‘I’ll probably take a part-time job in a charity shop on the High Street, but I’ll always be home in time for school pick-up, and I’ll take my kids to clubs and playgrounds and to those special cafés where you can paint mugs and they’ll have a season pass for Alton Towers. Oh, and we’ll spend months deciding which characters they’ll dress up as in book week, so that they have the best costumes. I’ll look after them all week, but on Sundays I’ll stay in bed and Rich, that’s my husband, will bring me a cup of tea, and toast and jam, and I’ll lie there listening to the kids practising their instruments. I’ll just lie there and…’ She stared at the brick wall. ‘Yeah, I’ll enjoy the lie-in, just that one day a week.’ She remembered the others, finally, and squirmed. ‘You did ask.’

‘That’s really lovely, Lyds,’ said Becky. ‘And I bet it all comes true.’

‘I hope so. You can all come and visit us, if you want. It’s a big house.’

Becky turned to Michelle, who was slumped against the wall. ‘What about you?’

Michelle shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’

‘You must have some idea what you want to do.’

‘My mind’s gone blank.’

‘Just tell us what you want to have in ten years’ time?’

‘Everything,’ Michelle said sharply. ‘If we get out of here I’m going to make sure I have everything.’

‘You can’t have everything,’ said Paul.

‘No, you’re right,’ she said with venom. ‘I’m not going to have everything, because what’s the point of us all getting our hopes up, we’re all going to die down here.’

Paul’s pursed mouth began to tremble.

‘Of course we aren’t,’ Becky said. ‘Please don’t say that. Look, you’re upsetting Paul.’

‘I don’t care about Paul!’ Michelle swiped the tears angrily from her own eyes. ‘He’s not the only one who’s allowed to get upset. And stop telling everyone what to do all the time, let’s talk about this, let’s make-believe about that, let’s stay positive, it’s doing my head in. I don’t remember anybody putting you in charge!’

They all sat in tense silence. But Karin hadn’t yet told them her dream for her own future, which involved her and Becky living together, and she wanted the others to hear it too. She wanted them all to know about it.

‘I haven’t done mine yet,’ she said.

‘No one wants to do it any more,’ Becky told her.

‘But I want to say it.’

‘For God’s sake, Karin!’ Becky snapped. ‘Nobody’s in the mood!’