Prin frowns, remembering something that Mum and Daddy told her before they picked up her cousin.

She looks at her. ‘That isn’t your proper name,’ she says.

Now Prin’s little cousin looks a bit scared, but Mum is still holding tightly to her hand. ‘It’s nearly my name,’ she says. ‘Mostly it is. Anyway, it’s what I want to be called now.’

‘But—’ says Prin, but Mum makes one of her faces, which means, for Prin, All right now, that’s enough.

The man on the counter carries on watching them with a sort of smirking smile on his face. Prin wonders if they are in danger of making what Daddy calls a scene. Prin wants her three scoops of ice cream. She doesn’t want to be in trouble. Fine then. She flips her skirt and closes her mouth. She presses up against the display, her mouth watering at all the flavours in there. Fine then.

Jane.

Afterwards, the ice cream sits cold and heavy on the bottom of Prin’s stomach. She got three scoops but, like before, it was hard to finish them. She didn’t let that show though. She pushed down every last mouthful. Mum and Daddy didn’t have ice cream, just coffee. And Jane only wanted one scoop, strawberry flavour, boring.

Back in the car, Jane is pale and quiet and anxious again. It’s as if she’s upset about something all the time, though Prin has no idea what. She hopes Jane will perk up now that they’ve arrived back home, scrunching up the gravel of the driveway. She can’t wait to show Jane her room and tell her it’s where she’s going to be sleeping. She helps Daddy get Jane’s luggage out of the back of the car. Only one little suitcase. Prin tries to remember again how long Mum and Daddy said her cousin would be staying. The size of the suitcase makes it look like not very long, but she seems to remember them telling her that it might be for a very long time indeed.

Daddy carries the suitcase into the house, swinging it easily from just one hand and Prin skips after him. The sun is still high and bright in the sky. It’s the middle of summer. All the days right now are long and bright and hot. Mum and Jane have already gone inside, into the cool of the kitchen, and Mum is pouring glasses of squash and cracking ice cubes out of the tray.

She sets the glasses out, one for Prin and one for Jane, and tells them to drink up, they need to keep hydrated in this heat. Prin drinks hers down as fast as she can. Jane drinks far too slowly, and Prin tugs at her elbow before she’s even finished. ‘Leave that,’ she says. ‘I want to show you my room.’