Accusation delivered, he’s straight to the point. Pop never really seems to be that worried about any of us, but Mum says you have to watch close to see it. Once he got into one of his sulks he usually holds onto it for dear life, now he’s pushing it aside for news of his granddaughter. I feel my shoulders drop and I curl my body around my mug.

‘Nah, nuthin.’

Pop and all the oldies hate tears or any show of sadness so I stare straight into my mug and try not to let them well. I figured they’d been through so much in their time that our lives must seem easy as, and any complaints made us whingers. The silence stretches for a while and I realise he’s stopped eating to eye me closely. As soon as I tilt my head towards him he speaks again.

‘You been dreamin?’

My eyes go wide with surprise and I look straight at him. He nods and takes another mouthful, motioning with his knife for me to get a move on. Sometimes it’s eerie how the old people just know stuff. One day I’ll get the courage up to ask how, but Laney reckons there are some things we maybe don’t want to know.

‘I mighta … I sorta … had this nightmare, but. But it’s not real, Pop, it was just a dream!’

He looks at me. No expression, nothing. The focus in his gaze has me squirming till I spill my guts all over the place about the nightmare, which is what he wants.

‘So she’s under the car, lookin at Troy. Then next minute, something just grabs er.’

He sits there chewing. A swallow, some more tea.

‘Didja see what did it?’ Another mouthful went in.

‘Nuh, but it was like I was her in the dream and she didn’t see it neither.’

‘Got her from behind.’

‘Yeah by the ankles, pulled her from under the … How did you …’ I trail off and wait. Questions are the fastest way to shut the old fullas up, either he’ll tell me or he won’t. My job is to keep my mouth shut and my ears open.

It’s my turn to watch him closely as he finally glances down to scrape the last of the bits together and scoop them onto his fork. He doesn’t look up as he cleans his plate with the last of the bread. I start to fidget.

‘Might be, there was another girl while back, disappeared one night out at that place.’

I suck my breath in, clench my jaw tight and force the breath out through my nose.

‘When Mum was little?’ There, that sounds calm enough.