When Manus put his head round the stairs and said it was our turn to have a bath, I told him to go first and Connor because I was still on the top stair sulking. I knew it was going to be lukewarm and have dirty rings round it after them, but it served my mum right if I turned out dirty because she shouldn’t have let Busola get away with just running off. But that’s when Marie came up – her mum had gone to church without her.

‘Can I stay here and read?’ she said.

It was only my stairs because I’d swept them, but it made me feel good that I could move out the way and let her sit where it was clean.

‘Can I stay with you?’

She nodded and sat down two steps where the light could fall on to the book, and I sat beside her.

‘What’s that?’ I said, but she put her long finger to her lips and started reading. I could have waited until the bath went cold with her reading and hooking her hair back behind her ear and the strands falling one by one slowly back on to the page.

‘I’m going to get my revenge,’ she said, shutting the book when I told her it was clear to go down. And that’s how she flew downstairs, with her hair swaying from side to side.