‘Bossyboots,’ she said. ‘You’re like this teacher I had at school, what was her name, Miss Rydges…Rydell…oh, I can’t even remember her dumb name! God, I hate it when I can’t remember things.’

‘Don’t try and change the subject. Now’s a good time as any to give up smoking, while you don’t feel well. You said at the races you were going to give up without fail, cross your heart. What happened to that?’

‘Don’t nag! Tomorrow, maybe.’

‘It’s in the papers all the time, how it makes people get lung cancer. If you give up, it adds ten years to your life. Ten whole years you can buy new earrings and wacky-looking clothes. Don’t you want all that extra time?’

‘What?’

‘Don’t you want ten extra years to live?’

‘Not particularly.’

Seymour stared at her.

‘The idea doesn’t grab me all that much,’ Angie said. ‘You know, sometimes I just want to go…home. Wherever that is. Home before dark…’

‘Your place?’ Seymour asked, puzzled. ‘I thought you didn’t like it there. You said your mum and dad pick on you all the time.’

‘I didn’t mean…oh, forget it. Get lost!’

‘Hey, Angie, what’s the matter?’

For she’d suddenly rolled sideways, clutching her stomach and moaning raggedly to herself. Beads of sweat sprang up across her forehead, but when he touched her hand, it was as cold as snow.

‘Go away!’ she whispered savagely. ‘Go on, nick off, go away and leave me alone! You little pest, I never even asked you to…’

‘Angie!’ he pleaded. ‘Listen, I reckon I should go and tell someone. You might have appendicitis, you get a pain in the gut when you have appendicitis…Should I go and get your landlady?’

‘That old bitch! She’d kick me out. Don’t you dare let her in here stickybeaking…Oh God, I can’t stand this! Find Juliet for me, who took her? Where’s Juliet?’ She snatched up a battered rag doll from the floor and held it tightly, rocking to and fro. ‘Juliet, got her for my fifth birthday,’ she whispered. ‘Been with me through thick and thin. All the times I’ve moved, Seymour, you just wouldn’t credit the other things I…lost. My charm bracelet Dad gave me, that was worth a mint, I got a new gold charm every Christmas, you know, he’d pick them out specially, and I went and… I feel so ashamed. And Grandma’s little pearl earrings, real pearls…can’t remember where, Brisbane, I think. There was a photograph frame, all silver…Oh, God in heaven, all the things people gave me, and I just…just…’