Dr Jones looked up at him expectantly, her fishing rod slung over her shoulder and the fish she was now gutting at her heels. Her hands were covered with the blood and there were scales all over her shoes, but despite that, she still looked mysteriously clean, like all she needed was a good shower and she’d be ready for normal life again. Her clothes had fewer holes than everybody else’s and her blouse was still a shade which could truthfully be called white. Kate was trying to make her face look sympathetic to me, but also disgusted at James, so she was screwing it up into all sorts of weird positions. Right now, her forehead was all crinkled and her lips were pursed awkwardly. Her hair was a matted mess, but there were still the traces of plaits where she’d tried to keep it neat; and through the salt you could still see that her hair was glossy, a deep chestnut. On Kate’s light-brown skin, the tan from the constant wind looked like a soft glow which enhanced her cheekbones and made her more beautiful, rather than making her look dirty or bruised like the rest of us. Staring Crone stayed where she was, of course, staring out at the coast. We don’t know definitely if she’s female or not, but she might be. There weren’t many other options.

‘Why was I not your first choice?’ I asked. And I still think I was right to ask that, though I remember now that he didn’t reply.

‘Did you want to be his first choice?’ said Lana. She asked it in a fake-serious voice, so that I knew she’d use my answer against me, whatever I said. That’s a definite NO, by the way. That much should be obvious: one thing that’s even less appealing than getting naked on a jellyfish is the thought of giving birth on a jellyfish. But at this point I got so distracted by the horror of that image that I basically couldn’t speak, and so I didn’t actually say ‘No’ quickly enough. But then I got in more of a mess, because I realized if I explained I didn’t really want to be his first choice, but that there were so few eligible girls around I thought I should be at the top of the list anyway, then everybody would hate me. I’d then left it too long to say anything, so I blushed instead. I could feel my cheeks going all red, so I just made a quick spluttering noise which I hoped would confuse everybody.

‘Pshaw!’ I said confidently.

‘It might have been the Jellyfish who was his first choice,’ said Old Albert, nodding wisely.

‘Uggh.’ Lana screwed up her face in disgust.