BooksBarbecue
Back Grow
Chapters (75)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. About the Author
  4. Title Page
  5. Intoroduction
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. FIVE
  11. SIX
  12. SEVEN
  13. EITHT
  14. NINE
  15. TEN
  16. ELEVEN
  17. TWELVE
  18. THIRTEEN
  19. FOURTEEN
  20. FIFTEEN
  21. SIXTEEN
  22. SEVENTEEN
  23. EIGHTEEN
  24. NINETEEN
  25. TWENTY
  26. TWENTY-ONE
  27. TWENTY-TWO
  28. TWENTY-THREE
  29. TWENTY-FOUR
  30. TWENTY-FIVE
  31. TWENTY-SIX
  32. TWENTY-SEVEN
  33. TWENTY-EIGHT
  34. TWENTY-NINE
  35. THIRTY
  36. THIRTY-ONE
  37. THIRTY-TWO
  38. THIRTY-THREE
  39. THIRTY-FOUR
  40. THIRTY-FIVE
  41. THIRTY-SIX
  42. THIRTY-SEVEN
  43. THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. THIRTY-NINE
  45. FORTY
  46. FORTY-ONE
  47. FORTY-TWO
  48. FORTY-THREE
  49. FORTY-FOUR
  50. FORTY-FIVE
  51. FORTY-SIX
  52. FORTY-SEVEN
  53. FORTY-EIGHT
  54. FORTY-NINE
  55. FIFTY
  56. FIFTY-ONE
  57. FIFTY-TWO
  58. FIFTY-THREE
  59. FIFTY-FOUR
  60. FIFTY-FIVE
  61. FIFTY-SIX
  62. FIFTY-SEVEN
  63. FIFTY-EIGHT
  64. FIFTY-NINE
  65. SIXTY
  66. SIXTY-ONE
  67. SIXTY-TWO
  68. SIXTY-THREE
  69. SIXTY-FOUR
  70. SIXTY-FIVE
  71. SIXTY-SIX
  72. SIXTY-SEVEN
  73. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  74. CLIMATE EMERGENCY
  75. Copyright

Dana turns away again. ‘Look. My dad was a bad guy. He was horrible to my mum, and to me. Not just the putting me down the well thing. He used to knock Mum about a bit, and then he’d apologise by being overly nice to me, playing with me, giving me treats, trips out. If he could see Mum wasn’t responding, he’d drop me like a stone. Literally, sometimes. That’s why she likes Carl so much – he’s protective, see? Or that’s what she thinks. He was protective of us after Dad left, especially after he got kicked out of the army.’

‘I thought they discharged him; he wanted to go back but they wouldn’t let him back in.’

‘Kind of. But that’s not completely true. He got done for some nasty stuff just after he left the hospital. Him and some others waited around outside a mosque until a youth group finished, then they attacked a few of the kids. Teenagers. Our age. With baseball bats. Technically he was just a bystander. That’s what he told the judge. Didn’t hurt anyone, couldn’t hold a bat because of the injuries, just watched the others and couldn’t get away as quickly. The judge believed him. So he only got a caution for it. But after that there was some drugs stuff as well. The army would’ve had him back before all that, not front-line, just support stuff, but the drugs got him kicked out. In disgrace.’

I scrape the worm off the fork with my toe, suddenly sorry. I cover it with the next turn of earth.

‘Whenever he was on leave, right from when he first signed up, Carl was always coming over and looking in on us. This was just after Dad left. Like I said, Mum’s and Carl’s families go way back. I guess he sees my mum as like an older sister. He’d always talk to me too, bring me magazines and stuff. I was ten when he went on his first tour and Mum would make me write to him out there. We sent homemade cards at Christmas, recorded videos for when he could get to his emails. He always sent Mum pictures of the letters and cards when they arrived. I used to feel really proud, my drawings stuck up in a tent in a desert somewhere, helping somehow. He really was a good soldier, you know. He told us about his promotions every time he came home, what they were teaching him to do with computers.’

Dana stands up, shivers, picks up her spade and leans into the ground again, neatening the lawn’s edges.