November 14

Two boys sit on the tube between Wimbledon and Southfields, both wearing green school jumpers. One boy asks the other if he has seen War of the Worlds.

They gently rock from side to side as the train goes, “checkety-check, checkety-check.”

“There is a horn that the aliens blow to announce the killing.”

“Yeah, yeah. Wicked.”

“I was in a forest and a horn blew. I ran for my life!”

“No way!”

“You would, you know you would.”

The other boy pauses for a second, distracted by some blur of colour out of the window. Then he says, “Yeah, after the film, I would.”