Ellen swallowed, preparing to take her turn. ‘Yeah, it was my idea to come up here to look.’ She sounded sheepish; Jack saw Alexa smile at her. ‘There was so much water coming out of the sink, and I was panicking …’ She trailed off.

‘It was pretty early,’ Alexa said, loyally.

It was Jack’s turn. He looked at Ben. ‘I heard Ellen scream, so that’s why I came up,’ he explained.

Ellen pointed at the mouse, stiff with rigor mortis.

Ben grimaced. ‘Yes,’ he said.

‘Maybe we should move it,’ Alexa suggested, uncertainly.

Jack noticed she had a black smudge on her cheek, though he decided she might be annoyed if he pointed it out in front of Ben. They all stared at the mouse.

‘There’s nowhere to put it,’ Ellen pointed out after a few moments.

‘Yes, but it’s creeping me out,’ Alexa said, weakly. ‘Can we at least give up on Risk?’

‘Please,’ Ellen said, drily.

Eagerly – and without pausing for Ben’s response – Jack started roughly gathering the pieces from the board, tipping all the bits back into the cardboard box. When this was done, he closed the lid and – still seated – tossed the whole thing behind him, somewhere into the chaos of dissembled and discarded objects. The attic reminded Jack of his grandfather’s garage: mostly decaying junk, with the occasional unexpected treasure.

Meanwhile, Ben had scrambled to his feet and picked up the mouse by its tail. He grimaced. Jack watched in awed horror as Ben deposited the mouse’s corpse to the left of the door. He wiped his hand on his jeans. ‘There we go,’ he said, grimly.

Jack noticed that Alexa looked a little revolted, but she rearranged her face into a warm smile as Ben took his seat back in the circle beside her.

‘What time is it?’ Ben asked.

Jack checked his useless phone. ‘Nine-oh-seven, a.m.’

‘Right, so shall we try yelling again?’

Ellen looked dubious. ‘Do you really think that’s going to work?’

Ben looked a little stung.

‘Sorry,’ Ellen said, quickly. ‘It’s just … well … I don’t think I’d stop to help if I heard some people shouting from an attic window in New Cross.’

‘I would,’ Ben insisted.

‘Really?’ Ellen rolled her shoulders slightly, as if squaring up for a fight.

‘Definitely, I know if –’

‘Hey, wait,’ Alexa interrupted, brightly. ‘I have an idea.’ She narrowed her eyes, testing it. Satisfied, she spoke. ‘We should make a sign! And then suspend it from the skylight.’

They all stared at her for a tumbleweed moment.

Eventually, Ellen hazarded a response. ‘Saying what?’

‘Well …’ Alexa started, gently, ‘I agree that shouting at our neighbours and passers-by might not be the best way to endear us to them.’

Ben shrugged.

‘But maybe if we make a sign, then we’ll seem less … intimidating. And less shouty.’

‘But what do we put on the sign?’ Ellen sounded scornful.

‘“HELP”?’ Alexa shot back, undeterred.