‘Whenever I feel sorry enough for Dad to do him a favour,’ Gordon said to Lou, ‘why do I feel like I’m walking into a trap I’ve walked into before?’

‘Because those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it!’ Ron said triumphantly. ‘Didn’t they teach you anything in school?’ Cheers rippled up from The Lodge. Gordon raised an eyebrow at Lou. ‘Who’s in?’

‘Who do you reckon? Dog, Red Cap, TM, Sam and his dad, Snake, the old ladies, the surf crew. I’ve got a good repeat crowd from my other fundraisers. And a whole bunch I’ve never seen, up from the carnival. They’re playing blackjack. Carl’s set himself up as dealer. You better keep an eye on him, Gordon. He’s not quite right.’

‘Not for money?’ Gordon said, thinking Frontal would have him now for running a casino.

Lou winced. ‘You reckon that mob has money?’

‘Pontoon!’ Ron cried.

‘Anything I can do?’ Gordon asked Lou.

‘I might take a break; I probably can’t get it done tonight.’

‘Good,’ Ron interjected. ‘I can sleep over!’

Gordon bent to pick his father up again, but something grabbed in his back and he lowered him to the landing.

‘Hopeless,’ Ron said.

‘I’ll take him.’ Lou gathered Ron up and cradled him like a child.

‘Thanks,’ Gordon said.

‘A pleasure,’ Ron replied, hugging Lou’s neck and pressing the side of his face against her chest.

‘Not you,’ Gordon said, trying to conceal the pain pulsing in his back.

‘You don’t like camping, do you?’ Ron asked Lou. ‘Or have we already discussed that?’

‘You’ve already discussed that,’ Lou said.

She got Ron to the bottom of the stairs and he shuffled into the house. On the doorstep, she gave Gordon a kiss on his cheek that told him all he needed to know.

‘You’re leaving,’ he said.

Lou bowed her head. ‘I promised I’d get the girls’ crew to the carnival and watch Ben’s cricket final. But then, yeah.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘What are you apologising to me for?’

‘I’ve failed you. I hoped to offer you a better place than the one you left.’

‘Fuck’s sake, Gordon, open your eyes. If you don’t think you’ve got me to a better place, just for once in your life Open. Your. Fucking. Eyes.’

In the living room, the assembly paused their blackjack to cheer Ron’s arrival. His popularity was inexplicable to Lou. Nothing but rudeness and contempt towards this crowd, and here they were, warming the house for him. Their sun-blasted Bluebird amnesia granted him a kind of emeritus status. He wasn’t a cranky old misanthrope; he was Old Bluebird returning to its sacred land.