The Infinite. Patience Agbabi

has reached the section of the prayer where she asks for my safe transport when my phone buzzes and I realise Mrs C Eckler has arrived. Grandma’s eyes are closed so I have to interrupt.

      ‘Grandma, Mrs C Eckler is here.’

      She talks over me until she finishes the prayer with the words, ‘Elle, answer the door!’

      I obey. I didn’t know she heard me. Maybe I didn’t say it out loud, only in my head. I haven’t spoken aloud for two days. I tiptoe downstairs, as we mustn’t wake the other tenants this early. Mrs C Eckler is with her husband, who’s coming on the trip to help. He’s a Leapling as well. Leaplings often marry each other because it makes it easier to go on holiday together. I don’t know whether to call him Mr Eckler or Mr C Eckler. I decide not to speak to him directly.

      Mrs C Eckler has her ginger hair piled high on her head as usual but a large white flower pinned on the left-hand side. Her husband is very tall and is wearing sunglasses. In February! He carries my suitcase down the stairs like it weighs nothing. Grandma insists on hobbling after him so she can see me off outside. She breathes out heavily with each step and I worry she might struggle to get back up again. She hugs me so hard I can’t breathe but I like that much more than when she squeezes my hand. Then she turns back into the house and I get into the back of Mrs C Eckler’s bright red Audi Ur-Quattro.

      Big Ben says it’s too old to go properly fast, but I like it. Mrs C Eckler says it was made in 1984, which was the year she was born, and it was a birthday present from her husband four years ago. I’ve been in it before when I’ve had to go home from school in the middle of the day. I like old cars better than new ones, but Big Ben always likes the latest version of everything. He wants to design cars when he’s a grown-up.

      It’s another cold day and still pitch black. We go the opposite route to the one I ran home. Mrs C Eckler drives. She won’t let her husband drive the car, ever. She says it’s hers, which is true. But she’s not a very good driver, she goes 35 in a 30-miles-per-hour limit. That’s illegal. Mr C Eckler has been given strict instructions. His job is to carry the suitcases out of the car to Block T once we reach the school. We must assemble in Room 4D, which is named after the fourth dimension, space–time. The other dimensions are height, breadth and depth. We never have PPF lessons in Room 4D. It’s reserved exclusively for leaps.

      ‘Would anyone like a leap band?’