13. I SHOULD NOT have come back, decided the adult Cecily, clutching her bag of translucent fruit. But hadn’t she been told to do just that, when she had finally caved in, and begged for help? ‘Go back to the beginning if you want to get rid of the voices. Find out what really happened.’ What nonsense, the voices themselves had protested at the time. We will never leave you. Promise! ‘It’s your only hope,’ she’d been advised. ‘Uncover that summer, peel your memory back.’ History isn’t about facts, the voices had screamed. But she was here now. Continue, they commanded her. What happened next? Tom, Tom! they added, beating an invisible drum. Out in the meadow under the old oak where the pony grazed, Joe appeared to be talking to Franca. They stood very close to each other but when Cecily crept up they weren’t talking, just smiling and looking.
