‘The power must be out,’ I say, drumming my fingers on the doors we came through. My heart beats with my fingers, one, two, three. I look down at my chest, half expecting to see a pulse … Still my heart beats, steady and regular, rather than accelerating up my throat like vomit. I swallow reflexively. But there’s nothing to swallow.

‘It can’t be. These ones only just opened, didn’t they?’

I reach for the light switch resting by the window, flicking it up and down. One, two, three. Nothing. Yet my heart beats on, calm and smooth, even as Dominic’s fingers brush my hand to stab at the switch.

‘For the love of God,’ he shouts, punching at the window. ‘A fucking power cut?’ He turns to the exit door, jabbing at the release button. ‘Since when are these trains even electric?’

‘The whole line must be out,’ I say, feeling my way around the strange sensation of calm sweeping through my body. I’m trapped in a small glass box with an angry man, I tell myself, steeling for 210the panic that should wash over me. Except it doesn’t. Nothing happens. I just stand, hand slipping from its brace against the wall. Dominic starts to shout, banging on the doors back into the first-class carriage.

‘I don’t understand,’ I mutter. ‘I don’t understand…’

‘Of course you don’t understand,’ Dominic yells, giving the doors another punch. ‘Nothing makes sense about this, does it? They opened once, so they should open again, shouldn’t they? … Again and again and again … but no, of course they don’t.’

He slithers to the floor, rooting around in his pocket. I peer up ahead. No one’s seen us, much less heard us. The carriage may as well be empty, except the red bobble hat still perched above the seat a few rows up. And all that’s beyond the other doors is a long corridor with another closed door at the end.

‘At least that’s the driver’s cabin.’ I point into the carriage. ‘It must be. Someone will be out of there soon enough.’

‘What if all the bloody doors are stuck?’ He glares up at me, switching on the phone in his lap. ‘And why did you follow me, anyway? Now we’re both stuck in here.’

‘I thought…’ I clear my throat. I don’t know what I thought. I stare at my sketchy reflection in the glass, tapping a finger right over the bobble hat up ahead. I know she won’t wake up. Still I tap. One, two, three. Wake up, Ma. I jerk upright as the memories invade.

‘You won’t fucking believe this,’ Dominic shouts behind me. ‘I appear to be trapped in a space big enough for a rat – no, a mouse – after who only knows what has gone wrong on this tin can of a train…’