Our goodbyes were perfunctory. Marc paid me exactly what was owed and I patted Lee on the head, sure that she would have no recollection of me whatsoever.

I saw him working before I left. It was in the morning, before the sun was high and relentless. He had taken the chest of drawers into the garden and was sanding it, removing the white paint to show the raw timber underneath.

I peered down from my window, focusing all the energy of my gaze onto his bald spot, which gleamed with perspiration as he worked. It was the unlikely hot pink of a baby mouse. I was high enough to get a good, clear view of his thin body worrying at its task. I’m not sure whether he could sense me looking, feel the ferocity of my concentration. If he did see me, he gave no indication. For a moment this saddened me.

But then I thought that it was probably for the best. Yes, I thought. It would be best if he couldn’t see me at all. It would be best if he never saw me again.

Arm’s Length

They said: ‘Keep that boy at arm’s length.’ But whose arm? The arm of an orangutan, a giant squid, a Tyrannosaurus rex? A spider’s arm – and if so, which one of the eight should she measure? ‘Your arm,’ they said. So she took a saw and severed her arm at the shoulder. When they said: ‘You still have your other arm,’ she offered them the saw and said: ‘Here. Go ahead.’ Later, they planted the arms in the earth. No-one knew they grew roots, which reached for one another underground.

Harbour

‘Listen to this, Nina,’ said Tilly. ‘The Common Death Adder. Acanthophis antarcticus. Has the longest fangs of any snake in the country. Highly venomous, producing a neurotoxin that can paralyse and kill a human in six hours.’

‘Stop it, Tilly.’

She’d bought a book called What Snake Am I? and had been reading out excerpts for the entire journey. We needed books where we were going; no devices were allowed. The book showed, in loving glossy detail, the snakes we might encounter: Taipan, Black Headed Python, King Brown. There were white-crowned and golden-crowned snakes, snakes that were egg-laying and snakes that were live-bearing, snakes that killed by poison and snakes that held you a little tighter each time you breathed, until you couldn’t breathe at all. If you find a pile of hatched eggs in your garden, the book said, look out.

Tilly knew I was terrified of snakes.

‘Look – Olive Python swallowing a wallaby. The python will feed on a wallaby’s decomposing carcass for three months.’

‘Enough.’

Tilly placed a hand on my knee. ‘Pains?’

‘Flying always makes it worse.’

‘You should take something for it.’

‘I don’t have anything. Dr Bellavit says it’s not allowed.’