And then I realise that if this is GMT then he must be a she because she’s sharing our chalet. I didn’t recognise her because in the film her hair was straggly like Millennia’s, not tied back. Millennia seems to increase in size and her voice goes up in volume, like a Head Teacher on a loudspeaker.

‘You’re late!’

‘I leaped from ’68. Think you’d call that early, man.’

Some of the pupils laugh but I don’t because one; it isn’t true, GMT IS late and two; she spoke back to an elder and tried to humiliate them and three; she has an American accent and I want to know if she’s from New York because Bob Beamon was from New York, so she might have met him in 1968.

Millennia pauses for a very long time but says nothing at all until GMT looks from side to side, picks up her suitcase, walks down the steps on the left side of the stage then stands against the long white wall. She looks back up at the stage and winks. MC2 winks back. I went through a winking stage. I used to practise in front of the mirror. First it was hard. Then I got quite good. Then I stopped doing it in case I did it by mistake and people would stare at me.

I almost do it by mistake now. Maybe it’s contagious. I’m scrunching up my left eye when my right one notices GMT’s wearing two watches, one on each wrist. I can’t see the details but one has a blue leather strap and the other looks shiny and metallic. I’ll ask her about the two watches later.

Millennia presses a button and ‘Useful Information’ flashes on the screen behind her. She talks us through it and I read it on the screen at the same time to remember it better.

‘You have met the subject leaders. They are specialists in their field. Le Temps, in particular, has transformed these grounds from a country park to an eco-paradise.’ She smiles at Le Temps from East to West then shakes her head like it’s full of buzzing flies. ‘We value their human input, their uniqueness. For that reason, this is a robot-free zone.’

Some of the children boo. I’m a bit sad because I was looking forward to seeing the eco-robots collect rubbish and do other jobs humans don’t want to do. Millennia waits for silence.

‘Each leader is known by their initial:

I, Millennia, am known as Miss M;

Season is Mrs S;

Le Temps equals Mr T.’

When she says his name, she sounds French and smiles at him again. I think Millennia might be in love with Le Temps. Maybe he’s her husband. But she’s 200 years old and he’s about 40, so that would be a very strange match, even in 2048 when age doesn’t matter.

Millennia continues: