Every November the street turned purple, and every November Thabo, Lerato and Pieter claimed the same stretch of pavement under the biggest tree. They had done it since they were six, when Pieter had fallen out of the lowest branch and Lerato had told him, very seriously, that he was not allowed to die on her street. This year was different, though nobody said it out loud. In January Lerato would be moving to Durban. Her mother had a new job and a new flat with a view of the sea, and Lerato had said 'it's fine' so many times that the words had stopped meaning anything. They made a list instead. Ten things to do before the holidays ended. Pieter wrote it on the back of a maths test he had failed. Number one was to finally find out who lived in the house with the green gate.