Now that he worked in television, lots of people wanted to know Dexter. They all wanted to hear his stories about the famous people that he interviewed. They all wanted to drink with him. So he was often drunk these days. Usually, being drunk in the morning didn't matter. Dexter worked in the afternoons and evening and he was always sober by then. But this morning, this morning of 15th July, it mattered very much. Today he had to go to his parent's house in the country, in Oxfordshire. He was already late. He knew, in that part of his mind, he didn't want to go at all. Because today, thinking about his parent made him want to scream. Dexter's mother, at forty-nine, was fifteen years younger than his father. Dexter liked his father and they usually got on well together. But his feelings about his mother were quite different. Dexter loved his mother more than anyone in the world. But now his mother was dying and Dexter knew that she couldn't live much longer.
He needed to see her, but he afraid. He was afraid to see now close to death she was. So this morning, he needed to be strong. He needed to make himself drive to his childhood home. And he needed to make himself behave normally when he got there.
Dexter looked at the large parcel, wrapped in brightly coloured paper, which he'd put next to his front door. He'd put it there so that he wouldn't forget it when he want out, even if he was drunk. The parcel was a present for his mother from his good friend Emma Morley.