‘I’m bleeding to death here!’

‘Didn’t you hear them, you silly man?’ Norma said. ‘You need a hospital! Or at least the clinic in Bluebird will be open; there’s a very good young Asian doctor called Leung …’

‘I need an ambulance, I’ve been assaulted! Look at me!’

Ron jammed his walker against the balcony rail, as if he would have liked to propel it over the edge. ‘Didn’t you hear? You’re. Not. Welcome!’ He turned to Norma and said, ‘Waste of space, the lot of them.’

‘Champion! Let me in!’

Gordon felt Kelly’s and Ben’s eyes, Lou’s and his parents’, as he looked at Dog, the blood drying black on his neck and shoulders, fresh and red over his sliced-up face.

‘Hard for an ambulance to get here,’ Gordon said. ‘You’re better off calling from the surf club.’

‘I need attention!’

They had come to the end. Forty-five years, and this.

‘Gordo, buddy, come on! Let me up?’

Gordon reached into his pocket and found his wallet. He flipped it open.

‘Here,’ he said. ‘This is yours.’

Dog’s Eastons charge card spun on the breeze, not quite light enough to float, like a surfer cutting back against waves of air, before landing on the grass at his feet.

‘I don’t want this!’ Dog cried.

‘Fuck off. Just fuck off.’ This was Ronald, who turned to Norma and said, ‘Sorry, pet, please excuse my language.’

Gordon was first inside, followed by Ben and his parents, with Kelly waiting for Lou before sliding shut the glass door. They could hear Dog calling, but now Sam was pouring his low murmur over the top like concrete over a nuclear accident, and they were receding, down, back to the BSLSC, where an ambulance could pull in. And then their voices were gone.

Kelly’s arm was around Ben’s shoulders.

‘What about his Fast Ferry card?’ she asked Gordon.

‘I gave it to Carl.’

‘Thanks, Dad,’ Ben said.

‘That’s okay, mate. Should have done it before.’

‘Like years ago?’

‘Like years ago.’

Gordon looked at Kelly. She lowered her gaze.

‘Never too late to change, Dad. Or undo old mistakes,’ Ben said.

Gordon was still focused on Kelly.

‘After lunch,’ he said quietly. ‘After we get rid of my parents.’

Kelly raised her eyes to his.

‘I’ll take you there,’ he said.

She nodded. He didn’t need to say any more.

THE KICK

The kick