Somebody will have to do it properly.”

“That’s kind, Mom, but Carol’s coming — she’s already arranged it.

She’s staying the whole of the recovery.

It’s all sorted out.”

There was a pause on the line.

Not a long one.

Two seconds, maybe three.

But I was sitting on the end of a bed with my hands on my stomach at twenty-five to six in the morning, and I heard every bit of it.