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forward to speak to Mum. “And a very cold bleak midwinter it is, today. I understand young Callum here has been invited to tea with us this evening, and I was wondering if I could offer him a little extra hospitality, given the chill in the air. We have a day of quiet activities planned for our choristers, and he is very welcome to join us for as long as you’re willing to part with him. We always welcome friends and family when the children are here outside term time.”
    “We have hot chocolate,” Jonah said, beaming at him, “and we get extra cake on Sundays, and we’re going to watch The Box of Delights , and maybe make igloos on the rugby pitch.”
    Mum was continuing to talk quietly to the bald chap, but Callum knew what he wanted. A whole day with Jonah was about a million times better than just hanging around yet another stupid market. “Muuuuuum!” he whined. “Please.”
    “If you’re after quiet, I’m not sure you want Callum for that long,” Mum said wryly.
    “I am a great believer in letting children be children. He’ll be no trouble.” There was a slight hint of iron in his voice there, one that made Callum stand up a little straighter.
    “I’ll try my best, sir,” he said, and honesty forced him to add, “My best isn’t very good. I can’t help getting too excited.”
    “Then we will channel your excitement in a useful direction,” the bald bloke announced (everything he said seemed to ring with certainty, and it took Callum a while to realize it was his voice that did it, and that Jonah could do it too, when he got to talking about things he loved).
    And, to Callum’s amazement, they did. It wasn’t like going to play at a school friend’s, where their parents didn’t seem to get that there was a line beyond which Callum just couldn’t calm down again, but would keep getting more and more hyper. This was more like school but without the lessons, where everything was organized and the housemasters (as Jonah called them) were fun and jolly, but would tell you to stop before it all went wrong.
    He stuck by Jonah’s side all day, though he got to meet all Jonah’s friends too: Sam and the two Jameses and Oscar, and later, after they got back from the cathedral, Naomi and Katie too. They were all pretty cool, though Naomi was bossy, but Jonah was the best of the lot. He had a way of thinking about everything before he acted, which Callum envied fiercely, and he managed to be quiet without letting anyone push him around. He listened to Callum too, even when he knew he was talking far too fast.
    The igloo building went pretty well, not least because Naomi had a plan. “We have to make it good enough to live in for real,” she explained, her fists on her hips and a dark look on her face. “When all the planes crash and the computers stop working because of that Millennium Bug, we’ll have to survive on our wits.”
    “Can’t we just stay in the boarding house?” asked Katie, looking worried.
    Naomi cast a look of scorn her way. “Don’t be silly. We’ll have to hide from the looters, and out here we’ll be disguised by the snow.”
    Callum hadn’t realized the end of the world was upon them, but he’d played enough computer games to know she was missing something. “What about the zombies?”
    She hesitated, looking taken aback. “Well, um, obviously….”
    “They won’t come out until the snow melts,” Jonah said. “They can’t dig through frozen ground.”
    “That’s exactly what I was about to say. And then we’ll just take shelter in the cathedral, which is consecrated ground, so zombies aren’t allowed on it.”
    “I thought that was vampires,” Katie said, looking even more worried.
    After some moments of debate, they decided to go and check with Dr. Andrewson, which, it turned out, was the real name of the bald choirmaster. He confirmed that they would indeed be safe from zombies inside any church or cathedral, but reassured them they really didn’t