Katherine watches out the window. It is not like him to be late. The setting sun reflects off the wet mulch. The leaves of autumn still lying in the drive. He had said he would be a little late but Katherine was beginning to worry.

He has gone to talk to the council. They are to be evicted. It was all there in the draft plan but he would die fighting it. That is her real worry. She can't imagine living without him, not now. It would be like living without electricity or running water. She just can't remember how.

The tea is still simmering on the stove, turning to pulp as she waits. She absent-mindedly adds more water to the peas, already quite gray. Though her eyes never leave the window, the drive. Silently waiting for her tubby old husband.

The house isn't worth all this. It is old like they are. The wiring dates to the thirties and she doesn't dare think about how old the plumbing is. The wooden foundations are soft with rot and crumbly with borer and the floors all slope down from the fireplace. It isn't really much of a house anymore. Just their home of thirty years. Rachael and Thomas had grown up here and Justin is twenty-seven.

But it was right in the way of progress. A mall is going up here. That’s what they say. A council initiative to promote growth. She doesn't see the point. The main street has all the shopping anyone could need. They don't approve of shopping, but she never understood why. It's not a wife's place to question their morals.

The smell of mutton, drying out, fills the kitchen. Katherine's eyes sit on the driveway, conversing with autumn's leaves. The brussel sprouts dissolve away in the pot.

Rachael asked her to move in last week. "It'd be great if you could help with the kids during the day, Mum, and I really do think it's time to think about putting Dad in a home." But Katherine could never do that to her husband. They are one.

The cauliflower is burning on the bottom and the white sauce far beyond saving. The sun has gone and only the glow of the city lights the drive. A tear runs down her cheek but Katherine is one to worry.