Tom was not in too bad a state, despite the gushing blood. They thought he just had a bad cut and had been knocked out by the collision with the wall. An ambulance came, patched him up and took him away. He was grinning as they loaded him into the back of the white van; he was meant to be having a reading test that afternoon.

I had a clear view of all of this through the window in the head-teacher’s office. ‘You’ll need to wait here till your parents come to get you,’ the secretary said.

I didn’t bother to correct her. She couldn’t get hold of Ruth or Jubrel. I knew she wouldn’t, they’d be working.

‘Maybe you could phone my brother, Mrs Boyes?’ I suggested.

The head-teacher gave me her most fearsome look again. She’d been directing it at me for the last two hours as I sat in her office, being shouted at by her, Miss Strong, my teacher, and Mr Alan, who was in charge of Year Five and Year Six.

I knew I’d done the wrong thing. I’d said sorry. I had nothing else to say. When Mrs Boyes suggested that they might need to call the police to ‘have a little talk with me’, I nearly cracked. My voice went all high and a tear formed in the corner of my eye. That seemed to calm them down a bit.

‘Maybe that won’t be necessary,’ said Mr Alan, ‘but you’ve got to think about where you’re heading, Prince.’

Where was I heading? Was there a new home for me? Would we be a family again? What was at the end of this unknown road?

Em didn’t even look in my direction when he came to collect me from the stuffy office. I’d seen him this angry before. But along with the anger was fear, sadness, panic. He looked how I felt.

Mrs Boyes let me go with my brother, vowing that she was going to get hold of my carers before the evening was out.

‘What the hell, Prince?’ We’d walked a few metres from the school gate when Em started shouting. ‘What are you doing? Do you think I know how to deal with this either?’

I didn’t know what to say to that. I replied simply and quietly. ‘Sorry.’

‘Who do you really want to hit, Prince? None of us know what to do.’ Em was still shouting and I could feel my anger rising too. ‘If she’s here, she’s here, and we’ll deal with it. I don’t need you doing, doing – this!’

I was at breaking point now. I stopped, and turned to face my brother. We glared into each other’s eyes.

‘Shut up,’ I hissed. ‘I’ve had enough of not having anyone and not knowing anything. I’ve had enough!’ My voice had been getting louder as I spoke and I was gasping as I finished the sentence.

‘What do you mean, not having anyone? You’ve got me, Prince.’ Em’s anger began to melt, he was almost pleading.

Our fury melted, replaced by fear. What our future held was clear to neither of us.

‘Come on.’ Our argument was over, Em beckoned for me to follow.

But the fear was too great for me. Maybe Em could walk towards the unknown mother, the stranger who we hadn’t seen for oh so long, but I couldn’t.

I ran.