I didn’t look back. They’d see how white I was. How scared. I took my first step on to the garden path – though there’d never been much of a garden and there wasn’t much left of a path. A few paving stones, islands in a sea of long grass. I stepped from island to island, focusing on that, letting my mind slip away from the house that suddenly seemed to loom over me. Island to island. Step to step. I was dimly aware of how much time I was taking, and when I looked up I was dismayed to find out I was only halfway there.

Something in me faltered.

“You OK, buddy?” Pete called.

I nodded, and looked back. Chrissy stood surrounded by the others, clasping her hands at her throat.

“He’s too scared!” Benny cried.

“No, he isn’t,” said Pete, and to my horror he kicked the gate open and strode up the path after me, waving his hands in the air. “Ooooh, Bubba Moon! We’re so scared of you! We’re so scared of you, Bubba Moon!”

And then he was striding past me, and I stood there like the paving stones had latched on to my feet, and there was nothing I could do as he bounded up those steps and slammed his fist against the door.

“Yoo-hoo!” he called. “Anybody home?”

The cold feeling in my chest was gone, and in its place was a dreadful hollowness. He’d robbed me of my moment. I didn’t have the words back then and I didn’t have the frame of reference, but walking up that path and knocking on that door was a rite of passage for kids like me, and my friend Pete had denied me that one small foothold into adulthood and, I suppose, manliness. And he hadn’t done it for me. He hadn’t done it as a show of solidarity. He’d done it simply to show off to Chrissy, who hadn’t come along the first time he’d knocked on that door, three months earlier.

“Come on, buddy,” he said, grabbing my sleeve and pulling me forward. “Show Mr Moon we’re not scared of him!”

I didn’t want to, there was no point in it, but I knocked, anyway. It was a feeble effort. I couldn’t believe Pete had done that to me. He wrapped an arm round my shoulders and turned me to face the others.

“See?” he said. “He did it! Happy now?”

“Yeah, big deal,” said Benny. “Bet you wouldn’t break in, though.”