It would be impossible to measure our sense of shame, but now we had some idea of what it must have felt like to be exiled from the community in ancient times. Our mistake had been to overestimate the extent of an invitation of one set of friends, and to underestimate the greed of others.

The story begins when AH and CS moved house to be much closer to us. Uncharacteristically they seemed very keen to make new friends quickly and asked us to invite as many people as possible round to their flat. Obedient as ever, we soon rounded up a big crowd including the F family, my sister J (her hair dyed dark chestnut), her kids, and her kids’ partying teenage friends (many of whom we did not know). Unfortunately the guests took quite literally the request to make themselves at home. Many bagged beds for the night, and some even smoked indoors. TPR took some convincing at first, but I knew pretty soon that this was not what A and C had intended. I persuaded him that we would have to turn everyone out and try and get the house back in order before A and C returned home from work.

Just as we sent the last person packing we came across a little girl with dark hair dressed in her school uniform. I recognised her as LF, aged about 10 or 11. When I asked her what she was doing there she confessed that she wasn’t really meant to tell us, but since we asked, she was willing to reveal that a court injunction had been served and we were no longer welcome in town. The police would soon be on site to handcuff and take us away.