“Norman, look... I’ve been thinking. We...we might have to call someone if he doesn’t show up soon. The Wheeler Center, or Iris or...or the police, I mean.”

“Mum, no!” Norman looked stricken, and he grabbed my arm. “What if he gets into trouble? What if Iris gets mad at him? What if there’s...like a...a car chase with the police and everything? Mum, what if it’s like Thelma and Louise?”

The kid was good bringing that up, because there weren’t a lot of movies that got to me more than that one and we watched it every year on my birthday. Me, Norman and Jax. My scar gave itself another sharp jab as I got a flashback to last year, the three of us sitting scrunched up on the sofa together under a duvet eating Fritos and shouting at the screen. Don’t do it, don’t do it! Just surrender and you’ll be okay! Surrenderrrrrrrrrr! Hoping against hope that, this time, those wild, crazy, wonderful women would turn around and let the nice policeman help them out so they could all live happily-ever-after.

“Please, Mum, don’t call anyone. Not until we... Not yet anyhow.” Norman’s face was right up in mine. Red, pleading and lovely.

“What then, Norman?” I asked as gently as I could. “What are we going to do? Just sit here and hope he comes back?”

Never snitch. Nobody likes a snitch, Normie, I once heard Jax saying.

I wasn’t convinced of that, though, because I think some people actually do like a snitch. The police, for starters. And maybe the Wheeler Center. But, of course, I gave in. Because of Thelma and Louise and because, who wants their kid to think they’re a snitch? And we did end up sitting in the room for another hour, drinking tea and hoping Leonard would just come back. I even tried visualizing him zooming up the road, executing a perfect reverse parallel park out the front of the Soft Fudge and bounding out of the Austin in top hat, tails and with a box of fresh-baked croissants. For all the good it did. In the end, it was Norman who broke the long, tea-sodden silence.

“Mum, I think I’ve got a plan.” I braced myself. “We need to find Leonard, right?”

Norman spoke very slowly and clearly, like he’d thought this through and rehearsed exactly what he was going to say in his head. Which of course he probably had. I nodded and maintained the brace position.

“So, we need to start looking. But I mean, like, really looking properly. And if we can’t call anyone else...yet—” he stopped and made sure I was looking him right in the eyes “—and we can’t...well, we have to do it ourselves. Or, that is... I mean yourself. You.”

I didn’t like where this was going, but I was paying attention.

“Look, Mum, someone’s got to stay here in case Leonard comes back, don’t you think? So that someone should be me. Because, well...” And the kid, bless him, looked like he felt he had to apologize. “I... I still have to practice for the show tomorrow night. I’ve got tons of stuff to go over and, actually... I don’t mean to be rude, Mum, but I could do with some time on my own to...to try and get it right. Or...at least better, anyhow. You know, because...because practice makes perfect and all that.”