He beckoned her over, and when she went too close to the window, pulled her behind the curtain. ‘Careful, he’ll see you.’

‘What am I looking at?’ she asked, staring at the empty street.

‘Here he comes!’ He teased back the curtain. ‘Watch.’

Sasha saw their neighbour carry cardboard boxes to the recycling bins that had been pulled on to the pavement ready to be collected. He flung open one of the lids and started stuffing the boxes inside.

‘This is fascinating, Kev, but what am I looking at?’

‘That’s our recycling bin. He’s using our bin.’

‘Kev.’ Sasha made a face. ‘Who cares?’

‘That’s our recycling bin!’ he said indignantly. ‘If Nelson keeps filling it with his crap, then there’s going to be no room for our rubbish. And look, he’s putting in plastic. You’re not allowed to put plastic into the recycling.’ He wagged a finger. ‘That’s a no-no.’

‘What does it matter?’ said Sasha. ‘Kev, this has got to stop.’

Kev and Sasha got on fine with their neighbours on the right, another middle-aged couple with children. They went next door for summer barbecues and parties, and fed the cat when the family were away. But Kev had got a bee in his bonnet about the guy who lived to their left. When the man had moved in, Kev had made a point of introducing himself. Her husband was a big bloke – with a nose twisted almost circular, broken many times when he was still boxing, a tat on his bicep, a shaved head – and it was obvious that their new neighbour didn’t like what he saw.

The man said his name was Nelson.

‘Nice to meet you, Nelson.’ Kev offered a hand but the guy stared, nose in the air, and told him Nelson was his surname, his first name was Stuart. Now, when he came round to complain about something – the noise made by their kids, the tree in their garden with the roots he worried was damaging the foundations of his house, the wind chimes that Kev bought just to drive him crazy, and which Sasha made him remove because it kept her awake at night – Kev made a point of calling him Nelson just to wind him up. Hello, Nelson. Alright, Nelson? Nice day, Nelson.

‘It’s the principle,’ whispered Kev about the recycling. ‘He wouldn’t think twice about complaining if we did it.’

Sasha found herself whispering too. ‘Don’t you think you’re a little bit obsessed?’

When Nelson glanced up, Kev tugged Sasha out of sight. She was tired of skulking around her own house.

‘Where are you going?’

She was exhausted and the day hadn’t even started yet. ‘To work.’

But when Sasha got to the front door, a shadow fell across the stained glass. Someone was coming up the path.

‘Mum!’ she said, when she opened it.