This is new turf. She’s never pushed him like this before, but she feels powerful and determined. Being by the sea is giving her strength.

‘Dunno.’

‘Seriously?’

Claire sighs, realising that he doesn’t even know the basics. Walking side by side with him, the sound of their footsteps on the pebbles, the waves breaking on the shore and the cries of the gulls, she decides that now is probably as good a time as any. She’s read that it’s good to chat to your kids when engaged in an activity outside and she glances across at her precious boy and the way his dark hair flops into his eyes.

Five minutes later, Ash stops walking and stands with the grabber, his eyebrows creased together in concern.

‘So, you’re saying girls do that every month? Girls in school? They’re dealing with that all the time?’ he asks.

She’s touched by his concern. ‘Yes. Some are at your age, but more when they get to senior school.’

‘But how do you know which ones are doing it? You know, bleeding?’

‘You don’t. Girls are secretive. They don’t want boys to know, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know.’

He nods, then something dawns on him. ‘Does that happen to you? Every month?’

‘It used to, but when you get to my age, periods stop and then you get the menopause.’

‘The what?’

Claire shakes her head and smiles at herself. It feels brave to be having this conversation. Her mother didn’t ever tell her about the menopause. She’d never mentioned it once. She knows Pim will almost certainly say that Ash is too young to be receiving this information, but it’s just biology. She wants him to know. Besides, if he’s old enough to play Fortnite, which is technically a twelve plus, he’s old enough to hear this.

‘The menopause. Or the change.’

‘Oh.’ Ash is genuinely bemused. ‘What changes?’

‘Your metabolism. Your hormones. It’s called the change because a woman stops being fertile and able to have babies.’

He looks at her as if this thought – that she might have still been able to reproduce – is horrific, but she ploughs on. ‘So, you know I get forgetful sometimes? Or you tease me because I misspeak or get my words jumbled up?’

‘Or you say Dad’s name, then Felix’s before you get to mine.’

‘Exactly.’

‘That’s all part of the menopause. And I get really hot flushes.’

‘You’re going through all of this and you didn’t tell us?’

She’s touched by how genuinely worried he sounds.

‘I’m telling you now,’ she says.

Dominica comes back over. ‘How are you getting on?’

‘Fine,’ Claire says, putting her arm around Ash’s shoulder. ‘We’ve been chatting.’

‘Well, keep up the good work. Coffees and cakes are at ten by the peace statue.’

31

Bunny Ears

Tor has spent weeks worrying about the subject of Easter and how to bring it up with Lotte, but now she regrets not being honest from the outset. When she told Lotte she was going alone to Alice’s for Easter Day lunch, she made out that Alice was paranoid about numbers and that it’s just a family thing. But that only made it worse. It made it sound as if Lotte had been invited and Alice had then backtracked, when in fact, Alice has no idea about Lotte.