‘Great work, little man. That’ll do for underneath. But what about on top?’
Five minutes later a urine-free lederhosen-clad three-year-old stands before me. I try to stifle a giggle but it’s his anger at the outfit more than the outfit itself that gets me.
‘Stop, Auntie Harry-ep. Not funny. Stupid.’
‘I’m not laughing at you, sweetheart, I prom—’
A knock sounds abruptly from the pink door and we both freeze.
The knock comes again. Billy’s eyes are wide like saucers. But a Krampus wouldn’t knock, would it? And just like that I’m up and across the room, my ear pressed to the pink door. ‘Who is it?’ I whisper.
‘Olivia,’ the soft voice answers.
After a couple of minutes huffing and shuffling, I open a gap big enough for Olivia and Tristan to slip through the doorway and together we all reassemble the barricade.
Once it’s back in place, Olivia turns to me. ‘Have you found it yet?’ she demands.
‘Found what?’
‘The Evergreen.’
‘Um, no,’ I say with slightly more vehemence than anticipated. ‘Wouldn’t this be over if I found it?’
Her face falls. ‘Yeah, but I thought maybe you’d found it and you didn’t know what to do.’ She looks to Tristan, disappointed, then rallies. ‘Where have you looked, then?’
I pause, genuinely considering whether or not to lie to a child, but deciding it’s probably not a great precedent to set. ‘Nowhere. We’ve just been hiding up here.’
‘Oh. Okay.’ She’s disappointed, and I try not to let the shame drown me.
‘To be honest,’ I level with her, ‘I have absolutely no idea what is going on here, Olivia, or what I’m supposed to be looking for. I’m just trying to keep him safe.’ I eye Billy in his lederhosen.
‘Why is he wearing that?’ Olivia begins, before thinking better of it. ‘Never mind. We’ve checked the second and third floor already but we haven’t been up here yet or in the basement.’
‘What about the ground floor, where everyone started?’
‘That’s out of bounds; the only open doors there lead upstairs or downstairs.’
‘Okay, so if it’s not here, it will be in the basement.’
‘Yeah.’
‘And how do you know where to look? Are there clues?’
She looks aghast. ‘Are we the first people you’ve talked to since the game started?’
‘Yeah,’ I say, noting her derision.
‘Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense. It’s you. The clue is your name. It’s always the name of the oldest player. If you’d asked anyone, after the game started, they would have told you the clue is hidden in the letters of your name.’
‘I was supposed to ask someone after—’ I begin but quickly lose the will to continue. ‘Okay, so… The clue to where the Evergreen is hidden is in the letters of my name: Harriet Reed. An anagram?’ I ask.
Olivia nods, pulling out her iPhone and tapping away furiously, her brow furrowed. ‘Maybe I’m spelling it wrong. Here, you try.’
She hands me the phone, the screen open on a letter-reshuffling app. She has typed my name in correctly: H-A-R-R-I-E-T—R-E-E-D. The best suggestion comes up beneath it: reheated.
‘Reheated,’ I mutter. ‘Could there be a microwave, or an oven, in the basement?’
Olivia shakes her head. ‘Kitchen’s on the ground floor. And out of bounds.’