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Gritting her teeth, Rose moved one foot in front of the other. There was Vanessa, right beside her. Rose reached out a hand and grabbed hold of the other girl’s arm.

‘Don’t want to lose you!’ she said, although to tell the truth it was as much to steady herself as anything.

Vanessa looked terrified. ‘Where are we?’

‘Dunno,’ said Rose. ‘Outside time and space, I guess. Look, don’t panic. All we’ve got to do is work out exactly what to say, and then wish ourselves back again.’

‘But how?’ said Vanessa. ‘Where’s the GENIE?’ Rose blanched. The GENIE! It was nowhere to be seen…

She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. ‘It must be here,’ she said, desperately trying to convince herself. ‘When it brought you back from the future, it came too, didn’t it?’

Vanessa nodded.

‘And,’ said Rose, warming to her theme, ‘back then, you got separated, didn’t you? So, it’s just gone a bit astray, that’s all.’

Vanessa didn’t seem that cheered. ‘But how will we ever find it?’ she said, gesturing hopelessly at the unblemished infinity surrounding them.

Rose shrugged, trying to remain optimistic. ‘Well, we never will if we just stay put,’ she said. ‘Let’s give it a go anyway. After all, it’s not like it’ll be camouflaged.’

Five minutes later, even her tiny amount of optimism had vanished totally. Rose no longer had any idea if she was going left or right, forwards or backwards, or even up or down. Vanessa was just as disorientated. The two young women stumbled forwards, tightly gripping each other’s hands, desperately peering into the distance for any hint of colour.

‘There!’ Vanessa suddenly cried, pointing to one side.

Before Rose could protest, she’d pulled her hand away and started off towards whatever she’d seen. Rose tried to follow, but she couldn’t work out how. Somehow she seemed to be moving further away… Within a few steps, Vanessa had gone. Rose called after her, but her voice seemed to sink like a stone, solid, going nowhere, not a trace of echo or vibration.

Rose forged ahead anyway. Her options were to keep moving or stay where she was, and only the moving one had any chance of achieving anything. Eventually, however, she was forced to stop and rest.

She risked sitting down on the nothingness, and then lying down. She couldn’t say it was comfortable, but it wasn’t uncomfortable either, it was just… nothing. There was no sensation of a surface underneath her, nothing solid, but she didn’t feel as if she was floating. As long as she didn’t look down, she could bear it.

She didn’t feel hungry, and wondered if that was something to do with her wish. Perhaps here there was nothing that could harm you – no hunger, disease, men with axes, anything. In which case she would indeed be safe from everything except dying of boredom.

‘Wish I’d brought a book,’ she murmured sardonically.

Crash!

Rose suddenly found herself holding a copy of Kitten’s Garden Adventure by Marian Golightly. It wouldn’t have been her first choice of reading material, but that didn’t matter right now…

‘GENIE! GENIE, where are you?’ she yelled. ‘I know you’re there somewhere.’

There was no reply. She got to her feet but stopped, standing her ground, fearful of going in the wrong direction and losing the GENIE for ever. She sighed. There was only one thing for it.

‘GENIE, I wish you were here with me,’ she said, crossing her fingers as she did so.

The thunder boomed in her head and, to her great relief, the GENIE appeared in front of her, still in its now rather battered cardboard box.

‘I suppose this was your idea of a joke,’ she said.

‘It was my idea of safety,’ said the GENIE primly. ‘Do you know how many dangers are lurking around you each and every day?’

‘There’ll be a danger lurking around you in a minute,’ muttered Rose. ‘Look, hold on, I’ve got to think. I’m not risking a single more w-word until I have to.’

She sank back down to – to a slightly lower bit of nothing. The GENIE made itself comfortable inside its box, seeming unconcerned at its new surroundings.

And Rose began to