“I had some funny ideas back then, Sadie. You know, postadolescence angst and all that. I think I thought that if...well, that some of your brilliance might rub off on me if we...you know. But...well, to be honest, you probably did me a big favor by cutting me loose.”

I saw Kathy staring at me intently, probably searching for even an inkling of brilliance. Without even looking at her, Tony reached for her hand and landed it first go.

“It made me see that we’re nothing without the life lessons that make us, Sadie. You didn’t seem like you were afraid of anything or anyone, and it made me realize I wasn’t even close to being who I wanted to be, so I had to change.”

I could feel the weight of Norman’s silence next to me and I wanted to grab him in a hug and send him one of my telepathic messages that don’t seem to work anymore. I’m sorry, son. This crazy hippie’s got me all mixed up. He’s mistaken blind anger and desperation for courage and passion, and maybe he is your dad and maybe he isn’t, but we don’t need to know. Let’s just pack it in and head home.

But Tony was relentless. “Remember all the chats we had during those boring lectures about the effect that the Thatcher years had on the British social-justice system?”

No idea. None.

“Well, that’s what I ended up doing my thesis on after I changed courses. Then I got my first social-work job in Swansea and I just never left. So the way I see it, following my heart brought me to Swansea and then Swansea brought me to Kathy. Or brought Kathy to me, really!”

Either way, they looked delighted at the way the universe had conspired and, apparently, I’d had something to do with it. One never knows. Indeed. I snuck a glance at Norman and had to do a double take. Damned if he wasn’t looking at me and basking in some kind of a glow. I wondered what else Tony and I had spoken about that I had no recollection of and decided that, actually, that was probably quite enough ancient history for one day. So once I’d agreed to accept that me being an absolute cow to Tony had led him to the love of his life, I decided the best course of action was to steer away from the subject before some of the less complimentary details started surfacing.

After I made a lame and unsuccessful attempt to divert the conversation to something about the weather in Penzance Leonard came to my rescue. Again. He started talking to Tony and Kathy about how lovely Swansea was, how the beach was so different from ours in Cornwall, and how we were so glad we decided to stop off here on our way up to Edinburgh. Which then took him nicely into why we were going to Edinburgh in the first place, which then unexpectedly took a side road into what had happened to Jax.