She carried on, walking almost without direction, off past the village and onto a long road overshadowed with trees. It was farther than it looked, and she realized quickly that she was out of condition. She’d just been sitting, she thought. Sitting, and fretting, and obsessing, and fiddling with her phone, just to put off . . . well, everything. Looking at pictures of other people’s parties. It had been a distraction, but it hadn’t helped. Anita was right. Coming off it was the best thing she’d done.

SHE HIT THE roadway eventually and was about to turn back, when she saw trundling toward her a pale blue van and recognized Zoe, the woman with all the children, driving it, although she was alone for once. She waved, and Zoe immediately pulled over.

“Hello! Want a lift?”

Lissa almost smiled: it felt as if the universe had answered her so quickly. “Um, yes, please. Are you heading to the village?”

“Nina needs to do the banking. Hop in!”

“It’s weird to see you by yourself.”

“I know! Having both hands to myself is very strange.”

Lissa pulled herself up into the van’s tall carriage. Zoe passed her a bag of tablet.

“What is this stuff?”

“Keeps your energy levels up.”

It was a hard, sugary fudge that, once you got over the insane pitch of sweetness, was incredibly delicious.

“Oh goodness,” said Lissa.

“I know,” said Zoe. “Shackleton made it. Then I confiscated it in case they all get diabetes.”

Lissa looked at the bag.

“Yes, please eat more,” said Zoe. “Seriously, it’s going to kill me. It’s going to kill us all.”

“We should have one more piece each then hurl the rest out of the window,” said Lissa bravely.

“You’d kill the first bird that found it,” said Zoe mournfully. “Stone dead. Nobody’s body can absorb that much sugar without consequences.”

They both looked at the bag again.

“Perhaps if we just finished it and got it out of the way, we wouldn’t have to think about it again,” said Zoe.

“We could keep some for Nina.”

“She can’t have it. It would kill John if he got it through her breast milk.”

Giggling mightily, they put the absolutely delicious vanilla-flavored lumps of tablet in their mouths to happily dissolve as the van trundled down the country road, not another car in sight, the sun streaming through the van’s open windows, the radio playing a jolly song with fiddles and lyrics Lissa couldn’t make out.

Nina was pleased to see them as they rounded the farmyard.

“Watch out for that chicken,” said Zoe to Lissa as she stepped down. A particularly beady-eyed specimen was lurking, stepping from side to side in a corner of the farmyard. “She’s a total nightmare.”