She couldn’t place him, yet she felt she recognized the man in sunglasses who was sitting on the bench next to a backpack, smiling, wearing a beige jacket and trousers that were hiked up a smidge too high. What if it was that paedophile the police were after? No, he wouldn’t dare to be out in broad daylight like this, with people all around him. Like the lady who was sitting down next to him, forcing him to put his backpack on his lap. No, it was probably just something about him that told her she should keep an eye on him and stay vigilant.

Victor and Samuel were the ones closest to him and, as usual, they were fighting about who was going to pedal the tricycle and whose turn it was to push. Sonja and Niki were there, too, shrieking as Ruben chased them. Right now, it was the most fun either one of them had ever had, but she would bet her great-grandmother’s wedding ring on one of them bursting into tears in less than a minute.

They were one man short, and there was almost nothing worse. What’s more, if she knew Josefin right, she wouldn’t bother to show up at work again until the end of the week. Fever and achy all over, probably the flu, she’d groaned on the answering machine that morning. How stupid did she think they were? As if they didn’t know she’d got lucky with some pathetic Tinder hook-up and was now far too hungover to work.

To be honest, it was beyond her how Josefin of all people could have such an easy time finding men who were willing to give her a ride. She, on the other hand, had tried everything after her divorce, from spending hours making a dating profile to placing a classic personal ad in the local paper. She’d even gone down to Dickens and got trashed enough to brave the dance floor.

Josefin, on the other hand, all she had to do was snap her fingers and spread her legs a little for all and sundry to come running. She wasn’t even good-looking. Apart from being thin, too thin to be honest, she had nothing. She barely even had a hairdo. And yet, there she was with yet another memory between her legs, pretending to be ill.

It was so like her not to give a toss that Tuesdays were park days and the whole group was off to the park, even though just two hours ago it had been raining so hard she’d been convinced it would be on the news. The only reason they hadn’t cancelled and played indoor games instead was the deluge of displeasure they’d get from the parents who would inevitably jump down her throat at the next parent – teacher meeting.