Something nice happened today, then something not nice happened, and something else, also not nice. I was walking down the hill – staggering a bit, if I’m honest, holding my side, which is beginning to look like I’ve been in a fire – and I smelt that lovely smell you get when woodsmoke cuts through the cold misty late afternoon air at this time of year, then realised that the woodsmoke was coming from my own chimney. What a delight! I opened the gate and as I did a man – broad, bearded – charged past me, clutching his face, which had a line of blood running down it. It took a moment before I realised it was Reka’s current boyfriend, Greg. He looked scared. I found Reka in the living room, tending the fire, and said hello, but she didn’t seem to notice me at first.

‘Is everything OK?’ I asked.

‘Everything is fine,’ she said. The way she said it, there was something different, a bit slower, and she wasn’t looking at me. It was as if something in the fire was very important, and I was a distraction.

‘We have been experimenting,’ she said, continuing to look at the flames.

I was really feeling like I needed a lie down so I opted not to press the matter further, and I heard her leave for work an hour or so later. The dishwasher needed to go on so I popped around the house, looking for half-full glasses of water. I found two in Reka’s room and was just leaving when something on her bed caught my eye, sitting next to her ancient teddy bear. I couldn’t quite believe my eyes! It was the doll from the wall. I’m sure it’s the same one – all dusty and dirty with one of its eyes missing. After all, where else would you get a doll like that? I can only think she took it back out of the wall before Nick came to repair it. She’ll be back soon but I won’t ask her about it until tomorrow. Maybe I won’t at all. I suppose it’s her own business.