‘Hi,’ I say, after waiting a few minutes. I don’t have all day after all.

His eyes snap open. ‘Hey,’ he says.

‘I’m Joe.’ Did Lara tell me his name? I can’t remember.

He jumps up. ‘Oh, what a treat. A new one. How did you find me?’ He holds out a hand and pulls me up.

‘Lara,’ I say. ‘I met her on the train to London.’

He puts out his hand. ‘Pleasure to meet you, Joe. I’m Bodmin Leo.’

‘Bodmin Leo?’

‘That’s how I style myself, so everyone can remember where to find me. It’s not always easy to hold things in our heads, is it? I wait around this station every day because I like to be the hub for the Devon and Cornwall chapter. They can come and see me any time they like. I’ve been doing this for … well, time loses significance, doesn’t it?’

‘Yeah.’ I think about what he said. ‘The Devon and Cornwall chapter? How many of us are there? And are we all from March the eleventh 1999?’

‘We are, Joe, and that means there are very few of us, I’m afraid. Though one more today! Joy. So our chapter is, as you said, people who are glitching on the same day. I wish we could be more expansive than that, but sadly we can’t. There are three of us I’ve met in Cornwall, and a further four, now that you’re here, have visited from Devon, including the lovely Lara. They don’t come to see me as often as I’d like. Tell me your story.’

He jumps up. ‘Let’s walk into the woods. I don’t want you being picked up and taken back to, I’m guessing, school?’

I follow him out of the station, through a car park and on to a stony path.

‘There’s a stately home this way,’ he says, pointing. ‘Lanhydrock House. Victorian. I worked there and I still go to the cafe from time to time. Just for the heck of it. Not today. Today, I think, we’ll go to the den.’

This gives me a little pang of worry. Should I really be following a (very) strange and dead man into his den? On the day I know I get murdered? Is there any way that Leo could be the one who kills me? He surely can’t be because we were both dead long before we met. However, everything is crazy and nothing makes sense.

I overcome it all and follow him along the path.

His den is a tree house accessed by a hidden muddy track. He swings up into it and so I follow. I calculate that I could push him out if he started attacking me. He perches on a flat branch and indicates for me to sit opposite him.

‘So we’re glitching?’ I say straight away.