I heard her get out of bed and go to the door and look out. ‘The amah’s asleep,’ she whispered. ‘Come on…Nikki, please come with me. I don’t want to go out on my own…’

‘No!’ I said, annoyed. I curled up tight into a small ball, my back touching Mum’s. I heard Saffie moving about trying to be quiet. She was looking for her dress. I heard her on my side of the bed picking one up from the floor. I half opened my eyes as she pulled it over her head. It was my dress; it had a tear in the pocket.

‘You’ve got the wrong dress on.’

‘Don’t care. I’ll wait for you…?’ she said hopefully.

‘In a minute then…’ But I fell asleep…

This time she would not leave without me. This time she made me go with her. She placed the chair under the window and climbed out onto the balcony and I followed. We ducked past the shuttered window where the amah was sleeping and we ran away, out into the deserted hot afternoon.

I ran after her and the tiny colourless crabs ran ahead of us like a little wave, and we laughed and headed towards the rocks by the sea. We had the world to ourselves and we caught hands and ran and jumped in small pools and laughed to be free.

Suddenly, as we rounded a corner there was a man sitting on the rocks. A man with his hands round his knees and a Panama hat on his head and sunglasses covering his eyes. He did not look at me, just Saffie.

‘Hello,’ she said cheerfully, staring at him.

I don’t think he was pleased to be disturbed because he did not answer for quite a long time, then he said, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be resting?’

‘Yes,’ Saffie said. ‘I can’t sleep. I’m bored.’

‘Where’s your sister?’

‘She’s asleep and I’ve got no one to play with.’

‘I’m afraid I’m no good at playing. I haven’t got any little girls.’

‘We could walk and see the monkeys.’ ‘If your mother wakes up and finds you are gone, she’ll be worried.’

‘Mummy won’t wake up. She takes pills.’ Saffie moved closer and stared hard at him. ‘Were you a pilot, like my dad?’

‘Yes, I’m still a pilot.’

Saffie ran in little circles stamping at the crabs.

The man unfolded from the rock. He was tall, as tall as my dad, with long legs. I could not see his face properly but there was something familiar about him. I could see that he wanted to walk away from us. I could see that he didn’t want to talk to two children.

He turned and began to walk towards the steps and the forest path and I saw he had a limp as if he had hurt his leg.

‘Can I come with you? Can I come with you?’ Saffie called, running after him. She smiled her best smile. The smile Dad called our wheedling smile. ‘Mummy won’t mind if you are a pilot like Daddy…’