Sammy nodded understandingly. He would never forget the sight of that poor little boy with his brains hanging out as long as he lived. ‘So, what are your plans now? You can’t live with your parents for ever, so why don’t you move back with me?’ Sammy asked, cleverly changing the subject.

Jed shook his head. When he was with Frankie, he’d lived in a luxurious mobile home next to Sammy on a privately owned piece of land in Wickford. There were two reasons why Jed didn’t want to move back there. The first was that Sammy was still shacked up with Sally’s best mate, Julie, and the second was he had no intention of bringing up the kids alone.

‘Nah, don’t fancy going back there. There’s too many memories and most of ’em are bad,’ he replied.

‘Well, what you gonna do then? You ain’t still planning to do a runner, are ya?’

‘No, that was a prickish idea. I think I’ll just stay put at me mum and dad’s for now. Me mum takes care of the chavvies for me and I don’t want the hassle of it. I suppose I’ll meet another bird I like soon and when I do, I’ll move the trailer somewhere, and get her to look after the chavvies for me.’

‘If it’s Julie stopping you coming back to Wickford, just say and I’ll get rid. To be honest, she bores the arse off me lately, so I might pack her off back to Rush Green anyway. She kept the flat on ’cause the social pay for it and she’s renting it to a mate at the moment. I can always chuck the mate out and get her to move back in there. I won’t split up with her because of Tommy boy, but I can just pretend we’re working away and pop round there if and when I wanna see the boy or I fancy a bit,’ Sammy offered.

‘I’ll be honest with you, Sammy, I don’t fancy moving back to Wickford whether Julie’s there or not. I wanna start afresh and I also think me and you should start grafting again soon. We ain’t worked for months and I dunno about you, but I’ve spent thousands.’