‘Hello,’ said Pearl, stiffly. Doti smiled.

‘Ah, beautiful Pearl. This is beautiful Pearl,’ he said to the woman.

‘Hello, beautiful Pearl,’ said the woman, nicely. That annoyed Pearl even more. Nice pretty people made her feel uneasy.

‘This is Maya,’ said Doti. ‘She’s my temporary Christmas postie.’

‘Oh, hello,’ said Pearl, trying not to sound narked. She shouldn’t sound narked. It was just that Doti was the first person who’d shown the slightest bit of interest in her since Louis was born. Still, they couldn’t be together, so she couldn’t expect to be surprised if he liked somebody else. He was probably too old for Maya anyway. And they were only working together.

‘Doti has been soo helpful,’ said Maya, looking at him in a way that almost immediately put paid to their relationship being merely professional. Doti was pretty handsome, Pearl supposed. His hair was shaved, and he had a very finely shaped skull with small ears and a long neck and …

‘What can I get you?’ she said.

‘I promised Maya I’d let her try the finest coffee and cake emporium this side of N16,’ said Doti. ‘So here we are.’

‘Oh, it’s lovely,’ said Maya. She glanced at the blackboard and her face fell a little. ‘It looks expensive, though.’ She lowered her voice and spoke directly to Pearl. ‘I really needed this job,’ she whispered. Pearl understood.

‘Well, we’re glad you got it,’ said Doti heartily. ‘Very glad. And coffee is on me.’

Louis ran in with his best friend Big Louis, scattering rucksacks, hats, scarves and gloves all over the place before the bell had stopped ringing.

‘MUM!’ he yelled, and Pearl put down the milk she was steaming and stepped over to give him a big kiss and cuddle.

‘My special guy,’ she said. ‘My number one boy.’

Louis beamed. ‘I was SOOO good today,’ he said. ‘Here is who was not good. Evan. Gianni. Carlo. Mohammed A and Felix …’

‘OK, OK,’ said Pearl. ‘That’s enough.’

Louis looked grave. ‘They have to sit on a rug. You would not like to sit on a rug.’

‘Why not?’ said Pearl. ‘What happens?’

‘You have to sit on a rug! And EVERYBODY knows you have done some naughty behaviour.’

‘Hey, Louis,’ said Doti.

Louis’ face lit up. ‘DOTI!’ he yelled. They were great friends.

Doti crouched down. ‘Hello, young man,’ he said. Louis looked suspiciously at Maya. ‘WHO’S THAT?’ he whispered very loudly.

‘That’s my friend who is also delivering post.’

‘A lady postman?’ said Louis dubiously.

‘Of course! There are lots of lady postmen.’

‘We’re called postwomen,’ said Maya. ‘Hello. What’s your name?’

Louis still looked at her suspiciously, and, unusually for him, didn’t immediately start chatting.

‘Doti has a friend already,’ he announced loftily. ‘He has me and also he has Mummy. Thank you very much.’ Then he turned away.

‘Louis!’ said Pearl, genuinely surprised and secretly a bit pleased. ‘Where are your manners! Say hello!’

Louis stared at the floor. ‘H’lo,’ he muttered.

‘It’s very nice to meet you,’ said Maya. ‘Oh, Doti, you weren’t wrong about these mince pies.’

Pearl gave her a look.

‘It’s December,’ said Doti. ‘We can celebrate Christmas now.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Maya. ‘Definitely. Yum.’

Louis tugged at Doti’s trouser leg. ‘Have you any letters for me?’

He asked this every day. Issy often reflected that it did slightly ameliorate the effect of getting endless and ever-higher electricity bills when they were delivered by a cheerful four-year-old wearing a hat shaped like a dinosaur.

‘Well, as a matter of fact, I do,’ said Doti. ‘You know how normally you have to do a special delivery to Auntie Issy?’

Louis nodded.

‘Well, today it isn’t for Issy. Today it’s just for you.’

Louis’ eyes went wide.

‘And you won’t BELIEVE who it’s from.’

Pearl was as surprised as Louis when Doti handed him an envelope covered in snowflakes and addressed Louis Kmbota McGregor, c/o the Cupcake Café.

Doti winked at her. ‘The post office does it every year,’ he whispered. ‘I thought he might like one.’

Louis, who could recognise his own name printed in gold, was turning the envelope over and over like it was the most precious object he’d ever seen.

‘Mummy!’ he breathed.

‘Are you going to open it?’ said Pearl.

Louis shook his head. ‘NO.’

‘Who do you think it’s from?’ said Doti.

Louis held it away from him, still with a wondering look in his eye.

‘Is it … is it from Santa?’

Doti took the envelope. ‘See this,’ he said, pointing. ‘This is a postmark. Remember I showed you before? It tells you where the letter was posted and what date.’

Louis nodded.

‘Well, this postmark says … the North Pole.’

‘THE NORTH POLE?’

‘Yup!’

‘MUMMY! I’ve got a letter from Santa! At the NORTH POLE!’

‘That’s lovely,’ said Pearl, mouthing a thank-you to Doti. ‘Come on, darling, let’s open it.’

Louis shook his head again and put the card behind his back.

‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘Too preshis.’

‘Why is it too precious?’ asked Maya.

Louis shrugged and kicked his foot against the counter, even though Pearl was always telling him not to.

‘Monster garage,’ he whispered. ‘Santa might say I can’t have a monster garage. Even though I did not do naughty behaviour and I did not have to sit on the rug. Like Evan and Gianni and Felix and Mohammed A but not me.’

Pearl bit her lip. That damn monster garage. Ever since he’d seen the advert, he’d been on about it. It was a garage that fixed monster trucks; big trucks, with big monsters inside. But every single monster cost a lot of money, and every single truck was sold separately and they cost money too, and the basic garage itself even before you bought a single monster or truck was well over a hundred pounds, and anyway they didn’t have room to store it even if they got the damn thing, which she couldn’t afford in a million years because she was going to have to buy Louis new trainers, as he’d grown out of the old ones and they were horribly shabby, and he needed a proper winter coat, and new pyjamas and loads and loads of basic stuff that probably other kids just got when they needed it and not at a special time of year, but that was just how it was.