But he waited until his sister was safely out of earshot. He stood at a barred window watching Maxine and Pam walking across the lawns towards the big farmhouse. He felt himself begin to tremble with reaction. He hated it when this happened. This morning he’d woken up in a good mood and he might have been able to maintain it all day if this hadn’t happened. His sister had always had the knack of sending him crashing into rage and spiralling frustration. Why did she have to treat him like a kid? He was nineteen years old. And that remark about the empty gun. He thought only Dieter had known about that. Now Maxine knew too. His big sister just couldn’t resist humiliating him in front of her. It wouldn’t matter if these emotions just faded away. But they didn’t; they stayed with him and they got worse, like ruts digging ever deeper in his mind. It reminded Tommy unpleasantly of being a child, utterly vulnerable to his own moods. School had been the worst. He remembered the feeling of plunging terror he used to get when he sat down in a classroom and realized that there was nothing the teacher could say or do that would even remotely interest him.
