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all-consuming illness, which had reached epidemic proportions by the early years of the twenty-first century. Adolescents actually stopped studying at schools and colleges in order to pursue this crazy fever dream of celebrity. The end result was that many menial, degrading jobs weretaken by people who possessed no formal qualifications, but had reasonable singing voices and knew a couple of poorly choreographed dance routines.’
    Mr Peterson stumbled on for a few more minutes that felt much longer, before he took his applause and shuffled offstage.
    The show’s host – Eddie Crichton, who ran the village’s sports and social club – wandered on to the stage looking mildly baffled.
    ‘Er . . . well . . . um . . .’ he said, possibly trying to work out how year after year Mr Peterson failed to improve his act. ‘Now for a little bit of a change from the ordinary.’ He was regaining enthusiasm. ‘As we set off on a voyage into the mysteries of the human mind. I’d like to hear a big Millgrove welcome for . . . THE GREAT DANIELINI!’
    Simon nudged me in the ribs, really hard and raised his eyebrows.
    ‘Danielini?’ he whispered. ‘What kind of name is that?’
    ‘Not a particularly good one,’ I whispered back.
    I looked around at the people watching, acutely awareof just how badly this could all go for Danny if his act didn’t match up to the billing he’d just been given.
    I could see Danny’s mum a couple of rows forwards of us watching the whole thing through the viewfinder of a tiny camcorder. I remember thinking how cruel it was to be filming him, and how at least I had been spared the humiliation of having my own talent show appearance filmed by my parents.
    For some reason I had a sudden urge to check the crowd for Danny’s sister, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.
    Maybe she was sensible and had found something more fun to do.
    Like hammering nails into her feet.
    Then Danny stepped on to the stage.

04
    You know sometimes you see a person you know, but there’s something different about them and you have to look again – do a double take – because you’re suddenly not certain it’s the person you thought it was. Maybe it’s a haircut that makes you suddenly uncertain, or a look on their face that you’ve never seen there before.
    And often you’re absolutely right, it’s not who you thought it was, it’s just someone who looks a
little
like them and you’re relieved that you didn’t call out their name.
    Or feel like a total ass because you did.
    When Danny walked out I had the same thing happen inside my brain. I mean I knew it was Danny, but then I doubted it and had to look again.
    It wasn’t just that he’d got himself a smart dinner suit that actually fitted him – although that helped. It wasn’t that his usually random-angled hair had been gelled andslicked back – although that helped too.
    It was something that was both of those things, plus something else.
    ‘He looks
older,
’ Lilly said, almost breathlessly, and Simon laughed at her comment.
    He was wrong to laugh.
    It was true.
    Danny did look older.
    Taller, too, because he’d lost his habitual slump.
    And his face had an intensity to it that made him look a whole lot wiser than the kid who was the constant butt of our stupid jokes.
    He stood in the middle of the stage as helpers lined up four chairs behind him. He was looking out across the audience with a confident expression that seemed spooky on a kid his age, almost as if we were seeing a glimpse of Danny as he was going to be, twenty or so years in the future.
    ‘Good afternoon,’ he said calmly and commandingly. ‘Welcome to my demonstration of the powers of the human mind.’
    He unbuttoned his jacket and reached for the insidebreast pocket, pulling out a brand new deck of cards. He took them from their box, cracked the seal and removed the cellophane, then mixed them up with a series of overhand shuffles.
    Danny was a master with a pack of cards – he