After finishing the washing-up, Finn and Mary went upstairs. ‘What did you think of Michael?’ asked Mary.

‘He seemed all right, a bit nervous at first. I didn’t know Charlotte had a boyfriend.’

‘Neither did I, although I had my suspicions. She’s not exactly the most forthcoming of friends. Anyway, you’re enough to make anybody nervous.’

‘Me?’ What about Karl and Irene, our own personal harbingers of doom?’

‘What?’ she said, laughing.

‘All those weird ideas — they’re both so earnest. I thought Australians were supposed to be tanned, hardy and healthy. Such serious artists as well. Sculpting, designing, taking drugs, whatever will come next?’

‘Reviving Battersea Power Station for the twenty-first century, that’s what.’

‘Hmm. It’s too bad but that place would have made a great housing co-op. Think of all the communal living rooms that would fit in there,’ said Finn, laughing.

‘I think they should make it into workshops and a small business centre with studios, you know, that could be used by the local community.’

‘That’s very industrious of you, Mary. London is already chock-a-block full of small business centres. All the old fac¬tories are now either luxury flats or “enterprise zones”. You’d think the Industrial Revolution never happened.’

‘This amusement park sounds a bit too enterprising for Karl and Irene. There must be more to it than they’re letting on.’

‘Oh, who cares anyway? Come here.’