Tears mixed with the sunscreen she hadn’t had a chance to wash off, stinging her eyes. She wiped them away quickly before she risked running off the road. Love had seemed such a strange beast when she was young, something that happened in books and when you ‘fell in love’.

But love was common, even if two loves were never quite the same. And tonight it was good to be with someone she loved, someone who loved her too, even if that person had paws. She rested a hand on Maxi’s furry head for a moment. ‘Good dog,’ she whispered and Maxi’s tail wagged.

The ute sped through the tunnel of darkness, a small rain of moths splattering on the windscreen. Jed thought of Sam in his hospital bed and tried to hope, then felt guilty for having stopped hoping. How many months had it been since she had given up expecting change? They had been so sure he never moved, wasn’t conscious. He hadn’t even been hooked up for an ECG for months, just the heart monitor that tracked whether his heart was beating and staying regular.

How long had it been since anyone had even tried to wake him? Except he had physio every day. The nurses tended him. Surely they’d have noticed if he’d moved . . .

A trick of the light. Clancy was always playing with exposures on his camera, or whatever else they were called. And even if Sam had looked at her last week maybe it was just a last goodbye . . .

NO! Stop it! she told herself. And there was no reason for her to go racing in now, not when whatever had happened had been last week, when she’d only seen him a few hours before, breathing in, breathing out, making no sign when she kissed him . . .

A rabbit peered at her from the verge. Bad luck, bunny, she thought. The sheep were being hand fed but not the bunnies. The world still smelled of hot soil, barely held together by the roots of brown grass. Drought scents. She realised it had been months since she had smelled the river, the constant background of flowing water she’d known since she came here.

She paused at the turn-off, checking for traffic — the last thing Mattie needed was a mum in hospital too — drove at just under the speed limit, parked near the front door, put the windows half down for Maxi and poured her a dish of water. Maxi leaned against her, the maximum of dog against the maximum of Jed, as if to give her courage. If only she could take Maxi with her . . .

Jed forced herself to walk, not run, into the reception area. A smile to the nurse on duty . . . No one seemed to be fussing down near Sam’s room, nor did anyone come to greet her, so Nancy must not have told them yet, nor Dr McAlpine either, for Blue and Joseph would still be driving back from Flinty’s, unable to be contacted till they reached the Dribble phone. And maybe it would be wrong to get their hopes up, for her hopes were leaping so hard her heart hurt, her whole soul ached . . .