As the morning chimes ring from St Anthony’s, I run down the stairs and grab my coat. I put my shoes on by the front door, knowing I’ll have to have one last conversation with Mum before I go. She appears, as I knew she would, and stands 162watching me with that tilted head and empty smile.

‘Morning, Mum,’ I say. ‘Did you have a good sleep?’

‘Did you?’ she says.

‘I got a few hours,’ I smile. ‘Could have done with a bit more, but I promised Kat I’d go to hers early. We’re gonna get the others and then spend the day at hers.’

She frowns. Confused. ‘I’d rather you stayed here.’

Yeah, so you can either sedate me or give me a nasty bump on my head and make sure the spores do their work. ‘I promised, though,’ I say. ‘She wants me to help put their Christmas tree up. We’re finally friends again and I don’t want to ruin it.’

‘You sure you’re not too tired to be going out?’

‘You know me, Mum,’ I grin. ‘I can go without sleep for days and still be amazing.’

‘But it’s nearly the big day,’ she says, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t mean Christmas. What the hell is going to happen on the evil body-snatchers’ Big Day? Something else to worry about once I get out of here.

163 So I say, ‘Exactly. After today we’ll be spending loads of time together at home.’

She frowns again. I know she’s itching to go upstairs to find out why my vandalised CPAP didn’t work as she thought it would.

‘I really want to help Kat with her tree,’ I say. ‘Her mum hurt her arm playing netball, and her dad’s got a shift, so they need help getting it into the living room.’ I finish tying my lace. ‘And I’ve thought about it, and because I don’t exactly have muscles bursting out of my clothes and Kat’s actually better at reaching the high branches than I am, I really think she just wants me to spend time with her.’ I feel my face getting hot at that, because even though I’m making this up, the thought of it is like a mix of cringe and happy. ‘I promise I’ll stay home after today.’ I stand up again and pull my coat on, reaching for the door handle as soon as my arm is in the sleeve. ‘Could you do me a favour actually?’ I add, as casually as I can manage. ‘I think something might be wrong with my CPAP, cos I woke up about half four and it wasn’t working properly. Could you check it for me, please?’