Orisa was a small, pretty woman in her mid-thirties. She was a distant cousin, sent from Julius’s grandparents’ village when his twin brothers were born seventeen years earlier. And while other household staff got hired and fired, Orisa was family and not to be messed with.

‘Would you like a cold drink?’ she asked brightly. ‘Pepsi?’

‘Sounds good,’ Julius agreed, then tapped his stomach. ‘Diet, if we have it.’

‘Your mother is home, so we will all eat together in an hour,’ Orisa said as she part-filled a glass from an ice dispenser and pulled a large Coke bottle from the fridge. ‘And you have wardrobes filled with clothes, so why must this house be full of boys in their underwear?’

Julius nodded thanks for his drink and changed the subject. ‘So, when is the power coming back on?’

‘We have solar power,’ Orisa said, pointing to the roof. ‘My kitchen is fine.’

‘Real power,’ Julius said, between gulps of Coke. ‘Cold-blast-of-air-conditioning-shooting-up-the-legs-of-my-shorts power.’

Orisa smiled. ‘You won’t get your balls cooled unless the mains electricity is switched on later. The diesel generator needs parts from China. It will be two days, at least.’

Julius tutted. ‘Can’t we check into a hotel?’

‘Don’t be soft,’ Orisa said as she picked a wooden spoon off a countertop and gave Julius a good-natured thwack on the upper arm. ‘When I was your age, I’d never seen an air-conditioning unit.’

‘Life was hard,’ Julius moaned sarcastically. ‘The Adebisi family lived in dirt holes. There was only cow dung to eat, and we all died of malaria six months before we were born …’

This earned him a harder whack with the spoon. ‘Would you dare with that cheek in front of your mother?’ Orisa asked, throwing down the spoon and making get out gestures, but smiling. ‘Leave my kitchen. And wear some blasted clothes!’

Julius grabbed his Coke and moved back to the staircase. A Nerf dart skimmed his head as he wondered where to go next. The thought of sitting in the outdoor courtyard by the pool was enticing, but the twins were there, blaring death metal, and the physics assignment was going nowhere.

‘BANZAI NINJA!’ Gabe screamed, vaulting over a bannister as his friend came down the stairs after him with a fully loaded Nerf.

Julius wanted to be ten as he sighed and turned up the stairs. Then he wished the ground would gobble him as he neared the top step and saw Simeon come out of his mother’s office. The heavily built driver had a thick bundle of 1,000 notes and the expression of a boy who’d wet himself.

‘Your ma would like to see you straight away,’ Simeon said, almost tearful. ‘I just received a week’s severance pay.’

‘Why?’

‘I have three kids at home,’ Simeon told Julius bitterly. ‘I hope your escapade was worth my livelihood.’