‘That’s wonderful,’ she says when I ring the bell to say that I’m done. ‘Thank you so much.’ She hands me five pounds, and I decide to ask Ariel to give five pounds to the children’s hospice, or maybe a bit more because of inflation.

I take Gus’s camera out of my bag. ‘Do say no to this, but could I take a photo of you in your garden for our records. Happy customer? The furthest it’ll go is a display board at school.’

She laughs. ‘Sure, if you like!’ She stands in the garden and smiles, with Sasha sitting on her hip. I take eleven pictures in quick succession.

I did it. I’m so pleased with myself that I head into school. Instead of going to any of my lessons, however, I skulk around in corners, looking for Ariel. Today is Friday for her, and I can’t remember her timetable, but eventually I find her walking down a corridor just before afternoon lessons begin.

‘Hey, guess what!’ I walk in step beside her. She jumps and then smiles at me. I see her wanting to talk to me, but she’s clearly with other people. It’s not fair that she can see my friends, but I can’t see hers. I just see Ariel. I only have eyes for her. ‘You don’t have to talk back to me, but I did everything we said and it worked! Ariel, your mum is so lovely! We had such a nice conversation. I weeded her garden. And got eleven photos of her and Sasha!’

Ariel is beaming. She stops and bends down to sort out her shoelace.

‘I’ll catch up in a sec!’ she calls. I crouch next to her.

‘Did you?’ she says in a whisper. ‘Oh my God, Joe. That’s amazing. Thank you so, so much! Can I see the pictures now? Shit, I have to go to history. Can you come in and show them to me? I won’t be able to say anything, but I’ll be so incredibly happy to see her. I can’t wait until tomorrow. Oh my God.’

She stands up and stumbles off. I follow her into a history classroom, which, luckily for me, is empty in my world. I kneel down next to her desk. I have no idea what else is going on, but I get out Gus’s camera. The quality is nothing like what she’s used to on her phone, but the camera does have a little window on the back that shows the pictures I’ve taken, and all eleven of them are of her mother and sister. I switch it on and show it to her. She gasps and motions to me to hold it closer.

‘No, I’m fine,’ she whispers to whoever is next to her. ‘Period pains.’