Chloe arrives at Park House just after the residents have had afternoon tea.

‘There’s a few muffins left in a dish in the communal room if you’re peckish,’ one of the care assistants tells her.

She shakes her head. She has lost her appetite.

‘Your grandma has been really looking forward to seeing you.’

They both know she’s lying.

Chloe walks past the communal room on her way to find Nan. From the circular walkway she sees the backs of half a dozen white heads waiting patiently for their own visitors. She feels something akin to one jigsaw piece fitting into another inside her. At least here she is needed and she feels a tiny flame reignite. She longs to be needed by somebody, and for a while she had forgotten that that person is Nan.

Nan is lying on her bed when Chloe arrives at her room.

‘Oh nurse, thank goodness you’re here.’

‘It’s me, Nan,’ she says, approaching the bed. ‘It’s Chloe.’

Her brow crinkles. ‘I don’t know a Chloe.’

Not today. She can’t take it. Not today of all days.

Chloe reaches for her hand. ‘You do, Nan.’

‘No.’ She shakes her head. ‘I don’t know a Chloe. Nurse!’

Chloe sighs, she lets go of her hand, she steps back. What should she do? Go all the way back home? She makes for the door, and then when she gets there, she closes it. Not today. Not today of all days. She turns around.

‘Nan,’ she says. ‘Please, you do know me.’

She pleads with her. She can do this. She can make her remember. She’s so determined she doesn’t see the way the old woman flinches, how she huddles herself up to the wall.

‘Nurse!’ Nan cries.

‘No,’ Chloe snaps, going back to make sure the door is shut tight. ‘We don’t need a nurse, you know who I am. Don’t say you don’t.’

She walks back to the bed where Nan is cowering. She switches quickly to a calm voice and tries again: ‘You do know me, Nan, I’m Chloe.’

‘I don’t!’

‘Nan.’

‘Stop, I don’t. Nurse!’

‘Nan!’

‘Nurse!’

Nan reaches for a red button next to her bedside table. She presses it furiously, over and over, as Chloe tries to stop her. The two women grapple, Nan trying to hit the button, Chloe fighting against her. She grabs her wrist, too hard. Nan cries out.

‘We don’t need a nurse,’ Chloe says through her teeth. ‘We don’t need anybody.’

The next thing she knows, the door flies open. The matron appears in the doorway, her eyes wide.

‘What on earth is going on?’ the matron asks.