‘You! You’re not a fucking man, James Tailor, you’re a fucking boy, an innocent, a laughing stock as well!’ Cynthia was in full screaming mode now, her life as she knew it was in tatters, and this idiot she had tied herself to was as much use as a handbrake on a canoe.

‘He’s fucking going, Cynthia. If it will help him he has to go, can’t you see that?’

Cynthia was swallowing down the urge to smash this man over the head with the nearest chair. He was quite happy for their son, their child, to go into a psychiatric assessment centre, a place where he would be labelled a nut-bag, and he thought she would happily say it was OK. What fucking planet was he on? As always, her mind was not on the poor child, but on what his actions would look like to the outside world, what people would think of her.

‘It’s only for a few weeks, and then he’ll be home, and he’ll get the help he needs.’

‘Over my dead body.’

‘Well, from what the shrink said that’s an option, Cynth. She said he’s on his way to becoming a full-blown Looney Tunes. Or, in her words, he has no idea of the effect his actions have on the people around him. He is only interested in the world as it pertains to him and his wants. He cannot empathise with others, and has no understanding of the needs of others. Quote, unquote. Remind you of anyone, Cynth?’

‘You ponce! Don’t blame me for all this! This comes from your side, all fucking weird your family. Your mother’s about as with-it as a three-legged camel.’

Jimmy sighed heavily. ‘Can’t you see that he has to go away, before he does anything terrible. It’s for his own good as well as everyone else’s. Anyway, we ain’t got no say in it. If we refuse, the social workers will intervene and we’ll have no control over his life at all.’

In her heart, Cynthia knew what her husband was saying was true, but it hurt her to admit that her child was ‘not right’, and she knew that people would blame her. They always blamed the mother in these cases. She felt the tears stinging her eyes and blinked them away rapidly. Why was this happening to her? What had she ever done to deserve this?