A shiver overcame me as I twisted in the seat to confront my neighbour. Her large eyes widened as though to let their darkness out, and a smile that might have signified a greeting or secret amusement shaped her small mouth. Her face moved so much with the unstable light from the screen that I could have imagined it was seeking a form, but I was sure it had filled out since the last time I’d seen her – perhaps almost imperceptibly each time I had. “You wanted me, Patrick,” she said, “and here I am.”

“You were supposed to let me know when you were coming.”

This felt like a pathetic bid to retain some hold on the banal, and so did consulting my phone, which showed no message. “How would that have helped?” Bella said. “How would you have been prepared for me?”

I had a sense that now we were alone she’d abandoned trying to sound Roy’s age. “I am now,” I retorted with all the conviction I could feign.

“Then tell me why I’m here.”

“Because you want to find out how much I know.”

“No, Patrick.” A smile or the flickering illumination twitched her lips. “I’m asking why you called me, if you know.”

I felt as though I’d fallen short of wakefulness and might be dreaming my unnatural companion. “I know everything,” I said. “Everything you’d rather nobody knew.”

As the smile parted, a man leaned over the back of his seat to growl “Take it outside.”

Even this failed to restore reality around me – the angry silhouette beneath the screen on which Bottom was asking each fairy its name. “I’m taking it,” I said with an attempt at grim humour. “It’s leaving now.”

I didn’t look back until I reached the exit from the auditorium. As I shoved the door open I glanced around, but Bella was nowhere to be seen. When I stepped into the corridor I found she’d somehow slipped past me unnoticed. “You’ll have to be nimbler than that,” she said, “if you’re planning to catch me, Patrick.”

I kept quiet as we crossed the lobby, where the girl who had sold me the ticket said “Didn’t you care for the film?”

“We just need to talk.”

This earned a puzzled look. The automatic doors gave an uncertain jerk as Bella made for them, and then glided apart as I approached. The dog outside the restaurant began to snarl before barking so fiercely it sounded like canine hysteria. Though its owner tugged the lead hard enough for me to hear, the outburst didn’t subside until my companion and I reached the promenade. “Animals can tell, can they?” I said.

“Unless you were the problem, Patrick. You were about to add to my store of knowledge.”

“I can’t imagine I know anything you don’t.”