‘Are you supposed to use baking paper?’ Greta asked.

‘I don’t remember anything about baking paper,’ Dell said.

‘It seems really unlikely it’s meant to make this much mess,’ Peggy said.

‘I think this oven tray is old,’ Dell said. She stopped scrubbing and let the tray fall into the sink.

‘Shall we soak it?’ Greta said. Almost ecstatically.

Peggy nodded, with an impressed face. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Let’s soak it overnight.’ It seemed right. Maybe that was the problem. They’d left the tray on the bench when maybe they should have left it in the sink full of water and dishwashing liquid.

Dell dried her hands and they all pushed on the tray in the sink one last time for luck and went and sat in the lounge. Peggy stayed in the kitchen and made them cups of coffee. Someone had said it wasn’t a good idea to drink coffee after five but it was instant, so they figured it was okay. Dell said if she didn’t have a cup of coffee before she went to bed she couldn’t sleep. Someone had told Peggy and Greta a good way to test if someone would benefit from Ritalin was to see if Coca-Cola calmed them down.

‘Everyone would benefit from Ritalin,’ Greta joked.

And they all sat for a minute looking out the window at the dark night thinking how great Ritalin was. Then they remembered the dreadful things they’d done for Ritalin. Then they remembered how fucking terrible it had been detoxing from Ritalin. Then they all sighed, almost all at once and thought how fucking lucky they were to be sober today.

Dell’s day at work had been okay. The clothes shop was in the mall. Dell and Heidi had worked there for nearly five years. The clothes shop had stood beside them – through everything – but their boss wasn’t quite ready to let them back near the money. They’d stolen a lot of money and their boss called the police and there was a restorative justice hearing and their boss agreed that if they went to rehab they wouldn’t press any further charges and Heidi and Dell could keep their job. There were conditions. They still weren’t allowed near the money, but their boss said if they proved themselves they’d be allowed the key to the cash register sooner or later.