They both laughed. At treatment, the therapist had asked the group how they were feeling, and Theo had said, ‘I don’t know. Hungry?’ There had been a chart with small yellow faces and each one had an emotion word under it. Happy had a smile. Angry had eyebrows that went down in the middle like the letter v. Surprised also had eyebrows – they were high above the yellow face’s eyes – but not many of the others had eyebrows. Not many. One had pink cheeks – that was Embarrassed, and they weren’t sure how it was helpful until they felt the heat rise in their cheeks and remembered the pink circles. ‘Is this embarrassed,’ Peggy had whispered to Greta, and Greta had nodded but really, she was only guessing.

Dorrit wasn’t at the shop when they got there, so they slid down the door and sat on the concrete. Both of them pulled their knees up, hugging them with their arms.

‘Gets a bit old,’ Peggy said. Greta nodded. Peggy looked at her and swept a piece of her hair out of Greta’s mouth. ‘But the day after tomorrow we’ve got the Workbridge appointment.’

‘Yeah,’ Greta said.

‘But we shouldn’t put too much focus on that,’ Peggy said. ‘Because who knows what will happen.’

‘Not us,’ Greta said.

‘That’s right,’ said Peggy.

Then they both stared at the other side of the street. It was almost like having your eyes shut. People came into their vision and out again as they walked along the street. It was a bit of a walking town, walking and biking. Not many people they knew had cars, that’s why it was so great that people picked them up for meetings. It was a walking and biking town, but it was spread out wide over the plain, so lots of people still had cars.

Dorrit arrived in a fluster. ‘Shit,’ she kept saying under her breath. She dropped the key and they all went down to pick it up and almost smashed their heads together. ‘Sorry,’ Dorrit said. ‘Sorry,’ said Peggy and Greta.

Dorrit fumbled with the key, trying to get it the right way round. If they ate the sandwiches now, they would have nothing for lunch, but they were so hungry. Tonight, they would all go and get food and tomorrow they could have breakfast – a breakfast that would last them until lunchtime, when they’d have a delicious sandwich without broccoli. There was money in their account now – it had gone in at midnight. But they needed to save that money for the supermarket tonight.

Dorrit got the door open, and Greta and Peggy followed her in and started getting the shop ready.