Jack was very relieved he hadn’t had to use the box. Ellen was right, though, it was hot. There was a fly zooming around the open skylight in the ceiling. Jack watched it for a few loops. It kept missing the way out.

‘Mind over matter,’ Ben muttered.

Alexa laughed quite loudly. It wasn’t that funny.

This seemed like an opening. He could say, ‘Don’t worry, soon you’ll be able to use the real loo!’ He was practising this in his head, until he realized the moment had passed, because Ellen was talking about something else.

‘What’s the first thing you’ll do when you get out of here?’

‘Probably go and see how bad the kitchen is,’ Alexa muttered, drily.

‘Point taken.’

Jack frowned. What if Elias had seen the article? Or the Twitter thread? He wasn’t sure if Elias would remember his name, because he’d only moved into the house in September and they hadn’t met that many times. But the article mentioned their address. And at least one of his tweets mentioned the name of their road – Rokeby Close. Maybe Elias would see it and explode because Jack had made his house the centre of a news story – not to mention the fact they’d flooded it. And then they’d all have to go and live somewhere else. He supposed that maybe he could go and live with Annie in the old school in Deptford, which always seemed to have space for one more. Although he wasn’t a vegan, and the toilet wasn’t very nice. Besides, he wanted to stay living in Rokeby Close.

He squirmed. Perhaps he should take the tweets down? The firemen were coming now, and they had the address anyway. But if he took them down, then it was less likely that someone at Green Genie would see the thread. Maybe Jack could email the website of the newspaper and ask them to take the article down? But he sort of wanted Johnny to see it – perhaps with the picture that Mia had taken of him at the festival. And Annie – Jack would love Annie to see the article.

He shook his head. He’d go ahead with telling the others. They’d be delighted. They could deal with Elias when they had to. Or rather, he hoped Alexa would.

‘Um, guys,’ he started, conversationally, as Ben stood up and walked to the window. ‘So, this thing –’

‘Hey!’ Ben turned sharply, interrupting him. ‘There’s a fire engine coming up your street.’

‘Wait, what?’ Alexa jumped to her feet and crossed the room. She stood beside Ben, leaning on tiptoes to peer out of the window. ‘Do you think it’s for us?’

‘Why would it be?’ But Ellen had also sprung to her feet and marched across the room in a few paces. ‘Come on, Jack,’ she urged.