I swallowed. “Mayor Anderson’s taking our eldests away and trading them in for oil and clothes and bananas and tiny little statues. I can prove it. Look.” I pulled the photograph from my pocket. Mayor Anderson with her food and her sequins. Cheers! “This is what she does when she goes to the city.” I held it up.

“Mags? Magsie?” It was Dad, calling out from the front, all soft and gentle. “It’s been a long night, love. It’s been a hard week. Perhaps we’d better let Mayor Anderson take the girl and—”

“No!” A voice shouted from the back of the crowd.

Lindi.

Everyone turned round.

“You should listen to Maggie,” she said. “There’s no such thing as camp any more.”

“Lindi! My Lindi!” Mrs Chowdhry struggled towards her through the people.

The crowd made space for her, their mouths open and their eyes wide. Half went left and half went right, and there was Lindi standing tall, helping Jed to stay upright.

“Jed?” Dad’s voice was hardly more than a whisper. “Is that Jed?”

“Una – the wanderer – she’s done nothing wrong.” Jed spoke in a wobbly voice. “She was with us when the fire started. Maggie rescued all three of us and brought us home. She’s our hero.”

“Mayor Anderson?” said Dad. “Is this true?”

“It’s not how it sounds. It’s not how it sounds at all.” Mayor Anderson rubbed her red face even redder. “I care for you – all of you. I bring you gas, petrol, clothes. Do you remember how cold it was, winter before last? We wouldn’t all have survived without the things I—”

“Are you trying to tell us that you’ve been doing us a favour? By selling our children?” Sally Owens’ mum pushed to the front.

The whole crowd bristled and growled.

Mr Owens shouldered past his wife. Clenched his fists into hard, trembling rocks.

It wasn’t Una that needed protecting now. It was Mayor Anderson.

I stepped between her and the crowd.

Stood right in the middle.

“Don’t hurt her,” I said. “No one else gets hurt today. Lock her up, if you like. But no more hurting. Listen, everyone. There are better things we need to be doing.”

The crowd strained to see me, peered over shoulders, squeezed between elbows. They were listening – to me, Maggie middler. They were listening really close.

“I’m leaving town, soon as I can. I’m going back out to help all the other eldests who were locked up with Jed and Lindi, just like I promised. Then I’m going on to the city to bring back as many eldests from Fennis Wick as I can find. And anyone who wants to come along is very welcome to join me.”

The crowd roared. They surged forwards, got hold of me and lifted me up, just as if I was an eldest. Just as if I was special.