She narrows her eyes. ‘Did my family send you to track me down?’

‘What? No!’ I would never do that! I want to say, I love you.

But what do I tell her? How will she react if I tell her she and I are in a circus together, in a parallel universe? She’ll think I’m crazy.

‘I met you once,’ I say slowly. ‘In a circus … were you in a circus?’ Does our circus even exist in this universe?

She nods. ‘I was, in Australia, in Potts’s Circus. Where exactly did you meet me?’ she asks warily. ‘You’re Australian, right …?’

‘Oh, it was a couple of years ago now,’ I say, trying hard to sound casual. ‘In … Millimba. I guess it’s hard to keep track of everyone you meet.’ This much is true. Audience members often come up to me and say that we chatted last time the circus was in town, but I don’t remember most of them.

Claudie nods and takes off her cap. Her beautiful red hair is gone, her head shorn, but she has the same kind, freckled face. ‘Who else did you meet from the circus?’ she asks.

‘I met Dave and Kit and Walid and Vince,’ I say.

‘Oh, Vince.’ She smiles sadly. ‘But there was no Dave in my circus.’

My stomach drops. No Dad. ‘Oh. I, um, must have got his name wrong,’ I say quickly. ‘So why are you in England?’ I’m trying to figure out when the universes forked in order for Dad to not be part of the circus in this universe.

‘The circus came here two years ago,’ she says. ‘Someone took over – Sylvie.’ She says Sylvie’s name with such bitterness. ‘She made bad decision after bad decision. Got rid of good people and hired all the wrong ones.’ The way she’s speaking makes me think that she’s told this story many times. ‘Sylvie spent all our money bringing us over to perform at some festival, but we got here and …’ Her voice wavers. ‘Anyway, it all fell apart. There is no Potts’s Circus anymore, and I don’t have enough money for a plane ticket home. So …’ She takes a deep breath and roughly wipes tears from her cheeks. ‘It’s nice to meet someone who’s seen our circus.’ She gives me a wobbly smile, and turns to Haz and Asif. ‘We were really good.’

‘You were!’ I say. ‘You were all amazing. But especially yours and Jerry’s act.’

‘Jerry?’ she says with a frown.

No Jerry? I think.

Haz hands me a bowl of warmed baked beans and says, ‘Sit. Eat.’

I don’t like baked beans but it seems rude to say so. ‘Did Kit come to England too?’ I ask Claudie.