Mama gently covered my hand with hers. ‘Hey, careful,’ she said. ‘This is all we have of him.’

She was right. Not only that but, as I read the letter again, I couldn’t see any hidden code telling me to disregard his words. That meant they must be true. Papa was safe and well.

I passed the letter back to Mama. The thought of Papa so far away from us, working so hard, sending us a letter that took a year to get to us, hurt so deeply it felt like a football being kicked into the pit of my stomach.

But his words eased the pain. He was fine. He was being fed. He was singing and working and he had friends. And he’d seen Max! My old best friend had sent a message to me across all the miles and all the years. He still thought about me.

After all this time, all the letters I had sent Max without receiving a reply, I had begun to think I would never hear anything of him again. Maybe I had got his address wrong. Maybe he had tried to write to me too. It wouldn’t have been easy for him. I wasn’t a fool, I wasn’t a hopeful kid any longer. I knew his father wouldn’t want him to write to me.

But he could have found a way. Maybe he had written and his letters had gone astray – and now we were in England and he would have no idea how to find me.

Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. He still cared – and he’d seen Papa!

Maybe if I wrote to him again, I could give him my new address and I’d hear back from him. It was worth one more shot.

I’d do it after football. And I could tell him all about my new friends as well! Maybe he’d even meet them one day. I was sure he’d like them, especially Daniel who was the nearest thing I had to a best friend nowadays.

I looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. ‘Mama, I have to go. The others will be waiting for me.’

Mama was smiling. My heart stopped for a second; I hadn’t seen that smile for so long. The warmth of it, the love behind her eyes. It was as if the knowledge that Papa was fine had brought her back from behind a veil where she’d been hiding all this time.

‘You go and play,’ she said, patting my knee. She held Papa’s letter against her heart. ‘I will be here with your father.’

I stood up and bent to kiss her forehead. ‘I love you, Mama,’ I said.

‘I love you too, my wonderful boy,’ she replied. ‘Have fun with your friends.’

‘I will,’ I said. And I knew it was true.