Jane trails her way slowly around the room, touching things with the tip of one finger. Prin jumps off the bed; better to show her cousin all her things, and to make sure Jane appreciates them properly. She supposes Jane must have games and toys of her own back home, but she seems to be in awe of Prin’s. Which is what Prin secretly hoped she would be.

Jane stops in front of a toy on the windowsill. The zoetrope. Prin hasn’t played with it in ages.

‘What’s this?’ Jane asks.

‘Haven’t you ever seen one?’ says Prin. ‘You’ve honestly never seen one of these before?’

She lifts it down from the windowsill and pushes a stack of school books aside to set it on her desk. It’s sort of a boring toy really, once you’ve seen what it does, but she likes the fact that Jane is so intrigued. There’s a round cylinder of card, about as wide as a dinner plate, with vertical slits all the way round, and another cylinder of card, with pictures, on the inside, different depending on which inner cylinder you choose. Prin pulls out the desk chair and makes Jane sit down.

‘You have to look through here,’ she tells her. ‘Look at the horse inside, do you see him?’

‘The horse? Yes,’ Jane says. ‘But what does it do?’

Prin sets the zoetrope spinning, but only slowly at first. She wants to keep Jane guessing. ‘Keep watching. You have to wait,’ she says as Jane squints. ‘You have to make sure to look the right way.’

Prin crouches down so she can look inside too, pushing onto the seat beside Jane. She’d sort of forgotten the magic of it, but she’s remembering now. She likes this card, the one with the horse, his rippling mane. Right now, he’s juddering, flickering, still getting up to speed.

Beside her, Jane is immobile, staring, waiting. She hardly blinks. Their upper arms touch, skin sticking in the heat. Prin can hear the scrape of Jane’s lungs, smell the traces of strawberry ice cream on her breath. Downstairs, she hears a bang and what sounds like a few muffled words. She makes the zoetrope go faster now – fast enough.

Jane breathes in, sharply. Prin feels her own skin prickle. They both see it happen: the magical shift when all the tiny pictures blur together, the horse leaping into life, galloping, mane flowing.

‘See?’ Prin whispers, so glad suddenly of this girl beside her. ‘See?’

Jane stays absolutely still. Transfixed. ‘Yes.’

Chapter 10