It was this table’s weight that saved it. Too heavy for those skinny kids to lift or even tip on its side and push across the floor. Wouldn’t even fit through the door unless you took the legs off, Nic bet. She had no idea how it had got there in the first place, but it didn’t matter now. It was built to stay put, this one. Never had matching chairs but she liked it better that way. Matching chairs would’ve made it a formal kind of thing, the type of table rich people sat at to sip their seafood soup or whatever. Over the years Nic had introduced the table to an assortment of odd-bod chairs she’d bought or found here or there and they’d made a cheerful set. You never felt worried you were using the wrong-sized fork for your entree when sitting in those chairs. Never used words like entree. You plonked in any one of them and smiled at all the others and ate or drank or did whatever else the hell you wanted without any airs or graces. If your back got achy or your bum numb, you could slide over to a different chair and neither the one you left nor the one you landed in would mind. It was that relaxed.

Now there are four chairs left. Four! Around a table that demands eight at least and had previously accommodated three times that. Four chairs that the kids must have decided looked like the best fit for the table and each other, not seeing that by removing all their cheerful mates they’d left these ones painfully visible in all their try-hard matchiness. One, the same wood as the table but polished to a weird sheen. Two, a shade lighter and matt. Three, the same wood as the table and polished to a weird sheen but half a head higher than the first two. Four, the same colour as the table and chairs one and two but made of some kind of hard plastic with wood-veneer paint. They each look so embarrassed standing around like this it makes Nic’s heart hot, reminding her of turning up to ballet that first time and seeing all the other girls had their hair in slicked-back buns while her own was in a high ponytail, and even though she twisted the pony around on itself and stretched and doubled her hair elastic to hold the bun, everyone could see it for the pathetic attempt at covering up an error that it was.