aZircons?a aPosh glass, I gathera. Edie looked round her. aThis is very posh glass, isnat it?a aEdie,a Vivien said, aplease donat play-act all over the place and spoil our luncha.

aI canat actually,a Edie said, aIam too tireda.

Vivien looked sympathetic.

aAre you?a Edie picked up the menu. aWhat do you think?a aIall only think wrong,a Vivien said, aso why donat you tell me?a Edie said, staring at the menu, aIam shattered. Youad think five adults living together would lead five fully adult livesa.

Vivien said, with a small smile, thinking of Max, aPeople like to be looked aftera. aIncluding mea.

aWhat about,a Vivien said, summoning a waiter, asome ground rules?a aLike?a aLike do your own washing, clean your own rooma"a Edie put the menu down.

She said tiredly, aItas more than that, really. Itas five people wanting five peopleas separate spacea.

The waiter paused by their table. aTwo glasses of champagne, pleasea.

aVivia"a aWhy not?a Edie looked at her carefully. aI suppose you do look a" happya.

aI ama.

aGood,a Edie said. aMax behavinga"a aOh yesa.

aYouare surea"a aFlowers,a Vivien said. aTreats, naughty shoesa.

aOh Lorda.

aItas like being at the beginning again, only itas better because I know what Iam doing this timea. Edie folded her arms. aIs he staying in?a aOh yes,a Vivien said. aIf we arenat out, itas candles on the kitchen table. Why donat you bring Russell down to supper?a Edie sighed.

aBecause I only have one evening a week free at the momenta. Vivien gave a stifled giggle. aOops! Silly mea.

Edie said nothing. The waiter came back with two flutes of champagne. Vivien picked hers up and held it out towards Edie. aHappy days. Why donat you just throw some of them out?a Edie stiffened.

aOh noa.

aWhy not?a aI love having them there. I love having the house full again. Itas what I wanteda. aEven if itas killing you?a Edie picked up her own glass and took a tiny swallow.

aIt isnat killing mea. aBut you saida"a aOh,a Edie said, picking up the menu again and leaning back in her chair, ayou know me. Always saying things I donat mean for effecta.

Vivien looked at her. Then she looked down at her own menu.

aWhat about the scallops?a she said.

Because they cost him nothing and simultaneously made him feel he was achieving something, Lazlo had begun taking long walks in the afternoon, accompanied by Russellas copy of The Blue Guide to London. He had walked to Noel Road, to look at the house Joe Orton had once lived in, and then to Duncan Terrace to imagine Charles Lamb going in and out with perhaps his sister Mary watching for him from an upstairs window. He had been several times to the Estorick Collection to gaze anxiously at the Italian Futurist paintings and wonder exactly what made them so alarming. He had walked round Aberdeen Park and Highbury Fields, he had looked at churches and chapels and libraries and prisons, he had followed rivers and canals and handsome Georgian and Victorian terraces. And when he returned, after two or three hours of walking and thinking, he was struck both by how glad he was to be home and by how painfully impermanent that home inevitably was.

What was particularly disconcerting about this state of affairs was that his life was, really, going better than it ever had. He might still be on close to Equity minimum wage because Ghosts was hardly a lavish production, but he had had excellent notices, two better-known agents were offering their services, and he was, thanks to Edie and her family, living in the least hand-to-mouth circumstances he had known. Even his student debt, incurred in order to go to drama school, was beginning to look less like an unwelcome, unavoidable companion for the next twenty years. Yet an anxiety possessed him about what would happen next, about whatever happened next being sure to be inferior to what was happening now, which made him despair of ever possessing the capacity to appreciate good things when they happened to turn up. He had never been consumed by this disquiet while living in Kilburn. Maybe it was because living in Kilburn, in those particular circumstances, had been so bad that there was comfort to be drawn from being very certain that nothing could ever be worse. And now, living as he was, he could remember and visualise the downward slide back to somewhere like Kilburn very easily, and that prospect could reduce him, to his shame, to clinging to the edge of the basin in Edieas bathroom, as he had the other morning, and panicking at the sight of his own frightened face in the mirror above it. What Matthew must have thought, Lazlo couldnat, and darenat, imagine. He had looked at Lazlo with the sort of look Lazlo remembered the older boys at school giving the younger ones when they hurt themselves playing rugby. Matthew was obviously the sort of guy who knew what to do with his inner demons.

