Lolly was so excited about the party that Harper realised she still had a lot to learn about her grandmother. Considering how many people had made it past the door since Harper had lived there (none!) and how many times Lolly had said she much preferred the company of animals (hundreds!), it was a good surprise.

But on Sunday afternoon, Lolly started to behave in a way that made Harper nervous. She was making so much food: rainbow fruit skewers, meringue nests with strawberries inside, chocolate crackles and sugary ring donuts, which she hung from the balcony ceiling. Lolly said this was Liz’s favourite party game when she was a girl. Harper liked that part, but she started to worry that her friends would think the food was childish.

Lolly was also making a lime-green jelly rabbit. She had a kitchen shelf full of jelly moulds. But as soon as the green rabbit plopped onto the plate, perfectly intact, Harper changed her mind. No one should feel too old for a jelly rabbit. It was so lovable, especially when it wobbled. She decided to call it Rosa, and she didn’t really want anyone to eat her.

‘Angus very kindly gave me two bottles of his lemonade for your party,’ said Lolly, opening the fridge to show her.

‘Oh! Great,’ said Harper, remembering how the lemons had dried out her mouth and left sour darts on her tongue.

The cats hid under Lolly’s wardrobe together, sensing invasion. Annie and Murph lurched from Harper to Lolly with worried faces. Hector, quiet for once, curled up on Harper’s bed, away from the commotion.

‘Now then, you’d better walk those ratbags before your guests arrive,’ said Lolly at just gone four. ‘I’ve got the pastizzis to bake and I have to tidy up. There’s so much dust!’ She hurried down the hall towards the bedrooms. Harper followed.

‘Lolly, my friends don’t care about dust.’

‘Walk the dogs,’ Lolly replied in her blunt way, and pulled out a clunky vacuum cleaner from her wardrobe.

‘But Hector’s asleep.’

‘Well Hector can wake up, can’t he?’

Harper didn’t argue any more; she wanted her friends to meet the best Lolly, not this vacuuming, stressed-out version.

When Harper got back she saw that Lolly had strung up fairy lights in the living room, and the flat smelled like warm pastry. Harper went to her room to change into the clothes she’d picked out—denim shorts and a soft black shirt that tied at the front; she didn’t want to look like she’d tried too hard.

Back in the living room, Harper imagined her friends out on the balcony or sitting on the comfortable sofa. Maybe they’d ask about the shelves of curiosities, or be interested in the dogs. The whole time she’d lived here, it had just been Lolly, the pets and no one else.

‘Coming through, coming through!’ said Lolly, barging past with half a watermelon that had been scooped out and filled back up with all kinds of fruit.

While Lolly was on the balcony, adding to the already heaving table, Harper saw a movement in the long curtain by the side of the window. It was probably the wind, or the speed her grandmother was going.

Lolly rushed back through.

‘I hope this bulb isn’t about to go!’ she called from the kitchen. Harper went to look.

The light flashed off and on several times.

Harper had a shiver. She looked back at the curtain and waited.

Again, it moved. And she didn’t doubt what was happening; she knew.

She’d put her old purple-framed glasses on for the party so now she raced back to her room and changed them for the gold-rimmed ones, hurriedly hooking them over her ears.

When she returned, Will was standing by the large window.

‘Hey, Harper,’ he said. He looked embarrassed. Harper remembered how they’d left things the day before.

‘Hey. What are you doing here?’

He’d found out where she lived. She wasn’t sure if she should be scared or not.

Lolly pulled metal trays from the oven and yelled at the dogs to get off the sofa. Harper watched as Will melted into the space where he’d been standing. To where? As she rushed to look for him, she almost collided with Lolly.

‘Sorry!’ she said.

Lolly grabbed her arms and looked at her with wide eyes. ‘Did you put the new soap in the bathroom?’ she said.

‘That’s the third time you’ve asked me, Lolly. Yes!’

Lolly released her and returned to the kitchen. Now she was doing a combination of talking loudly to herself and pulling serving dishes out of jam-packed cupboards. And Harper still hadn’t found Will.

She squeezed past her grandmother to get to the back door.

‘Where are you off to? They’ll be here any minute!’ Lolly was red-faced and more stressed than Harper had seen her through the whole pandemic. She was breathless and swearing and didn’t look like herself. Harper should have been more helpful.

‘Are you feeling all right, Lolly? Maybe you should sit down.’

‘Sit down? I’m not an old woman. You’re in the way again. Come on, budge!’

‘I’ll be back in a sec,’ Harper said as she slipped through the back door.

Will was sitting on the top step.

‘Here you are,’ said Harper in a soft voice that Lolly wouldn’t hear over the racket she was making. She eyed Angus’s front door, hoping he wouldn’t come out either.

Will gave her a serious look.

Harper still couldn’t believe he’d turned up. Seeing him on the back step, suddenly she thought of all the different times she’d woken in the night, out of her bed. Once, out here. How scared she’d felt, all alone. She had been alone, hadn’t she?

