Jessa washed her face with cold water in the pub’s dingy toilet room. The smell of papery potpourri stung her senses. She rinsed out her mouth in an attempt to wash away the sugary residue left behind by the cola.

“I have those chewy toothbrush things,” said Audrey. “You want one?” She opened her little shoulder bag and pulled out a box of SparkleChewz. She bit one in half and handed the other half to her sister.

“Thanks. I didn’t know they still made these,” Jessa said in between munches. “I’ve only ever seen them at service stations.”

“That’s where I got these!” Audrey smiled a tired smile. “I knew they’d come in handy someday.” She ran a brush through her hair and tied it back into a neat ponytail. “Do you remember that one time we were driving down to Cornwall for a holiday and Mum wanted to go to McDonald’s at a service station but Dad insisted on going to that bacon butty stand by the side of the motorway?”

“No?”

“I guess you were pretty young. Dad was so persistent that Mum gave in, and he ate the biggest bacon and sausage sandwich that you could imagine. And Mum didn’t have anything, because she insisted she wanted McDonald’s instead, and I wanted to go, too. Anyway, Dad basically spent the whole holiday with food poisoning. He didn’t go to the beach once.” She huffed quietly in a way that could have been a subtle laugh or a saddened sigh. “These things remind me of that holiday. I ate a Happy Meal and then asked Mum for 50p so I could buy SparkleChewz because I hated the weird feeling on my teeth after the fizzy drink.”

“I wish we could go on holiday right now,” said Jessa, looking in the mirror at her cheeks that were still rosy from being dabbed with cold water.

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

The pub became quieter, and people rested, hushed into turbulent naps.

“Curfew,” the banners kept rolling across the screen. “Chaos.”

Jessa sat in the corner of the seating booth with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. The din outside descended from a raging war into a rumbling lullaby. Exhaustion finally got the better of her, and she fluttered her eyes closed.