‘I don’t…don’t…know which is my back gate,’ Seymour managed to get out. ‘Didn’t I tell you? I’m staying with this lady, Thelma…she’s a friend of my mum’s, sort of…and I climbed over her back gate and went up the shops and now I’m…lost. The house number’s 37 Victoria Road, but I can’t go around that way. Got no front door key, and there’s a trellis thing on the side path and it’s kept locked. I don’t know what to do…’

‘Well, don’t panic. You’ve struck it lucky, because I just happen to be going out that way. As a matter of fact I always do, so my landlady can’t bail me up and have a moaning session. Come on, then, useless. You’d be dead hopeless if you were one of those guys they sent off to explore the moon, you’d probably have landed up on Mars instead. Can’t even find your own back gate, I don’t know! Now, Victoria Road’s over that side, so your gate must be along here somewhere. The toffy-nose side of the alley, if it’s even got one.’

Seymour looked anxiously up and down the alley, but it was deserted. Almost immediately he recognised Thelma’s gate, directly opposite, with the crescent-shaped cut above the lock. He climbed up with no difficulty, then sat on the top rail and looked down at Angela, thinking that in that setting of garbage bins and ugly corrugated iron, she was like a waterlily floating on a murky pond surface. But now she was turning to go, and he’d probably never see her again, and she was the only person he’d ever met in his life who’d made him feel as though his company was remarkable or worthwhile.

‘Hey, Angie…’

She turned back and looked at him enquiringly, but he had nothing else to say. He just sat and gazed down at her from the loneliest face in the world.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Bored, aren’t you, nothing to do in the holidays. Well, listen, I just thought, how about you turn up at my place tomorrow around ten-thirty? I’ve got to go someplace first, but soon as we get that out of the way, I’ll take you on a tram ride and show you something really fantastic. It can be a special holiday treat.’

‘You mean it?’ he asked breathlessly, hardly daring to believe it could be so.

‘Course I mean it!’ said Angela.

BUDGET

Rent $65 (what a rip off!)

Elect a/c $47 (apply for extension of time if poss?)

D.M. $450 (!!!)

Rick $76 (?) LIAR!!

Part payment on black dress $5

Floral art course outstanding fees final notice hell

damn and blast! $100 less deposit = $75

NEEDED URGENTLY:

milk coffee groceries/fruit pantyhose

hair colour rinse detergent powder Ant-Rid

bulb for kitchen light new jeans