Inner workings

‘Now what?’ said Joe.

Kim shrugged. ‘We wait, I suppose. This is so far from what I envisioned when I ordered your new knees Joe. I’m sorry I got us into this-’

‘No need to apologise, pet. You couldn’t possibly have imagined this. Although new knees would have been great, I appreciate the thought.’ He gave her a clumsy one armed hug as they sat side by side in the front of the car. He turned round to Delphine and Emma. ‘Are you two hungry - you didn’t have any breakfast, did you?’

Without waiting for an answer he got out of the car and rummaged in the boot. 

‘I put some bananas in and some other stuff,’ said Kim. ‘And a couple of packets of biscuits. There might be still be water in the cool box too, have a look.’

Joe had long ago given up on trying to understand the inner workings of his wife’s mind. While they had been rushing about trying to evacuate the house as fast as possible, Kim had known they would need provisions and packed a bag of food. He opened the cool box and saw three bottles of water, together with cheese, butter and a couple of apples. Tunnelling further down, he discovered a vaguely familiar package at the bottom, and frowned, trying to think what it was. And then he remembered. He’d thrust it in there to hide it when Bella’s girls had come round, anxious they shouldn’t get their hands on Solution A, whatever that was. He had half a mind to chuck it out, but thought better of it. If it was as toxic as he suspected it might be, they’d have to think carefully how to dispose of it. He put it back at the bottom of the box.