“People die everywhere. Do you let her cross the road on her own? Get in other people’s cars?”

“She knows the rules.”

“Teenagers like to break rules,” said Ava.

“You don’t know the first bloody thing about parenting,” Donald offered, realising halfway through the sentence that he had no idea if this was true or not.

Ava didn’t answer, but he could see the question had touched her. The pain in her eyes gnawed at his own heart.

“That was rude of me,” he said reluctantly. “I don’t know anything about you.”

“I don’t have children,” she said.

Her hair was rough and laden with salt. It needed a good wash. If he tried to stroke it, his fingers would get caught in the tangles. Ellen had always been so clean, so groomed.

“I won’t take her in the water again,” said Ava. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you’d mind so much. I should have thought. She just looked so wistful.”

“Well, good.”

She turned restlessly away from him, closing the beach hut door with a firm little twist of the door-knob. There were no rings on her fingers.

“You should be careful of yourself too,” he said, half-reluctantly. “The autumn storms will come in soon. Look, is Alicia making a nuisance of herself?”

“No, of course not, she’s lovely.”

“She is. That’s why I don’t want her… ”

“Going in the water. Yes, I know. I understand now. I won’t take her again.”

“Well, thank you.”

It was hard not to look back as he left her, but he managed it somehow. He was glad of the slow trudge through the sand, giving him time to think as he walked. Time to wonder.

The man who lived
in the cave made of paper

“But where are we going to live?” the brother asked.

“We’ll live together,” said the sister. “Just the two of us.”

“Will they let us?” he asked.

“Not at first. At first we’ll have to live with other people. But when I’m old enough, we can go and ask permission.”

“Who do we ask?”

“There’s a very old man who lives in a cave made out of paper. His cave is surrounded by guardians, and they work very hard to keep everyone out so that no-one will go in and disturb the old man unless they have something really, really important to say. He’s lived in the cave for so long he’s forgotten what the sunshine looks like, but every piece of paper is covered in words, and he can remember every single word that’s written on them, and every single word is a spell. If we can get in to see him and tell him the right words of the right spell, he’ll set us both free and we can live wherever we want.”

“But how will we get past the guardians?”

The big sister took her little brother’s hand. In her heart, she was very worried. She knew it would take a long time and be terribly difficult to get past the guardians, and finding the right words of the right spell to set them both free would be almost impossible. She knew that, to do this, she would have to give up everything she’d ever wanted for herself. But when she looked down at her brother’s face and remembered the promise she’d made him, she knew she would try.