‘It’s fine, really. Thanks.’ Esther smiled at the sea of faces. She felt faintly stupid, as well as deeply tired.

‘Dim will go to yours and have a proper look-see all the same, won’t you, Dim?’ Sue insisted briskly as the party hubbub restarted, and Dimitri, who had been one of the ones to look through the fence, came hopping towards them, pulling on his trainers. ‘What a horrible scare after your special day, eh?’ She rubbed the arm of the hand she was still holding. ‘Esther looked like she’d seen a ghost, Dimmy. Was it lovely though, Esther, the graduation?’ she went on, once Dimitri had loped on ahead of them through the house, to fetch a torch, he said.

‘Oh yes, it was, but…’ Esther reclaimed her hand and explained about poor Carmela.

‘Oh, the poor love,’ Sue said softly, ‘that’s terrible. He’s a good man, Marcus, when he comes. And of course, we’ll do our bit with the cat while you’re away. There was a husband once, apparently, years ago.’

‘Poor Carmela,’ Esther whispered, feeling again the shame of her own ignorance and a rush of fondness for Sue, always so open-hearted despite going through who knew what with the baby quest she had mentioned on the doorstep.

‘All set, ladies,’ announced Dimitri, bounding down the stairs and brandishing a hefty black torch. ‘No time to lose.’

‘You give him your keys and stay here,’ Sue instructed at once, opening the front door for him and talking over Esther’s efforts at protest. ‘Hurry now, love, and no heroics,’ she called as he raced off. ‘He’ll be able to get out the back, will he?’ she asked Esther.

‘Oh yes… in fact, I think I may even have left the door open,’ Esther admitted feebly.

Sue laughed. ‘What you need, Esther love, is a small brandy and a cup of tea.’

12

Staying at Jakes. D

Lucas examined his son’s message through a swirling exhalation of smoke, trying not to mind about the lack of apostrophe. Three drags and an enjoyable floating sensation was filling his head. It had been over thirty years, and he had never been a regular partaker – alcohol having been his preferred student drug of choice – but the spliff contained decent stuff. Lucas summoned an image of Jake to mind before tapping out his reply, recalling an earnest, likeable boy from Dylan’s secondary days, who had got top grades and been a fearless, if not always effective, goalkeeper.

Ok. But 9 o clock sharp tomorrow morning. As AGREED. Dad