Basil stepped backwards and looked at the ground. ‘Umm, Mum, so . . .’

‘Basil,’ said Leonie. ‘What have you done?’

He looked guilty as hell. ‘It was his idea.’

‘Whose?’

‘Hessel’s.’

‘What? That makes no sense.’

‘Who is it?’ I said again, but they ignored me.

‘But it was!’ said Basil. ‘He wanted to –’

‘Ow!’ A spike of pain bent me over, and Leonie reached out and put her hand on my back just as an unfamiliar but very sleek silver car turned off the main road and pulled into the driveway. We paused – me doubled over, Leonie’s hand on my back, Basil cringing around the edges, trying to avoid his mother’s eyes – and watched as it drew up to just the other side of the fence, then came to a halt and sat there, a strange shimmering mirage, completely out of place in the surroundings.

The clouds swept in on the back of the wind. The light dropped. Mum stepped out of the driver’s seat, drew herself up straight, and looked around.

We watched her register my stuff strewn about on the gravel and then, as she raised her eyes, we saw the look of horror on her face as she saw me bent over with Leonie’s hand on my back. Mum left the car door open behind her as she ran to the fence.

‘What’s happened? Is she alright?’

‘She’s okay, Cathy,’ Leonie said. ‘Everything’s fine.’

Mum climbed through the wire. She rushed to me, smoothed the hair from my forehead. ‘What is it?’ She turned to Leonie. ‘What have they done?’

Mum grabbed Leonie’s arm as Leonie said, ‘Nothing. She’s fine.’ And for a moment Leonie laid her fingers over Mum’s, keeping them there. ‘She’s fine, Cathy. Really.’

‘Okay,’ said Mum, nodding vigorously and removing her hand. She reached for me, seeming to be about to pick me up like a child.

I resisted and stood straight and stepped back.

‘Mum, what are you doing?’

‘Helping you up.’

‘No, why are you here?’

‘Why are you here, Anna?’ That was too big a question to answer easily, but it didn’t matter, Mum kept on talking. ‘I had to come and get you – you don’t know – I had to come and get you away. You needed me.’

Everything fell away – Hessel’s bizarre anger, my pain and bleeding, the face in the window. Everything was replaced by a white-hot rage at my mother. ‘What are you talking about? I didn’t need you. I don’t need you. I never need you. Not now. Because you have never, never, been there when I did.’

The words landed. I saw them land. She flinched. And it was awful. I’d never told her straight like that, and it felt like I was doing something to her. Something unfair and unkind. The look on her face – wounded, righteous – instantly made me feel like I was making it up, like maybe she hadn’t been all that bad.