My mother’s given me a farewell block of chocolate. I share it and we laugh—Andrea says she’s obsessed by chocolate too. We’ll get on well. She says she’s got some chocolate in her bags, a packet of Smarties, and I keep on unpacking as she finds the packet and sits down and opens it and eats the lot by herself. I’ve finished unpacking. I sit on my couch and read the ship safety flyer to get my mind off the Smarties. Andrea puts on her jacket and without a word strides out the door and flicks off the light.

The air hums. The light’s tepid. It’s like a blanket’s been thrown over me.

The corridors are thin. I flatten myself against walls to let past people who are burdened with backpacks and boxes. Men smells press close. There are shy hellos and polite stepping backs, ‘You go’, ‘No you’, and smiles. The man from the auditorium isn’t anywhere to be seen. I’ve been thinking a lot about his wrists. A small staircase leads to the green metal sweep of the helicopter deck. It’s high and spare at the rear of the ship. Two shiny choppers are in the opened-up hangar. Their ends are outside like bees in the holes of a hive. My body’s buoyed by the creak bounce of the mesh in the tall fence that cages the helideck. Harbour water’s inky and oily and dark beneath me and the sky’s blue and wide and I’m alone and it’s sweet.

‘Chippie to Jafo, Chippie to Jafo, come in Jafo.’

It’s the voice from the telephone. The voice comes booming and muffled from a piece of cardboard rolled into a megaphone.

‘Jim! Put that down!’ I’m laughing. ‘I thought you told me Jafos are something you roll down the aisle.’

‘Maybe they are.’

A surfer’s smile. Lines that cut deep around his eyes. A young face. A body that looks as if it’s been slapped by sun and salt since he was a toddler. I remember now. Born in Coolangatta.

‘You know what a chippie is, Miss Lois?’

‘’Course I do. A chippie’s a carpenter.’

‘Too right. We’ll get on well.’

‘Hey Jimbo, give us a hand, mate!’ The yell soars across to us from someone burdened on the other side of the helideck.

‘If you need any questions answered, come and seek me out. Cabin D21, or the bar. It’s my office!’