Are you together now? Rabbit? Did Rabbit Hayes and Johnny Faye finally get a happy ending?

Wouldn’t you like to know . . . her heard her say.

I would.

‘Yeah, she idolised him but she idolised you first,’ Marjorie said, and Davey’s eyes began to leak.

‘You were always good enough for her so, as hard as it is, and it is really hard, I’m backing you.’

He knew how much Juliet meant to her. He knew she loved her like she was her own. He knew she wasn’t just losing Rabbit – she was losing both of them. He looked up at her with tears staining his face.

‘What if she was wrong?’

‘She wasn’t,’ she said, and she started buttering the next round of bread.

Chapter Eleven: Juliet

Chapter Eleven

Juliet

ONCE HER HEAD WAS safely removed from the banisters, Juliet was put sitting on the sofa between Bernard and Ryan, who were busy playing a game on some kind of device. They were non-verbal, but the noise of guns and explosions that came from the screen were intense and the flashes hurt Juliet’s sore eyes. A long time passed while the boys played on, battling scary-looking combat soldiers and kicking unfriendly ass. Nothing really registered – maybe some colours, splashes of red, grey and white lights. Nothing really made sense: it was just moving, shooting, bombing, shooting, moving, and every now and then the boys would fist-bump. She closed her eyes just to rest them while still sitting up. She couldn’t talk; the drugs had rendered her dumb. She couldn’t think clearly either; everything was fuzzy and kind of surreal. Her tongue felt big in her mouth. Her skin prickled and burned. Her neck felt heavy, her face like rubber and the air around her felt dense like water. She just remained still as the boys played on and on.

Marjorie entered the room at some point.

‘Boys, move,’ she said, and Ryan and Bernard moved to the floor without missing a shot. Marjorie sat beside Juliet, took her in her arms, and as Juliet sank into her chest she sighed with relief, closed her eyes and was asleep in seconds.

Chapter Twelve: Jack

Chapter Twelve

Jack