‘Tell the truth, Will. Is this the first time you’ve come here?’

‘I swear on my…well, I don’t have a life, what can I swear on?’

‘That’s okay. I believe you.’ She did. Even if nothing else was clear, Harper felt in her heart that those night-time fears had been about the pandemic, and that she could trust Will.

Then she said, ‘How long have you been here? Did you follow me from the river—on Friday?’

He nodded. ‘Not long. Sorry. I meant to go back to Riverlark. But you said it was the weekend and the thought of being alone again got to me. I ran to follow you. But the noise—the cars, trams, all these people—it was horrible. I never felt that way when I was alive. Just goes to show, I’m not really meant to be here.’

Will dropped his chin towards his chest. Harper had never seen him so down. He’d asked her to help him; she still had no idea what she could do or what to say to cheer him up.

He looked up again and said, ‘I nearly lost you a few times on the street. Then I watched you go through that yellow door and I lost my nerve because of the way I’d acted. I sat here for a while until someone came. Your dog Hector being one of them. And two bigger dogs and that lady who I’m guessing is your grandmother.’

‘And then what?’ said Harper.

‘I left that time. But I decided to try again. And this time the streets were quieter.’

‘It’s Sunday today.’

‘Right. The days are so stretchy and I can’t tell what’s an hour and what’s a whole week.’

That sounded familiar to Harper, like all the days in lockdown.

‘Will, I’ve got something to tell you,’ she said. Will shifted to the side and she sat. There was something very strange about how faint and fragile he looked—especially in the daylight—and how everything else about him had a weight that scared her.

Harper told him that Molly and Mae were her family, and about Lolly’s box of Lamb Stuff, and the photograph that was hers now.

The doorbell rang at the other end of Lolly’s apartment. Harper froze in horror. Her ghost was here and so were her friends.

‘What’s wrong?’ said Will.

‘I’m having a party,’ Harper replied, hunching her shoulders as the strangeness of the situation sank in. ‘That’s my friends arriving.’

‘I shouldn’t have just turned up.’

‘But I want you to stay, really. It’s just…don’t do anything. Like the curtain or the lights. I don’t want them to get suspicious. No tricks.’

Lolly was at the front door. It was funny to see it opened—it hadn’t been used the whole time Harper had been living there.

‘You must be Cleo,’ said Lolly. ‘Come in. Harper described you well.’

‘Hi, you must be Lolly.’ Cleo looked nervous. ‘Hi, Harper! I came straight from dance, can I put my bag somewhere?’

Lolly hurried back to the kitchen while Harper took Cleo into her bedroom. Cleo walked around talking very fast about everything in it. She opened and closed the wardrobe, picked things up and put them back in a different place, sat on the bed and bounced, knelt on it to open the curtains and pulled up the window so she could lean out. Harper had the feeling something was bothering her. She was being extra-Cleo.

Meanwhile, Harper was worried about whether Will was still on the back steps. Would he break his promise? Or give up and return to Riverlark? It would be horrible to be fourteen and watch a party you weren’t invited to; watch friends together and know you couldn’t join in.

Harper couldn’t relax. How much easier this would be if her best friend knew what was on her mind. It would be exciting, too. To be able to say: I know a ghost…He’s here, right now. Was there any way to say it that would make Cleo believe her?

‘Shush a minute,’ Harper said, interrupting the Cleo monologue. ‘This will sound weird but what the hell. You know these glasses.’

‘You wear them all the time now. Do you need them more now?’

‘Yes. Well, no. Well, yes. I think they helped me to see someone.’

‘Like, faces.’

‘Just one face. This boy. A soldier.’

‘What? You’ve got a boyfriend? When did this happen? A soldier? Do you mean he’s in Scouts, my cousin’s in Scouts.’ Her face was so bright—she didn’t understand what Harper was saying. Of course she didn’t.

‘I’m not explaining it properly. I can see the ghost of a boy called Will. He was a soldier who went to Riverlark before World War One. Then he went to Gallipoli, and he died there when he was fourteen.’

‘Are you talking about the soldier from the photo in the library?’ Cleo frowned. ‘Wait,’ she smiled again, ‘Ohhh, you’re so good! Look how serious you are! Nearly got me there. You can see ghosts, yeah-yeah, sure, I believe you!’ Cleo got up and took a big brush out of her bag, giggling at what she assumed was her best friend’s joke. She tipped her head upside down and brushed her long black curls.

Oh well, thought Harper. She’d tried.

‘Harps, listen,’ Cleo said as she stood up straight again. ‘I’ve got something to tell you. But this is actually real. Don’t be upset.’

‘Upset about what?’

‘I wanted to text you but you don’t have a phone and I couldn’t find the piece of paper where I’d written down Lolly’s number.’

‘Just tell me.’

Cleo looked guilty. In the next moment the doorbell rang again, giving Harper a rush of nerves. More friends were arriving.

She opened her bedroom door at the same time as Lolly opened the front door.

At the back of her group of friends there was a face she didn’t expect to see.

Corey Hurst.