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was worse than all the ranting and raging. I’d let her down and we both knew it.
    ‘I really am sorry, Mum,’ I said. ‘Is there anything I can do?’
    ‘Dominic, I think you’ve done enough, don’t you?’ Mum said quietly.
    At that moment, Mum’s boss Julie Resnick appeared outside Mum’s office. Most of the offices in Mum’s building had all-glass doors and interior glass walls. Mum was always complaining about how it was like working in a fish bowl alongside a host of other fish bowls and how she couldn’t even pick her nose with any degree of privacy. And all that glass meant that if the air conditioning broke down – which it often did – they all roasted.
    ‘Carol, can I have a word, please?’ Julie opened the door and spoke to Mum whilst looking directly at me.
    I knew what that conversation was going to be about.
    ‘Dominic, wait outside my office,’ Mum ordered. ‘And you are not to move. D’you understand?’
    I nodded. Of course I understood. I was stubborn, not stupid.
    The moment the office door was shut, Julie laid into Mum. I couldn’t hear every word, just ninety-nine per cent of them. Julie was furious.
    ‘I have just finished apologizing to all our guests for your son’s behaviour,’ said Julie. ‘And believe me, your son hasn’t done our project or the company any favours. A number of our visitors wanted to know what kind of amateur-hour operation we’re running here!’
    ‘I know, Julie. It was inexcusable.’ Mum nodded.
    ‘I tried to rearrange another date for the demonstration but a number of our guests made it clear in no uncertain terms that they will not be coming back.’
    Mum turned to look at me, her expression stony. I swallowed hard and looked away.
    ‘Maybe if I spoke to them?’ Mum ventured.
    ‘And said what?’
    ‘I could tell them the truth. That it was just an unfortunate glitch and that another demonstration, any time they say, will prove that. In fact, I’m going to field test VIMS at the BFC power plant this afternoon …’
    ‘No way,’ Julie interrupted.
    ‘But I already cleared this with you. And I promised Rayner,’ argued Mum.
    ‘No, Carol,’ Julie insisted. ‘We need to find out what went wrong this morning before exposing VIMS to anyone or anything else – and Jack agrees with me. Quite apart from that, you have a presentation and demonstration to give the board of directors on Monday morning – or had you forgotten?’
    ‘That’ll be a doddle,’ Mum dismissed.
    ‘That’s what you said about the fiasco this morning!’
    ‘Look, I think we should still go through with the field test this afternoon, just to—’
    ‘Carol, no! I mean it. I suggest you spend the rest of the weekend finding out what went wrong with VIMS and fixing it. If the demonstration on Monday goes wrong, the project will be cancelled and then we’ll all be out of a job. I don’t know about you but I have a mortgage and bills to pay.’
    ‘OK, Julie. OK.’
    ‘I’m going to spend the rest of the day trying’ – it was Julie’s turn to look at me now – ‘trying to repair the damage.’
    And with that, Julie flung open Mum’s office door and strode off. She marched straight past me without saying a word. Usually Julie smiled and asked me how I was feeling, what I was up to or doing at school and other general chit-chat. But not today. I was definitely
not
flavour of the month.
    ‘Mum, I—’
    ‘Go home, Dominic.’
    ‘Mum, please. If you’ll—’
    ‘I said go straight home. I’ve got some thinking to do,’ Mum told me harshly.
    Without another word, I grabbed my bag off her office floor and headed down the corridor.
    ‘I don’t care what you and everyone else thinks,’ I shouted back at her after I’d managed to swallow down what felt like a concrete block stuck in my throat. ‘I didn’t touch your stupid machine and neither did Liam. If it didn’t work then it had nothing to do with us.’
    ‘Go home,’ Mum called out again.
    And she