‘I’m sorry, Ron, but what do you want?’ Kelly asked. ‘To avoid an accident, or to be in the right?’

Norma let out an amused honk.

‘I just want to get there,’ Ron said, growling in the direction of his watch. ‘It’s nearly twelve.’

‘You can get to where you’re going five or ten or thirty seconds late, or you can wait for someone to cut you out of the car on a roundabout. At least you’ll have been in the right.’

‘What?’ Ben said, concentrating on getting through the intersection. ‘I didn’t understand any of that.’

‘We’ll talk about it when we get there.’

‘We are quite late,’ Norma said fretfully, undermining Kelly and, as usual, ending up on Ron’s side. ‘Are you sure Lou will have everything ready? You know Ron can’t have any salt.’

Ben glanced in the rear-view mirror. The day wasn’t turning out quite as Mum had hoped.

While Ben took a few shots at reverse-parking into a space on Cliff Street, Kelly got out of the car. Let him have Ron and Norma to himself. They could all have themselves to themselves. Norma’s plan to buy Carl’s share had fallen through, which meant there’d been no point in Kelly’s sleeping with Gordon or patching things up. She couldn’t do it anyway. They hadn’t been able to talk about it, but he wasn’t into it, she could tell. And if she couldn’t get back together with Gordon, any plan to keep the three of them in The Lodge would also fall through. So be it. She had to save herself and get out of here.

Norma, holding her walking stick, climbed out of the car and latched on to Kelly’s arm. Ron was roughly pushing away Ben’s attempts to get him on his frame. Everything had to be a battle. Every fucking thing. A wave of exhaustion washed through her.

‘We’re not going down those steps,’ Norma said.

Ben mouthed to his mother, ‘You should have told them.’

‘See?’ Norma said to Ron. ‘I told you they wouldn’t let us in. Gordon’s worried he won’t be able to get you out.’

‘No, it’s just that the StairLift’s not ready,’ Ben said.

‘You’re probably right,’ Kelly said to Norma, and let that hang there. If they wanted to be part of this family they could be part of this family, chaos and all. Kelly wasn’t going to pretend anymore. ‘I’ll see who I can get to carry you,’ she said, unclipping herself from Norma’s grip before heading down the stairs.

Ron gave a dismissive lick of his lips and set off after her. ‘I don’t need their silly electric chair,’ he said. ‘Waste of money. It’s for you, Norma, you’re the weak one.’