Words poured out. It was a day for that—and it was a good day. It was Nanna who had started this conversation and Jeanette might as well babble on since no one else was talking and the subject clearly interested her benchmate.

“There was a blanket in the back,” she recollected. “For outings. It was covered in burrs that wouldn’t come off—probably hundreds of them. Or rather, you could pick them off, but who has the patience to remove hundreds of mini burrs from an old blanket? We wrapped it around us with the burrs on the outside, folded down the back seat, and put some slow jams on the stereo. On a low volume so that we would hear if anyone was coming. And we rocked the car with our shagging.”

Jeanette grinned from ear to ear. Nanna concentrated on her cigarette, blowing smoke rings that sailed into the air and were pulled apart by the squall of rain that was now beginning to dissipate. Jeanette felt that she had lost interest and wondered whether she was even listening. But it didn’t matter; Jeanette wanted to linger among her memories for a little while longer.

“He was a fantastic person,” she continued. “Much tougher than me. He always saw the bright side in things, saw the opportunities where I saw the risks. But I wasn’t so sentimental back then either. I dared to spread my wings, dared to be young again and to taste love again. Do you think I’m a bad person, Nanna? Do you?”

Nanna blew smoke out of the corner of her mouth. She flicked the stub onto the wet asphalt and saw it extinguished by the rain. Then she crossed her arms with her hands in her armpits and curled up. Without looking at Jeanette, she shook her head.

“You think that yourself, and surely that’s enough? You’re judging yourself too harshly.”

Jeanette was unsure what she was getting at.

“What do you mean?” she asked hesitantly.

“You wanted to tell us,” said Nanna. “Right now it’s just me here. Who am I to judge?”

“Wanted to tell you what? When?”

“At your place. When the police turned up.”

“But . . . You weren’t there, how . . .?”

“I was there. I wouldn’t let you go home with two pissed blokes.”