‘He’ll be here soon,’ she kept telling him, until her patience snapped. ‘Look, don’t keep on, Robbie – your dad’ll be here as soon as he can, all right?’ She was glad that the news had come on one of the days she didn’t work, but as the day passed she almost wished she was busy in Mr Perry’s shop, to take her mind off the butterflies in her stomach.

She was full of excitement and also of nerves. This was the moment she had been waiting for, for so long, since she last waved Norm off before Robbie was even born. She knew she loved Norm, but sometimes now she struggled even to remember clearly what he looked like or the sound of his voice. She so longed for him to be here, reassuring old Norm, to take her in his arms, but she was afraid he’d have changed. That’s what they all said: war changed people. The Great War’s survivors had been men who were never the same again – what about this war?

‘Oh, Mom,’ Em said to Cynthia later, ‘I feel all churned up, I really do.’

‘I don’t blame you,’ Cynthia said. ‘But it’ll be all right, bab. You’ll see.’

‘D’you think he’ll be here today?’

‘I’d’ve thought it’d more likely be tomorrow. They have to go through a whole lot of rigmarole, don’t they? D’you want to put a flag out for him – you know, I s’pect we could get hold of some bunting, make a banner?’

‘I don’t know that I do,’ Em said. ‘I know it’s silly, but I feel superstitious – as if it might bring bad luck. Let’s just get him home, not count our chickens.’

A bit later she changed her mind and, calling Robbie, she took him down the road to buy some chalk, and on the wall by the front door she wrote, ‘WELCOME HOME, NORM’ in big letters. Robbie drew a thick, wonky line underneath and something that was meant to be an aeroplane. Neighbours saw her doing it and came and asked.

Em stood back to look at it. ‘Just hope it doesn’t rain now,’ she said to Cynthia. ‘He most likely won’t be here today anyhow.’

But that evening, as the last of the light was going, there was a brisk tap on the front door. They all looked at each other: Em, her mom and dad, and Violet. Joyce was out gadding as usual.

‘I’ll go,’ Em said, her pulse picking up. Don’t be stupid, she told herself. It’ll just be one of the neighbours.

There, on the step, stood a man in a suit. Em stared, not taking it in.

‘Em – love, it’s me!’

‘Norm!’ It came out as a gasp. He looked like a different person – except for the ears, sticking out as ever, unmistakably his.

‘Are you going to let me come in?’

‘Oh my God, Norm!’ A great pool of emotion broke open in her and their arms were round each other, she clinging to him, sobbing into his chest. All this time he’d been away, and now having him here seemed overwhelming, as if she had never believed he would come back, that they might have a future and a normal married life.