There are exactly two ways to get from Ava's front door to the Speed Cup track.

The short way goes along Spend Street, where every window is lit up and something in one of them is always turning slowly round on a cushion. Ava has never once got to the end of Spend Street without stopping. Not once. Not ever.

The short way goes past every window in Silverton, which is the whole problem. Louis has a view about it, and he says it every single morning.

Not that way!

Ava: “ELEVEN minutes, Walbot. Eleven. That is nearly a year.”

It is eleven minutes.

Ava: “That is what I said.”
Louis: “You could come the long way with me.”
Ava: “I could go the short way and simply not look.”
Louis: “You have never once not looked.”
Ava: “I have never once TRIED.”

That is Ava's best argument. It is completely true, it proves absolutely nothing, and it is one of my favourite things about her.

Ava: “And the short way has the wheel window AND the trainer window AND the window with the enormous rolling boot brush.”
Louis: “That is why the short way takes you longest.”
Ava: “That is NOT a real fact.”

It is, I am afraid, an extremely real fact. Last Tuesday the short way took Ava twenty-six minutes. The long way takes nineteen. I know. I was hovering above her the whole time, being ignored.

So the long way is the quick way, which is ridiculous, and Louis is going to say it again anyway.

Not that way!

Mum: “How many coins are on your band this morning, love?”
Ava: “Seven.”

Her hands had already gone out towards the door handle. Hands do that. They start the plan before the rest of you has finished having it. Ava's hands are particularly bad for it. Yours might do something completely different.

Zion: “Coming the short way? There is a NEW thing in the window.”
Ava: “A new what?”
Zion: “A new THING.”

Zion did not know what it was either. He did not need to. He had said the word new on Spend Street, which is quite enough for anybody.

So this is the whole thing, and it is happening in a hallway. One door. Two ways. Seven coins that do not yet know which street they are going down.

This is the bit where I hover politely and say nothing at all. The door is still shut. Over to you two.

Tap. Tap. Pause.