canyons of the Sierra Madre. They were excited about experiencing the “real Mexico”, which amused Seb. The Copper Canyon tour – so safe and so geared for American tourists – was not remotely like the real Mexico he knew.

“You’ll have a good time,” was all he said. “Make sure you don’t fall out the window – it’s a long way down.”

“Hey, maybe you could come with us!” Lucy gave a little skip to get ahead of him, walking backwards. She was wearing tight jeans, and a halter top that showed off her creamy skin. “Why don’t you? I’m sure we can get you a ticket. We’d have a great time!”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Um, hello – we had to book those tickets months ago, remember? There’s no way we can get him one.”