I’m leaving because I have to. Where I’m going you can’t follow and I don’t want you to. I wish you luck in life and love, and hope that you make good choices. You are the captain of your own ship. You decide who and what you want to be. Nobody else does that for you. I’m sorry if I’ve let you down as a mother. I cannot change who I am, any more than you can change who you are. All we can do is make our sacrifices, offer up our pain and suffering, and hope it’s enough to save us. Remember that. God is watching and waiting for us all. He took Jason early but you and I may live to a good old age. After the curtain falls, depending on God’s judgement, I hope that we will see one another again.

Goodbye for this life,
Yours,
Mother XXX

It was the strangest letter Maisie had ever read. She read it and reread it, trying to make sense of it. Carina had always been a strange woman: she’d said things that were sometimes uncomfortable, at others downright rude, but Maisie would rather spend time with a bitch than a bore any day, and Carina Murphy could put Danny Fox in his box faster than any other man or woman on the planet. For that reason alone, Maisie had liked her – until she’d walked out on her son. That was unforgivable.

‘Do you think you can appeal to her inner fuzzy?’ Fred said.

‘The woman doesn’t have an inner fuzzy.’

‘Then why?’

‘I just need to be able to look Rave in the eye and say I tried. I want him to know that someone, even if it’s just Maisie Bean, cares about him.’

Fred pulled over.

‘What are you doin’?’

‘I’m stopping the car to tell you something.’

‘It’d better not be bad news.’

‘You’re an amazing woman, Maisie Bean. You have no idea how special you are and it needs to be said. So I’ve said it. It’s done.’

‘Ah, would you ever—’

‘Done, I said.’ He raised his hand to stop whatever she was about to say, then put the car into gear and took off. Neither of them said anything else, but if he’d looked to the right, he’d have seen that she was grinning.