I refuse to look over. I can’t catch their eye. Right now, I just want to see the hatch. There’s something orange in the grass – I step forward to take a look. Dad’s headphones. Perhaps he and Kemp have been and gone already and Dad dropped them. No, here is the entrance, behind a bank of tufty grass, an open oblong in the ground bordered with a flat concrete frame; its thick metal hatch lying on the grass beside it. If Dad and Kemp had left, the hatch wouldn’t be open. Are they down there? I drop on to my knees and peer over the top rung of a metal ladder – a series of rusty orange bars set like staples into the peachy-amber brickwork below the hatch. At the base of the ladder I can see four or five descending concrete steps, then there is darkness. I call.

‘Hello? Dad, Kemp?’

There is no answer. I call again, then lean back on my haunches and scan the lines of trees beyond me, in case I see Dad and Kemp disappearing into them. No. But I see those two lads advancing from the playground, in my direction, with horrible matching gaits – all shoulders and spite. I need to see Kemp. I need to see my dad. It’s utter madness, but I decide I need to climb down the ladder, as far as the top concrete step, and call for them again. I sit on the edge of the hole and swing my legs in. Place my feet three rungs down. The ladder creaks but it doesn’t feel like the staples will give way. I edge my way down, my back to the amber brickwork, feeling as intrepid as someone who’s spent the last three years sitting indoors.

I land on the top step with a thunk and look down. The steps go on a long way, then there’s a short platform, then a much shorter run of steps. I need to go down them, don’t I? I need to go down and call when I get to the bottom. Oh, this is ridiculous. This really isn’t me. I have never been any kind of heroine in the story of my life: no masked Bunty adventurer, no Amelia Earhart or Jackie Onassis or Dian Fossey – I’ve been an also-ran, a bit part, a faceless extra in a crowd scene … But I need to do it. I must go down these steps and look for Kemp and my father.