I cart cutlery and all the fixings out to him, finish the teas and set them on the table before plonking down in one of the mismatched chairs he has strewn about. I watch him pour on the salt and pepper and wince.

‘That’s yucky, Pop. You’re ruinin Mum’s cookin doin that.’

‘Adds more flavour.’ He gives me one of his mischievous eye-twinkles from under his big bushy eyebrows. Then he remembers to be mad at me, frowns and focuses on getting into his feed. The tea is next and it’s even worse what he does to that, so I stop looking and watch his hands instead.

Mum says he’d been a giant of a man and you can see it. Into his seventies and he’s still taller than all of his sons. His broad shoulders might be skinny now, but they are always straight, his head up and his posture perfect. An upright, big mountain of a man. Those are my earliest memories and how I’ve always seen him. I love sitting with him like this, even if he’s being all sulky with me.

I stare out over the front lawn. Picture perfect as always, Mum is gonna crack. He isn’t supposed to be pushing a mower or using a whipper-snipper either. I hide my grin behind my mug because if he thinks I’m laughing at him I’ll be in for it. He always says I’m never too old to smack, not that he ever did it, but I wouldn’t put it past him.

‘Where’s your mother?’ he growls as he reaches for his mug.

‘Callin round to check if anyone’s seen Laney.’ My grin drops and I lower the mug, looking at him from the corner of my eye. He’s too busy looking at his plate.

‘She gone?’

‘Yep. Didn’t Uncle Terrance come tell you?’

‘Nobody tells me anythin in this family.’

And there’s the reason for his sulk.

‘Not! Mum’ll go off at Uncle for that, he was sposed to come tell you what was happenin while we started the search.’ I am outraged but not surprised. Mum’s brother is a known flake, we should’ve come check he’d done it but we had other things on the go.

‘Well you shoulda come told me.’ The knife gets thrust in my direction to make the point.

‘Pop, that’s not our fault, Mum was ringin everyone, Uncle Joe went for a drive around to everyone who doesn’t have a phone and I was cookin that dinner you eatin. Sides it’s not like you never heard about it.’

He waves his hand at me, gumming down his latest mouthful. ‘Mmmphmmmphmmph.’ See, big gossip, he knows everything that old fulla. He swallows a bit of tea to clear the way and starts again. ‘Never mind that now, anyone seen her?’