‘It’s for your life, you know?’ Neil says over his glasses, speaking to Kiama as if it were only the two of them.

‘I know.’

‘Not to be pissed up a wall.’

‘I know,’ he says more firmly this time.

‘Do you? Because, ever since you turned eighteen you just seem to be spending it on nonsense. Your own dad said the same to me. Your mother died for that money, Kiama.’

‘I know,’ he shouts.

Cynthia jumps and her teacup clatters on the saucer.

This is the Kiama Yvonne remembers, quick to fly off the handle, to shout or burst into tears. ‘Sensitive’ is how Emma used to describe him, claiming she didn’t know where he got it from. Surely Neil remembers this too, so why provoke him? Why be so brutal? He had a mean streak, Emma said so herself many times and now Yvonne was getting to see it.

She tries to catch Kiama’s eye, to give him some reassurance that she’s on his side, but he doesn’t look at her.

‘I’m struggling to understand why you’ve come here. Why you thought it would be a good idea?’ Neil says, his voice sharp and abrasive, the same way it would sound when Emma put him on loudspeaker.

Yvonne wrings the napkin in her lap. This has all gone so badly and she’s not sure how to fix it. Kiama looks tearful; she needs to get him out of here, away from this situation.

‘I want to go to the place,’ he says. He looks at Yvonne and she nods slightly to encourage him. ‘The place where Mum died. If you would come with me I think that would really—’

‘No,’ Neil says. ‘I honour my daughter by remembering all the places she loved and lived. Not where she died.’

‘I don’t need this,’ Kiama grabs his bag from the floor and leaves.

The front door slams a few seconds later.

‘It’s so much for him to deal with,’ Yvonne says, ‘being back here, seeing both of you again.’ It feels too much for her also.

‘He shouldn’t have come,’ Neil says. ‘I don’t know what he’s trying to prove.’

‘He’s not trying to prove anything,’ she snaps. ‘When he approached me about coming to Kenya, I couldn’t think of anything worse. I didn’t understand why he wanted to do it. But I get it now. I get why he needs to do this. Why can’t you?’

Their silence says it all.

How can they not jump at this chance to build a relationship with him? He’s the only part of Emma they have left.