‘What d’you say, friend?’

Rick moved through the guests, stopping a little to my right. He showed no fear as he pointed at the breast pocket of Danny’s shirt. I’d noticed the object earlier – a soft toy dog small enough for the pocket. I’d seen children of seven and eight carrying such toys in their pockets when they’d come into the store.

As everyone shifted positions to see what Rick was pointing at, Danny raised both hands to cover his pocket.

‘A pet object, I’d say,’ Rick said.

‘It’s not a pet object,’ Danny said.

‘I’d say it’s your pet object. To help you feel calmer at gatherings like this one.’

‘What’s this bullshit? Who asked you anything?’

‘If it’s really nothing so special, perhaps you wouldn’t mind showing it to me.’ Rick held out his hand. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of it.’

‘Whether it’s anything special or not, it’s none of your business.’

‘Do please let me borrow it. Just for a minute.’

‘It’s nothing to me, but I wouldn’t hand it over to you.’

‘No? Not even a little peek?’

‘I’d never lend you anything. Why would I? You shouldn’t even be here.’

Rick was still holding out his hand, and the room remained silent.

‘It couldn’t be you’re perhaps a little soft yourself, Danny?’ Rick said. ‘At least, when it comes to cute little things for the pocket.’

‘That’s enough! You leave Danny be!’

The voice belonged to an adult, and the young people around me shrank back as the woman came striding into the room. ‘And Danny’s right,’ she said. ‘You shouldn’t be here at all.’

Then the Mother came hurrying in after her, and I saw other adults looking through the doorway into the Open Plan.

‘Come on, Sara,’ the Mother was saying. ‘We don’t interfere, remember?’

The Mother put an arm around the Sara woman, who continued to glare at Rick.

‘Come on, Sara. Play by the rules. It’s for the kids to sort out.’

Sara continued to look angry, but allowed herself to be led away out of the room and into the murmur of adult voices in the hall. One of the voices said: ‘It’s the only way they’ll learn,’ and then the adult voices receded, and there was silence in the Open Plan.

Danny was perhaps even more embarrassed about his adult’s interference than he’d been about the small toy. He continued to cover his breast pocket with both hands as he returned to the sofa, his now slightly hunched back turned to the room.

‘Okay,’ the long-armed girl said brightly. ‘How about we go outside for a while? It’s turned nice out there. Look!’

A chorus of voices shouted approval, and I heard Josie’s among them saying, ‘Great idea. Let’s do it!’

The children filed out, led by Josie and the long-armed girl. Danny and Scrub left with them, and then there was only Rick and myself in the Open Plan.

Rick looked around at the discarded jackets, displaced seat cushions, plates, soda cans, potato snack bags, magazines, but he didn’t look towards me. I wondered if any adults would come in to tidy now that the children had left, but none of them came, and the blur of voices continued from the kitchen.

‘You challenged that boy, I think, for my benefit,’ I said eventually. ‘Thank you.’

Rick shrugged. ‘He was getting seriously annoying. In fact they all were.’ Then he added, still not looking my way: ‘I suppose it wasn’t exactly enjoyable for you either.’

‘It became uncomfortable for me and I was grateful for Rick’s rescue. But it has also been very interesting.’

‘Interesting?’

‘It’s important for me to observe Josie in many situations. And it was very interesting, for instance, to observe the different shapes the children made as they went from group to group.’ When he said nothing to this, and continued to look the other way, I said: ‘Perhaps Rick wishes to go out now and join them. Reconcile with them.’

He shook his head. Then he moved through the Sun’s pattern – the Open Plan, I noticed, was no longer spatially segmented – and sat down on the modular sofa, stretching his legs out across the floorboards.

‘I suppose they have a point though,’ he said. ‘I don’t belong here. This is a meeting for lifted kids.’

‘Rick came because Josie very much wanted him to come.’

‘She insisted I came. But I suppose she’s too busy now to come back in here, see how I’m enjoying this part of the party.’ He leaned back into the sofa till the Sun’s pattern was over his face, obliging him to close his eyes. ‘The trouble is,’ he went on, ‘she doesn’t stay the same. I thought if I came today – stupid, really – I thought she might not…change. Might stay the same Josie.’

When he said this, I saw again Josie’s hands at various points during the interaction meeting – welcome hands, offering hands, tension hands – and her face, and her voice when someone had asked why she hadn’t chosen a B3 and she’d laughed and said, ‘Now I’m starting to think I should have.’ And Manager’s words came into my mind, her warning about children who made promises at the window, yet never returned, or worse still, returned and chose another AF altogether. I thought about the boy AF I’d seen through the gap between the slow taxis, walking despondently along the RPO Building side, three paces behind his teenager, and I wondered if Josie and I would ever walk in such a way.

‘Perhaps you can see now,’ Rick said, opening his eyes despite the Sun’s pattern. ‘See how I need to save Josie from this lot.’

‘I can see Rick is afraid Josie might become like the others. But even though she behaved strangely just now, I believe Josie is kind underneath. And those other children. They have rough ways, but they may not be so unkind. They fear loneliness and that’s why they behave as they do. Perhaps Josie too.’

‘If Josie hangs out with them much more, she soon won’t be Josie at all. Somewhere she knows that herself, and that’s why she keeps on about our plan. For ages she’d forgotten about it, but now she talks about it all the time.’

‘I heard Josie mention this plan the other day. Is it a plan about Rick and Josie sharing a future together?’

He looked past me out of the Open Plan’s window, and I thought his hostility towards me had returned. But then he said: