‘Cool,’ Margaret said. She remembered the notebook and pencil were in the back pocket of her jeans. Sandwiches, she scrawled quickly, before Heidi could see her.

‘You could go have a shower,’ Heidi said. ‘While I sort this.’

‘Oh.’ She looked at the bathroom. ‘Yeah. Cool. Thanks.’

The bathroom misted up quickly. There was no real ventilation. The shower was tall. The whole flat had high ceilings and the shower was very tall. It had a fabric shower curtain. She brushed her hand over the misted mirror to clear enough space to look at her face. She hadn’t cleaned under the bed since she’d been alone. She was sure now that the phone had arrived after it had happened, so she had even less idea who could have put it there. Sometimes things turned up because there were two of them. ‘Did you buy this kiwifruit?’ But there was only one of them now, unless she was sleep-walking. She looked at her face and wet hair. Was she sleep-walking?

‘Has Dell been back?’ she asked as she walked into the kitchen. Heidi was looking at the Tamagotchi phone.

‘Thanks,’ Margaret said, and grabbed it off her. With her free hand she picked up the plate Heidi had put her sandwich on. She sat at the table and used her free hand to alternate between picking up the sandwich and drying her hair. The bag with the pizza stone was on the table. Once her hair was dry, she absentmindedly pulled the bag off, still gripping the phone. The pizza stone fell out with a clunk, but the bag wasn’t empty. She held it higher and a small white dock attached to a plug fell out of it. It was a charger. She looked at it. Waiting to see if it was really there. It had pink Kanji printed on it and a picture of three small monsters.

‘Did you bring this?’ she asked.

‘What?’ Heidi’s mouth was full.

Margaret held up the charger like it was a serpent. Like it was alive.

Heidi looked at it. ‘It was in the letterbox,’ she said, and took another bite of her sandwich. ‘With the pizza stone.’

‘But you didn’t bring it?’

‘I did not bring it,’ she said. She was reading something as she ate. It was a free circular that came, even though Peggy and Greta had put a No Junk Mail sign on their letterbox.