Shouting and shoving. Everyone bigger and taller than me. Then Jai was beside me. Rat-man pushed him and shouted something I didn’t hear. Jai spun round, his face distorted with anger. Everything was happening at super-speed. Someone pushed rat-man aside. Gary. Rat-man spun round to confront him, and Gary lunged forward, fist raised and ready. I couldn’t move fast enough to stop him. I waited for Gary’s fist to connect with the man’s face, for blood to explode from his nose, for the rat to be torn in two. But it didn’t happen. Rat-man’s body tipped sideways, and he let out a roar. A woman had kicked his feet from under him. He crashed to the ground, his phone smashing on the tarmac. One of the uniforms shot out of the crowd, grabbed him and pulled him up, holding his arms behind him.

And suddenly the mood changed. Placards were lowered, people started drifting away. It felt as if I’d imagined the intensity of the violence, as if the threat had been in my head. But then I saw Jai’s face and realised it hadn’t. This was real.

Gary shouted at the woman who’d kicked rat-man. ‘Mandy, what are you doing? Are you crazy?’

And I realised the woman was wearing a dressing gown. Blue towelling with a tea stain on one arm. She looked confused about why she was out in the road, but she’d saved Gary from getting in deep trouble.

We left the uniforms to deal with rat-man, and said we’d handle Gary. The other protesters dispersed enough that Gary could open his front door safely. My heart was thudding unpleasantly in my chest, as if it hadn’t realised things had calmed down and still thought I was about to get my head kicked in.

Jai and I followed Gary and the woman, Mandy presumably, into their house and pushed the door closed behind us. I turned the key to lock it and took a heavy breath. The house felt cool and damp after the hot dustiness outside.

A blur of flailing arms and legs shot down the hall and hurled itself at Gary. ‘Daddy!’ A small girl leaped into his arms. She must have been about six or seven, with tangled blonde hair. She was wearing pink leggings and a sparkly top.

Mandy said, ‘Gary, you’re going to get yourself killed!’ She had lank brown hair and huge dark eyes, and the kind of thinness that’s achieved by drinking and smoking rather than exercise and healthy eating.

Gary spun round to face me. ‘Do you see now? They’re crazy. They’ve got Violet and now they’re after the rest of us.’ He prised the clinging monkey-girl off him and put her down.