I know this sounds crazy. I always thought my ultimate dream would be for Leanne to leave home. I guess if you’ve had someone terrorising you for thirteen years it gets to be a habit. And habits are hard to break. Mum’s starting to fall apart. She can’t eat, she can’t sleep. Every night I can hear her pacing up and down in her room. Steve’s been really good. He comes round most nights and mends leaky taps and stuff like that, helps me with my homework, sometimes brings steaks, other times phones up for pizzas and … the important thing, he doesn’t seem to be putting the hard word on Mum. He clears off every night about nine. Last Saturday he drove me down to Strapper Surfboards so I could do my part-time job while Mum sat home glued to the phone. Then he fixed the lawnmower and cut all the grass. He’s fixed the gutters. He started to sand the old paint off the walls on Sunday and I gave him a hand. And best of all, he’s a nice guy with a great sense of humour. I’m hoping he’s not just feeling sorry for Mum amd propping her up, and when Leanne lobs back in, he’s going to disappear.
