Man and Wife. Tony Parsons

Harry Potter.’

      ‘What’s wrong with Harry Potter? Harry Potter’s great. All children love Harry Potter.’

      ‘But he has to fit in, the poor little bastard. Pat, I mean. Not Harry Potter. He has to fit in everywhere he goes. Can’t you see that? When he’s with you and Richard. When he’s with me and Cyd. He always has to tread carefully. You can admit that, can’t you?’

      ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

      ‘The only time he’s relaxed is with my mum. Children shouldn’t have to fit in. Our little drama has given Pat a walk-on part in his own childhood. No child deserves that.’

      She didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t blame her. I would like to have thought that our son’s trouble at school was nothing to do with us, and everything to do with the fact that he was a lazy git. But I just couldn’t believe it. The reason he had ants in his pants at school was because he wanted to be liked, he needed to be loved. And I knew that had something to do with me and my ex-wife. Maybe it had everything to do with us. How could I not wonder what it would have been like if we had stayed together?

      ‘Do you ever think about the past?’

      ‘How do you mean?’

      ‘Do you ever miss us?’ I said, crossing the line between what was acceptable and what was not. ‘Just now and again? Just a tiny bit?’

      She smiled wearily at me over her abandoned cappuccino. There was no warmth left in either the coffee or her smile.

      ‘Miss us? You mean staying home alone while you were playing the big shot out in the glamorous world of television?’

      ‘No, that wasn’t really –’

      ‘You mean going to your launches, and your parties, and your functions and being treated like the invisible woman because I looked after our son, instead of presenting some crappy little TV show?’

      ‘Well, what I was actually –’

      ‘People thinking I was second-rate because I was bringing up a child – when what I was doing was the most important job in the world. Telling people I was a homemaker and some of them actually smiling, Harry, some of them actually thinking it was funny, that it was a joke.’

      Not all this again.

      ‘I’ll get the bill, shall I?’

      ‘When what was really funny was that I had the kind of degree that these career morons could only dream about. When what was funny was that I was bilingual while most of those cretins hadn’t quite mastered English. Miss any of that? No, not really, Harry, not now you come to mention it. And I don’t miss sleeping in our bed with our little boy sleeping in the next room while you were out banging one of the office juniors.’

      ‘You know what I mean. Just the lack of complication. That’s all. There’s no need to drag up all that old –’

      ‘No, I can’t say I miss it. And you shouldn’t either. You shouldn’t miss that old life, because it was built on a lie. I like it now, if you really want to know. That’s the difference between you and me. I like it now. I like my life with Richard. To me, these are the good old days. And you should be grateful, Harry.’

      ‘Why’s that?’

      ‘Because Pat has a stepfather who cares about him deeply. Some step-parents are abusive. Some are violent. Many of them are indifferent.’

      ‘I should be grateful that my son is not being abused? Give me a break, Gina.’

      ‘You should be grateful that Richard is a wonderful, caring man who wants what’s best for Pat.’

      ‘Richard tries to change him. He doesn’t need changing. He’s fine the way he is now.’

      ‘Pat’s not perfect, Harry.’

      ‘Me neither.’

      ‘Oh, Harry. We all know that.’

      We glared at each other for a few moments and then Gina called for the bill. I knew her well enough not to try to pay it.

      We always did this – supported each other, tried to be friends, and then for an encore drove each other nuts. We couldn’t seem to stop ourselves. In the end we maddened each other by picking at old wounds, we turned the closeness between us into an infuriating claustrophobia.

      I knew that I had angered her today. And that’s why the news she told me as we were walking back to our cars sounded like an act of supreme cruelty and spite.

      ‘None of this matters,’ she said. ‘The trouble at school. All that tired old crap we keep dragging around the block. None of it matters any more, Harry.’

      ‘What are you talking about?’

      ‘We’re going to America.’

      I just stared at her.

      ‘I’ve been meaning to tell you. But it wasn’t definite. Not until this week.’

      I thought about it for a while. But I didn’t understand. Not yet.

      ‘How long would you be gone? I’m not saying taking Pat out of school for a couple of weeks is a bad idea. Might do him some good. A break might be what he needs. It’s not as though he’s learning very much right now.’

      My ex-wife shook her head. She couldn’t believe that I could be so slow.

      ‘Come on, Harry.’

      And as we stood in that deserted school car park, I finally started to get it. I finally started to understand that my ex-wife could do whatever she liked. What a sucker I had been.

      ‘Hold on. Tell me you mean a vacation, Gina. Tell me you’re talking about Disneyland and Florida?’

      ‘I’m talking about leaving London, Harry. And leaving the country. I’m talking about us moving there for good. To live, Harry. Richard and me and Pat. Richard’s contract is ending, and he’s never really settled here –’

      ‘Richard hasn’t settled here? Richard? What about Pat? What about Pat being allowed to fucking settle?’

      ‘Would you like to watch your language? He’s seven years old. Children are very adaptable. They get used to anything.’

      ‘But his school is here. And his grandmother is here. And Bernie Cooper is here.’

      ‘Who the hell is – oh, little Bernie. God, Harry, he can make some new friends. It’s a work thing, okay? Richard can get a better position in the States.’

      ‘But your job is here. Look at you, Gina. You finally got your life back. Why would you throw that away?’

      ‘My job’s not quite what I wanted. I don’t even get to use my Japanese. What’s the point in working for a Japanese company if I don’t even get to use my Japanese? Don’t worry, we’re not talking about a place in the city. From Connecticut the train into Manhattan only takes –’

      ‘Don’t worry? But when would I see him? What about his grandmother?’

      ‘You would see him all the time. The school holidays go on for ages. You could come over. London to New York is nothing. What is it? Six hours?’

      ‘Have you talked to Pat about this? Does he know it’s not going to be a quick tour round Minnie Mouse and then back home?’

      ‘Not yet.’

      I shook my head, trying to get my breathing under control.

      ‘I can’t believe you’re thinking of dragging him to the other side of the world,’ I said, although that really wasn’t true. I could believe it very easily. I began to see that she had always had this thing inside her, this belief that life would be better at the other end of a long-haul flight.

      For years Gina