Not that the two qualities are necessarily mutually exclusive. Is it that they couldn’t face the fact that they weren’t all really talented, wonderful human beings, so they stayed, to feel part of swimming in the same pool, although they were at the wrong end?

The shallow one.

*

Lomita made the decision to see Ever’s father’s work.

She could calm him with her medications but he needed nutrition and caring to get back to being able to feel of value to himself again.

She sent Manita to Whole Foods, down the road on Crescent Drive, to buy more food, as they normally had a supply of salad and very little else. She wanted a chicken to roast, then to make a soup with the carcass, feed him the nutrients that the bones supplied – it would be easy for him to keep down.

Ever, through his haze, was obsessed, he kept mouthing, an involuntary mouthing, almost unaware of the presence of Lomita, that he had left his gun. He was worried about his gun. He needed to go and get his gun.

‘Jesus Christ’, thought Lomita, not one to normally blaspheme, swear yes, but not blaspheme. She was witnessing the stark reality of this man’s mental derangement, that he was intending to commit what had been suggested in a vague and laughed-about way over dinner. His intentions towards Mr Lorken were not just fluff blown into the wind.

‘I can go and get the gun for you, put your mind at rest, give you peace of mind that your gun is safe and you can relax. Feel able then to do what you want.’

She had no idea if this was what you should or were meant to say in these circumstances, but she knew that if he told her where the gun was she could, at least, keep it from him.

‘No.’

Was his reply.

‘You can’t do that. No, I will do that.’

She said nothing; she didn’t know what to say.

She left the room to make him some sweet tea, while she waited for Manita.

Manita had worked for Lomita since before the death of Lomita’s second husband, over twenty-five years ago; her daughters had been educated by Lomita. One was now a nurse and the other ran a beauty spa. They were close, the boss and the housekeeper, they had the unspoken understanding of time; from Manita, as a single parent, there was an immense gratitude.

But Manita did have a furious temper, usually directed at her daughters for what she perceived to be their stupidity in the realm of relationships; that was understood by them both to be a fact of life, and it was tolerated by Lomita.