‘You shouldn’t have got that chocolate, we wouldn’t have got caught,’ said Busola, trying to get Manus to look up.

‘They’d have still come round,’ Connor said.

‘You’re all useless!’ said Manus. His eyelashes looked wet, bitter and closed, so we all shut up for a bit.

‘What happened to the Guy?’ I said.

‘The head kept falling off,’ said Busola. ‘We had to put it on a stick.’

‘Can we get him back?’

‘What for?’ Connor said.

I shrugged because I was feeling bad about the man with his head flaking, the way he tried not to fall over, about him not being able to breathe.

Connor was watching me, ‘You’ll get in trouble, you will.’

‘They’re gonna burn him on the bonfire tomorrow,’ Busola said, looking at Manus. ‘They’re gonna get a stick and light his toes till his face burns off.’

Manus looked up, and thumped her on the arm, and we all shut up as her face turned cold and her eyes shut off and the dark feeling came on.

We watched bonfire night inside from the windows. Bangers were going off on the street and fireworks over the roofs. There was the smell of gunpowder. I was all shaken up with the excitement, but I couldn’t go out. There was a bonfire going on in the school, you could put your Guy there and they’d burn him for you. You could put potatoes in tinfoil and get them out when they were hot. There was a big crash from the firework display going off in the park but I couldn’t see it properly, even from the backyard, so I rushed back up to the front windows. A group of boys threw a banger at a car going down the street and ran. It slammed on the brakes, and moved off again with a man shouting his head off out the window.

‘Stupid!’ Manus said, sulking back into the room.

‘It’s those brothers,’ said Connor. ‘I’m gonna get ’em.’

‘You have to get out first,’ said Busola. It was the first time she’d spoken since Manus hit her. We looked across at him. ‘Go on, I dare you,’ she said, looking up from the telly. ‘Daddy’s not in, he’s forgotten about you.’

‘You’ll tell him,’ Manus said.

‘Of course I will,’ she said, and left the room.

‘Why’s that?’ said Connor. ‘Because you didn’t give her no chocolate, or you thumped her?’

‘Because she was supposed to go out and meet her boyfriend,’ he said.

Connor didn’t expect it and his mouth fell open.

‘She blames me. Everyone blames me,’ Manus said. The door slammed downstairs. We rushed up to the windows and saw Busola in her coat going up the top of the street. She turned the corner without looking back.

‘Does Mummy know?’ Connor said.