‘Well,’ she said finally. ‘Looky here. The princess has a mind of her own. Okay. Why not? Here’s the story. I had a twin brother once, princess. Older than me by four minutes, I was told. He died when I was a year and a half. Coughed up blood until there wasn’t any left. Just a disease, they said. But I knew better. It was poverty that killed him.’ She laughed and those white teeth startled me once more. ‘I saw the two of you and … well, maybe I am a softie. But the pair of you reminded me of him. So I let you go. For him.’ She tapped me on the cheek. ‘I can’t promise I’ll make that decision again, princess.’

And we locked eyes for what seemed like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds.

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘And I’m sorry about your brother.’ But the moment was over before it had even really begun. Aiden and Xena stepped away and wandered further into the park, leaving me and the rest of the kids in an unfair showdown close to the park’s entrance. Eight of them glaring at me. One of me, pretending I wasn’t scared.

It was a long twenty minutes.

Finally, they broke apart and Aiden walked back towards me. Xena whistled and the rest of her gang walked towards her. The meeting was done and we headed off in opposite directions. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t know if Aiden was. His expression gave nothing away and he didn’t say much on the walk back to school.

We leaned back into the soft upholstery of the car.

‘Well?’ I said.

‘I’ve changed,’ said Aiden. ‘Since the accident, I’ve changed and I know you’ve noticed and I know you’re worried.’

I was talking about his conversation with Xena and my brother knew that. But this was just as interesting and maybe more important. I also suspected the two things were connected.

‘You’re almost a different person,’ I said. ‘And yes, I’m worried. Of course I’m worried.’

‘You know that old expression, “you need to have some sense knocked into you”?’

I nodded, but I don’t think he noticed.

‘In some ways, that’s what the accident did. Before, Ash, it was like my sole purpose in life, my only purpose, you know, was to look after you, to protect you against all danger, every threat.’ He sighed. ‘Do you remember that lesson Mum gave us so many years ago? The duty of siblings is to catch each other if one should fall. This’ll sound crazy, but I think I let that be the sole reason for my existence. Looking after you, making sure nothing bad happened. I never really thought about me and what I wanted.’