Dana comes down in my dressing gown after about half an hour and puts some bread in the toaster.

‘Sleep well?’ I ask.

‘Brilliant, thanks.’

I put another round in for myself and we sit and munch toast for a few minutes.

‘Do you mind if I grab some clothes from my room?’ I ask.

‘Of course. You stink.’

The curtains are still closed and the bed unmade, still heavy with sleep. There’s a light, delicate smell, a bit like shampoo. I get some jeans and a T-shirt from my drawers and change quickly, aware that I’m trespassing in some way. Which feels ridiculous; I’m in my own room.

As I’m pulling the T-shirt over my head, Dana’s head appears around the door.

‘Oh, too late.’ She smiles. ‘You saw me, thought I’d try and perv on you.’

Then it disappears again.

She calls from the landing, ‘Can I borrow some of your mum’s clothes, do you think? I’ve only got my school uniform. And I’m not wearing your stuff out of the house.’

I’ve not been into my parents’ room for a long time. Mum’s room, I mean. It’s neater than I’d imagined it to be. There are a few things flung on a chair in the corner, a few pairs of shoes by the wardrobe, but the bed is made, and there’s just one book on Mum’s bedside table.

Dad’s bedside table hasn’t changed. There’s his alarm clock, the clay dish bought on holiday when I was six where he keeps – kept – his change, and the little stand for his watch that I made him years ago in DT; two pieces of wood with a pretty awful mortise and tenon joint, all gloopily coated in varnish, but he’d used it every night.

I must have been standing in the doorway for a while. Dana shoves me in the back. ‘Something plain, yeah? I don’t want to look like an old woman.’

I find a black pair of jeans that look OK, a T-shirt and a thin, yellow jumper. Mum doesn’t really dress ‘young’ but I guess this stuff is fairly neutral. I hand it all to Dana, who takes it into the bathroom. ‘Not falling for that trick twice. I want a lock this time.’ She winks through the gap in the door as she closes it.

Just like my old joggers, when Dana puts the clothes on, they’re transformed. She gives me another twirl on the landing. ‘OK?’

‘Yeah. Fine… Yeah.’

‘I hope you’re not getting into me in these clothes, Josh. That’d be weird.’

I smile back at her. I think we both know we’re buying time; trying to keep everything normal for as long as we can. Just the two of us.

Until we know we have to go. Back out into the not-normal world.

And try to save it.