‘Do you want to help me tuck the girls up in bed, Joe?’ she says.

Joe nods his head as Isobel comes towards him.

‘This dolly go to bed,’ he says, handing her the dark-haired doll. ‘She tired.’

‘Okay,’ says Isobel, taking the doll and putting her in the bed with the blue curtains. ‘That’s it, Grace. You go to sleep now.’

She closes the back of the doll’s house and looks up at me.

‘Right. Let’s go to the pub, eh?’

20

Soldier Number 1

Rowan Isle House, 23 September 2004

I’ve never felt so scared as I have these last few days. Even now it’s over and I’m back in my bedroom with my journal my hands still shake when I think of it.

I remember waking up in a dark room, as dark as I imagine the bottom of the lake to be; a place where nothing can live or grow, where no light can get in. And it was hot, so hot that I was wet all over with sweat. The darkness and heat made me feel dizzy, like I was spinning in the air above myself. After a few minutes I started to feel a terrible ache in the back of my head. When I put my hand to it I had felt a lump, the size of an egg, though I had no idea what happened. Maybe I’d fallen. That must have been it. When Sarge came into my room while I was writing I must have got such a shock that I fell over, hit my head on the ground and knocked myself out. That’s the only explanation because he can’t have hurt me. Not Sarge. Anyway, keep writing. Keep writing it down. That’s what I need to do. It might not make any sense but just feeling the pen scratching at the paper is making me feel better.

So where was I? Woke up. Lump the size of an egg. That was it, I woke up with a terrible pain in my head and saw that I was lying in the middle of the floor in this strange room. After a while the darkness lifted and sunlight came pouring in. It seemed to be coming from above me, though when I looked up I couldn’t see a window. The ceiling was very high and there was a thick ledge running all the way round the top of the walls. The window must have been hidden behind the ledge. That’s what I reckoned.

I thought I was alone cos it was so quiet but then, as I came to, I saw Sarge. He was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room with his knees pulled up to his chest. I noticed he had his army uniform on, his proper one, the one he keeps in a special bag hanging up in his cupboard. I’d never seen him wearing it before. I wanted to ask him why he had it on but before I got the chance he stood up and came towards me.