A good ten minutes or so must have passed. At first, Ellen, Alexa and Jack exchanged a series of increasingly anxious glances. Occasionally, someone muttered something that was intended to be reassuring, but had the opposite effect. Slowly, anxiety gave way to tension and Ellen found she could no longer look at either of them, let alone speak. In the distance, she could hear a car revving, but she couldn’t tell if it was on their street or an adjacent one.

She’d been about to say something terse about giving up when the man reappeared at his door with his son. She felt Alexa stiffen. This time, the child was attached by reins and no longer had the tricycle. The man was holding his phone. He led the boy across the road again and resumed his position at the end of the path.

‘HELLO.’ He sounded strangely formal. The child was looking up at them too now.

‘HI!’ Ellen replied, hopefully.

Behind her, Jack did a wave, although Ellen wasn’t certain the man could see it.

‘OK, SO THERE’S A LOCKSMITH ON THE WAY,’ he said, evenly. Ellen opened her mouth to respond but he added, quickly and loudly, ‘BUT IT’LL BE A FEW HOURS. THEY’RE PRETTY BUSY TODAY.’

Her heart sank, but she pretended it hadn’t. ‘NO WORRIES, THANKS,’ she hollered out of the window.

‘YES, THANK YOU SO MUCH,’ Alexa shouted. ‘THAT’S SO KIND.’

‘SORRY WE YELLED AT YOU OUT OF THE WINDOW,’ Ellen added. She did another of her most winning smiles.

‘ANY PROBLEMS AND THEY’VE GOT MY NUMBER,’ he added, simply.

‘GREAT!’ Ellen shouted. She did her own thumbs-up.

This earned a smile. ‘I’M GOING OUT WITH HIM NOW FOR HALF AN HOUR’ – he pointed at the toddler – ‘BUT THEN I’LL BE ACROSS THE ROAD.’

‘THANK YOU SO MUCH!!’ Alexa cried.

The man nodded awkwardly at them in farewell and then said something to his son. The two of them started toddling up the street, with Jack, Ellen and Alexa watching their retreating backs.

‘Success?’ Ben called from the middle of the room.

‘Success!’ Alexa said. She sounded exhilarated.

Ellen watched her return to the floor beside Ben, who grinned at her. They kissed lightly: a victory peck.

Ellen breathed out at last. ‘God, I can’t believe that worked.’

‘Oh, ye of little faith,’ Alexa shot back.

‘And now we wait, I guess?’ Ben said.

‘Couple of hours,’ Alexa replied, apologetically.

Ben shrugged. ‘Better late than never.’

Ellen agreed. Still, she felt deflated. A few hours was a long time to stagnate in this attic replaying the misdeeds of last night. Her hangover reasserted itself, as did her bladder; she slumped down on the floor beside Ben and Alexa to deliver the dispiriting news in a whine. ‘I think I’m going to have to use the box again.’

‘Go, then, and stop talking about it,’ Alexa retorted.