‘I know about this stuff, alright? You said it yourself: you don’t have any power here. So I’m saying you need to walk up there and say you’re sorry.’

‘And they’ll just forget? After what I did to that kid?’

‘I don’t want you hurt, believe me. But how they respond is on them. What’s more important, morally, is that you do the right thing.’

‘Even when nothing good will come of it?’

‘You doing something good, even if nothing good comes of it, is still good. It is.’

Vernon coughed a few times, which sent spikes through his temple again, and deep into the base of his skull. He groaned once more. ‘It’s all useless, mate. You’ve got it wrong. You said the other night that things have purpose.’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘You did.’

‘No. I mean, I do think that. But I think I said that good and evil exist.’

‘Anyway. It doesn’t matter. Because they don’t. Just a bunch of awful things happen and then you die. That’s how it is. I do something good and my son still gets beaten? That’s not how it should work.’

Kelly said. ‘I’d do anything to stop that.’

‘Yeah, well, that’s what I tried to do.’ Vernon looked away.

‘You know what the worst thing is about good and evil existing?’ William said, his voice soft. ‘It means your actions have consequences. You don’t just exist unto yourself. You have a weight. What you do matters. You did, in your own way, exactly what Brendan did. He’s trying to correct your son with his fists. You tried doing it with your absence. You blame Brendan for his actions, yet never seem to turn around and look at your own. Can you blame him? I agree he needs a good wallop around the ears, but at least he’s trying. He’s trying to do something good.’

Vernon said nothing. Then, ‘Ministers shouldn’t talk like that.’

‘There need to be consequences for sin, mate. And don’t give me that. We too often just sweep things under the rug. Forgive does not mean the same as forget. Love can be correction, too. True love, not some simpering greeting card. True love fights for things. Brendan is wayward and he needs to be set right and the one thing that boy has felt all his life is a set of fists. He’s sticking up for Mel. He’s just doing it wrong. We need to show him a different way.’

‘So, not a literal wallop?’

‘No.’

‘I don’t want to show him anything.’

‘Well, there’s nothing else you can do right now, is there.’

Vernon looked his friend in his old eyes and said, ‘I have to make him stop.’

‘Yeah. You do. But you need to try something different. Look at you. Look at your son. Your ways haven’t exactly worked out for you so far, have they?’

‘I’m just an old man. I don’t know any different.’

‘Don’t give me that self-pity.’

‘Mate,’ Vernon said. He felt close to tears. ‘I can’t keep letting them hit him. I don’t know what to do.’