OH

‘You got pain?’ she said.
‘Feel a headache starting,’ I said, ‘see if I can nip it in the bud.’
‘How many you taking?’ she said. ‘Two?’
‘Three,’ I said.
‘Three?’ she said. ‘Is that alright?’
‘Some internal bleeding, got a bit of a habit.’
She said something else then I said, ‘I was listening to what you were saying.’
We were in the kitchen she was telling me a dream where her dead husband visits.
‘He said he’d come to check I was alright,’ she said. ‘I said I missed him, that there’d always be a place for him in my heart.’
She was quiet, her attention in the dream.
‘He turned into a snake,’ she said. ‘Crawled inside me it felt like I was pregnant then giving birth. But the midwife was a junkie and took my baby for a score.’
‘Oh.’
‘A social worker turns up too late, does a risk assessment and calls for an inquiry. The next thing I know we’re at the crematorium.’
‘Which one?’
‘South Bristol, the one you can see the bridge from…’
…I knew it.
‘…after the service we got a taxi,’ she said. ‘And you were driving...’
‘Oh,’ I said.