This, now, was a whole new way of living. Where the ‘right’ answer wasn’t as easy to work out. Plenty of things that had looked good had gone bad. Someone at treatment told them a story about a man who got a horse and everyone said, ‘Isn’t it great you got a horse,’ and he said, ‘We’ll see,’ and then his son fell off the horse and was paralysed and everyone said, ‘Isn’t that terrible,’ and he said, ‘We’ll see,’ and then a foreign army came through and took all the able-bodied men and everyone said, ‘Wasn’t that good.’ In truth, neither of them could remember the story – other things happened to the man – but they got the gist. Things that looked good weren’t always good. Things that looked bad weren’t always bad. They needed to give up judging whether they were lucky or not. No one knew. Some people they met said only good things happened. Like, even if it looked bad there would be a reason. They knew that was bullshit. Terrible things had happened to them and if anyone tried to tell them it was for a good reason, they would punch them in the face. Neither of them was sure about god. They didn’t really even like saying the word.

‘If we tell her it would be a good night out,’ Greta suggested.

‘Like a test?’ Peggy said. Diane wouldn’t like that.

Greta shook her head. ‘She won’t like that.’

‘We could say we’re going with some other people?’ Peggy said.

That seemed like a good idea. A sober outing, like bowling a few weeks ago. But it was at a bar. There would be alcohol and drugs.

By the time they got home they had an elaborate story that included quite a few lies. But they needn’t have bothered. Not really. Diane told them to go if they wanted and had the money, but to go to a meeting beforehand, and if one of them needed to go home they both should go home, to make sure they had a way home – not to rely on anyone else. Greta hung up the phone and they both looked at each other and said, ‘Awesome.’