LYLE

Lately I’ve been thinking about the day Alan died. He’d grown old, and one morning there was a scatter of drops on the couch. What we had to do was painful, but as Chanel pointed out, it was for Alan’s sake. Chanel is the one who sees ahead and plans. She takes the lead in all our decisions, great ones or small.

Alan came to live with us when Sydney was six. We were walking home from the park on a Saturday and saw Fraser come out of his house. A ‘For Sale’ sign had gone up at his place, four doors along from ours in Spumante Court. Here is a house that can accommodate the joys and sorrows of your family, it said.

Nike and Alan ran out past Fraser and into the yard. Sydney was in the same class as Nike. The two of them began to race around, making vrooming noises under their breath. Fraser and I chatted. He was carrying a tennis racquet and took low swipes at an invisible ball as we spoke.

At dinner I mentioned that our neighbours were relocating to Perth. Sydney piped up. ‘Alan isn’t, he’s going to the farm, Nike said. So he can play with the other animals.’

Mel gave a little laugh in her throat.

‘What?’ said Sydney.

‘Sydney’s dumb,’ said Mel. ‘You’re so dumb, Sydney. You don’t know anything.’

Chanel said, ‘Don’t speak to your brother like that.’

‘He’s so dumb. He doesn’t even know what going to the farm means.’

We were all looking at Mel. She jabbed her spoon into her potatoes, pushed the mash into her tomato sauce and began spreading it in red and yellow swirls. She’s always been very creative. Keeping her ferny lashes lowered, she said, ‘The vet’s going to kill Alan. Sydney’s the only person in the whole world who doesn’t know that ’cos he’s dumb.’

Sydney’s dinner was two pieces of peanut-butter toast. All he would eat that year was what he called ‘toast spread with peanut butter right to the edges’. As we watched, furrows turned his forehead into a small ploughed field. A tear fell onto the tea towel tucked under his chin. He’d started pestering us for a pet almost as soon as he learned to talk.

As Chanel remarked when we talked things over in bed, it was useful to learn a new expression. We already spoke fluent English when we arrived in Australia but we couldn’t always understand what was said here. Going to the farm –who could have guessed what it really meant?

‘Everyone has rescue pets these days,’ Chanel went on. ‘Erin’s got a three-legged poodle. Does Alan still have all four legs?’

‘This afternoon he did.’