‘Yes, of course,’ he said, shooting me a smile. ‘Come in, come in.’

As we followed Luke through the house, Caroline stepped out of a hallway and hugged me. ‘Hey,’ she said

‘Hi Caroline, great place you have here,’ Caitlin said. She and Dad kept following Luke out to the backyard while I stayed with Caroline.

Matilda walked up behind Caroline. ‘Hi,’ I said nervously, trying to be nice.

‘Hi,’ she replied, expressionless. She hugged Caroline. ‘I might see you tomorrow, if I’m not too exhausted.’

‘You’re not staying?’ I asked.

‘Some of us have to work,’ she said, not nastily, and I got all paranoid, wondering if she was projecting another stereotype about Aboriginal people being lazy and not working. For all I knew, Aboriginal people had been made to clear the land to make way for Caroline’s parents’ vineyard. I didn’t say anything, just let them say their goodbyes.

Once Matilda was out of the front door, Caroline said, ‘I’ll take you to meet my mum.’

There was a games room out the back that led onto an outdoors area with a pool surrounded by slate paving. Some boys were playing pool inside. ‘This is Phoebe,’ Caroline said as we walked through the room, not stopping. ‘That’s my brother Mitch and his friend Trent,’ she explained. They hardly seemed to notice us. ‘Mitch, say hi to Phoebe,’ Caroline said.

Mitch looked up and said ‘Hi Phoebe,’ then shot me a quick smile before going back to playing pool.

In the backyard, there were adults seated around a table and Caroline’s father was standing close to the pool with my dad and another man. The Rolling Stones were playing through speakers fixed to the patio.

We walked over to Caroline’s mum. ‘So this is Phoebe,’ she said. ‘Oh, you’re gorgeous!’ She got up from her seat and gave me a hug. ‘I’m Theresa.’ I thought she would be blonde like Caroline, but she was dark-featured and kind of stocky. ‘Do you want a drink or something?’

‘I’m good for the moment,’ I said.

‘Okay. Caroline, can you make sure you get Phoebe something to drink when she’s ready?’

‘No problem,’ Caroline said.

Caroline spotted Ashley on the other side of the backyard and went over to drag her away with us.

I walked over to Caitlin, who was talking to some other adults, and interrupted to say, ‘Can you message me when you leave? So I can say goodbye.’

‘Sure,’ Caitlin said, before continuing to tell the woman she was sitting next to all about our move to The Village.

Caroline returned with Ashley. ‘Let’s go.’ She pulled me by the bottom of my T-shirt.

When we got to the kitchen, which opened onto the games room and a living room, Caroline said, ‘Oh, that’s right, Mum told me to grab us some drinks.’ She took three wine glasses off of the benchtop and opened the fridge door with her free hand. I thought she was going to grab some juice or something, but she took out a bottle of white wine and looked at the label. ‘Pinot noir. This’ll do.’