It was a sad story. His wife, a woman with a long history of mental illness, had killed herself while he was away for a weekend, his first holiday in years. His daughter, his only child, Zoe, blamed him, not for her mother’s illness — he’d been a devoted and patient carer — but for her mother’s death. For Mark was not alone on his holiday. Zoe was convinced her mother knew he was with another woman and it was this that drove her to suicide.

The wife had died two years ago. Within a couple of months, Zoe had dropped out of her final year of high school; a few more weeks, and she had left home. Since then she had been living with what Mark termed ‘low-life’. He offered an apologetic shrug. ‘I don’t know how else to describe her new mates.

‘But at least she’s talking to me now. I’ve been writing to her regularly since she moved out. Chatty letters with news about friends and relatives. And I write about her mother too. I might include a photo, and once I enclosed one of my wife’s handkerchiefs — it smelled of her perfume. It was after I sent the hankie that Zoe finally responded.

‘That was about nine months ago. A few more months passed before our first face-to-face meeting, and now we get together for a meal every second Tuesday, and,’ he pointed to the letter, ‘I write to her on the alternate week.’ He let out an audible sigh and swiped again at the unruly hair. ‘I let her set the rules. Despite the chaos in which she lives, or perhaps because of it, she insists on order and predictability with me.’

‘And the people she’s living with?’ These were the first words Sylvie had uttered since Mark had begun his story.

‘I’ve never met them, nor am I likely to. One of the guys has actually been in prison.’ He was shaking his head in disbelief. ‘They’re all seasoned shoplifters, none of them has finished high school, and all are on the dole. When Zoe mentions them she seems to be bragging, as if she deliberately wants to shock her middle-class dad.’ His face opened into a smile. ‘She’s certainly succeeded in doing that.’