She had tried to wake her mummy again and again but she just wouldn’t get up, even though it was way past waking-up time. Evie could tell this by the way the sun was shining in through Mummy’s thin, floral curtains.

In the end, Evie went downstairs on her own.

When they lived in their last house, Mummy had had a job and got dressed early each morning. Her eyes had been brighter then and hardly ever half-closed-sleepy in the daytime.

That had all changed when Daddy went away to be with the angels.

Mummy didn’t have a job anymore and she never used her sparkly eyeshadow now or sprayed on the perfume Evie liked, the one that smelled like a mixture of bubble gum and flowers.

As soon as she got downstairs, Evie got scared that the wasps might be back. She was too afraid to go into the sitting room without Mummy doing her daily wasp check, so she went into the kitchen instead.

The floor felt cold on her feet and there was no TV in here to watch CBeebies on. Evie stood on a chair and pulled the cereal box from the cupboard. There were still no clean dishes, so she wrapped her blankie around her and sat at the table, pulling Frosted Shreddies straight from the packet and popping them into her mouth.

It was lots of fun, pretending to be a grown-up. You could eat cake and biscuits for breakfast and, if you wanted, you didn’t even have to put milk on your cereal, or eat it with a spoon.

Evie took Flopsy Bunny off the table and sat him on the chair beside her.

‘Don’t start,’ she scolded him. ‘You’ll do as I say. You don’t want to upset me, do you?’

Flopsy ignored her. He never cried like Evie sometimes did, when her Mummy got cross.

Evie knew he didn’t like it here in the kitchen because he wanted to watch television.

‘Mummy is TIRED,’ she snapped at the rabbit. ‘For God’s sake, will you stop going ON AND ON?’

She sighed and looked at the heap of dirty dishes piled up in the sink. Sometimes, Mummy forgot things like there being no clean cups or dishes and Evie had to tell her again and again before she remembered.

When she’d eaten enough cereal that her tummy finally stopped rumbling, Evie crept to the living room door and listened. She couldn’t hear any buzzing in there.

She opened the door the tiniest bit – too tiny a gap even for a wasp to slip out and sting her – but all was quiet in there. In a flash of bravado, Evie flung her blanket over her head and rushed over to the couch, snatching up the remote and turning on the TV.

Her eyes flicked wildly around the room and she ran back out, breathless, and slammed the door behind her again. She hadn’t see one single insect but you couldn’t be too careful. The wasps had been very well hidden in the pretty flowers that day. Too well hidden for even Mummy and Nanny to spot.

Plus, Mummy was still sleeping, and if the wasps came back, Evie didn’t know where Mr Ethriz, the exterbinator man, lived. There would be no one to help her.

She shuffled back down the hallway, rubbing her eyes. She scowled at Flopsy Bunny, who watched her steadily from his chair.

‘Don’t you look at me like that.’ She scowled. ‘Like butter wouldn’t melt.’

It was no fun being here in the kitchen where it was cold and quiet and there was nothing to do.

Evie heard a shout and someone laughing outside.

She pressed her nose up to the patterned glass but she couldn’t see anything. Mummy had explained it was because of the oh-pake glass.

A funny yelp and another laugh. It sounded like someone was having fun in the yard. Maybe her nursery friends from Hemel had come to visit.

She bounded upstairs again.

‘Mummy, wake up,’ Evie called, shaking her arm. ‘I want to go outside.’

But Mummy did not stir.

‘Mummy, PLEASE!’ Evie yelled into her ear. ‘You’ve got to wake up NOW.’

Evie stood up and stamped on the bare floorboards. She ran back downstairs and into the kitchen. If her friends thought Evie wasn’t here, they might go back home and she didn’t want that.

The key was in the lock so Evie reached forward and wiggled it. She tried the handle but the door was firmly stuck. She twisted the key this way and that, took it out and then slid it back in. She turned it hard to the left and heard a click. This time when she tried the handle, the door opened. A rush of warm breeze caressed her face and Evie smiled, turning her face up to the sun.

But there was nobody in the yard.

Her smile faded and she sat on the step, tracing a pattern in the dust with her fingertips.

‘Buster, fetch!’ someone called out.

The funny yelp sounded again and a tennis ball arced over the hedge and landed on the grass.

Evie jumped up off the step and ran down towards it in bare feet and pyjamas.

A brown and white ball of fluff barrelled through the hedge and made the yelping noise again and again.

It was a puppy! A real, live puppy.

‘Hello, cutie,’ said a tall man with a spotty face on the other side of the hedge. ‘What’s your name, then?’