Max walks in with the energy of a boxer warming up for a fight, his towel hanging around his neck. He points at Holly. ‘Were you drinking milk from the bottle just now?’
For Christ’s sake.‘She wasn’t,’ I say. ‘She only just took it out of the fridge.’
I look at Holly. I expect her to deny it, but instead she stares at Max. Her face has gone pale, her eyes unfocused.
‘Holly? What’s wrong?’ I ask.
‘Oh my God,’ she whispers. ‘I remember.’
‘You remember what?’
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Max snaps. ‘Put the milk away! Jesus Christ!’
‘It’s the song,’ she says.
‘What about it?’ I ask. But I am also thinking,please put the milk away.
‘That was the song on the radio, the night Mum died.’
Time seems to stand still. No one says anything.
Suddenly, Max grabs Holly by the back of the neck, his face so close he could bite her. ‘What are you talking about?’
I’m next to him in a flash, my heart like a drum. ‘Let her go, Max.’
‘It’s the song,’ she says, her forehead butting against his. ‘That was the song on the radio.’
‘Max!’
He breathes through his nostrils, squeezing the back of her neck so hard his hand is trembling.
‘Max, that’s enough! Let go of Holly!’
Holly’s eyes fill with tears. ‘I remember.’
He pushes her away, punching the bottle out of her hand. It bounces off the wall, spewing milk across the kitchen floor.
‘Max! Stop!’ I shout.
He points at Holly. ‘I do not want your disgusting germs in my milk. Is that really so hard to understand?’
‘I remember!’ she cries. ‘It wasn’t my fault! She was leaving you!’
The next few minutes unfurl in a blur. Max grabs Holly by the hair and pulls hard. ‘You remember nothing.’
‘Max!’ I grab his shoulders and try to pull him away, but I’m no match for him.
Holly is crying, saying the same thing over and over:‘I remember. It wasn’t my fault. I never touched it. It wasn’t my fault.’
Max is shouting into her face that she’d better shut her mouth or he was going to shut it for her.
I pull him back as hard as I can, yelling at him to stop, to let go of her. But then suddenly, I hit my head on the tiled floor, and I see stars.
‘Oh God.’ I try to sit up. I put my hand on the back of my head. But I can’t move because Max is on top of me.
‘Max! Get off me!’ I try to push him off but he’s too heavy, too slumped. ‘Holly! Can you?—’
But Holly is just standing there, eyes like saucers, her whole body shaking.
