After seeing her room, his aunt knocked on Daniel’s bedroom door and asked for a tour of the house. But Daniel said he was tired, one hand drumming his chest, his mind on his father and the strange man Lawson. So, when she insisted, he walked her round as fast as he could, starting upstairs.
She carried a notebook, filling a page with spidery writing as she clucked her displeasure at the state of the ancient boiler, and wondered how his father had let the damp in the bathroom spread so much in one corner.
But she just nodded and smiled faintly when Daniel could not bear to open his father’s bedroom door.
‘I know it must feel very strange without him here,’ she said and Daniel could only nod and look at the floor. The shirt and chinos his aunt had bought for him at the airport felt tight and uncomfortable. They weren’t the sort of thing he would have worn at all, and he wanted to rip them off and change into his own T-shirt and jeans. He wanted to open all the windows in the house too and flush out the smell of her lemony perfume.
He took her downstairs, through the dining room and living room, wafting his hand about and barely saying a word. She watched him in the kitchen, opening and closing the drawers so quickly the cutlery crashed about, yanking the cupboard doors open and then slapping them shut.
‘There, we’re done,’ he said. ‘I’m going to my room now.’
‘How about we get some dinner?’ she suggested, looking at her watch.
‘I’m not hungry.’
‘Daniel, you’ve been on hospital food for the last few days.’ She took a breath and folded her arms. ‘I know it’s hard. I know it is. It’s all very different for me too. But I want you to know you can tell me anything, anytime. I’ll listen. I thought we could sit down and eat and talk about practical matters to start with. How things are going to work until . . .’ She paused, tapping her foot as if annoyed with herself for not saying the right thing. ‘I mean, how things are going to work for now.’
Daniel’s fingers played with the two pieces of Lawson’s business card hidden in his trouser pocket. He was desperate to know more about the man and what he had done in his father’s hospital room. The warm golden glow that had appeared as if by magic in Daniel’s chest was the first time he had felt anything good in the last few days. He wanted to feel it again. He wanted to know what Lawson had meant by the fit and what it could do.
‘How about a takeaway then?’ he suggested to his aunt. ‘Me and Dad use that Indian all the time.’ And Daniel pointed at a menu pinned to the refrigerator by a silver star. ‘It’s a twenty-minute drive, but it’s worth it. I’ll stay here and hold the fort.’
‘Isn’t there anything nearer?’
‘I bet you haven’t had a decent curry in years. Not in California. The rental car has a satnav, so if we put in the postcode it’ll take you straight there. I can ring ahead with the order. I know exactly what I want.’
His aunt chewed her lip as she stared at him for a moment. And then she flipped her notebook shut and clipped the pen on to the white spiral binding at the side. ‘If that’s what you want then of course I’ll go.’
He watched her pluck the menu from the refrigerator door and scrutinize it. ‘Tandoori king prawns and pilau rice for me,’ she said as she pinned the menu back under the star and turned round. ‘You’re sure you’ll be OK?’
Daniel nodded. ‘Thanks,’ he said.
‘You want some time alone, I understand.’
‘No, I mean for flying all that way.’
As she picked up her handbag from the kitchen worktop, she smiled. ‘Daniel, like I said, we’re family.’