Chapter 14

Paula rocks Timmy. She uses the breathing techniques she learned for childbirth.

What a creepy, cruel thing for someone to say about her baby. She will not let it worry her. She is not “spiritual.” She is an Anglican.

If Timmy never goes near water he won’t drown. Simple as that. They will move to the desert. She will lock him up. For God’s sake, she doesn’t believe this kind of rubbish.

“ Mummy? ” says Willow. “Mummy?”

“I think the wee lass might—”

Paula stares for a dull stupefied moment at the document the Scottish man is trying to hand her. She squints to read it, as if it’s a contract or a file she needs to act on, but she really doesn’t have the bandwidth for this right now.

Then she gets it. Of course it’s not a document, idiot, it’s a sick bag.

She takes the bag. A flight attendant hurries down the aisle.

Willow turns her head.

“No,” says Paula.