A shudder runs through me at her words, but I worry that soon we will be interrupted and there are things I need to know.

‘When I found your diary there was a photograph inside. I’m sorry – you’ll think I’m really nosy – but I looked at it. I think I know the man in the picture. Will you tell me who he is?’

She leaps up off the bed. ‘You’re asking too many questions and I’ll get in trouble. If they throw me out, I’m going to prison. Or I’ll get offered the other option, and I’m not ready.’

‘What other option?’ I ask, getting up slowly to be sure I don’t frighten her any more than I already have.

‘The doctor says that when we decide we’re no use to the world – when we realise we have nothing left to give – there is only one sensible way to go. He offers us a way out.’

I stare at her.

‘We get the choice. Judith, the other Judith, has made her choice. She’s just waiting until he’s ready. He doesn’t make us do it, and he makes sure it doesn’t hurt. He says it’s the best way to go.’

I’m alone again in my room, my head spinning with everything I have just learned. The meaning of her words about a way out seemed clear, but surely not? I started to ask her, but I must have spooked her because she scurried out like a scared rabbit. I know that any minute now she or the other one will be summoned upstairs to bring down the washing and ironing. There is a rota, apparently, for cleaning all the rooms from top to bottom. The curtains have to be taken down and washed, carpets shampooed, the works. I don’t know the sequence yet, so one of the others will do it today.

I feel as if I have missed my chance to find out more, but when the buzzer goes and I peer round my door, it’s the older woman who is traipsing upstairs, and I maybe have one more chance to learn the truth. I check there is no one in the corridor, that Thea hasn’t crept down here when I wasn’t looking, and I make my way to the closed door opposite mine.

I knock softly. ‘It’s only me. Sorry if I freaked you out before. Can I come in?’ I wait for her permission, not wanting to frighten her again.

‘Okay,’ comes the soft reply. She sounds resigned, as if she knows I’m not about to give up, and I push the door open and walk slowly into the room.