Then I realise Grandma must have packed some extra things. Grandma is obsessed with bras. Bras are her specialist subject. She kept shouting from the bedroom, ‘Elle, remember to pack your brassiere. No wibble-wobble!’ She knows I hate wearing bras. I can’t breathe in them.

Mrs C Eckler takes my yams to be stored in the pantry, then leaves. They’ve labelled our beds. I’m on the bottom bunk and GMT is on the top. Ama’s on the bottom of the other bunk and Noon is on the top. The rules say the older ones take the top bunk so there’s no arguing. Ama stares out of the window for a second.

‘Elle, thanks for covering for me earlier.’

I shrug my shoulders. ‘He asked why you came here and you went tongue-tied. Why did you come here?’

‘Can you keep a secret?’

I nod. I’m very good with secrets but you have to be careful. Some secrets can get you into trouble.

‘What kind of secret?’ I say.

She turns to face me, but her eyes are looking elsewhere. She’s looking up at the ceiling above her bunk bed. ‘Oh my God!’

I look where she’s looking. A huge brown spider stares back at us. It’s so big I can see its multiple eyes. Its legs are as thick as my fingers, but it’s a mutant. It only has six legs, like a daddy-long-legs. I hope it can’t fly. They warned us spiders are bigger in the future because of global warming. More insects for them to eat. It should be in a zoo, not in our chalet.

‘Wow!’ I say.

‘Get a teacher!’ Ama doesn’t like spiders. But I don’t mind them. I climb up the steps onto Noon’s bed and very very slowly reach out my hand and Ama screams and it scuttles away across the ceiling. She scared it away, not me.

‘Don’t worry,’ I say. ‘It’s only a spider. I need a cup.’

‘I’ll check the bathroom.’

The bathrooms are underground. I haven’t been down there yet, but I saw the stairs spiralling down from the lounge. The spider’s moved across the ceiling above the other bunk beds. I’m quicker this time. I reach out my hand and grab one of its legs. The spider scrunches itself up, playing dead. I open the window and it scuttles down the wall.

I join Ama in the bathroom.

‘Check out the showers.’