Harper put her ear to Lolly’s bedroom door: she could hear steady snoring. There was a chance that she could cover up what had happened and avoid Lolly’s questions.

The sun was going down. She lit the tea-light candles in the lanterns because Lolly had gone to so much trouble to dig them out of the shed. Then she sat and ate as much food as she could. Lolly had worked hard all day. And Harper didn’t know how to explain why her friends had left.

Right on cue, all three dogs came to help. They sat obediently and she fed them pastizzis. They took each one carefully between their teeth, as if a sudden move would end their good luck.

If only life could be simple the way it seemed to be for a dog. Everything had gone so wrong: Corey sneaking up on her, the way she’d shouted at Cleo, the things they’d all be thinking about her now. She felt hollow and lonely. And there was no sign of Will.

Harper picked up her Switch for the first time in ages and played a quest game to try to stop thinking.

At a few minutes past eight, Lolly came into the room with tight eyes and more wrinkles than usual on one side of her face.

‘I needed that nap. Everyone gone then, pet?’

‘Yeah. They loved the food.’ There were crumbs on Hector’s whiskers. She brushed them off while Lolly wasn’t looking.

The sky was dark now; the lanterns glowed. Lolly scanned the table.

‘You let them eat Rosa then?’ she said.

Harper’s tongue tingled with lime flavour.

‘And you haven’t opened your presents yet, look.’

‘I will a bit later.’

‘Course, pet.’ Lolly yawned and arched her back. ‘Well, there’ll be no later for me, even after that nap. I’m done-in. Going to take a few of these,’ she piled three meringue nests onto a small plate. ‘Might just save one for…’ She didn’t finish the sentence but Harper knew.

‘Angus?’ she said.

Lolly didn’t react, which made it even more obvious.

‘I’m getting back into bed with a cuppa to watch a movie. Want to join me?’

‘I’m okay out here.’

‘All right then.’ Lolly added a chocolate crackle to her plate. ‘You did enjoy yourself, didn’t you? You’ve got a funny look about you, pet.’

‘Probably ate too much. I loved my party. Thanks, Lolly.’

When Lolly had gone, Harper stared at the small pile of presents: every one of them book-shaped. The thought of her friends choosing books for her made her feelings swell up. Stuck to Cleo’s gift was a card with a drawing of the three of them—Harper, Ro and Cleo. In this unexpected year Harper had stopped believing in her friendships and started believing in ghosts.

The phone rang, and Harper wouldn’t have picked it up except that there was a chance it was Liz and Larry.

‘Hello?’

‘Harps, it’s me.’ It was Cleo.

‘I thought you’d lost my number.’ She didn’t mean that to be the first thing that came out.

‘I found it again.’

‘Really? Or did you just make that up so you didn’t have to explain why Corey came to my party?’

‘I said I was sorry about that! I really am,’ said Cleo. ‘He told me he likes our group now and he really wanted to come. I feel bad about it, okay? I didn’t call to fight with you.’

Harper bit her lip.

‘Harps? I’m worried about you.’

Harper managed to croak, ‘Why?’

‘Something’s been going on. You’re really stressed. Tell me. I’m your best friend.’

But Harper couldn’t. There were a few reasons. One of them was that she didn’t want Cleo to know about Will any more. She held the phone away and blocked the speaker so she could take a breath.

When she put the phone to her ear again, she said, ‘Everyone’s stressed, not just me, it’s a pandemic. There’s nothing wrong with me apart from Corey coming to my party and being his usual self. But it doesn’t matter any more. I just want to forget it.’

‘But are you really okay? The video…’

‘I was just talking to myself, don’t you ever do that?’

‘Not really.’

‘Well I do. Maybe it’s because I live with Lolly. She’s old and does it all the time. Every day. I just picked it up because of spending so much time with her.’

‘I didn’t think of that.’ Cleo sounded convinced as well as sorry. But it was all too complicated to feel relieved about. ‘I’ll tell everyone that’s what it was, Harps. No one thinks anything bad.’

Harper winced when she remembered how she shouted at her friends to leave.

‘You don’t need to worry about me,’ she said. ‘But I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

Her head was as muddled as ever.

The phone rang again half an hour later while Harper was putting leftovers in the fridge. It would be Ro this time. They were probably discussing tactics. They thought they knew her so well. You try first, Cleo, and if that doesn’t work…She’d tell Ro it was their fault for letting Corey turn up.

‘Hello?’ she said.

‘Darling?’

‘Mum!’

She heard crying, then Larry’s voice saying, ‘Shall I speak to her?’ and Liz again, ‘No, let me, I’m okay.’

‘Mum, what is it?’

There was a long pause.

‘We’re home, sweetheart. We’re in a hotel in the city.’

‘Really?’ her voice went so high and she started crying. She squeaked, ‘How come?’

But Liz was crying again. The next voice was Larry’s. ‘We wanted to tell you we were coming but we were so scared it wouldn’t work out, but we’re really here.’ Then Larry cried too.

All three of them were crying down the phone at each other.

‘Why are we crying?’ Harper said. ‘I’m so happy!’

‘Us too,’ they both said.

‘We’re here for a while but you’re not allowed to visit. We’re going to have to wait a bit longer to see you, until we’ve finished quarantine.’

Harper wiped her eyes with her sleeve. By now she’d walked up the hall to Lolly’s bedroom. Through the crack in the door she saw that the only light was from the little television, and her grandmother’s eyes were closed.

‘Lolly’s already asleep. Should I wake her? Or does she already know?’

‘No, leave her. We didn’t tell her. My mother is dreadful at keeping secrets,’ said Liz. Harper thought of the cigarettes hidden in Lolly’s bedside table.

‘Actually, she’s not that bad.’

Harper told them a bit about her party and what was happening at school, but not the bad bits. Hanging up felt so different this time. She changed for bed, brushed her teeth and got under the covers with Hector.

Liz and Larry were only a few kilometres away. She imagined the room they’d be in. Their open suitcases. Tiny hotel shampoos. Trying to work a remote control they weren’t used to. Larry would rummage in the mini bar and Liz would read out the prices and he’d sigh and shut the door.

She cried again. Here were all the feelings she’d held in for so many months while the virus had taken over: that Liz and Larry would die, that Lolly would die, that Harper herself would die and they’d never see each other again. Some days the fear had been all over her like clothing, other days it had lurked in corners like a separate thing or shot out suddenly in front of her. The lonely nights, the strange imaginings, and the way that every time her friends mentioned their parents she wanted to block her ears.

But they were back. Maybe it was all over.

She couldn’t ignore one thing: the return of Liz and Larry meant change, the same way that their departure had. She had more freedom with Lolly; her parents had this way of knowing things about her.

Harper wanted to figure everything out about William Park in the time that they were still one step away.