She knew it like the back of her own hand… dark blue, with a green door and window-frames, and the picture of a nude woman stuck to the windscreen.

And there it was – tucked away behind the generator, only it wasn’t tacky like when she last saw it. ‘Been smashing it up again, have yer?’ she laughed. ‘Had to give it a new coat o’ paint, did yer?’

Her gaze went to the windscreen. ‘An’ where’s yer precious pin-up gone, eh?’ For a minute she was puzzled. She had once tried to tear down that picture, and got a hiding for her pains. ‘You don’t touch what belongs to me,’ he had said. ‘This is my home and these are my belongings. Don’t forget that, bitch!’

She had been upset, but later they had made up in bed, and she forgave him. But never again did she touch any of his belongings.

Going to the wagon, she turned the knob and tried to push open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. That’s strange, she thought. He’s never locked it before. She looked about. There was no one in the immediate vicinity that she could ask.

She went round the back and banged on the window, thinking he might be lazing in his bed like he used to. She peered through the windscreen and called his name. There were no lights on inside, and not a sound.

After a while she turned away, disappointed. ‘He must have had his break already and gone back to work,’ she told herself. Recalling that he used to work on both the Waltzer and the Caterpillar in turn, she saw the Caterpillar was nearest, so made her way there.

The place was thronging with people, mostly young, mostly screaming on the rides, or strolling arm-in-arm, or pressed up against some stationary object, frantically fumbling each other.

The fairground did that to people… sucked them into a fantasy world and made them abandon their usual inhibitions.

She soon realised he wasn’t on the Caterpillar. ‘Have you seen Dave?’ she called to the operator, but he just shrugged his shoulders. ‘Sorry. Don’t know anybody called Steve.’ The roar of the machines was deafening. ‘I’ve only just started. You might ask Lily, on the coconut shy. She seems to know everybody.’

‘Thanks.’ There seemed no point in trying to hold a conversation with him over this racket.

She glanced across at Lily, who was busy replacing the coconuts on their stands. ‘Lily the fat lady. Still ’ere then, you old bag?’ she muttered. A wicked little smile fluttered across Sandra’s tired face. ‘I don’t suppose you’d be pleased to see me. Never did like me, did yer?’ She spat on the ground. ‘But then I never liked you neither, so we’re quits.’

Before Lily could look up and see her, she was off to the Waltzer to find Dave. To tell him he would soon be a daddy and that, whether he wanted a family or not, he’d got one in the making so he’d better get used to it.