I expect her to give me some stick for this. She doesn’t. She nods. Because it’s true, isn’t it? All advances in technology are foreseen or understood by a small group of people. Those who imagine them, and those who make them happen. To the rest of us, these advances are like magic.

*

We come out into the garden. My mother’s sitting at a table, with the children on either side of her. They’re talking about her old house, which Tom and Emily loved.

Charlotte and I sit down and watch.

‘Oh, it was such a happy house,’ says Mum. ‘John, you must miss it too – you grew up there. I wonder who lives there now?’

‘Mum, we sold it to a family – with children about Tom and Em’s age.’

‘Did we? How odd, I don’t remember at all. I must have been – oh, I don’t know. Still, I’m glad a family has the house. It needs children in it.’

A woman appears with a tray of tea and lemonade, and cakes. She puts them out on the table, and leaves without a word.

‘She wasn’t weird,’ says Tom.

‘Not like Winifred,’ says Emily.

Mum looks at them both.

‘Is Winifred weird?’

They nod.

‘How interesting,’ says Mum. ‘John, you two – do you think Winifred’s weird?’

We shake our heads. Where’s she going with this?

‘Nor do I. But Tom, Emily – you do? You’ve sensed something about her?’

Again, they nod.

‘Don’t be afraid of her, my dears. She’s very clever, very wonderful, and she has helped me get much, much better. She and the new carers. They’re all amazing. They’re actually called Helpers. The young woman who brought the tea isn’t a Helper. She works in the kitchen. She’s sweet, but not amazing. Though she can make a good cup of tea, which strangely, the Helpers can’t.’

She laughs then, and we all do. Charlotte and I are mesmerised. My mother’s in form we haven’t seen for years. Ever, perhaps, in Charlotte’s case. She’s more lively and chatty than she was around Dad. And after he died, she went from grief to senility in a moment.

‘Well, children – all of you are children to me, Tom and Emily – I’m eighty-seven, so I am the only real grown-up here—’

The children giggle.

‘Do you know why Winifred and all the Helpers are amazing?’

I freeze.

‘Yes Mum, I know – and I haven’t talked to the children about it yet—’

‘Now’s the time. She’s a robot! They all are! Isn’t that extraordinary?’

The children’s eyes are huge.

‘Grandma – a robot? Like in the movies?’ says Tom.

‘Yes. Not with flashing lights and a funny voice and an aerial on its head—’