‘Very drastic,’ Mandy said.

Isla liked the sound of drastic. She said the word quietly to herself as she pushed the hose around the edge of the paving stone nearest to Mummy’s feet.

‘Please don’t say anything,’ Mummy said.

Isla kept small and silent, her knees by her ears, until Mandy spoke again. ‘You don’t do things by halves, Lou.’

A line of ants emerged from the base of a large plant pot. Isla put the tip of the hose in their path and watched them scatter. A few ants crawled onto the hose and she held it against her bare leg to see if one of them might run over her skin.

‘I thought it was getting easier,’ Mandy said.

Isla looked up to see Mummy shake her head.

‘I thought the job was helping. You were making friends. Out of the house.’

‘But now there’s the baby,’ Mummy said. ‘I can’t go through that again.’

Isla dropped the hose and stood up. ‘I’m not a baby,’ she said.

Mummy put her hand on her belly. ‘I know you’re not,’ she said.

‘I’m four.’

‘That’s right,’ Mummy nodded. ‘Silly me. Sorry, darling.’

Mandy gave Isla a wink. ‘Four and a half,’ she said. ‘Isn’t that right?’

Isla winked back. Mandy had taught her to wink. Mandy could do good faces with her eyes crossed and her tongue out. If you did a face Mandy would give you a score out of ten. Isla’s highest score was a seven. She squatted back down and saw the ants disappear into a gap in the concrete.

‘Listen to me,’ Mummy said. ‘Keeping you talking when you need to see to your husband.’

‘Takes my mind off it,’ Mandy said. ‘Where is he, anyway?’

Mummy knelt down beside Isla and pushed the straps of her swimmers up onto her shoulders. She wiped Isla’s face with her thumb. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s get inside before we burn.’

Isla ran to the side of the house and waited for her mum beside the hedge that grew between their house and Mandy’s. It was hot in the passage between the houses and the bins smelled bad. They didn’t collect the rubbish over New Year’s and the stink got worse every day. Isla leaned into the hedge. The seawater had made her skin tight and she liked the scratch against her back.

From the other side of the hedge, Isla heard Mandy’s voice. ‘Come inside. Don’t you want to come in?’

Isla crouched down to look through the low branches. Steve was sitting on the top step of his verandah and Mandy stood behind him with the front door open. Steve had his hand over his face.

‘Come in,’ Mandy said. She stood beside him and touched his arm. ‘Please, love. Come in.’

Steve didn’t move. Mandy waited a little while and then she shut the door and went back into the house. Isla listened. Her legs ached from crouching down and she wanted to go inside but she was frozen there in the hedge, waiting for it to start. Steve’s shoulders began to shake and he made a high, thin noise before he broke down and cried.