‘I want to go home,’ repeats Gisele, looking visibly distressed.

‘Don’t worry, it’ll be fixed soon enough.’

When I finally get through to an operator, she tells me they’re very busy. The good weather has meant there are a lot of people on the roads, which in turn means a large number of breakdowns to attend to. There’s a current wait time of at least an hour for someone to attend our vehicle. I relay the message back to everyone.

‘Please, I’m scared now.’

‘You’re safe, love, I promise.’

I can see the worry etched on Valentine’s face as he tries, but fails, to console Gisele. Maya and Will attempt to help with words of encouragement, but nothing anyone can say or do seems to work. Instead she seems to be growing more agitated and I feel a rising panic. How are we going to keep her calm until the AA arrives? There has to be something.

Then I notice Harry. He’d been curled under the back seat, fast asleep, but now he’s woken up and is pushing himself between the seats, nuzzling into Gisele’s lap in an attempt to comfort her. Absently she begins stroking his soft head in her lap, her fingers ruffling his fur, her mind visibly being soothed; the transformation is incredible.

When I finish giving the operator our details, I hang up and glance across at Valentine. He meets my eyes with a look of relief.

‘Thank you,’ he mouths quietly.

‘Don’t thank me.’ I gesture towards Gisele; her eyes are closed in relaxation and she has a peaceful smile on her face. ‘Thank Harry.’

Stanley

Red cars: fourteen. Blue cars: ten. White cars: six and a van, but that wasn’t really a car.

Stanley counted how many vehicles they passed on the way there. He liked counting things – it made things neater and put them in order. Like when Auntie Holly got him to tidy up his bedroom. Only this wasn’t his bedroom; it was the world outside. It also made him feel safer, because sometimes car journeys made him feel a bit scared. But today his dad told him not to feel scared because Liv and Harry were coming too.

At first he was going to count all the different car colours, but there were too many on the road, so instead he decided to only count red, white and blue because they were the colours of the Union Jack, which was the national flag of the United Kingdom. When they arrived, a lady came outside to meet them. She had really curly hair and smiled a lot when she shook his dad’s hand. She asked him how their journey was, so Stanley told her about the red, white and blue cars and the Union Jack.

‘And the American flag is called the “Stars and Stripes”,’ he added.

She seemed really impressed that he knew that flags had actual names, so he told her that his class had been learning about flags of the world this week at school.