One Plus One: A Novel by Jojo Moyes

gently into his, and even though normally he would have told her to “Scoot, small fry,” he just squeezed her fingers a bit.
    Mum had to have all the usual arguments with the hospital people about how, no, she wasn’t his actual mum, but as good as. And, no, he didn’t have a social worker. And it always made Tanzie feel a bit odd, like Nicky wasn’t a proper part of their family, even though he was.
    He walked out of the room really slowly, and he remembered to thank the nurse. “Nice lad, isn’t he?” she said. “Polite.”
    Mum was gathering up his things. “That’s the worst bit,” she said. “He just wants to be left alone.”
    “Doesn’t really work like that round here, though, does it?” The nurse smiled at Tanzie. “Take care of your brother, eh?”
    As she walked toward the main entrance behind him, Tanzie wondered what it said about their family when every single conversationthey had now seemed to end with a funny look and the words “Take care.”
    —
    Mum cooked dinner and gave Nicky three different-colored pills to take, and they sat watching television on the sofa together. It was
Total Wipeout,
which normally made Nicky pretty much wee himself laughing, but he had barely spoken since they’d returned home, and Tanzie didn’t think it was because his jaw hurt. Mum was busy upstairs. Tanzie could hear her dragging drawers out and going backward and forward across the landing. She was so busy she didn’t even notice it was way past bedtime.
    Tanzie nudged Nicky very gently with her finger. “Does it hurt?”
    “Does what hurt?”
    “Your face.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well . . . it’s a funny shape.”
    “So’s yours. Does that hurt?”
    “Ha ha.”
    “I’m fine, Titch. Drop it.” And then, when she stared at him, “Really. Just . . . forget it. I’m fine.”
    Mum came in and put the lead on Norman. He was lying on the sofa and didn’t want to get up, and it took her about four goes to drag him out of the door. Tanzie was going to ask her if she was taking him for a walk, but then the part came on where the wheel knocks the contestants off their little pedestals into the water and Tanzie forgot. Then Mum came back in.
    “Okay, kids. Get your jackets.”
    “Jackets? Why?”
    “Because we’re leaving. For Scotland.” She made it sound perfectly normal.
    Nicky didn’t look round from the television. “We’re leaving for Scotland . . . ?”
    “Yup. We’re going to drive.”
    “But we haven’t got a car.”
    “We’re taking the Rolls.”
    Nicky glanced at Tanzie, then back at Mum. “But you haven’t got insurance.”
    “I’ve been driving since I was twelve years old. And I’ve never had an accident. Look, we’ll stick to the B roads and do most of it overnight. As long as nobody pulls us over, we’ll be fine.”
    They both stared at her.
    “But you said—”
    “I know what I said. But sometimes the ends justify the means.”
    “What does that mean?”
    Mum threw her hands up in the air. “Nicky, there’s a maths competition that could change our lives and it’s in Scotland. Right now, we haven’t got the money for the fares. That’s the truth of it. I know it’s not ideal to drive, and I’m not saying it’s right, but unless you two have a better idea, then let’s just get into the car and get on with it.”
    “Um, don’t we need to pack?”
    “It’s all in the car.”
    Tanzie knew Nicky was thinking what she was thinking—that Mum had finally gone mad. But she had read somewhere that mad people were like sleepwalkers—it was best not to disturb them. So she nodded really slowly, like this was all making good sense. She fetched her jacket and they walked through the back door and into the garage, where Norman was sitting in the backseat and giving them the look that said, “Yeah. Me, too.” It smelled a bit musty in the car, and she didn’t really want to put her hands down on the seats because she had also read somewhere