November in Silverton is an outrage. You come out of school and the day has already packed up and gone home without you.

It is dark at four o'clock, and that is a problem, because Ava and Louis have a football that is dark blue, and the park is also dark blue. Here is the score. Say it with me.

Four nil to the hedge.

Ava: “Four balls, Louis. That hedge has FOUR OF OUR BALLS.”
Louis: “Four. I got two of them back out.”
Ava: “And then they went back IN, Louis.”

The hedge has never once handed anything over. It does not gloat. It does not need to. It just sits at the end of the park being a hedge, saying nothing.

So on the way home they stopped at the window on Spend Street, and there it was, up on a shelf on its own, glowing gently in the dark like it knew exactly what it was doing. Seven coins.

Ava's hands caught it. Twice. It was still in the window both times. Hands are Ava's thing. Yours might be your knees. Mine is a small red light I cannot switch off.

Louis: “We have got nine between us. Five of those are mine.”
Ava: “Nine is MORE than seven. That is maths, Louis. Maths is saying yes.”
Louis: “It has to sit in the light first. It says so.”
Ava: “Then we PUT it in the light. That is not a problem, Louis, that is a PLAN.”
Louis: “And when it stops glowing?”
Ava: “Then we play FASTER.”

And here is the bit I actually agree with her about. A ball that glows cannot get lost, so the hedge gets nothing ever again. Which would be the first time. What is the score again?

Four nil to the hedge.

That is not true, by the way. A glowing ball can absolutely still go in a hedge. It will simply be easier to find, glowing, in a hedge, in the dark, while you get scratched.

The window was warm. The street was cold. The ball carried on glowing, because glowing is its entire job and it is extremely good at it.

Seven coins for the ball. Nine coins between the two of them, and five of those belong to Louis, which is a whole other conversation.

Two of you. One ball. And it is dark at four o'clock until about February.

Tap. Tap. Pause.