Page 97 of From Now On

The first few places they pass have ‘FULL’ signs swinging violently in the wind.

Charlie steers Nina down a side street, away from the sea-front. It is at the end of this road they see a red ‘VACANT’ sign glowing in a window.

A homely-looking woman answers the door. The smell of baking drifts down the hallway, which is lined with wooden crosses. She wipes her hands on her apron as her gaze flickers disapprovingly between Charlie and Nina.

‘Do you have two rooms? One for me and one for my sister?’

Once their relationship is established they are welcomed inside.

‘I’ve only got one room but it’s a twin. How long are you staying for?’

‘I’m not sure.’ Charlie doesn’t want to distress Nina by saying he wants to leave as soon as she’s dry and warm and rested.

‘Holiday, is it?’

‘If we can go straight to the room that would be great, thanks, and do you have a menu?’

‘It’s breakfast only but…’ she looks at Nina and softens. ‘I can heat up some soup when you’re settled?’

‘That would be perfect, thank you.’

The room is basic but clean. There’s a shelf containing four bibles and three teddy bears. A picture of Jesus hangs above each bed. Charlie has fetched the car and parked it outside and when he returns Nina is still in the bath so he takes the opportunity to ring Shannon, Evie’s mum.

‘How’s Duke?’

‘He’s fine. How are you? Any sign of Nina?’

‘Yes, I’ve found her.’

‘That’s wonderful. Do you want me to fetch Duke so you can tell him yourself? They’re watchingThe Lord of the Rings. That Gollum is terrifying but they don’t seem bothered.’

‘No. Don’t disturb him.’ Duke will have a million questions and Charlie doesn’t have the answer to any of them. ‘Can you tell him everything is fine and I’ll be in touch again tomorrow and let you both know when we’ll be home.’

After they’ve said their goodbyes Charlie is about to try Pippa – he has a missed call from her – but then Nina comes back into the room wearing a cheap white towelling bathroom, a towel twisted on top of her head.Her damp clothes bundled in her arms. Charlie takes them and drapes them over the radiators he has already switched on. He raises his gaze to the window, the panes streaked with rain. It’s slowing now, the torrent a light pitter-patter. The clouds are no longer dark and angry but light and fluffy, the sun smiling as she gathers strength again – nothing to see here – as if the storm had never existed. He searches for a rainbow but he cannot see one.

Eventually he turns. Nina is sitting on the edge of the bed, her hands shoved into her sleeves. She is fragile and he must be gentle with her so that she does not break. He sits beside her.

‘Whatever you ran away from…’ He hesitates. The promise that he can fix it falters in his throat. What ifheis the problem? What then? But he thinks of Sean –Tell your sister to stay away from us. She’s not fucking welcome around here anymore– and he wonders by the sting of his knuckles whether he has already fixed the problem or made it wholly worse.

Charlie waits for tears, a confession of infatuation, but instead Nina says, ‘I wasn’t running from anything. I was runningtosomething. Someone. Dad. I thought he was alive, Charlie. I… I thought I saw him.’

Maeve had told Charlie that Nina believed she had seen her dad but hearing Nina say it herself so convincingly is breath-snatching.

‘Where’s your phone, Charlie?’

Wordlessly, he hands Nina his mobile.

‘There’s a clip on YouTube. I’ll show you.’

He feels sick. He can hardly bear to look at the footage that might give concrete shape to the vague, amorphous doubt he had, even as he filled out the court forms, that Bo and his mum aren’t really dead. What kind of a son is he? He had given up on them the way he had given up on New York,Pippa, the novel he wanted to write, his career.

Everything.

‘Charlie,look.’

He forces himself to take the handset, study the film. The blurry and out-of-focus busker, drowned out by the infuriating ‘I scream’ child. He rewinds it back to the beginning.

It’s not him.

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