Eventually Atticus taps him with a long, pale finger. ‘You’re getting cold.’ Dan’s skin has goose bumps. Atticus goes to take off his leather jacket but Dan shakes his head vehemently. ‘Then walk with me. Let’s warm you up.’

Dan nods and Fitz barks, wanting to go home for dinner. They take a slow loop of the Beacon together, Atticus’s legs making bigger strides than Dan’s. Nothing about them fits. In the last of the sunlight, their shadows look ridiculous together. They look perfect.

On the third lap of silence, Dan says, ‘Not here next time,’ and holds out his phone for Atticus to type in his number. As they bend their heads together, the first line is crossed and their shadows blur into one.

Lizzie

(Maybe we could be friends)

LIZZIE CURSES HERSELF, AGAIN, for agreeing to the school trip. Why did Luke ask her? Surely there were other parents available. But she can’t cancel now, because Lenny is so excited about having her there. They spent the evening learning the names of coastal plants. Lenny has plans to pick the edible ones and cook Tess dinner. Marsh samphire, sea buckthorn and Crambe maritima, which makes even sea kale sound more appetizing. Lizzie used to study etymology. Loved to learn the roots of things. Now she can’t go back that far. She tells Lenny ‘samphire’ is a corruption of ‘St Pierre’, the patron saint of fishermen. Lizzie wonders how her brain remembers these useless facts, but not the second her life detonated like an atomic bomb. Everyone knows the date of Hiroshima, or where they were the exact second a plane flew into the Twin Towers. Why can’t she remember when she slipped behind the glass, down the rabbit hole? Why can’t she remember the day she died?

‘You look nice, Mum,’ Lenny says now, as she twists and folds her hair into a knot on her head. She’s going to wear a tiny bit of make-up, just enough so she doesn’t look washed out, so grey. Just enough to look nice for Luke. The thought comes from nowhere and she wills it back there.

‘Thank you,’ she says. Guilt at the fact she’s dressing for another man, not her husband, makes her awkward and flustered, so she does what she always does and reverts to the encyclopaedia inside her. ‘The word “beacon” comes from the old German word baukna, meaning “signal”. We stole our language from all over the place.’

‘How interesting,’ Lenny says, just like Tess, and despite herself, Lizzie laughs.

‘Fine. A jumping flea can accelerate faster than the Space Shuttle.’

‘No way.’

‘Way. Stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve stainless steel.’

‘Shut the front door.’ Lenny pulls his most impressed face.

‘Is that a new cool saying I should know about?’

‘Yep.’

‘Right,’ Lizzie says. Then: ‘Polar bears can’t be detected by infrared cameras.’

‘You are so cool, Mum.’