Down to Sam’s room . . .

Where he breathed in, breathed out. Jed turned on the light. The figure on the bed did not respond. The heart monitor showed the regular heartbeat that had been resumed within weeks of his accident, with no change to his coma.

Despair clutched her. What had she expected? That he’d suddenly look up at her? Be eating jelly and ice cream, just because a boy took a photo that showed him maybe smiling? And yet she had to try. She should not have given up trying.

She crossed to the bed, sat down and took his hand. ‘Sam, it’s me. If you can hear me, squeeze my hand.’

His hand lay limp. What had she expected? Nothing. Everything.

‘Sam?’ She stroked his face, his ears — he’d always had ticklish ears. No twitch or quiver. She stood and pulled up the sheet and cotton blanket, then ran her fingers lightly over the soles of his feet, as she had seen Dr Rogers do. His feet were cold and still. And yet he breathed. Breathed in. Breathed out.

A trick of the light. That was all it had been. But she was here now, and so was Sam, her wonderful Sam. She sat next to him again, began to talk as she would have if they were both on their veranda and he had just driven home from the factory.

She took his hand in hers and kissed it. ‘It’s been a good day, Sam. Your parents took Mattie up to see Flinty. I’ve made spag bol and we’re all going to eat it tonight. Mattie loves squishing spaghetti in her fingers. The kitchen is going to be covered with it. For about two minutes anyway, till Maxi hoovers it up. She’ll have the floor licked so clean I won’t need to mop it for a week. Or till Mattie has breakfast. Mattie’s eating cereal now, with a spoon. Or sometimes with a spoon.’

Sam breathed in. Sam breathed out.

No. She couldn’t keep pretending this was a normal life. She couldn’t keep a smile on her face and in her voice either, not even for Sam.

‘Sam, please,’ she whispered desperately. ‘I need you. I don’t mean I can’t live without you. I can. I can be happy without you too and so can Mattie. But I can never be us without you and, yes, I know people can fall in love again, but I don’t want to. Ever. I found my happy ever after and it’s the only one I want and it’s with you. Sam, please.’

Sam breathed in and out.

Slowly her desperation vanished. She simply sat and watched him, this darling man. Her Sam. Her love. A strange love that had grown so slowly, on her part anyway. Sam had always been so sure. But then he had grown up with so much love. Love all around him while she’d had none. It had taken her a long time to learn it.