Quinn stood up and closed the bathroom door – he didn’t like to think about all that. He padded quietly downstairs and went to the laundry room in the basement. He took the stool from the corner and opened the cupboard where all the cleaning things were kept. He pulled out a bottle of bleach and behind it he saw a paper bag. It was where she always hid things she didn’t want him to find. He wouldn’t open it – he just wanted to know if it was a Falcon.

He pulled out the bag and there was one large Falcon-shaped box and three smaller presents all wrapped in matching blue wrapping paper. He peeled away a corner of the largest box. He knew straight away it wasn’t Lego. He knew the texture of a Lego box, he knew the colours – this was too bright, too neon. He pulled away a little more paper; walkie-talkies. Who was he going to talk to on a walkie-talkie? He carefully pressed back the edge of the paper and returned the bag to the shelf.

Upstairs Quinn poured himself a lemon squash and turned on the computer in the kitchen. He picked up the postcard from his father that had arrived last week. It had a picture of the Empire State Building on the front. He turned it over and re-read his father’s words,

Quinn,

The Empire State Building is 102 storeys high. It was completed in 1931. The building has a roof height of 1,250 ft and stands a total of 1,454 ft tall. Impressive isn’t it!

Maeve and I can see it from our apartment.

Dad.

This was a standard postcard from him – a picture with some facts. Quinn saw him sometimes when he came to London for work, but the talk of Quinn visiting New York had stopped, he didn’t know why. There was no birthday card from his father today. He usually sent one about a week late. Last year he’d sent Quinn twenty dollars in the envelope. Quinn still had it, because his mother couldn’t get to the bank to change it into something he could spend.

The computer dial tone finally connected and Quinn logged onto his favourite website – a site that hosted chat forums for Star Wars fans. This is where Quinn went when he felt lonely. Talking to other people about the world of Obi-Wan and Princess Leia distracted him from the silence of his own.

He clicked on the chat forum tab and a little black box popped up on the screen: