Michelle felt as if she had a stone inside her, something hard and unyielding that was making her feel sick. She hadn't known it was possible to feel this bad. She looked at Keith and felt sorry for him. When you chopped logs with the axe and they split open they smelt beautiful, like Christmas. But when you split someone's head open it smelt like an abattoir and quite overpowered the scent of the wild lilacs you'd cut and brought into the house only this morning, which was already in another life.

It seemed unlikely that Jackson would have more children. This was it - one girl in pink jeans and a T-shirt that was emblazoned with the message, 'So many boys, so little time'. Did the people who designed these T-shirts, did the people who made these T-shirts in size '8-10 yrs', ever stop to think that what they were doing might actually be immoral? Of course the people who made the T-shirts were probably themselves '8-10 yrs' in a sweatshop in the Philippines somewhere.
'Daddy?'
'Yep?'
'Can we light a candle for my hamster?'
'You should get a T-shirt,' Jackson said, ' "so many hamsters, so little time".'