Gail prised Meesh from Jack. Jackie stayed, and Michael drove Jack and Mandy to Mandy’s flat. Jackie had confided that after a trauma it was sometimes difficult to step back into the swing of normal life; she was confident Jack would be okay, would heal, but how fast? No one could tell. The first thing Mandy did was run a bath; she said nothing. In the bedroom she undressed him, then herself. Into the bathroom, no argument over who would have the taps; they were in the centre anyway. ‘In you get, Jack,’ she was kissing him, smoothing her hands reassuringly across his fuzzy back and spotty bum as he stepped in.
‘Feck,’ he shot upwards, braced his arms on the bath rim, lifted his feet and folded his knees to his chest. Propped and swinging, he hovered, worried for is dangly bits, precarious
