Warm sunlight sliced into the carriage as the curtains parted. Charlie shielded his eyes and looked out at the Bouncy Land platform. The station was above ground and the platform opened out into a wide square plaza. There were people everywhere, standing and shuffling in lines that criss-crossed through the open space. The crowd were bobbing up and down slowly in undulating waves as they waited patiently. Each one held their shoes, boots and sandals hugged tightly against their chests. Entrance to Bouncy Land was through a three-storey structure fronted with an enormous chalk-white painted face of a clown. Its ‘mouth’ yawned open, and the front of the queue disappeared between the lips and beneath a set of discoloured, jagged teeth as if it were being eaten. The clown ‘gulped’ noisily every time the line of people moved forwards.

The carriage doors opened but the brass steps remained folded. The platform surface extended in wide, arching ridges and was decorated with green and yellow diagonal stripes. It seemed they were expected to jump.