“You can’t!” cried the doctor.

“We most certainly can, Doctor,” Miss Carter told him. “And we will too, you just watch us. Are you with us, Mrs Bellamy?”

Mrs Bellamy was in tears by now. It was several moments before she regained her composure. “Well, Doctor,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I don’t think they’ve left us much choice, have they? So I suppose we’re just going to have to make the best of it. I suggest you warn the hospital and the emergency services what’s happening here. They’ll need to know, just in case.” She turned to Miss Carter then. “And, to answer your question, I am with you, of course I am. I always have been, you know that. We’ll make you all as comfortable as we can, chairs and blankets like you said, but we’ll need heaters and music too. Warm and happy. That’s what we’ve got to be. Warm and happy. We’ll play all the old songs, from the Beatles to Vera Lynn, all the ones you like, and we can sing along, can’t we? That’ll keep us happy.”

Miss Carter drove her chair over to where Joe and Paddywack were sitting, swathed in blankets outside the tent. “You don’t mind if we join you, do you?” she said.

“You’re mad, Miss Carter, all of you are. Mad and wonderful.” He reached out and took her hand. “You’ll catch your death out here, you know that?”

“Outside, inside. What’s the difference?” Miss Carter replied.

Things happened very quickly after that. Mrs Bellamy rang up the local radio and told them what had happened. The word was out. All the old people of Fairlawns had joined the protest, and they weren’t going to give up, not ever. Overhead patio heaters arrived from Mantova, the Italian restaurant in Fore Street. More blankets and duvets and pillows were brought in from the families all around than they knew what to do with. An ambulance came and parked nearby, on permanent stand-by. The television cameras arrived again, but national television this time, and soon a whole posse of reporters. Paddywack became the centre of attention. It was Miss Carter who told them that Paddywack was their mascot. “He’s not leaving and we’re not leaving,” she declared, not till the Council change their minds.”

The police were there too, and in numbers, as a huge crowd began to gather. And all the while the old people sat there, wrapped in their blankets alongside Joe, and Paddywack would walk from one to the other, stopping by each of them for a few minutes, to rest his head on their laps – and to be given a biscuit. By now the cars weren’t just hooting, and the lorries weren’t just honking. Some of them were actually stopping, and the drivers would get out and come up on to the grass verge to shake hands. More police arrived because of the traffic congestion, and because the crowds all along the pavements were spilling out on to the road.