‘Oh, Ariel,’ she said. ‘I have no idea what you’re really up to, but that was the least convincing story I’ve ever heard. Come in.’

I tried not to smile. ‘Sorry.’

I stepped over the threshold. I was in Joe’s old house.

This was the house in which he started every day. For the past twenty years he had woken up here and lived 11 March. He’d woken up here today, in his world. And now I was here, twenty years later, in mine. What about Ms Duke, though?

‘I should be at school too,’ she said. ‘I can see you thinking it. I don’t actually have classes on Monday afternoon, so I came home to catch up on marking and wait for a delivery. I thought you were someone bringing my … well, my order.’

‘Sorry! I don’t even have a parcel for you. I’ll go. I’m sorry.’

The hallway had wooden floorboards and pale green walls. There was a huge mirror on the wall and I saw myself in it. I shouldn’t have been here, but there I was, reflected.

‘What are you really doing here, Ariel? Actually don’t tell me if you don’t want to. I’m bemused, but you can tell me in your own time. Do you want to talk? It’s nice to have a break from marking, actually.’

She walked down the hallway and into a kitchen. It was nice. A bit messy, with paperwork piled up on the side and cookery books on top of each other on a shelf. She flicked the kettle on.

‘Cup of tea?’ she said.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, I’m sure. I don’t know what the rules are, but since you’ve turned up on my doorstep I’m quite sure there’s something wrong, and we’re going to have a cup of tea and you can tell me what’s up, if you want to.’

I didn’t know how to answer that, so after trying to think of something I just said, ‘You’re so nice.’

‘Do you really need to use the loo?’

‘Yes, please.’

‘You do look like someone who’s drunk too much Coca-Cola. In the sense that you’ve got the caffeine jitters. Have you?’

I just nodded. She pointed me to the downstairs loo, tucked away under the stairs. I remembered that Joe sometimes used this very room to do some of his fake illness, and that blew my mind. It was smaller than I’d imagined from his stories. I did a wee, flushed, washed my hands and took photos of every bit of the tiny room. The soap was liquid, lily-of-the-valley scented. The hand towel was pale green. I documented it all on my phone and wondered what Ms D would think if she could see me doing this. I felt pretty shabby.