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way she lifted her hand up to wave but then let it drop down so quickly, or the way Gary didn’t come out of the house. He tried not to remember the smell of burning but it stayed inside his nose and all he could smell was a forest on fire. But, even trying as hard as he could to forget the smell, it felt like his feet were burning. He couldn’t believe what had happened, and what the wizard had made him do. The wizard controlled everything and was so powerful it could make Elijah burn down Sue and Gary’s kitchen, and make them hate him. The wizard could make Elijah lose everything, all over again. Elijah hated the wizard. He hated himself. He looked out of the window at the places he didn’t recognise, and thought of Mama. Only Mama could save him. Only Mama could protect him from the wizard. Mama had doneeverything she could to help him, with the help of Bishop and the church, and God. But now she was gone.
    How could anyone help Elijah if they didn’t know about the wizard? Maybe Ricardo was safe to tell. Apart from Mama, no one else cared about Elijah more than Ricardo. But Elijah couldn’t risk it. He looked up at Ricardo. ‘How do you kill a wizard?’ he asked.
    Ricardo frowned, like a fly had buzzed in his face. ‘I don’t know, Elijah. Wizards aren’t real.’ He frowned harder then sighed and squeezed Elijah’s hand, and Elijah sat back. Ricardo was wrong.
    Ricardo kept glancing at Elijah and smiling a tight smile that was meant to say that everything would be all right. ‘Nargis is a temporary carer but she can have you until we sort something more permanent out,’ he finally said. ‘She’s really experienced and she has another boy staying with her around your age.’ His voice sounded rehearsed and fed up, as though he was practising for a play he didn’t want to be in, like when they made Elijah be the Angel Gabriel in the school Nativity and the other children laughed at the wings Sue had made him from coat hangers and feathers. It wasn’t very good but she did her best. Sue had always done her best.
    ‘What about school?’ Elijah suddenly dropped his fingers from his nose. They had been driving for ages. How would he get to school?
    ‘You’ll have to go to a different school, I’m afraid. Just for a while.’ Ricardo’s eyes flicked from the mirror and back again. ‘There just wasn’t anyone available nearer to your old school.’
    Elijah started crying. He couldn’t help it. He could hear the wizard’s voice laughing from deep within his belly and then it was quiet and not even the sound of the traffic outside the window could fill his empty ears. He thought about anew school and other children pulling and pinching him and laughing at how stupid he was, the teachers making huffy noises because he didn’t know the work, and how they would have to do a project called ‘family tree’ and Elijah’s tree always looked like the trees did then – the middle of winter – and when they’d take baby photos in to school and play ‘guess the baby’ and Elijah would have to take a photo from a catalogue and pretend it was him because he didn’t have any baby photos, not a single one. Mama never had a camera. The tears popped out so quickly his entire face was wet in seconds. ‘I want to go back to Sue and Gary’s,’ he said. He wanted Sue’s stories so badly, as if stories were food and he was hungry. The air broke down in front of his face into a million different pieces.
    ‘I know you do.’ Ricardo continued to watch the road, but he let his hand move over to Elijah’s arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘I know you do. But Sue and Gary can’t cope with your behaviours any more. They really wanted to but it’s just not possible, I’m afraid.’
    ‘Then I want to go with you. Can I stay with you? Just for a little while?’
    Ricardo looked straight ahead of him. ‘I’m sorry, Elijah, but that’s against the rules.’ He turned his face to Elijah then back to the road.