I had to support my mother on the way back to the hotel – she could no longer walk straight – and the receptionist welcomed us with a smile in which I could discern a hint of anxiety.

‘Everything’s fine, don’t worry. Goodnight.’

It was four o’clock in the morning. I lay Mum on the bed and removed her socks and the maid’s hat she had forgotten to return with the rest of her costume. I ‘mentally defenestrated’ myself one last time, then I too lay down.

In seeking to awaken my son, I fell asleep, a little girl snuggled up to her mother.

Excerpt from the Book of Wonders

Have a wild day in Tokyo with the person I love more than anyone else in the world (Mum, for the time being).

– Raid the Pokémon Center in Ikebukuro for super-rare cards

– See a traditional wedding at the Meiji Jingu (with kimonos and the works)

– Let myself be swept along by the crowd on the Shibuya Crossing, with my eyes closed

– Get a tattoo from Tomo, tattooist to the stars (address: Tōkyō-to, Shinjuku-ku, Kabukichō, 1 Chome−12−2)

– Eat at an izakaya, ask for the menu in Japanese, with no pictures, and order five random dishes. And eat everything! Yum, yum!

– Press all the buttons on a Japanese toilet

– Blow my mind at the Robot Restaurant, Shinjuku

– Have a drink in the Golden Gai

– Burst my eardrums in a pachinko

– Sing my heart out in a karaoke bar in Shibuya

– Gaze at Tokyo’s lights from the top of a skyscraper

I Dare

21 to 17 Days

Charlotte has nicknamed room 405 ‘the room of wonders’, and that’s what everyone calls it now. Since Mum rocked up with her sound system and spent a whole afternoon playing the videos and telling me about everything she filmed with Granny Odette in Tokyo, she’s become a celebrity throughout the hospital.

Charlotte (who now has a name, so Mum no longer calls her Sophie Davant) told her that she’d love to see the video and so Mum chose a day when she was off duty. Of course, Charlotte knew all about the trip, because she’d played me loads of excerpts on the iPad, but she said she’d still love to attend the show. During the afternoon, other nurses, auxiliaries and medical secretaries wandered in and out when they were on a break, all of them laughing delightedly and saying thank you. At the end, Charlotte said to Mum, ‘What you’re doing for your son is amazing,’ and I totally agree with her.