My stomach burns and I feel a lovely sense of floating ease. I lie down on my back on the damp sweet-smelling grass and stare up at the warm blue sky. The sun doesn’t normally shine like this, and I don’t feel like me, and that feels great. I’m in the driving seat now. I look over at Luce in her stupid disguise. She’s destined to be a passenger, which is of course much more dangerous, especially if the driver is free-wheeling and off her head.

‘Aren’t you going to get in big trouble if you’re found out breaking your parole?’

‘Dad’s in the hospital and Mum’s at Meals-on-Wheels for another half hour or so. I can’t stay long. Just needed to see you’re ok.’ She hands me twenty euros. ‘I can get you some more in a day or two; Dad’s always losing track of what he’s given me.’

A guy in a suit sits down on a bench beside us and looks at me sideways. He’s a little younger than Mr O’D, with a pouch where his chin should be. I doubt he has much luck with the ladies. I climb on top of Luce – this will have the desired effect. He’s gripping the sides of the bench. He turns his head sideways, makes a kind of backward nod of his head as if to say, Where?

‘Haven’t you got some work to do?’ Luce says to him directly. That does it. He scurries away, pretending he never saw us.

‘What a class-A creep,’ she says.

Oh I don’t know, Luce, I’ve seen worse. I reckon he’d be an easy first-timer, going solo, without Brian there to orchestrate proceedings. ‘You’d better go now before your mum finds out you’re gone,’ I say.

She nods, but seems incapable of moving.

‘Luce, you’re not going to do either of us any favours by being found out.’

She seems to agree with this, and stands, shaking herself out. ‘See you tomorrow. Don’t do anything stupid, ok?’

‘I’m hardly in a fit state, now am I?’

She smiles grimly. ‘No, you’re not.’ And she walks away, looking back every few paces, her head whizzing with plans about how to rescue her very-best best friend.

The same guy that scarpered when Luce challenged him scuttles back when he sees she has vamoosed. I pick a blade of grass and suck on it, looking at him from under my lashes. He leans towards me and in a strangled whisper says, ‘How much?’