‘Um, I’m pretty sure fish don’t walk, Alice.’

‘Some do! In fact – there – check out that one on the bottom.’

We watch as a fish that looks as if the whole Earth has been swirled together and moulded into fish form scuttles across the bottom of the tank like a crab playing dress-up.

‘Well – shit.

Would you look at that?

How d’you know this stuff?’

‘I told you – I watch a lot of documentaries. I’m hoping to be a marine biologist one day.’

One day.

One day.

‘Smart.’

I duck down and read the sign.

‘Mandarin fish do not have scales

but are covered in a bitter slime

to repel predators.’

‘Hey!’ I say as he dissolves into laughter. ‘I’m a mudskipper, anyway – that’s not the same as this one.’

‘Whatever you say.

Mud –

slime –

all the same, if you ask me.’

I tut at him as we walk further down the corridor to where a huge open tank sits in a corner, bubbling over with bream, sharks and –

‘Oh cool – rays.’

They’re swimming around in this

big open bath

that smells like rotten sea monkeys.

And I can probably forgive him for calling me slimy when he says a thing like that. Because rays are magnificent. My favourite documentary has a whole episode about them. And from it I know that rays don’t have a single bone in their whole body. And that some have even been known to jump up out of the water and fly like birds.

We watch as one flutters up from the floor of the tank, ribboning as it pokes its nose up to the surface, showing us the cut-out mask of a face hidden underneath.

‘A sea ghost.’

I stand closer to the tank.

‘How d’you come up with stuff like that?

I was just gonna say that rays

look a lot weirder from underneath,

but you …

It’s like you see this whole other world.’

‘I don’t know … I suppose it’s the same as when you paint, isn’t it? Just another way of splashing a bit of colour on the world.’

We watch the ray ripple over sharks as they barb left and right, and between bream as they swim round and round. But his words have made me feel like I’ve swum through a thermal.

Children seem to descend from nowhere and Rowan moves to let a small boy go in front of him. It’s a nice thing to do, but I can’t help but be a bit annoyed that we can’t see as well any more.

A man in an Aquatic Centre shirt quietens the crowd, holding a large tub to his chest.

This guy looks a bit more enthusiastic

than the girl at reception did.

But then again,

he’s holding a bucket of fish guts.