Neil’s job today was removing real trees from the front of houses and replacing them with low, picturesque bushes that would show the houses to advantage. Given he was a painter of the Australian bush, there was humour to be applied here — the laconic, dry type in which Neil was an expert. She was wondering whether she might try it herself when Neil got to his feet.

‘I’m going to the stationery cupboard. Do you want anything?’

She didn’t know what he meant. ‘I have never heard of this cupboard.’

He looked horrified. ‘You’ve been here … how long?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘So what have you been using to do your work?’

She explained that she used the pens and inks and stationery she had found in her work space, supplemented with materials she brought from home.

Neil shook his head in disbelief. ‘You should’ve been taken to the stationery cupboard on your very first day. Come with me.’

Down the end of the office next to the kitchenette was a cupboard with double doors. There was a lock, but no key. Galina passed this cupboard regularly, but had assumed it had nothing to do with her work. Now Neil opened the doors to reveal broad shelves rising to a height of about two metres, each shelf stacked with stationery. There was paper of all sizes and thicknesses; envelopes small and large; manila folders and suspension files; thick, thin and medium-weight cardboard; pens, inks, pencils; poster paints, trays of water colours, brushes; rubbers, sticking tape, glue; staplers and staples, paperclips and butterfly clips, and more Letraset than she had ever seen in one place before. It was a spectacular sight.

‘This,’ Neil said, ‘is a stationery cupboard.’

‘It looks like a stationery shop,’ Galina said.

‘Well, yes.’ Neil was smiling. ‘But we don’t have to pay.’

He explained that these materials were for the use of Merridale staff. ‘You take what you want.’

‘You mean you take what you need?’

‘What you want, what you need …’ He shrugged, and smiled again. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to know the difference.’

The cupboard was full of materials she needed and more materials she wanted. ‘You are saying I can take anything?’

He nodded.

‘But surely someone will check?’

He shook his head.

‘Anything?’

Again he nodded. ‘Let me help you.’ He reached for an empty carton and started piling items into it.

She was uncomfortable, she was worried, it was this business of helping yourself, and Neil must have noticed, for he told her to make a selection of paper and go back to her desk; he would follow with the rest. A few minutes later he put the loaded box on her desk, and emptied it item by item.