The agent would understand. Or not. Instead of worrying that she was not doing enough, she surprised herself by deciding it would happen when it happened.

The end of their stay was fast approaching. Brent stopped commuting and worked from home. On Friday afternoon, they made an excursion as a foursome, driving out to the cemetery where Nina’s dad, Syd, was buried. Nina had noticed that Helen never spoke of him, but she had to know, at some level, that he had passed away. Otherwise she would surely ask them where he was.

They made the trip for Helen, wanting to help her to understand. Nina also wanted to see the grave for reasons of her own. She hadn’t been to the cemetery since the day of the funeral. She wanted to have the feeling of visiting her dad, or at least of making time to pause and think about him. And she hoped that Ronnie would remember his grandad in some way.

Nina and Brent weren’t sure how Helen would handle the grave visit. Maybe the grief counsellor would have had tips for this situation, Nina remarked with a wry smile. As it turned out, the visit itself was uneventful. Helen was unperturbed, Ronnie curious and watchful. They left flowers, stood about, and finally drove away. It was only on the way back that Helen came out with a question, piping up to ask, ‘Has Syd gone to live somewhere else?’

As if her husband had moved out. As if, having reached the ripe old age of seventy-four, he had taken a flat somewhere or moved into a sharehouse with hipsters in Wollongong.

A world away in London, foxes carried out fox business. They stared with tawny eyes, trailed their tails behind them like rudders, came to grief in hit-and-runs, dying or limping on, went bald from mange and mites, picnicked in parks under the cover of darkness, traversed the top of garden walls, and were captured and released. They slunk under the cold gaze of CCTV cameras, startled commuters and carried on.

Fox news winged its way to Nina. The workmen had dug out the rotted tree trunk and roots, or as much of them as they could. They doused the holes with repellent, gave it a few days and came back. They filled in the cavities with loose earth. Finally, to be certain, they paved a neat rectangle of ground over the top. While they were at it, they cut back the bushes at the rear, rebuilt the retaining wall and repaired the fence.