'Lawrence said you grew up here,' Robert is saying. The old man confirms this. Vanessa hadn't known.
'And have you lived here all your life?' she asks.
'Mostly,' he says. 'I had a couple of brief spells away.' Vanessa feels envious of his rootedness. There is nowhere she thinks of as home. Her parents moved twice when she was a child and the secret places of her infancy have long since disappeared under tarmac and concrete.