CHAPTER 59
That said all I needed to hear. Two days later and we were finally off to the reef, which was a surprisingly long ride, around an hour and a half, in a large catamaran with the entire back end forming a full-width staircase. LC made it very clear that the boat should have had sails, while Maz simply settled into her bird-naming trans, bless her. I didn’t care; Ish and I stretched out on the sundeck while our girl was treated to a high-chair on the bridge.

CHAPTER 24
Our next shifts were lates, and we decided, after the delights of New Year’s Eve, we deserved a bit of a break, so we parked up in Splott once more.

“What’s got you so bouncy, Jen?”

“Um, stuff”

“What sort of stuff?”

“Sort of personal stuff”

“Ah! You rang that woman, didn’t you?”

“Er, might have done”

CHAPTER 22
We had had Christmas off, so the unwritten rules said that we would have the delights of New Year’s Eve, and a night shift at that. It was never a popular slot, because anyone who was anyone HAD to be out, had to be drunk, and had to fall over, and that ‘anyone included an awful lot of arseholes, not just the ones with the liquid ‘engage twat mode’ button, but those who started out bad and simply got worse.

CHAPTER 7
I had no answer for that, so fell back on the one Jacky herself had given me.

“Options open. That’s what you and Carly told me, Jacky. And you have Clarice there. Look: I’d normally be thinking all sorts of rubbish about canteen culture, but from what you say it’s sort of your sister’s canteen. You’ve got support there”

Mary asked, “I have something, if you don’t mind. I know I don’t know you like Ellie does, but it’s a more general thing. Game theory. Each of you, you and Jerome, has a choice. Try or don’t try. If neither of you tries, you both lose. If you both try, then there’s a chance of winning for each of you. How old were you when you married, Jacky?”

CHAPTER 20
“I do know Hira, but how did you know it was, well, me?”

She suddenly looked embarrassed, and I understood.

“Let me guess: she mentioned my PCOS”

A nod.

CHAPTER 5
“Thanks, love”

“Never a problem, er, woman, if I have that right. I set up this meeting, by the way, so I am keeping people out until I’m sure you’re sound. Whose top?”

“Mary’s. So’s the pendant and, er, the skirt, but the rest is all me and mine”

“You need some T-shirt bras; that one’s showing through. Ready?”

“Do it”

CHAPTER 18
There was an inquest two months later, as we had had a death, and an infant’s at that. It was my first one for a child, and the first I was required to attend, as the others had been happy simply to use my witness statement. I quickly grasped why, as several of the questions related to whether the seat was secured or not. It was an interesting atmosphere, because the whole tone was gentle rather than confrontational. Our boss had been clear in his advice.

CHAPTER 4
“Anyway, what did Lynn say, Julia?”

I looked at her as she composed her thoughts, someone who had just shared the most literally horrendous personal information, and asked myself exactly how self-absorbed I must be. All of this was entirely down to me, in the end. Not Mary, not work, just me I wondered if there might be a way of rebottling the genie, for all of the very few seconds it took me to realise how stupidly unrealistic that thought was.

“Lynn? Oh, don’t worry. She didn’t spot a bra strap, or some unwiped mascara”

CHAPTER 3
“Take a seat. Please”

He slumped into one of the armchairs, setting his briefcase upright on the floor beside him, where it promptly fell over.

“Harry… “

He stopped abruptly, looking down at his clenched hands, then slowly relaxed his fingers before looking back up at the two of us on the settee.

“There have been rumours, you know. I wasn’t sure… Short form, then. Mary, could I have that tea after all? Please?”

She brought an extra mug from the kitchen, and the three of us sat silently as she poured and handed him the cup.

“What do I call you? Harry seems a bit awkward”

“What everyone else does”

“Ellie? I always did wonder about why you pushed that one. Bit too glib, I thought, and I was right, wasn’t I? So, please, executive summary”

I looked quickly at my wife, then jumped in. Soonest humiliated, soonest over.

“Lots of cliché stuff, really, so I won’t go into the usual rigmarole”

CHAPTER 14
I did the honours with the fresh bottle, and when Ox had popped my cork, I returned to our table, where Hira was interrogating the others.

“So it is the tall man who is the baker?”

Alicia was taking question point.

“Yes, as in he is the one with the bakery, over to Cathays. Nana Deb’s his wife, and she runs a, well, a girls’ home. That’s where I live”

CHAPTER 13
Amina pushed the door open, looked around for a spare table and then led us directly there.

“Drinks?”

I peered over towards the bar, where Lil already had her hand on a familiar pump handle.

