‘I ask you again,’ the magician said. ‘Do you think you are strong enough to break out of that cage?’

‘No,’ said Valerie.

‘All right then.’

He turned to the audience.

‘I am going to make Norah disappear. For that, ladies and gentlemen, I need darkness and absolute silence and concentration. Without those things, there is a possibility that I won’t be able to bring back our little friend.’

In front of Norah, in the next-to-last row, Ruth gasped audibly.

‘And you, my dear, I would now ask you to switch on your torch and point it at the audience. Please remember not to turn it off.’

Valerie nodded and switched on the torch.

‘Now then,’ said the magician.

He closed his eyes as if he were going into a kind of trance. Then, without opening them, he took a few steps away from the cage and raised his arms. The lights went out. Some of the children made sounds of surprise, then giggled loudly to show they weren’t afraid. Then there was silence again, as they remembered the magician’s instructions. Valerie traced circles in the air with the torch—big circles and small ones. Norah saw her friend’s eyes sparkling in the darkness; she was clearly enjoying herself. Norah even thought she saw her smile and, instinctively, she smiled back.

The moment dragged on. Valerie started to trace figures of eight with the torch in the dark—and then suddenly, the torch went out. Norah heard sharp in-drawings of breath all around her. Darkness. Complete darkness. Norah’s heart beat faster and faster and she blinked frantically as if to force her eyes to accustom themselves to the dark. She sensed the other children’s excitement, close to flipping over into fear. Valerie—where was Valerie?

‘Behind you,’ said Valerie and Norah felt her breath warm on her neck.

Norah started awake.

She blinked into the blackness. Shapes in the dark. Removal boxes, Vienna, her new flat, her new life—of course. A glance at her watch. Just gone two. She got up with a sigh, went into the kitchen and drank a few mouthfuls of water straight from the tap. She was cold, barefoot, dressed in only a baggy sweatshirt. The heating was on, but it wasn’t properly warm. Norah went back to the bedroom, sat down on the bed and wrapped the quilt over her shoulders.

Her thoughts wandered to Valerie. She had never told Norah how the trick had worked. Because I promised, she said. Because you like tormenting me, Norah had always replied, only half-jokingly. And it was true that for a long time she couldn’t stop wondering how the magician had done it. She’d always loved any kind of puzzle or mystery, going at them obsessively until she cracked them—and it drove her crazy that Valerie knew the solution and she didn’t. Had there been a tunnel? A secret door? But how could Valerie have moved so quickly?

The memory was still fresh. After Valerie’s sudden reappearance behind Norah, everything had happened quickly. The lights went up again on the empty cage; there were cries of surprise from the other children. And before Norah could say anything, Valerie was walking down the central aisle and onto the stage where the magician welcomed her back with a little speech about teleporting and asked her how she’d got on in the realm of shadows.