Not knowing what to do with his own was one of the reasons, Lazlo was sure, that made him able to play Osvald. Maybe that was also what made him so certain that if he couldnat be an actor then he couldnat be anything. Freddie Cass had said to him that acting wasnat something you wanted to do, it was something you had to do. Lazlo had been very happy to hear that, had felt a relief and a gratitude at having his own need sanctioned, but it hadnat, oddly, assuaged the feeling of being an outsider in some way, a person who could only fully engage with other people if he was pretending to be someone else.

Which is why it was so very astonishing to have been kissed by Rosa. At first, he had simply thought she was teasing him, that kissing him was just a little more of the mischief that had led her to lie on his bed and fall asleep there. But although she had been flirtatious and light-hearted before she kissed him, she was quite different when she stepped back again. She had looked, fleetingly and amazingly, as if she was dreading that he might laugh at her. She had even almost said sorry.

aTypical Rosaa"a aWhat?a Shead looked away, pushing her hair back.

She muttered, aAlways blundering in where sheas not wanteda"a Head been in too much of a turmoil even to consider saying, aYou are wanteda. Anyway, at that moment, would such a statement have been true? Was it true now? What, in fact, did he feel about being kissed by her? What had he felt when he found her lying, quite unselfconsciously, on his bed? He couldnat believe how many walks were occupied in wondering about this. He couldnat believe the miles he seemed able to cover while asking himself if this girl, whom head rather dismissed as spoiled and careless and unappreciative of the solid support of her background, was actually and appealingly something of a fellow wanderer.

Head shaken his head at Rosa. Head meant her to infer that kissing him wasnat a blunder. Shead put the back of her hand up against her mouth, and then taken it away and said, with a slightly uncertain smile, aBetter go and sort the sheet crisisa.

Head nodded. He hadnat moved from where he was standing by the wall. She went over to the door and hesitated for a moment. He waited for her to turn so that he could at least smile at her, but she didnat. She went out of the room and down the stairs to the landing below, and Lazlo heard Edie say, aI wonder, Rosa, if the sheets on the floor could possibly be yours?a He waited for Rosa to scream something in reply, but she didnat. Perhaps she was bundling the sheets up in her arms and taking them silently downstairs. Perhaps she had stepped over them and shut herself quietly in her room. Perhaps she was looking at herself in her bedroom mirror and wondering why anyone should want to return her kiss. Lazlo closed his eyes and slumped against the wall. Nil points, he told himself. Nil points to self.

aLook at this diary,a Maeve said.

Russell looked up. Maeve was standing in the doorway between their offices holding up the large cloth-bound book she preferred to use instead of anything more up to date.

aYou look at it,a Russell said in a friendly voice. aItas one of the things I pay you fora.

aYou are out,a Maeve said, in the tone of one reprimanding a student about an overdraft, aevery single night this weeka.

aYesa.

aAnd last week. And four nights next weeka. aYes. So is Ediea.

Maeve slapped her hand against the diary. aThese are invitations you wouldnat have countenanced accepting six months agoa. aProbably nota.

aWhy,a Maeve said, adonat you do something worthwhile, like going to a lecture? Why donat you broaden your horizons?a Russell reached across his desk for the telephone.

aYou mean well,a he said, abut I have enough to bear without you adding to ita.

aIam trying to alleviate ita"a Russell was pressing buttons.

aIam trying,a Maeve said, ato helpa.

aHello?a Russell said into the telephone. aHello? Russell Boyd here. I was hoping to speak to Gregorya"a Maeve backed out of Russellas office in time to hear the bell to the street door ring. She pressed the intercom, and on the tiny television screen that filmed whoever was standing outside she saw an unpromising-looking boy in a parka with a knitted hat.

aYes?a The knitted hat leaned nearer the mouthpiece.

aItas Bena. aIs it?a aYes,a Ben said without rancour. aItas mea. aTake your hat offa.

Ben pulled off his beanie and pushed his face towards the camera. Maeve pressed the door-release buzzer to let him in. He came up the stairs at a slow and heavy trudge.

Maeve met him in the doorway.

aSorry, dear. You looked like one of those posters for Brixton Academya.

