She does four twelve-hour shifts a week and a half-day on Sundays, and she had been up since five.

She is a small, contained, extremely polite woman and I had met her twice in four years, both times in a school car park, and both conversations had been about parking.

She looked at the box.

She read the logo on the side of it.

Her hand went up to her mouth and the tea towel went on the floor.

And the sound she made was not a happy sound.