I hugged myself as I pictured his face, smiling up at me.

‘Great curry, Dad,’ I said, wolfing it down. He always cooked a mean veggie curry. But I ate as quickly as possible so I could get back to my room and think about the boy who had come by.

People almost never came to the house. Dad said it was because he wanted to keep me safe from everyone, that no one could be trusted. On the rare occasions anyone did come, by tacit agreement I went to my room so I wouldn’t be seen. We didn’t make a big deal of it, it was the just the way we did things. I’d never really thought much about it. Until recently.

Our drive is very long, so no one ever comes up it on foot. Even if someone turns up unexpectedly, which almost never happens, there’s time for me to get out of the way. Dad had already told me he had an appointment that afternoon which was always the signal for me to take my books and go to my room. I was meant to stay away from the window, but over the last few months, whenever someone came, which admittedly wasn’t often, I always sneaked a quick peek, just to see who it was. It was such a novelty to see anyone who wasn’t Dad or in a film.

This time, it was a boy, maybe three or four years older than me. The washing machine was broken, and he had come to fix it. I leaned out of the window as he left, so I could see better. I could see the sun glistening on the blond hairs of his arms as he held a clipboard out for Dad to sign, which gave me a feeling low down in my stomach that I didn’t understand.

‘Thank you. Bye, Mr Johnson,’ he called as Dad closed the door. ‘I’ll be back in a couple of days once I’ve got the parts you need. That machine’s ancient, so I don’t have any suitable parts on the van.’ As he turned away he looked up towards me and waved.

I knew I should have ducked back behind the curtain, but I didn’t. I smiled and waved back.

26

May 2013

Scottish Highlands

‘Dad?’ I asked the next day when we were reading through some boring textbook about the Tudor period, ‘will I live here with you forever?’

Dad looked up and frowned. ‘What makes you ask that now?’

‘Well, it’s just that you say the outside world is too dangerous for people like me to go out, but what happens later? Does that mean I can never meet anyone, get married, have children, have a family of my own? Travel? Or live on a Caribbean island and swim in a warm sea? One day that’s what I’d really like to do.’