Ben grinned at her.

aGooda.

aIam afraid your fatheras on the phonea. Ben shrugged.

aI thought we might go out for a beera"a aWell,a Maeve said, returning briskly behind her desk, aall he ever does at the moment is go out for beers, so I donat see why one of them shouldnat be with youa.

aOK,a Ben said amiably. He wandered over to his fatheras office and gestured through the doorway. Russell waved and motioned to his son to sit down. Ben leaned against the door jamb and folded his arms and looked at all the photographs of Russellas clients slowly and consideringly.

aCome away,a Maeve said behind him.

Ben took no notice.

Russell said, aWell, letas be in touch at the end of the week,a and put the phone down. Then he looked at Ben. Ben was gazing at the picture of an actress whoad been photographed, for some reason, in a leopard-print trilby.

aWell,a Russell said, loudly enough for Maeve to hear him quite clearly, awhat brings you here?a It was early still, so the bar was only occupied by a few people left blurrily over from lunch. Russell put his glass and Benas beer bottle down on a table below a mirror engraved with art nouveau lilies.

aIs this an emergency?a aNot reallya"a aI mean, no phone call, no warning, you just turn up in the office, which I seem to recall you only ever doing once before when you were out all night after your A levelsa"a aI just thought I would,a Ben said. aIt just occurred to me. Going home would have been such a big deala.

aWhat do you mean, going home?a aI mean going to the house would have been such a big deala.

aSix stops down the linea"a Ben sighed.

aNot geography, Dad. Other stuffa.

Russell picked up his glass and took a swallow.

aI donat know why it is, but when any of you children come and seek me out I feel instantly defensive. Have you come to tell me that you and Naomi have broken up?a aOnly sort ofa"a aWhat dayou mean, sort of?a Ben turned his beer bottle round as if he needed to read the label on the back.

aItas just,a he said, athat we need a bit of spacea. aYou have broken upa.

aNo,a Ben said patiently, awe havenat. Weare going to live togethera.

aI thought you were living togethera.

aWeare going to live together,a Ben said, ain our own placea.

aGood for youa.

aYeah. Wella.

aSo I suppose you need money for a deposit?a Ben shook his head.

aWe havenat found the place yeta.

aAha.

aWe canat start looking until things are a bit calmera. Russell closed his eyes briefly.

aWhat things?a Ben said carefully, aNaomi and her mum have never been apart beforea.

Russell gave Ben a long look.

aI seea.

aIt might take her a bit of time to come round to the ideaa.

aOf Naomi leaving to live with youa.

aYeaha.

aSometimes,a Russell said, aI get the feeling that Iam living in one of those unfunny family comedy series on televisiona.

aWhy?a aBecause youare going to ask me something to which Iam going to say no and I can write the scenario for both speeches in advancea"a aDada"a Russell sighed.

aAsk me anywaya.

aItas hard for Naomi,a Ben said.

aIam sure it isa.

aHer dad walked out years ago and itas just been her and her muma. aPlus youa.

aSheas cool with it,a Ben said. aItas more me. I want to live like I want to live. Itas not hera. aBut Naomi canat decide?a Ben took a mouthful of beer.

aSheas decided. Itas doing it thatas hard. Soa"a He paused.

aYes?a aI thought Iad give her some space. For a whilea. aAnd come homea.

aYesa.

aNo,a Russell said loudly. He looked down at the table. aItas appalling at home, alreadya.

Ben said nothing.

aThere are too many people and too much laundry and too many what you would call aissues,a already. Mum is exhausted. I am a" well, never mind what I am. But there is no room for you to come home, Ben, there is no more energya.

aI could,a Ben said calmly, asleep on the sofaa.

aNo!a Russell said, almost shouting. aNo! The sofa is the last indoor space lefta.

aOK, Dada. aWhat?a aI said,a Ben said, just as calmly, aOK, Dad. Itas OK. I wonat come homea.

aWhat?a aI thought it was worth asking. Thatas all. No big deal. Iall sleep on Andyas floora. aYou canata"a aWhy not?a aYour mother will never forgive mea. Ben said kindly, aShe wonat knowa. Russell stared at him. aWonat you go straight to her?a aNoa.

aWhy not?a aWhy should I?a aGood Lord,a Russell said.

Ben looked at the lilies on the mirror.

aItas not a big deal, Dada.

aI thought it might bea.

aNopea.

aBut I wish you didnat have to sleep on Andyas floora. Ben glanced from the lilies to his father. aDone it beforea.