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is it?”
    “The band. They’re not going to play, are they?”
    “I shouldn’t think so. Now, gather your things. We’re in a hurry. The minister herself wants to speak to you.”
    The minister. I didn’t register his words; I was too busy looking at the band.
     
     
    E VERYTHING WAS HAPPENING in a hurry, that was obvious. I was taken to a spare meeting room, the tables down one side filled with the half-empty teacups. The flipchart at the front of the room had the letters DP scrawled across the top sheet. Displaced Person? Or Dream Paris? I had just begun to flick through the other sheets when the minister walked into the room. She was speaking into her phone.
    “No! Cancel that meeting! I need to be in Munich tomorrow!”
    She saw me and held up a hand, a brief acknowledgement.
    “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go…” She dropped the phone in a pocket then advanced upon me, hand extended.
    “Therese Delacroix, Minister with responsibility for the Dream World. Anna, I want to thank you so much for coming.”
    Therese Delacroix was a slight, plainly dressed woman. She gave me a firm handshake, gazing deep into my eyes as she did so. Everything about Therese suggested confidence: the minimal make up, the grey hair, the sensible shoes. This was a woman in charge, someone who did things her way. A role model to spunky, gutsy school girls everywhere. School girls like me. See? she was saying, you can do it, sisters!
    I disliked her immediately.
    “Anna, I’m so glad we got to meet. I’m very busy at the moment and I was afraid you’d have set off before I had a chance to thank you personally. I can’t begin to tell you how impressed we all are by what you’ve agreed to.”
    “I’m not sure that I’ve agreed to anything. My name was on a scroll.”
    Therese waved a hand dismissively.
    “You’re going to Dream Paris. That’s a brave thing to do. I’m not sure you realise how brave.”
    That got me.
    “Really? Tell me, Therese , were you in Dream London?”
    She didn’t try to flannel me.
    “No, I wasn’t, Anna. My constituency is in Manchester. I was part of the Emergency Parliament located there during the Incursion.”
    The Incursion, I thought. Is that what they’re calling it?
    “Manchester. A lot of the ministers are still up there, aren’t they?”
    Therese nodded. That was when I realised that my first impressions were wrong. There was nothing plain about Therese. Her clothes, her make up, her hair. This was a woman who had spent a lot of time and money on trying to appear natural.
    “Shall we sit down, Anna?”
    We pulled two of the metal chairs up to face each other. The people who had been in this room before us were too important to straighten up after themselves.
    “Now, Anna. As I said, we’re very grateful to you for agreeing to do this for us.”
    “And as I said, I don’t know why. It’s not like I’m choosing to go.”
    “It’s very brave of you to admit that.” Therese leaned forward slightly. I’d seen this trick before. This is what some people do when they want you to think they’re admitting you into their confidence. They’re trying to make you feel special.
    “I realise that your biggest concern is your mother, Anna, and that is right and proper. But as you’re going to Dream Paris, I want to ask you to think about something else.”
    “Go on.”
    “Anna, have you ever wondered what happened when Dream London ended?”
    “Wondered? I was there, Therese. I was there in the parks. I was there when they destroyed Angel Tower. When they destroyed the Contract Floor. Where were you, Therese?”
    Therese smiled. Little creases failed to form at the edges of her eyes. Therese was a nipped and tucked, coloured and toned, creamed and exfoliated one-hundred-percent-natural woman.
    “I like to think I did my part, too. But Anna, I want you to understand. When the freedom fighters such as yourself…”
    “The freedom fighters?”
    I couldn’t help but laugh. Therese