Four hundred and ninety-eight.
Four hundred and ninety-nine.
Five hundred.
‘Sorry, Jack,’ I say casually. ‘I need the bathroom again.’
He glances over. ‘No problem,’ he agrees easily.
I’m somewhat stunned. Jack isn’t going to allow me out of the room on my own, is he?
‘Should I wake my mum up?’ I ask, and then could have kicked myself black and blue. But I don’t really understand Mum’s plan. What is she hoping? That I’ll be allowed out of the room on my own? Or maybe she thinks Jack will leave me in the bathroom and return briefly to check on her – perhaps she’s planning to call out or distract him in some way – giving me time to make a run for it up the back stairs.
Jack looks over at my mum. ‘No, let her sleep,’ he says kindly.
‘Can I clean my teeth and wash my face while I’m in the bathroom?’ I ask, hoping to buy myself just a little extra time. ‘There isn’t much space when Mum and I are in there together.’
‘Sure,’ Jack replies. He accompanies me across the room and then stations himself in the doorway. ‘I’ll wait here,’ he tells me. ‘I can watch both of you this way.’
He can too. But he doesn’t. Jack’s enjoying the film and he can’t stop himself glancing over at it – the lure of gunfire and Nazis chasing escaped prisoners of war around the countryside. As I walk down the corridor towards the bathroom, I don’t look back, but I can see Jack’s reflection in the chipped gilt mirror, heavy and antique, that hangs on the wall ahead of me. He isn’t watching Mum, he isn’t watching me. He’s staring at the TV.
I take a risk and grab what is surely my one and only chance. The bathroom is to my right, but I don’t go in. Silently and swiftly I whisk past the closed door round the corner, and then I press myself against the wall out of sight. My heart is fluttering like a giant butterfly trapped inside my chest as I wait for Jack’s cry of surprise, the sound of his footsteps pounding along the corridor to recapture me.
But I hear nothing. Jack, still watching TV, thinks I have gone into the bathroom.
How long do I have before Jack’s suspicions are aroused and he comes to find out where I am?
I glance at my watch. Five minutes or ten? Maybe less?