It was laundry day. That meant I had to steel myself and brave our nineteen-year-old son’s bedroom. I know that I should just tell him to strip his bed and put the bedding on the landing. I know that, but if you knew Mikhael, then you would know that it would never happen. He is not lazy; no, he is simply indifferent. If I gave him clean bedding, it would just sit wherever I left it. It would never get put on the bed. Not...

Jill lives next door; she is married to Jim. We had agreed that we would go to Meadowhall, a shopping mall near to Sheffield. We wanted some new outfits; it would soon be spring, and the summer clothes would be gone from the shops. It was now or never. Jill was driving; I was navigating. Meadowhall isn’t that difficult to find; it is bigger than some villages and is signposted from the motorway, but Jill liked to be direc...