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Back A Change of Circumstance Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-One
  23. Twenty-Two
  24. Twenty-Three
  25. Twenty-Four
  26. Twenty-Five
  27. Twenty-Six
  28. Twenty-Seven
  29. Twenty-Eight
  30. Twenty-Nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-One
  33. Thirty-Two
  34. Thirty-Three
  35. Thirty-Four
  36. Thirty-Five
  37. Thirty-Six
  38. Thirty-Seven
  39. Thirty-Eight
  40. Thirty-Nine
  41. Forty
  42. Forty-One
  43. Forty-Two
  44. Forty-Three
  45. Forty-Four
  46. Forty-Five
  47. Forty-Six
  48. Forty-Seven
  49. Forty-Eight
  50. Forty-Nine
  51. Fifty
  52. Fifty-One
  53. Fifty-Two
  54. Fifty-Three
  55. Fifty-Four
  56. Fifty-Five
  57. Fifty-Six
  58. Fifty-Seven
  59. Fifty-Eight
  60. Fifty-Nine
  61. Sixty
  62. Sixty-One
  63. Sixty-Two
  64. Sixty-Three
  65. Sixty-Four
  66. Sixty-Five
  67. Sixty-Six

He was glad of it. Rosie, his course, his future – he wanted to keep it all to himself now, he needed to think everything through, not once but many times, turn it over and look at it, though he had been doing that for the past three weeks without coming to any conclusions. His mother was a good listener, she wouldn’t push solutions at him, but she would still be his mother, worried, trying to help, asking too many questions he couldn’t yet answer.

The roads were getting easier, and the temperature had risen to plus two on the panel. He had to slow down as he turned into the twisting village street, and Cat looked for house names and numbers. When they saw Ferndale, she was out of the car before the wheels had stopped turning.

There were no more messages so Sam turned on Radio 2 and a strange, wild singing voice he didn’t recognise, though his mother would have known from the first couple of notes that he was listening to Kate Bush.

He slumped down in the seat, folded his arms and went to sleep.

He surfaced twenty minutes later when the band was the Raconteurs, their song ‘Help Me Stranger’, and the blue light of an ambulance was turning in front of his eyes.

‘Serious then?’ he said when it had moved away, siren winding up and Cat got into the car.

‘Meningitis. They should have called the paramedics, not me.’

‘Will she be OK?’

Cat shook her head, saying nothing.

‘Not sure what order you want to do this but a sister at BG rang about a Mr –’

‘Lionel Brown. Oh God, yes, and I haven’t called her back.’

‘And the vet says one of us ought to visit Wookie or he’ll think he’s been abandoned and lose the will to live. I’ll do that. Hospital?’

‘I ought to look in on Mr Curtis first – five minutes.’

It was twenty before she escaped.

Twenty-Nine

Friday night and there was never time to talk to anyone, the queue stretched round the block, even tonight, with a freezing wind off the canal and sleet underfoot. They didn’t seem to notice, in skimpy frocks made of tissue paper, skirts up to thighs and beyond, only one in twenty wore any sort of jacket or scarf. Vince walked up and down the line. You’d expect them all to catch their death, their lips to have gone blue, but they’d be back the same tomorrow. He dreaded the day when his own started wanting to join the clubbers. Tommy. Connor. Brookie. Alfie.