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I?’
    ‘Can you remember any more?’
    ‘Recipes?’
    ‘No, silly! About your life.’
    ‘I don’t know. I don’t even know where the sprout thing came from. It just popped into my head. I don’t know if I can cook or not.’
    ‘It sounds like you can. And pretty well too.’
    ‘But that might not be my memory. I might have read it somewhere and think it was part of my past.’
    ‘Is it upsetting you?’ Jess asked.
    Gina gave her a warning look, and Hannah was about to speak when Tom beat her to it.
    ‘It’s ok,’ he said. ‘I’m not upset. I mean, I’m worried, of course, because I don’t know what I’ve left behind. But there’s something curiously liberating about the whole thing.’
    ‘Really?’ Hannah asked.
    ‘Well, it’s odd, but I feel more like myself right now than ever, even though I don’t know what that is.’
    Gina frowned as she bit into a carrot stick. ‘That does sound odd.’
    ‘I wish I could explain it better. Say I was a policeman, and in my everyday dealings with people I always remembered that I was a policeman and had to act in a way that was fitting to my station in life. Perhaps I wouldn’t do and say some of the things that I’d want to, because I’d think that police officers weren’t supposed to do and say those things.’
    ‘Are you a policeman?’ Jess asked.
    ‘I don’t think so.’
    Jess seemed to breathe a small sigh of relief. Hannah made a note to herself to ask her about it later. She turned her attention back to Tom. ‘So what you’re saying is that if you don’t remember what you are, you don’t know how to act?’
    ‘Yes. But that’s good, because however I’m acting now is exactly who I
really
am. Do you see?’
    ‘Sort of,’ Hannah said thoughtfully. She wondered whether a bump on the head might be something to see about getting herself later. It might wipe away some emotional baggage of her own.
    ‘Do you like Abba?’ Gina asked, moving towards the CD player.
    ‘Please say no,’ Jess said, rolling her eyes.’
    ‘Abba?’ Tom blinked at her. ‘I have no idea.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Jess said, ‘right answer. If I had to lose my memory, I’d wipe Abba from it too.’
    ‘You have no taste,’ Gina said, sticking her tongue out at Jess, who returned it with her own.
    ‘I’m with Gina on this one,’ Hannah said. ‘One day you’ll have your own Abba epiphany, and you’ll wonder why you ever thought they were crap.’ She glanced at Tom. ‘However, I do think we ought to keep the place quiet for now.’
    ‘Please don’t on my account,’ Tom said.
    ‘It’s best,’ Hannah insisted. ‘You’ve got a nasty head injury there and I don’t know what a lot of loud music will do. At the very least I’m sure you’ll end up with a banging headache.’
    ‘You’d end up with that anyway,’ Jess said.
    ‘He would if you put your music on,’ Gina fired back.
    ‘Oi!’ Jess huffed. ‘It’s a lot better than the crap you listen to!’
    ‘At least my music has an actual melody.’
    ‘People have to be woken from comas after listening to that middle of the road rubbish.’
    ‘Ok, ok…’ Hannah grinned. ‘Maybe we should save the big music debate for another time. Right now we have cooking to do.’
    Hannah took it upon herself to appoint tasks, which everyone – even Jess – cheerfully undertook. While the veg was being prepared she wrapped the turkey in foil and set about making fresh drinks for everyone. Bearing in mind some old advice she thought she knew about alcohol and head injuries, she made fruit juice cocktails for everyone, tactfully handing them around without saying anything to Tom lest she alarmed him.
    ‘So… let me get this right…’ Tom began as he took a break to sip his drink. ‘You two are sisters?’ he nodded at Gina and Hannah, ‘And you’re Gina’s daughter?’ he asked Jess.
    ‘Got it,’ Hannah said.
    ‘Do you all live nearby?’
    ‘I actually live just outside Birmingham,’ Gina said.