But you said...

Xavier realised the Drivers were thinking seriously whether to help him or not. Everything depended upon their decision. How could he persuade them of his good intentions? 

He raced upstairs and retrieved the lamp base, now returned to its original state. Knowing that sand had kinetic properties when mixed with silicone oil, while the Drivers had been eating breakfast he had appropriated a pot of Kim’s skin cream from the bathroom and mixed it with the spilled sand. After that, separating out the different coloured grains and reinstalling them in layers to replicate the original landscape in the bottle was quickly done. He pushed the cork into the bottle more firmly and took it downstairs.

He knocked on the kitchen door. Without waiting for a reply, he pushed it open and went in, just as Kim picked up a call on her phone. Shock registered on her face.

Joe recovered first. He gently but firmly manoeuvred Xavier back into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

‘What’s that you’ve got there?’

Xavier lifted the bottle for him to see.

‘How the hell-’

‘Chemistry,’ said Xavier. ‘You could have done it, I’m sure.’

Joe was pretty sure he couldn’t. ‘That’s amazing. How did you do that-’

‘I wanted you to be sure that we are a benevolent force in your lives Joe,’ Xavier said. ‘We mean you no harm, we simply want to live our lives as you do, free from interference.’

If only, thought Joe, thinking of his boss, of the tax authorities, and the myriad other rules and regulations that embroiled a person at every turn.

‘We’re trying to decide what to do for the best,’ said Joe, striving for honesty without committing to a decision not yet made.

‘But you said you wouldn’t tell Jean-Claude where we were…’

‘And we won’t. But we do need a little more background to this situation and he’s probably the only other person who can give us that.’

He glanced at Xavier. He had flushed a deep pink and sweat was beading on his forehead.

‘Are you feeling okay?’

‘I’m a little hot.’ Xavier gestured at the thick check shirt Kim had given him when he arrived.

‘Here, let’s swap.’ Joe wanted to be back in the kitchen to hear Kim’s conversation. He shucked off his tee shirt and held it out to Xavier. After a moment’s hesitation, Xavier shed his garment and took the tee shirt.

‘Thank you.’

‘Look, could you put that lamp back upstairs and then sit with the girls? I’ll be back in a moment.’