‘You should go,’ she says. ‘It does wonders for my head.’

‘And how are you?’ he asks.

She sighs. ‘I’m getting there. As I said, the swimming helps. I’ve got a good bunch of friends I swim with. They stop things becoming too bleak. And work has been … well, work.’

Ever perceptive, Bill cocks his head. ‘You’re not enjoying being back?’

‘It’s OK. It’s just that my heart’s not in it,’ she says. ‘But I’m not sure what choice I have. I’ve got a bit of a cushion from Chris’s savings, but, financially, I can’t afford to give up work. I’m too old to do anything else.’

‘Nonsense,’ Bill says. ‘I didn’t come to work at the Samaritans until I was fifty. You’re never too old for a new direction.’

‘I don’t know what that direction would be.’

‘I’m sure you do. If you really think about it.’

Dominica smiles and she remembers Tor in the sea saying how she should be a counsellor.

‘It has crossed my mind to retrain,’ she says, feeling silly for admitting this. ‘Be a professional therapist of some sort.’

‘I can’t think of a finer idea. You’d be perfect.’

Jasmin comes out of the booth and hugs Dominica, warmly, delighted that she’s back. She’s always had youthful good looks, but her black hair is streaked with grey and there are bags under her eyes. She has a little bit of cake, but she’s tired and needs to get back for her kids.

Dominica heads to the booth, knowing that there’ll be callers waiting. She signs into her account and then switches her status to ‘available’ and the phone immediately rings.

Bill gives her a thumbs up and smiles as she answers.

There’s a young girl crying on the other end of the phone. Dominica makes soothing noises and gives the girl the time to stop crying. Once she has, Dominica gently tries to find out what’s causing the overwhelm. It doesn’t take long for her to start describing her situation. She’s caring for her disabled mum, there’s an alcoholic abusive father in the mix and she’s fallen out with her best friend over a boy. There’s an eviction order too, and a dangerous dog that had to be put down. It’s that bit of the story that has been the most heart-wrenching, so far.

During all of this description, the girl stops talking for minutes at a time, but Dominica knows to expect the silences. Her job has been to keep asking open questions, so the girl doesn’t shut down the conversation. There’ve been times that Dominica was worried she might be losing her, but she’s experienced enough to really listen to the silences. It’s so important not to jump in and fill the gaps, because that’s when people are often processing their thoughts.

Over time, she’s learnt that people are nothing if not expert in their own problems and she knows that, on a call, people are often just trying to work something out for themselves. Her role is to give them time and help coax it out of them, rather than to shut them down by offering her advice, although sometimes it’s tempting. People rarely see their choices as clear paths, but a blurry mess. She hopes to help the fog clear enough for them to see a road forward. Whether it’s the right one or not is often unknowable.