‘It’s just …’ I swallow my carrot salad with difficulty. ‘I keep seeing the little fawn, crying for his mum, like me. Why can’t we just be kind and peaceful? Why do we have to be violent, treat animals so badly? You wouldn’t believe how horrible it was in that farm where I found Chirp. What’s wrong with people?’ I turn to Melody and then Autumn, genuinely hoping for an explanation. ‘Why is there so much cruelty? I can’t understand how people can do it.’ I bite my lips as tears well. ‘Do they not know animals feel? How can they not? Why would people feel but not animals?’

Melody puts her arm around me. ‘People aren’t all sensitive like that. And sadly, you can’t abracadabra the world the way you want it.’

‘I wish I could,’ I say.

‘Me too.’

‘Everyone would wear tie-dye in my world,’ Autumn says. ‘There’s way too little of that, and it’s so pretty, each piece unique like a fingerprint. And you can make it yourself.’ Her face is so sincere that Melody and I burst out laughing, and Melody nearly chokes on a carrot. Autumn whacks her on the back and they continue giggling together as I walk to the fruit bar to fetch us oranges for dessert.

‘Sky!’ Jaxon calls from the tent door and runs towards me as I’m standing by the fruit bowl. This time there’s no fist bump and his hug is so strong, I knock over the bowl.

As we scurry to pick up the oranges, I quickly ask, ‘Do you hunt too?’

‘No,’ he says, putting an orange back in the bowl. ‘I tried it once with Dad, but it wasn’t for me. Too gruesome. I prefer to watch the critters through binoculars rather than the barrel of a gun.’

Good answer.

‘But I just wanted to say I’m sorry about keeping the secret and all.’ He returns the last orange to the bowl and when I notice his cheeks are flushed pink, I realise I’m not angry with him at all.

Adam doesn’t wait to be invited in this time. He walks straight to me, eyes bloodshot. ‘I can’t sleep. I’m sorry, Sky. So sorry. I just can’t tell you how sorry I am.’

He looks so bereft as he hands me the beanie and gloves I left at the restaurant, I can’t help but soften. We sit together on the corner mat as Melody and Autumn make tea.