But then she reminded herself how lucky she was to have met someone like Chris. He was good-looking, came from a wealthy family, and he loved her. Her parents had been thrilled when they announced their engagement and they’d had a great life so far. They argued, but what couple didn’t? Chris was often tired and irritable but that was life when you had two kids and the pressures of work. Yes, she told herself, as she smiled across at him, everything had worked out for the best.

30

Paul peered through the window of the youth club, his hat pulled down low over his face, his scarf protecting him from the harsh November wind. Paul was pretty much bald now and had started shaving his head as soon as he noticed his hair thinning. His dad had had a comb-over for years and when he got really enraged, the carefully placed strands would fly around like ribbons on a maypole. It would have been funny if the circumstances had been different.

The first time Paul had shaved his head he’d watched the strands of strawberry blonde fall to the floor and they’d reminded him of a conversation he’d had with Claire years ago. She’d commented how nice his hair was and at the time, he’d ignored what he’d thought of as a girlie comment, his attention far more focused on her body than his own.

Paul scratched his beard and looked at the scene inside the youth club where he volunteered. He could just make out the young woman’s outline, her long coltish legs clad in tight-fitting jeans and long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. Her name was Simone and she’d been coming to the youth club most Friday nights for the last few weeks. Paul had been coming for the last five years. Initially, it hadn’t been through choice but as penance sentenced by the Honourable Judge Greenwood for getting caught in possession of weed. What started out as a six-month obligation had turned in to an easy supply of girls and Paul often thought the pompous, patronising Judge Greenwood would have been left speechless if he knew what he’d started.

This particular youth club was in one of the worst areas, not just of the city, but of the country – unemployment and crime were rife and the effect on the children of such families was everywhere to be seen. Paul had learnt this from Gloria, who had set up the youth club, and was almost as old as the church hall in which the club was held. On his first evening, Gloria had taken him into her office, a tiny box room piled high with papers. The majority of those visiting the youth club lived or had grown up in poverty, had little or no education, and didn’t have much of a future to look forward to.