We chatted for hours, I completely lost track, and then she got out her guitar and sang ‘Love Is Like a Butterfly’ by Dolly Parton. She had a good voice, raspy in the right places, and she played well – she’d taught herself. Only when she’d finished did I remember my taxi driver and rush out the back to find that he – like my loneliness – had long gone.

MANCHILD

I walk down the garden and find Sonny sitting on the bench outside the shed. He is looking at his phone. When he sees me he stops and puts it in his pocket. He looks so grown up I almost stop in my tracks.

‘Heya.’

‘Hey.’

‘What you doing?’

‘Revising.’

‘What for?’

‘GCSEs.’

I sit down next to him and look at both of our sets of trainers, lined up on the ground. ‘Sonny, don’t watch any freaky shit online, will you?’

‘Don’t you start.’

‘I mean it. I know you’re smart but that will teach you all the wrong stuff about sex.’

‘Okay, you need to just stop being so extra.’

I nod slowly in agreement.

‘Did you bring my present?’

‘No. I brought you twenty quid instead.’

He looks at me. I look for Kelly in his face, like always. ‘Bet you’ve smoked them, haven’t you?’

‘Do as I say, not as I do. God, my Granma used to say that and I hated it.’

‘Not surprised. I hate it, too.’

‘I don’t know how to talk to you, Sonny.’ I look back up towards the house. ‘I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.’

‘Which one am I?’

‘Oh, you’re the rock. You’re all rock.’ I make rock horns with my hands.

He laughs and looks mortified for me.

‘Take over the world and be quick about it,’ I say.

‘Maybe that’s why I don’t feel like a kid,’ Sonny replies. ‘Because the planet is dying and someone needs to take responsibility.’

‘You have baths,’ I say, uselessly.

WHO YA GONNA CALL