There is no denying that once I make this observation I’m worried. I’m well aware that my level of distress could be deemed excessive. I don’t see it in the same light, there is no such thing as worrying too much about the people that you love, there is nothing over-indulgent about this. I try to calm myself down by saying that Jenny and Maeve are together and they are on their way back and then I look up to where I last glimpsed them at the lake and they are nowhere to be seen. I rationalize that they have most likely taken the boardwalk trail around by the lake, and yet if that is the case they should be back by now. I think about looking for them but I don’t want to leave this spot in case they come back. I pace about and Mikey and Joey whinge and ask me to play more football, that it will take my mind off things and it will help their mother and sister to hurry up. I start to line the ball up to take a shot against Joey and I can feel my heart and it’s as if it is hammering against my chest and just as I am about to kick the ball I spot Jenny and Maeve coming towards us. I think about the heart and about the fact that it’s essentially a muscle and how it needs to be regularly exercised.

Where were you for fuck’s sake? I ask Jenny.

I try to keep calm but my voice is husky and gravelly and that’s the way it goes when I’m angry. Jenny is gushing about how the walk has cleared her head, has really given her the inspiration that she has been missing. I tell her that I’m glad she feels this way but the reality is, it shouldn’t really take two hours to find a little semblance of hope or indeed of clarity in what is essentially a nature reserve. She wants to know why I can’t be happy for her. I tell her that I’ll be happy for her when she starts making a bit of money. This is her cue to talk about her upcoming group show in Gallery One and how she might well be on the cusp of something here, something big and it takes only a split second to talk about Simon Thompson.