I wait. Lying on the floor with a black mask on that pinches my forehead and nose. And around me I can hear whispering. I think about the webcam they’ve got set up and wonder what awful things they’re doing to me when the mask flickers to life.

‘Oh!’ I say as light surrounds me. I blink. And then I see a world blooming to life.

All around me – up, down, left and right – are flowers.

They dance in a breeze I can’t feel. And open against a sun that doesn’t seem to be reaching me. And stretch as far into the distance as I can see.

I look down and my body isn’t there any more. I’ve left it. I exist only as a pair of eyes and, as I move my head around, more of the world comes into view. And, in my ears, I hear birds. The slow buzzing of bees. The wind through the trees in the distance.

I stretch my hand out until I feel Mum’s. I can’t see her, but I can feel her. She’s there.

‘What’s it like?’ Cecelia whispers from nowhere.

I spin round. ‘It’s like … it’s like I’m really here.’

‘Borrowed it off a mate at work.’ Dad’s voice appears from the clouds. ‘Virtual reality. If you like it, maybe we can get you one for your birthday next year.’

Mum laughs. ‘Not with the amount you spend on salmon.’

I hear a click and the world changes, so now I’m sitting in what seems to be a mining cart at the top of a mountain. And in this world the sky bleeds red and volcanoes erupt all around me.

I laugh. ‘Not quite as realistic, this one.’

‘Let’s see about that …’ Dad says.

And suddenly the mining cart lurches. I reach out and grab Cecelia’s shoulder with my other hand as I speed down tracks on the mountain, lurching left and right and ducking as flying dinosaurs dive for my head. I scream. The cart swings up higher and higher, and ahead of me the track ends altogether, and I put out my feet to stop it, but feel nothing as I’m not really there, and slowly I fall out of the clouds.

I let go of Mum and Cecelia and take off the mask, blinking in the real life around me. Where I’m not falling, but lying in the spare room with a family who are laughing at me.

‘Someone else’s turn, I think,’ I say, feeling slightly sick.

Cecelia grabs the headset off me as Dad warns her about Pop-Tarts again.

I enjoy watching her, exploring spacecraft with robots on the screen, like she really has left this world.