She tips her head on one side and gives a small smile. ‘I’ve told you, it’s okay. It wouldn’t have made any difference, not at that point. You know, it’s hard to explain, but he was always so sorry afterwards, sometimes it almost felt worth it, for the closeness we would have for a bit after, how he would hold me and hold me and tell me how amazing I was, how special I was. It would feel like nothing or nobody could hurt me, then. Thing is, the judge was right. It was always genuine. It just didn’t stop him next time. And each time it got a little bit worse, just a little bit each time, until one day it got as bad as it can get.’

‘Yes, well, I learned my lesson,’ I say. ‘When I saw you that day, it wasn’t just a test that I failed, it was a premonition.’

And then I reach into the room, bold as anything, right through the glass, and I take her and I lean back and I almost float horizontal, with my head raised, as a lifeguard does when she’s floating on her back and saving someone in a swimming pool, and I pull the woman right through the window and out of the house, until we’re floating above the pavement, and her mouth drops open in surprise and a smile lifts her features and I know I’ve done it – I failed to save her, but I’ve set her free.

‘You mean I can just go anywhere?’ She looks around in amazement, up and down Star Road, where a few pedestrians make their way home in the dark and a few others head the other way, towards town: a woman in a hijab with two young children; two lads, all dolled up and pushing at each other’s shoulders; an elderly man with a stick.

‘Yes,’ I say, ‘there’s others like us and most of them are okay, you can talk to them. Just stay away from the multi-storey car park in Queensgate, there’s something nasty in there.’

‘That’s alright,’ she says. ‘I hate multi-storey car parks.’

‘Go to Waitrose,’ I say, as I turn to float off down Star Road, ‘the doughnuts look amazing.’

‘Where are you going?’ she calls after me.

‘I’ve got some living people to check on,’ I say, ‘to say goodbye.’

It isn’t just that I’ve set her free, after all. I’ve set myself free as well.

I’m going to see what they are all doing, one last time.

*