There was something therapeutic about tedious manual labour, thought Christopher as he ran the mower over the lawn. The blades were set high, but the fact that there were now stripes on the grass lifted the whole garden. He emptied the final load from the grass box into the wheelbarrow and put the mower away in the shed. His body felt more at one with life now. Instead of being weary and tired, he was invigorated. He smiled to himself. Why it should surprise him after all these years he did not know, but a little work in his garden went a long way towards making him feel whole.

He glanced up as he walked across the lawns that flanked the house, and saw Matt walking towards him. Matt, who always looked so ill at ease in a garden, as though he found it a threatening and alien environment. He walked across grass as if, at any moment, it could leap up and devour him. He didn’t seem to trust it.

‘Hi!’ His greeting was brief.

‘Hi! Are you off or just back?’

‘I’m out for a couple of hours then back, if that’s OK?’

‘Sure. Whatever.’ Christopher tried to sound easy going.

Matt looked hesitant. Then he said, ‘I gather mum came round?’

‘Yes. Who told you?’

‘She did. She rang me.’

‘I see.’

‘She said she offered to come back.’

Christopher knew where the conversation was going. ‘Yes, she did,’ he confirmed.

‘What did you say?’ Matt asked calmly.

‘I said I didn’t know. That I wasn’t sure.’

Christopher saw the look of incredulity on Matt’s face.

‘But I thought you always wanted her back. You said that you still loved her.’

‘I did still love her. I do still love her, but I don’t know that it would work out. And please don’t use that phrase “wanting her back”. It makes it sound as though she’s some kind of possession. Lost and found.’

‘Well she is, isn’t she? In a way? You were married. You belong to each other. You agreed that when you signed the marriage certificate.’

Christopher was irritated now. ‘Look, Matt, if you’re going to talk to me as though I’m someone who isn’t fulfilling the words on the contract I’ll be forced to remind you that it wasn’t me who broke the agreement in the first place…but I really don’t want to have this conversation with my son about his mother.’

Matt kicked at a lump of grass. ‘I just don’t understand. You go on for ages about wanting her back, then when she offers to come back you turn her down.’

‘I haven’t turned her down. I just said that after almost two years without her it isn’t an easy decision, that’s all.’

‘So you will have her back?’