Lori and Abby didn’t talk on the ride over to Bobbi’s place. Lori pulled her feet up onto the seat, hugged her knees, and stared out the window. The island looked different – more sinister. The shadows between the trees lining the street looked darker; the empty houses beyond more full of secrets. Even the Deepwater Living apartment block, which Abby had visited a hundred times, today looked haunted. The four-storey mess of balconies and rain gutters looked mad, like staircases to nowhere. It reminded Abby of the Winchester Mystery House, a mansion she’d read about in California, whose owner claimed ghosts designed the home by whispering to her in the middle of the night.

Bobbi was waiting at the security gate and greeted Lori with a tight hug.

‘Go on upstairs,’ she said. ‘Maggie’s setting up a space for you.’

‘Thanks, Bobbi,’ Lori said. She turned to Abby, offered a brief embrace, then headed through the gate and up the stairs to Bobbi’s apartment.

Abby and Bobbi stood in silence for a moment.

‘Are you alright?’ Bobbi asked.

‘Bobbi, the way I acted, I lost my shit and I’m—’

‘We’re cool,’ she said. ‘We’re always cool.’

‘Promise?’

‘Promise,’ Bobbi said. ‘You want to come up?’

‘I should get back to Eddie,’ she said. ‘Thanks for looking after Lori. The second she starts to drive you crazy, just call me.’

Abby hesitated. She looked across the street to where she’d parked the car and sighed. ‘What do I do now, Bobbi?’

‘Now, you keep moving,’ she said. ‘You eat, you take a bath, you shave your legs and you keep looking forward. Guilt, fear, grief, they’re all like moss, Ab. If you slow down long enough it’ll start to grow, and it won’t stop until you’re covered.’

‘Eat, take a bath, shave my legs,’ Abby echoed. ‘Survive.’

Night fell. Abby went upstairs to Eddie’s room to ask if he was hungry, but he refused to come to his door. She slumped back downstairs, dug out a frozen box dinner and heated it up. She poured some red into the biggest glass she could find. It was cold enough to hurt, so she started a fire and stared into it. The house was too quiet. In the silence, it was too easy to imagine a colossal wave rising from the ocean and crashing down over the island, carrying with it all the mistakes of her past. The events of the past few days flickered in her mind, like sunlight through leaves.