‘Well, the thing is, there are always problems in life, aren’t there?’ Evan said. ‘I mean, there’s got to be. Working out what’s the best thing to do. Making choices. Dealing with stuff. But if there are no people – then there are no problems!’

‘So it’s like this all over the world?’

‘Must be. That was the only way of making sure there could never be any problems!’

There was a pause as we both thought about this huge globe, completely deserted except for us two. Skyscrapers, street markets, sports stadiums, shopping centres, city squares, all as still and empty as the Sahara Desert.

‘But what about all the animals?’ I said. ‘They don’t have problems.’

‘Of course they do! Say you’re a cat, and you’re getting bullied by the tomcat next door. Or you’re a fox and you can’t find any food. Or you’re a slug and a hedgehog is trying to eat you . . .’

‘Hmm. I guess . . .’

‘The only way you could have a world without problems is if you had a world without life, right? Like, there are no problems on Mars, are there? ’Cause there’s nobody there to have them!’

Looked like I’d messed up again.

‘I know you’re trying to help,’ Evan said. ‘That’s ’cause you’re such a nice guy. You want to make the world a better place. That’s good.’

‘That’s really nice of you to say, Evan. You’re a super-nice guy too.’ I was starting to get a bit fed up with paying compliments all the time, but I couldn’t stop. ‘So, what you’re saying – in the nicest possible way, because you’re so nice – is that I’ve screwed up here?’

‘Well, yeah, but I’m not blaming you, ’cause I know your intentions were good. Anyway, you can fix this, can’t you? Unwish it?’

‘Yeah. ’Course,’ I said. ‘But – I need to think. How to do it.’

‘Yeah, it’s a problem all right?’

As soon as he said that, I thought, Oh, no, no, no don’t—

Then everything went black.

Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I seemed to be floating somewhere. Not like when you’re floating in water and you can feel yourself bobbing up and down. In fact, floating’s probably the wrong word. I only say that because my feet weren’t touching the ground. I don’t think there was any ground to touch. Everything was black. I mean, really black. I closed my eyes and opened them again and it didn’t make any difference. I had no idea where I was, or if I even was anywhere. I was fairly sure I wasn’t in Sainsbury’s any more, but that was about all I was sure of.

‘Evan?’

Silence.

‘I wish I knew where I was.’