When they got home it was only three o’clock and the house was quiet, and it was kind of nice. They sat in the lounge and just sat for a minute and then Greta said, ‘What the fuck did we used to do to fill all this time?’

Peggy said, ‘Drink.’

‘And think about drink,’ said Greta.

‘And how to get drink,’ Peggy said.

‘And try and get money to drink.’

‘And recover from drinking too much.’

They both laughed. It wasn’t their joke. They heard it all the time in meetings. How boring getting sober was at first, when the rhythms of the old life were still there but there was no drinking. They sat for another minute in silence, then Peggy said, ‘Do you want a cup of tea?’

And Greta said, ‘Yeah.’ Like she had just decided, like Peggy had convinced her.

‘We could make dinner,’ Peggy shouted from the kitchen. She was looking in the fridge – she’d gone there to get milk but then she noticed the food they’d got from the supermarket. There was still some broccoli, and potatoes. None of them were sure where the potatoes were supposed to go but there was a large plastic basket at the bottom of the fridge with ‘Vegetables’ written on it, and potatoes were a vegetable, so they put them there. There was no one to ask. They talked about calling Diane but suspected it was the sort of thing that they should be deciding for themselves – taking responsibility for.

‘Yeah,’ Greta shouted from the lounge. There was nothing to distract them. When they sat in the lounge feeling anxious or bored, there was nothing left that could take their mind somewhere more exciting. Soon there would always be something to take their minds off things. That’s what Dell said. Take their minds away from the things standing in front of them, but for now they spent a lot of time wandering about. Looking at the walls. When Peggy and Greta got the art books out of the library, Dell and Heidi got murder mysteries. Maybe they could read – like really read. Maybe that was something they might like doing. Other people had started hobbies. They weren’t the hobby type. They said it when they were alone. They really didn’t seem like the sort of people who would have hobbies.