“Thank God for the news at six. Thank God for the happy hour of six to seven. I try not to ask myself what we’ll do if the TV starts going the same way as the Hoover. Evenings are long, especially in this heat, we usually both have cold showers—like the flat, we’re terribly clean—and we still have unbroken television. What I like best are those programs where you see happy sun-kissed people on beaches or hikers striding across the free hills of Derbyshire. Or drivers in fast cars disappearing into the sunset or birds in flight or—”

“Don’t!” Alison said it sharply, in an end-of-one’s-tether voice. “Don’t keep on about it. You must stop, I can’t stand it.”

It was his turn now to close his eyes. He’d clenched his fists and bowed his head. We looked on helplessly. Alison got up and laid her hand on his shoulder. I thought he might shake it off angrily but he didn’t, he covered her hand with his own.

Silver broke the silence by asking what we could get for them apart from food. He mentioned books, maybe a Walkman and batteries for it. Andrew’s diatribe had been quite enlightening and gave us ideas. How about writing pads and colored chalks, flowers and plants, though these would be difficult to bring up the scaffolding, a chess set, patience cards, more jigsaws for Jason, news and comment periodicals like the Economist and the Spectator?

“We have to watch our money,” Andrew said in a chastened tone. Or perhaps getting all that off his chest had left him drained and tired. “But books, yes. They’ll have to be paperbacks.” He wrote the titles on the food shopping list. “I’ve a Walkman but the batteries have run out.”

“Could you possibly buy Jason a pair of trainers? If his feet go on growing at this rate, I’ll have to cut holes in his shoes.”

We added shoes to the list and Andrew told us Jason’s size. “If only there was a way I could sell my father’s house. It’s mine now. It’ll fetch half a million. I’ve never needed the money so much.”

“In ten years’ time,” Alison said, and her words were cool and considered, “Jason will be eighteen. Then you’ll be able to sell it. No one will be able to take him away from you then. It’s only ten years.”