Not prison. But not home either. Home (Mercy’s home) smelt like Haymish’s sweet milky morning breath in his face, sounded like Taylah’s attempt at a whisper (louder than her normal speaking voice) saying, Hay, stop bothering them and finish your Rice Bubbles, looked like Mercy’s sleep-crusted eyes fluttering open closed open closed, her lopsided smile twitching as Haymish’s surprising weight landed on the bed, then Taylah’s, and the four of them became one tangled pile of laughter and love. Home was being woken by another man’s kids who felt so like his he forgot to worry about losing them.

He checked his phone for messages from Mercy and found five from Lena and one from Mum. A voice that could’ve belonged to a screw bellowed from the hall that all rooms needed to be vacated by nine. Will loud-mumbled acknowledgement, became aware as he did so that the toothache he’d had for a week had morphed from dull and intermittent to intense and constant.

He read through Lena’s texts:

Remember that pogo ball we used to fight over? STILL HERE

Big box of floppy disks. Would there even be computers left that can read them?

Heap of old tapes I think are from our ‘radio show’. Remember??! I think it’s them. Can’t find a working tape deck to check

Each text made his toothache a little worse and he’d used up the half-pack of codeine he’d brought from home (Mercy’s home) to help him sleep these last three nights.

FOUR not-working tape decks and counting

Huge box of tiny tapes from an ANSWERING MACHINE! Not kidding, huge box!! Who keeps answering machine tapes!!! Hours and hours of people saying giveusacallback

He usually heard Lena’s voice in his head when he read her texts but this last string was silent, toneless, even with the over-punctuation and capitals and shit. He stared at the stripes of sunlight on the lino, tried to figure out if she’d say giveusacallback all breezy and inviting like Dad or stern like Mum. For a while as a kid he’d had a bedroom with venetian blinds like these ones, had enjoyed playing with the angle of the slats to create different line patterns on the floor. He imagined telling that to Haymish and Taylah. That’s what we did for fun back in my day. None of this PlayStation business, just good old-fashioned venetian blind string pulling to keep us entertained. Mercy’d laugh, say, Yeah, those long gone olden days when you were young, and the kids wouldn’t realise she was being cheeky because she was a decade older than Will, would have been married to her ex already when he was a kid flicking the blinds.

The text from Mum said, Im not going to nag but I really wish youd come home. Rick and I would love to have you here.