Next morning I texted my mam. I said where we were and that Dad was depressed and living on sleeping tablets. I said I was worried that he might do something. And my mam texted back: Is that what he told you to say? I said: He didn’t tell me to say anything he doesn’t know I have my phone he’s asleep all the time we have no money its 11 miles to the shop theres only an old guy who sells turf. I didn’t care if it was a lie. I just wanted it to stop.

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So my mam stayed three days. I don’t know why. Every day she hated the place more and I loved it more which was funny because I started out the other way round. Maybe I loved it because she hated it. Now I didn’t want to ever go home. I even got to love the noise of the sea. Like you had to think, it spent a billion years trying to tear the land down and never gave up. Bit by bit it’s chipping it away. In the end the sea will win.

I used to walk down to Peter’s house every morning after breakfast just to get out of their way. We’d have tea and biscuits and he’d tell me stories. Sometimes you could believe his stories while he was telling them and sometimes you could not. But I liked listening to him.