I pulled the front door shut and ran to the shop. It felt like everything was going to explode and I was running away. I could feel the hot shiver down my back and I had an empty feeling in my stomach. The scrape down my back was still stinging. I clenched the money in my hand so it hurt and held on to the hope of Mummy coming back. I slowed down to give her time, and tried to slow down the cars going past on the main road by going as slowly as I could along the kerb. The rush of wind past my shoulder made me jump back on to the pavement as a bus pulled into the stop.

There was no one behind the counter in the shop. I stood with the bottle of Lucozade wrapped up in its orange plastic for as long and as quietly as I could until the lady came out from the back and took the money. I had trouble letting go my fist to give it to her and one of the pennies fell on the floor.

‘You all right?’ she said.

I nodded and felt myself gulp as I picked it up. My hand was shaking. She took it from me and looked with her head on one side, ‘That for you?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

She picked up a Black Jack, gave it to me and said, ‘Look after yourself.’

I was folding the wrapper and sucking the sweet when the drunk man shouldered open the door of the off-licence. He had a bottle in one hand and was leaning over on his crutch. The knot in his trouser leg was swinging under him with the effort of elbowing his way out the door. There were dark rings round his eyes and his broken nose made his face look flat and heavy as he leaned over and saw me. He fumbled with trying to put the bottle into the pocket of his overcoat and stand up straight. I could feel the trickle of liquorice in my throat and I kept moving. He fell over holding the bottle up in the air as the crutch went out from under him. People were coming to the door of the off-licence to help, but he sat up on one arm and watched me walk away. He wanted to talk to me and I wanted to run. His eyes looked black and scared. They followed me like they knew who I was. Someone spoke to him, he looked down at his leg, and I turned and ran.