Further dispersing a stink that reminded Emily of foot odour and rotting tomato, the boy tenderly lifted his pet out of the box and laid it on the bed. The doona was pale blue and it quaked as the snake began to move. Emily sat on the bed and covered her nose and mouth. Louis II turned and scuttered over her hand and coiled around her wrist. She closed her eyes but it seemed as though she could see right through her eyelids and perceive his shape.

‘He likes you,’ said Jamie. ‘He identifies you as a friend.’

The snake moved up Emily’s arm, and his skin was soft, textured glass. She had expected him to be wet or slimy because she imagined all scaled animals felt a little like fish. Instead Louis II was dry and smooth. Not mucky but not pleasant. From the bedroom, she could clearly hear Sophia and Nicole’s bright voices all caught up with each other; they were talking about movies. Emily tucked in her chin when Louis wrapped himself around her neck. The impulse to tear the snake off her body, to tell the boy she couldn’t do it, sorry, was constrained by the thought that she needed to be part of this undertaking.

‘He definitely likes you,’ said Jamie.

‘Don’t say that again. Give me one of your mother’s jackets.’

‘But a jacket will look weird,’ said Jamie. ‘It’s hot today.’

‘Get a scarf,’ Emily blurted out. She took a breath. ‘If Nicole asks, I’ll say I’m feeling cold. We’ll say I’m sick.’

‘Cool,’ said Jamie, and he snatched up one of his mother’s long scarves and wrapped it around Emily’s neck, entirely covering Louis II.

‘Now what? Are you going to kill him?’

‘I honestly don’t know what next,’ said Emily.

‘Please don’t throw him in some bin. That would tear my heart in two. Will you call Mum tonight? We should know the outcome, don’t you think?’

As Emily opened the bedroom door, she heard the prolonged thump and crash of the back door, which indicated the two girls were inside. As they tore up the hallway, one of them bumped into Emily, disrupting the scarf.

‘Amelia and Clio, meet my mother’s friend Emily,’ said Jamie. Both girls sniffed at this new adult before them. Something smelled bad, their expressions seemed to say—where in the world did this stranger come from?

Emily informed them: ‘I have a cold. You might want to stand back.’

‘Poor thing,’ said Clio, as Emily moved off down the hall. ‘Hope you get better soon!’

Near the front door, Emily announced: ‘I’m away now!’

‘You’re going already?’ asked Nicole. ‘You could stay for dinner, if you like.’