‘I know him. You look like him.’ He exchanged a glance with Gegsy, who raised his eyebrows. The man had pronounced high veins in his arms like they were straining to burst through the skin, and a copper bracelet round one wrist, thin lengths of metal plaited together. ‘He gone walkabout on you?’

Matty looked over at Gegsy. ‘Yeah. I think he might have drowned.’

‘Ah, mate,’ said Gegsy. ‘Jesus, what? In here?’

‘Yeah.’ Or the Not Allowed Pond. ‘Or killed himself anyway.’

‘Jesus,’ Gegsy said again. ‘Where’s your mum?’

‘At work.’

‘She OK?’

Matty shrugged. Mamma didn’t care. She was angry and she hated him and she was glad he wasn’t there.

The Man in White, Clive, put a hand up. Removed his sunglasses.

His eyes were brown. Really dark brown, like a Galaxy bar. Not red. He put his head to one side and looked at Matty, and his eyes seemed to get deeper. ‘He might have gone away,’ he said. ‘But I reckon you’ll see him again.’ A smile. ‘One day.’

‘No, jump. Then wait. Jump now.’

Matty and Kyle sat at the kitchen table, hunched over Turtle Bridge. Their friend Benedict, whose dad sold expensive cars, lent his games out at one pound a week, or 50p for the weekend. You had to jump on the backs of turtles across a lake to get a delivery to the man on the other side. It wasn’t as good as Benedict’s new game, Gauntlet, where you could be the man wearing the loincloth or the girl wearing the leather swimsuit, and you had to move through the different worlds, the Castle and the Lost Caverns, to get the Sacred Orb.

Jump. Wait. Jump. ‘Skill,’ said Kyle. He’d just had his head shaved, the sides really short. Already, he seemed different this summer, stiffer, trying to be as cool as his brother. Not like Nicks, who didn’t care what anyone thought of him.

‘You’ll see him again,’ Clive had said. ‘One day.’ But had he meant that Dad was alive or was he talking about heaven? If Clive was an archangel, he’d know that Matty would see him again. As long as Dad had been good enough and confessed all of his sins.

The door. Mamma came into the kitchen, putting her handbag down. ‘Hello, Kyle.’

‘Hello, Mrs Ronan.’

She turned the kettle on, before leaning against the cupboards. No one spoke, and Kyle kept looking between them. Matty continued playing, the game making its little spitty electronic sound, a bit like Gegsy’s music.

Kyle stood up. ‘OK, I’ll go now.’

‘You don’t have to go,’ said Mamma. ‘Have you had something to drink?’ Why was she suddenly saying normal mum things?

‘My dad said to be back for tea. Yeah, I had a Lilt before. Thanks. Bye.’ He disappeared, very quickly.