I imagine what he’s thinking. Ivy won’t want to be embarrassed in front of the neighbours. That bitch, who stole his dad. ‘Let me in!’

‘I’ve got my phone! I’m calling your father!’

‘You do that! You tell him you won’t let me in! This is my home!’

Caleb holds his finger down on the button. Eventually there’s the sound of a door slamming open and Ivy storms into the camera’s view in a white nightie and white slippers with fierce feathers. She thrusts her mobile phone through the gate. ‘Go away or I really will call Stephen and tell him how violent you’re being.’

Silence. Ivy’s lips twitch into a satisfied smile.

‘I came to visit,’ Caleb says. ‘I’ll stay in my room.’

‘You don’t have a room,’ Ivy hisses, moving closer to the gate.

Caleb reaches through the bars, grabs the phone. Ivy is too startled to resist. He clenches it, then throws it at the ground. Ivy squeals a little, but the phone doesn’t break. Caleb jumps on it. Ivy squeals again. This time the phone smashes to pieces.

Caleb jumps on it again and again. But Ivy doesn’t keep squealing. She walks back into the house. I imagined her closing the door with a firm pull from her perfectly manicured hand.

Caleb came home, eventually. Of course. Hearing footsteps on the porch, I raced to let him in. My face was wet, my eyes swollen. Did he notice?

‘Mum, I’m sorry.’ He let me hug him, if only briefly.

He had to be starving. I threw a frozen pizza into the oven and washed my face. Caleb waited in the sitting room. I found an old episode of The Twilight Zone for him to watch while the pizza cooked and sat beside him. ‘I’m glad you decided to come back.’

‘Ivy decided for me.’

‘Oh, Caleb.’ I rested my hand on his shoulder. He was a man now, this boy of mine. But I was still his mum. My job, still, was holding him together.

‘She must think I’ll set fire to her house.’

Caleb slipped into his room. Obviously there was no hidden order to his chaos: he said nothing about suspecting I’d been there. I followed and sat on the edge of his bed. ‘I wish you’d talk to me!’

Caleb moved that long fringe from his eyes with a white hand, and sat up. Suddenly very much larger than me. ‘What do you want me to say?’

Did you do this? was obviously wrong. I had to say something. ‘Do you remember what happened in the fire? Was it the bang on your head?’

His anger seemed to increase. I stood too, suddenly vulnerable. My mouth felt dry, my eyes hurt.