In the mornings they woke to birds. The birds! The sound declared the day as belonging to a different country, even before you were fully awake, before your brain kicked into gear. There were the normal suburban birds, raucous and loud, and the smaller twittering birds that were drawn to the nearby lake. On the second morning of their stay, when Nina rose and went downstairs in the quiet house, she found a pair of her mother’s underpants laid out, wet, on the kitchen table. It looked as if she had rinsed them in the sink. Finding her mother in her room, she asked what had happened, but her mother knew nothing about it. She just kept smoothing the nightie over her bottom and thighs as if she felt self-conscious with nothing underneath.

In the two weeks that followed, Brent came and went from the house, taking the train to work in his company’s Sydney office. He was the finance guy in a team that consulted on the redevelopment of old industrial sites, turning them into mixed-use precincts and waterfront meadows and so on. Having used up all of his annual leave on their last trip, he was working remotely this time and had to keep up with his projects. In his absences, Nina was often alone with Ronnie and her mum. It was always a relief when the carer came at eleven o’clock each morning. With the help of some government support and a great deal of wrangling, Nina and Jared had organised the carer roster after their father’s death.

The best of the carers was Cath, a large, indefatigable woman. She came with her bulk and her cheerfulness and helped out for several hours. She showered and dressed Helen. She helped her to go to the toilet, making male visitors stay clear of the hall to preserve Helen’s dignity. Cath was very particular about toilet-related matters. She had worked for a woman in a wheelchair who, when Cath was in the toilet, parked herself outside and kept up the conversation.

‘I quit that job, don’t worry! Some things should be sacred.’

Back in London, the fox man emailed to update Nina on the breeding earth. He attached a photo of the garden looking like a demolition site, which made her glad that Ronnie was well out of the way. Those dark voids in the earth made her think of her mother’s mind, its mysterious workings. Had parts of the brain got hollowed out, leaving cavities? Was that where her memory had gone? Or was it all still there, intact, but unreachable somehow?