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Lydia couldn’t follow the next thing Sonia did at all but after a few moments, the white void above their heads began to shimmer and gradually turn blue. At first it looked very artificial, more like a blue painted ceiling than a sky, but as she tweaked it, it began to look more and more like a summer sky. There were even a few wisps of clouds drifting across it. If she looked at it carefully the colour was still slightly off but otherwise it was indistinguishable from a real sky – except for one thing.

“No sun?” she asked.

“No moon either and the stars won’t move at night,” Sonia said. “I could probably pull it off but it’s a bit of a pain to get right.” She looked at where the fake sky faded into the still white void of the floor. “I’ll talk to Matt about sourcing soil tonight and Drew’s friends are coming over soon. I could do with a rest before then.”

“You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?” Daniel asked quickly.

Sonia smiled and shook her head. “I’m fine, Dan. My injuries are healed enough that they won’t reopen unless I do something extreme. This is just natural tiredness from doing something hard. A cup of coffee and I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Lydia asked.

“Tsk! You two are as bad as Matt,” she said. “I’m fine. You can check if you want.” She opened her screens allowing them to see that she was indeed just tired.

“Thank goodness,” Lydia said. “We do worry about you, mum. You were so sick for so long.”

“I’ll be careful, I promise,” Sonia said. “Let’s go grab a snack and unpack before Drew’s friends get here.”
***
Karen sat in the attic with Kyle. With so many people in the house the den wasn’t going to be much of a retreat for a while, but for now, no one else was in there. She’d even shut the door on Alban and Darya’s faces, much to their surprise.

“Is something wrong?” Kyle asked as he flopped down on to one of the sofas.

Karen shook her head. “No, I just wanted a private word.”

“About what?”

“The elephant in the room.” She suppressed a smirk at his puzzled frown. “I mean our relationship, Kyle, and if we still have one. I think we’ve both been avoiding the subject.”

“Well there’s been rather a lot going on,” he said. “The time never seemed quite right.”

“Well, it’s right now.” She put her hands on her hips. “I still like you. Do you still like me?”

Kyle turned bright red. “That’s blunt.”

“Why dance around the subject?” she asked.

“True,” he said. “I definitely still like you.”

“Great, then as soon as this stupid curfew is lifted let’s go to the cinema or something.”

“You’re on,” he said. “But that might be a while away, the way things are going. How about a hug for now?”

Karen smiled and sat down beside him on the sofa, laying her head on his shoulder. “That sounds like a good idea.”

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