‘I cannot remember feeling such total wellbeing,’ Norma said now. ‘It’s not just having my family together, though that is nice enough after the difficulties of the past year. It is being able to host you all in this club where so many good things in our lives have occurred. We were married here, we celebrated our fiftieth anniversary here …’

‘Not to mention all your competition wins!’ came a female voice from another table. Norma nodded hello to her friends in the dining room, her real audience. The other diners were not part of her birthday celebration, though she had strategically staged the party on a day when she knew they would all be lunching. Marg was here, and Barb, as well as Pat, Peg and June. Pam would be in later for nine holes, and Gay would duck into the office later to say hello to Pip. Norma let her eyes rest on the view through the window, over the balcony to the eighteenth hole. The pond, the flags, the grove of cypresses flanking the first tee. The tennis courts and the bowling green. ‘You can imagine paradise,’ she said, ‘or you could join the Bluebird Country Club.’

From two tables away, Barb was raising an eyebrow that congratulated Norma on bringing her flock together. What a success! Ron’s poor health and difficult behaviour were well known in the club, and Norma had surmounted both. The girls at the other tables were experts in surmounting male obstacles, and Norma felt their approbation. But what they would really be noticing was Kelly and Gordon. Had Norma been able to reconcile them? She hadn’t been secretive about her plans to hook Kelly into the club and get her interested in golf. Even a Chidgey could be civilised at some point. But no, the real coup was to get Gordon into a collared shirt, showered and shaved and looking so, if the girls were not mistaken, clean.

Gordon saw himself reflected in Norma’s satisfaction. He had to respect her for training herself not to focus too much on his state of mind. Or Ron’s. Or, most of the time, her own. She was a model for pressing forward without an inward glance. She should be celebrating that.

Her little speech finished, Norma walked around the table. Ron had been bickering with her before, during and after the luncheon, but about what, she could not now remember.

Lou stood to offer Norma her place. Brushing her offer aside, Norma chanced her weight on the arm of Lou’s chair, leant across Ron and laced her hands around his neck. Seeing the urgent need for a counterweight, Lou quickly sat down again.

‘I’m sorry, sweetheart.’

Norma aimed a kiss at Ron’s cheek, but he moved at the wrong moment and she got the bandaid beneath his ear. She took his chin between her fingers, turned his face to hers, and kissed him on the mouth.