It was a twisty, busy road, lined with what looked like mango trees, piles of old fruit under each one. We’d left Ish and LC back in Cairns, with instructions to use the day as they felt best. The conversation with our son had warmed my heart.

“This is a present for your Mum, son. I think LC would get bored, and it’ll be a full day. You sure you don’t mind looking after her?”

“She’s my sister, Dad. What else would I do?”

CHAPTER 56
The flight back was a quiet one for my family, partly through the effects of too much booze, but mostly in reaction to the revelations about Susie’s adopted father. I knew there was more to be told, but all I could think of was the contrast on that ‘Sharp End’ programme between that infantryman and Gerald himself.

The former had spoken with true venom, while Gerald had almost looked ashamed. That, I believe, was the message I took from it all: how the hell had he kept his sanity?

CHAPTER 54
I looked to my right, and Maz simply conformed to habit, her smaller binoculars already out of her handbag to be slung round her neck, and a quiet litany of bird names commencing. Susie laughingly said, “Didn’t realise you were a twitcher, Maz”

“I’m not. Welcome swallow”

I spent the next week seeing how well I could juggle, for Gwen’s wedding was set for the weekend before we were due on my secret squirrel trip. It would be a hell of a drive to Albany, about five hours, but there was a flight If I did that, thank you, Suleiman, we’d need less extra time off from work, and would avoid the frazzle of trying to be neat and tidy for the do. That, and not have to drive with a hangover, of course. Our team would only have to cover the extra Friday for our trip down, and that was really an admin day, so we were fine.

We had a family meeting, Ish mailed his friend, and we were sorted. At least until the Tuesday before the wedding.

CHAPTER 11
“Ah!”, my wife said, grinning, “How about this one?”

It wasn’t what I expected, which would have been a swimming costume shot, but rather one from one of our restaurants, with Lil pulling a face at some crustacean or cephalopodian thing.

“We experimented with the food, girls. And boys. Why go all the way down there to revisit Chippy Lane?”

CHAPTER 9
I could see exactly what she meant, for it had made up so much of her debate with Maria: if things went wrong, each could lose a friend. I had never seen anything really nasty in Maria, apart from a certain blinkered aspect when she saw something she wanted. Like Alwen.

“Got to go, love, for the quiz. Chat after?”

“Please. It’s, well, I know you see things clearly. Might help me do so”

“Later, then. Promise”

The next morning was a recovery day before two of us became wage slaves again, but the kids had a few more days of grace before they started their next round of indoctrination. Ish was happy to big-brother LC through the next day, and as Maz and I were travelling together, we arranged to collect them both from ‘our’ beach café, or rather meet them there and pay for unhealthy food. Just as I was finishing breakfast, Ish showed me his laptop.

“Clara sent me a mail last night Dad. Last night for us, I mean. It’s okay to read; nothing…”

“Personal, son?”

That remark brought a proper laugh, but Nora managed to wind it back down.

“Ah, teenagers: who’d have ‘em, ey?”

Her face fell.

“Sorry, Maz. Didn’t think”

My lover simply smiled.

“Water and bridges, water and bridges. Got him back now, and not letting him go again. Anyway, got his sister to get through it in a few years”

“Swap notes then, love?”

That Summer was a blisteringly hot one, with no real rain until nearly March. As a consequence, a lot of our time was spent at the beach, but I noted one slight change in the dynamics, in that both of our offspring were spending their own chunks of that time away from us, or at least beside us but not actually with us. Each was building their own social circle, and I was pleased beyond words, especially for LC.

NEIL
There was no sign of Anth at breakfast, just the kitchen staff to serve me, and it appeared that I had either missed all the other guests or there were none. Apple juice. Tea. More tea. Cereal. Tea. Then the fry-up, which got easier to eat with each mouthful. Then…

One of the kitchen girls brought me more tissues as I sat looking at the crumpets I had just toasted.

“It’s okay, Neil. Nobody else here, aye? Anth telt us what you’re up for, today, like, so no shame. We all remember her, and we all saw the news. For what it’s worth… no point to cards or flowers, we thought, but will you take a hug for her? For Maddy?”

NEIL
I wasn’t relaxed. How could I be? I had managed to get a room at the Twice Brewed with no issues at all, as they seemed glad to have me back, but the alternator on the Kwak had needed replacing, and I couldn’t decide whether to trust the new one or simply switch all my luggage over to the Beemer, and all of that had been even more stressful due to the e-mails and phone calls about the other shots, at Cawfield. Would it work in monochrome? Could I handle colour as well as…