So it’s Dad that I tell first. I tell him I had a really odd dream, and he listens, but he doesn’t really get it. I must be gabbling and not making much sense, because at one point he says, ‘You okay, Malky?’ But then he has to cut the call short or he’ll be late and to say hi to Seb from him, that he’ll call him later. We both know he’ll forget.

The rest is all toothpaste, toast, cereal and Seb’s missing gym shoes. I’m up and dressed and downstairs, eating breakfast, before Seb reappears. I haven’t said anything to Mam, as I’m still trying to work out what the dream was all about and, for that matter, whether it even happened.

You probably just dreamed it all, Malky.

I mean: that would be possible, wouldn’t it? I could dream that I was awake in a dream?

Seb sits at the table and starts to pile butter on to a slice of toast, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. Mam notices.

‘What’s amusing you this morning, Sonny Jim? And easy on the butter. We don’t own a cow,’ she says, pouring cereal into his bowl.

‘I’ve remembered my strange dream last night,’ he lisps, causing toast crumbs to spray on to the table and Mam to tut. I pause, a spoonful of cereal halfway to my mouth.

‘Oh aye? Your dream thingummy worked then!’ says Mam.

‘I was in this classroom with some other kids. And Billy from next door was there. He was the teacher but he couldn’t speak English.’

Mam smiles at this. ‘His Geordie accent is so strong, I sometimes wonder myself! Sounds like a typical crazy dream!’

‘Yeah, and … and …’ Seb was trying to remember. ‘There was this massive dog, like … like the mamuffs in Kobi, weeing all over a football pitch or something …’

I have put my spoon down by now. My mouth is hanging open, waiting to hear what he’s going to say next, yet at the same time knowing exactly what is coming.

He’s going to describe you floating, Malky …

‘… and then Malky was there and he started floating, right there in the middle of the cave-room thing. Oh, and Kobi from the book was there too! And Malky floated higher and higher till his head hit the ceiling …’

I instinctively put my hand up to my head where my scalp is still a little bit tender from banging it on the wall.

‘And, every time I tried to pull him down, he floated back up again!’

Mam laughs, and I am about to say something when there’s the honk of a car horn from outside and everything is in a rush as Seb grabs his stuff and dashes outside to get in the car with the twins whose mum takes them to Seb’s school.