Ruth, for all her needy clutching at his arm, is feeling less than him. She has been the most overtly damaged, but now she is here on Platform Seven what she really feels, although she won’t admit this to Andrew, is kind of nothing. She will choose her own route to letting go, a fiercer one, based on rage – a letting go that is less kind to herself than Andrew’s, and one that may be storing up problems for her later in life. But that is in the future. For now, she stands clutching her brother’s arm, so tightly it is actually a little uncomfortable for him, as if she might fall, and she stares down onto the tracks and thinks this simple thought: I’m glad you’re gone. Not dead, gone. She has never wished her father dead, not even in her most bitter, vengeful moments, but the fact that he is gone gives her a release of sorts, for now all forms of bitterness and revenge are pointless, after all. It’s just her and her brother, and they are together for this moment at least.

I can only guess their future. I think of Andrew feeding his hedgehog on the evening when I first followed him home, feeding the hedgehog before himself even though he was hungry enough to eat a bowl of cereal as soon as he went inside. I think Andrew will be alright because he has the capacity to care about a hedgehog. Ruth, I am not so sure … For all the years of therapy, there is something about her that is more destroyed. I’m not sure how well she will be able to love. The jury is still out.

*

To their left and a little further back, Melissa stands discreetly out of sight. She is glad she has allowed this small visit even though she is freezing cold and has an awful lot of work to do so hopes they won’t be too long. I got it wrong last time, she is thinking about the poor parents. I want to get this one right. Her mum is cooking a beef casserole with dumplings tonight, her favourite. Her mum always puts herbs in the dumplings and makes sure they have crispy brown tops, not like the soggy lumps you get with pub lunches. She wasn’t sure how long this visit would take or how close she would have to stand to Andrew and Ruth so she’s glad she asked PC Lockhart to accompany them.