‘What?’ I ask. She’s still got hold of me and I feel like I might be about to vomit. I pull my hands from hers and the nausea fades.

‘You know what?’ she says, still smiling. ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’ll come and teach you magic.’

‘Really?’ I can barely speak for the tears suddenly clogging my throat. ‘You’ll help me get Mum back?’

She nods.

I want to cry and I want to hug her but I just say, ‘Thank you.’

She crosses to the wardrobe and starts pulling clothes off their hangers. Over her shoulder she says, ‘And if you still have my van, that’s where I’ll sleep.’

My heart is pounding in my ears and it says, Mum, Mum, Mum.

The sun is setting when Dad slides the last of Sylvie’s suitcases into the back of the Land Rover. ‘I’d be happy to do a magic act in the show,’ she says as she climbs in. ‘Just little magic for now, of course.’

But the magic spot is Mum’s, I think. And one day soon it will be mine too. When I bring Mum back, she’ll have no choice but to let me be part of her act.

Dad doesn’t reply to Sylvie but I know he’s bristling.

I squeeze into the space Dad left for me on the back seat and rest my head against a box of Sylvie’s books. I doze off, and when I wake, Dad and Sylvie are speaking very quietly, almost whispering.

‘… planning to come to one of your shows in Millimba,’ says Sylvie. ‘I was afraid she wouldn’t want to see me if I got in touch first.’

‘Do you really think she’s okay, Sylvie?’ He sounds like he’s trying not to cry.

There’s a too-long pause, and fear shivers through me. Say something! I think.

‘I don’t honestly know,’ she says, and my belly swoops.

A big truck thunders past so I can’t hear all of what Dad says next, but I catch: ‘… just giving her false hope?’

‘You’re right. It’s unlikely Tulsi will learn enough in a few weeks.’

I will. I’ll show her.

‘But …’ Sylvie continues, ‘she’s quite powerful, you know.’

Powerful?

‘And what do you mean by that?’ Dad sounds almost angry.

‘I mean if she’s taught in the right way, she could be quite an extraordinary magician.’

An extraordinary magician? Is that why she said ‘Well, well, well,’ when she held my hands? A quiet excitement starts to hum in my chest.

‘Don’t dare do the same to her as you did to Merry when she was a kid. I’ll be keeping an eye on you,’ he says.

What did she do to Mum?