It was the answer I’d expected. It was the one I’d have given her.

All three of the boats were still visible. Two were bobbing near us, sometimes coming closer and fooling us into hope before floating away again. The other one was back on the shore again, tapping against the walls of the submerged houses in an annoyingly audible fashion. Whenever there was a moment of silence, a drop in the wind, you could hear the tinny tapping. It was irregular too, which made it more difficult to ignore. Ting . . . ting . . . ting . . .

‘Morning!’ James sat up. ‘So, I’ve made a decision about today.’

Lana ignored him, and continued idly stabbing at the mesoglea beneath her feet. She was wrapped in a coat of plastic bags against the light drizzle and spray from the waves, looking like the very image of misery – which I think was the fashion statement she was going for.

‘Well, come on, guys!’ said James. ‘Ask me about my decision.’

‘Right, James. But I’ve got a feeling that I’ll regret asking, won’t I?’ I said.

‘How could you regret asking, Martha? This is something I’ve been working on for a very long time.’ He looked hurt at my doubt, which confirmed my opinion that it wasn’t going to be anything good.

Lana looked up, interested for a second. Surely there was no way he could have been working on something for a very long time? We’d have noticed.

I gave a loud sigh to show that I was already bored. ‘Go on then, James. What is the decision you’ve made about today?’

‘I’m glad you asked, Martha,’ he said. ‘I’ve made a big decision about . . . my bogey. Yes, that’s right. My monster bogey.’

Lana slumped back into the Jellyfish again. James gave a shrug, then carried on with his story anyway. ‘Yes. I’ve been working on it for weeks now. Quite a few times I’ve needed to blow my nose, but I haven’t. I’ve carefully sniffed the fluid bogeys back up into my nose and let them dry up there. A few times I’ve even had to lie back to prevent all that loose bogey sliding back out again. I first realized that it was going to be a real beauty a couple of days ago, when I scratched the side of my nose and the bogey hurt me through the side of my nostril. It was hard and pure then.