He laughs again. ‘Back on the hard stuff again today, were you?’ he says, pushing past me. I brush down my arm where he touched me, staring at the screen. Now there are two people talking, with a map on the wall behind them.

‘Appalling, isn’t it,’ Moe says, pausing next to me on his way into the storeroom. ‘Just horrendous.’

‘Sorry,’ I say, grabbing the lever trolley I’d forgotten about. ‘It won’t take me long to sort out the soft drinks. Darren said the snacks need doing too, shall I pick that up?’

‘The whole place is packed,’ he says, gesturing back into the shop. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s as if no one can think about or talk about anything else, let alone go home to bed.’

‘I could do the tea and coffee while I’m there, if that helps.’

He stares at me. ‘Did you sleep today?’

‘Some,’ I lie, staring back. ‘I had loads of stuff to do.’

I give the trolley a shake, its wheels rattling as the Jolleys’ stupid shiny nameplate flashes in my head.

‘I couldn’t sleep either,’ he says, running a finger under his eye. ‘Every time I closed my eyes all I could think about were those people jumping from the windows. Can you imagine how desperate they must have felt? The whole building on fire behind them and nowhere else to go except deliberately plunge to their deaths. Just horrific.’ He drops his head into his hands.

I turn back to the television. The towers are burning again. 202

‘I can’t believe they keep showing it,’ he says, muffled into his uniform. ‘Who would do such a thing? Just unbelievable.’

My breath freezes in my throat as a plane slams into the side of one of the towers, flames and smoke pouring out of the other side.

‘It only took an hour for them to fall, or something like that, anyway. Billions of tonnes of steel and concrete just collapsing like they were matchsticks all along…’

‘Was it just the Cokes that need doing?’ I say, clearing my throat. ‘Or shall I fill all the holes while I’m there?’

He looks up, propping himself against the desk. Maybe he’ll stop talking about making me assistant manager now he’s found me slacking by the telly like Darren.

‘I might need you on the tills,’ he says after a minute. ‘So yes, I suppose. Do everything and then come out front.’

I head back out into the shop, replaying the slow-motion collapse of the towers with every blink into the bright strip lights. Finally, an image that makes sense to me. Every time my visits don’t work out, I may as well be trying to rebuild a tower that has exploded into such tiny pieces they’ve disappeared into the air.