‘Thanks.’ I smile, a genuine smile for the first time today, as I accept the flowers. I am tired and out of sorts, after another restless night. I dreamed of the attic, and then again of my feet on the stairs, the weight of a pillow in my hands. ‘Can you believe I found it in the attic?’ I have spent the morning while Mina is at nursery scrubbing the mirror, using an old toothbrush to get into the grooves of the carving. The glass is still spotted with age, but it looks perfect hanging on the hallway wall.

‘What a find. Did you clean it all up?’ Naomi says as I nod. ‘You look tired. How is Leo sleeping?’

‘OK, I guess. Feeding every couple of hours or so.’ With that I stifle a yawn. ‘God, sorry. To be honest it wasn’t the baby that kept me up all night last night.’ My heart bangs a double thump in my chest at the thought of vocalizing the dream, the image of myself creeping up the stairs, the way it made me feel.

‘Really? Not Mina?’ Naomi strokes a hand over Mina’s dark head as she sits at the table, crumbling breadsticks onto her plate, a small stick of cheddar in one chubby fist.

‘No, not Mina.’ I incline my head towards Mina, letting Naomi know I’ll tell her when she is finished eating and out of earshot. ‘Are you done, sweetie?’ I lean down and wipe Mina’s hands and face with a baby wipe and she shoots out of her chair and into the sitting room, and we hear the television go on.

‘CBeebies.’ Naomi rolls her eyes and I feel a twinge of guilt before I shake it off. It won’t hurt to let Mina watch telly for half an hour while I get things off my chest. ‘So, why didn’t you sleep?’

‘I had a bad dream,’ I say, not meeting her eyes, ‘only it didn’t feel like a dream. Did you ever have a dream so vivid that it felt real? So real that it was more like … a memory.’

‘Vivid dreams, yeah. But so real as to be a memory … can’t say that I have.’ Naomi frowns. ‘The baby is only a few weeks old, Al. Your hormones are all over the place. Do you want to tell me about it?’