‘I know you are, pet.’

‘So, so sorry,’ Norma said, before kissing him again on the crown of his head. Beyond Ron’s shoulder she could see Gordon, rigid with awkwardness, horror, confusion—but did she care? And beyond him, the eyes of Marg, Barb, Pat, Peg and June, startled but then soothed to see the warring Grimes canoodling again, back to their old tricks. A kiss was all Norma needed, all Ron needed, all the world needed to spin right again. In these little hinges of respite, there could be joy. Life was composed of moments, you realised at a certain age. Sometimes the clock would pause and let joy in.

Gordon resumed his brace position.

‘So …’ Ron drained his glass and smacked it down on the white linen tablecloth. ‘Enough nonsense. Who wants a game?’

Whenever Gordon was alone with his mother, he suffered an existential dilemma. As soon as he had collected her in their golf cart, she took off like a greyhound jumping out of the gates on a one-breath monologue about her friends, her doctors, her opera, her golf, her bridge, her doctors, her overflowing diary, her superabundant consciousness, her doctors. His mother was a social being, in the deep sense that she existed in her relationships with others. It was a strange sensation, to feel like an offstage actor summoned only for these moments. As he struggled to listen to Norma, Gordon wondered if he even existed when he was not with her.

‘He was a Chogie.’ She was talking about a doctor. At least, Gordon, whose attention had drifted, assumed she was talking about a doctor.

‘And after he’d gone out, I said to your father, “Where’s he from?” And your father was in one of those moods. He said, “Perth.” And I said, “Where is he really from?” And he said, “Just south of Perth.” I said, “Do you have to be like this?” He was all innocence, of course. So I said, “Where’s his family from?”’

Gordon re-lost the thread as they followed the other two carts down the fairway. Kelly and Ben were in one, Lou and Ron in the other, under the strict condition that Lou not allow Ron into the driver’s seat. Only Norma, Ben and Kelly were playing. Norma had given Ben a junior membership of the club and then, astoundingly, she had made a gift of an associate membership to Kelly after her split with Gordon. What was that about? Gordon wasn’t capable of asking.

Of the three non-players, Lou had never picked up a golf club, Gordon had sworn off it, and Ron was not permitted. Gordon wished that he and not Lou was driving his father, but Ron had kicked up a stink about not being allowed to drive, and Gordon had offered him Lou as a compromise. Ron needed a vigilant chaperone, and the old man had an unaccountable affection for ‘your rug-muncher’.