‘Let’s go outside and see if she’s coming.’ Grace takes her hand and at the moment of opening the door, a car pulls up on the drive. Eric gets out very slowly. He looks different, stooped; years older.

‘Daddy!’ Sorrel flies to her father.

Eric kneels to his daughter, clenching her to him, his face hidden as Eve emerges from the passenger seat. She is bent over, her hand on her abdomen as though protecting a wound. She begins to walk slowly to the house. She turns as Sorrel calls to her; her face is unrecognizable, so swollen and white it looks just as if she too had been immersed in water for a long time.

Sorrel is in the playroom again with Poppy and Izzy because the kitchen is crowded with people; Izzy’s dad has arrived; he isn’t talking very much. Some of the grown-ups are trying not to cry. Her daddy is actually crying which makes her feel shaky. Mummy doesn’t look like Mummy. The playroom is dark because no one has turned on the light and she can’t reach the switch; the curtains are still half over the windows. She can see the donkeys standing by the shed, their heads hanging down; they look sad. No one is saying anything and it’s scary. Ash normally makes little noises in the background, like he’s talking to himself. They’re not usually words but it doesn’t matter because you can tell what he means and anyway, he’s learning words. Then it hits her all over again, like something actually hitting her; he won’t be able to learn any more words now. He won’t ever actually talk in sentences. She starts crying and Poppy rolls her eyes but moves over and lets her sit in the chair with her. Noah pushes the door wider open and comes in and sits on the floor by the chair. She puts her bare feet on his warm back which feels nice.

‘Gross,’ Izzy says.

Sorrel takes her feet off again. ‘Ash was all right when he went to bed,’ she whispers.

‘Shut up because he’s not all right now, is he? He’s dead.’ Poppy has started crying and that makes Sorrel feel worse. Izzy walks around the room looking at things like the china donkey and the spoon with Mummy’s name on it and the little candles in candle sticks. She picks them up and stares at them, then she puts them back, like she is in a shop and she’s thinking about buying them but deciding they aren’t worth the money. She picks up Ash’s red tractor and looks at it for a while which makes Sorrel want to snatch it away, except she daren’t. Noah licks Sorrel’s hand.