After their mum had disappeared back into the house, Nicky and Tommy sat Beth, carefully wrapped up in a coat and hat, on her blanket next to the wall of the house.

“Well, that’s just great,” Tommy said, delivering a line he’d heard on TV and had liked the sound of. “That’s just fan-tastic.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nicky said. “We can still play.”

And they did carry on for a few more minutes, but with their baby sister watching from the sidelines and making her silly laugh-gurgle sounds, the illusion was broken and however fiercely they fought, it could not be restored.

Nicky stopped and leaned on his lightsaber. “Maybe we could make her part of it?” he suggested.

“How?”

“We could pretend she’s Yoda,” Nicky said, and they both found this so funny that they shrieked with laughter for several minutes, Tommy looking at Nicky from time to time to check he was still going, and then making himself continue laughing as long as his brother did so the moment wouldn’t be over. At last, Nicky stopped and said, “We’d better keep the noise down,” and Tommy agreed, saying sensibly before Nicky could, “We don’t want to disturb Dad.”

While they’d been laughing, Beth had hauled herself to her feet and was waddling along next to the wall, stopping to pat the rough brickwork purposefully as she went, as though it were a dog or a pony. Then she turned suddenly towards her brothers and came at them with open arms and her open-mouthed grin.

Tommy knew she was going to fall before it happened. She’d launched herself off with too much momentum and her small staggering steps were out of control from the start. Neither he nor Nicky reached her in time to stop her sprawling on the gravel, sending little pebbles flying up around her. There was a brief shocked pause, then Nicky went quickly to her, picking her up and putting her on her feet, perhaps in the hope of distracting her before she realized she was hurt and started wailing. But it was no good. Beth’s puzzled face gave way to screwed-up misery and snot, and she sent out that long yowling sound both boys were familiar with.

“It’s O.K., Lizzy-Lizard,” Nicky said, dusting her down. “You’re not really hurt.” He made a show of rubbing and kissing her knees. “There. All better.”

“I think she banged her elbow,” Tommy said.

“I’ll kiss that better too, Lizard,” Nicky said. “See? All better now.”

Beth kept crying, her face getting red. She looked a bit like an alien when she cried like this, Tommy thought.

“We’d better take her in to Mum,” he said.

“She’s fine,” Nicky said, lifting her up into his arms and jiggling her about in a way Tommy didn’t think was very helpful.