“The moment we got there, my mother fell asleep.” She felt his arm tighten, as if he knew she was getting to the bad part. “I was pleased. She was always angry and I thought we’d have more fun together with her asleep. Katy and I played in the sand, and then Mom woke up and went for a walk.”

“She left you?”

“Technically she was never looking after us, but at least until that point she was there. I remember feeling anxious. We lived a short bus ride away, and I didn’t know how to get home. And then I saw her sitting in a bar with some guy I’d never seen before. She was nine months pregnant. Can you believe that?”

“He approached her?”

“Maybe. Or maybe she saw him sitting there and thought he looked like someone she could easily part from the contents of his wallet. I carried on playing and next time I looked I couldn’t see her anywhere.”

His arm was still around her, and he moved his thumb up and down her arm, the gesture soothing and sympathetic. “That must have been terrifying.”

“Not at first. You’re forgetting, that was my normal. I was used to being unsupervised.”

“Didn’t anyone on the beach notice that you were on your own?”

“Yes. A woman with a child about the same age as Katy came over to me and asked if we were all right and where our mother was. I’d been watching their family, copying some of the things they were doing. The dad kept lifting the child in the air and swinging her around until she was helpless with giggles. I tried to do it with Katy, but she was too heavy and I couldn’t swing her high enough to make it fun.”

“Did you tell her you were on your own?”

“No. My mother had told me over and over again that if I was ever asked, I was to say everything was fine. She said that if I didn’t do that, they might take Katy away.”

His hand stilled. “They might have taken you away, too.”

She swallowed. “I wish they had. I’ve thought about it over and over again. I wish I’d said to that woman, ‘I don’t know where my mother is.’ I wish they’d taken Katy, even if it meant I never saw her again, because at least I’d know she was alive. That was the day I first realized my situation was unusual. I remember looking around the beach at the families and thinking that although those families all looked different, they had one thing in common. There was an adult in charge. Until that moment, I hadn’t been aware that we weren’t normal. ‘Normal’ is the life you’re living, isn’t it? This was how it was for us, so I assumed this was how it was for everyone.”