The road curved to the left. Only when I turned the corner out of sight of the main road did I slow my pace to work out where I was. The path I was on was well lit by very tall lampposts with small, bright lights on the top, making me clearly visible, so I crossed the road and walked on the path on the other side, which ran along some scrubby ground.

I stepped off the path and crossed the ground, to make sure I was out of sight. I stopped for a moment, gulping the cold air and looking up at the great arc of the sky, so distant and vast. I thought about all the things up there in the infinite blackness of it, the swallowing dark – aeroplanes and satellites, the little stars. There was a whole world beyond all this, I thought, if I could just stop and draw breath and know that it was there, waiting for me. I breathed.

To my left, there were huge, derelict-looking sheds, vast pale grey things with valley roofs, several in a row. Ghost sheds. I walked towards them and when I stumbled on the rough ground, I got my phone out and turned the torch on, looking down. I had stumbled because the ground was covered in lumps of ballast, every size from pebbles to fist-sized rocks. As I checked the ground in front of my feet, I saw two iron rails, embedded in the earth, running towards the pale sheds – the original Victorian tracks. The buildings must be the old ones where the steam engines were once kept. I thought of how my dad would love a good nose around here. I put my phone away and was in darkness. Now I was off the road and hidden, I paused for a moment to catch my breath. Matty was probably driving up and down Thorpe Road looking for me – how long would he do that before he gave up and went home? How long before I could safely go back up?

Beyond the old sheds was a large, two-storey Portakabin. The doors were closed and the blinds down on the windows but inside, the lights were on. I wondered if they were just security lights or if anyone was around, whether I should bang on the door and ask if I could get through this way, but there was no sign of movement anywhere.