I’m glad he said that. I’ll go with Adam until I know more how I feel. It took me forever to call Paula’s husband, my uncle David, ‘Dave’, like all his mates and family do. I just needed time to get comfortable. Hopefully, this will be the same.

He opens the truck’s right-side door and looks at me expectantly.

‘I don’t have my licence, yet,’ I say, wrapping my arms around myself. The air is penetrating through all my clothes; I feel like I have nothing on.

He laughs. ‘This is the passenger side.’

I peek in and see the steering wheel on the other side. Embarrassing.

‘How was your flight?’ my father says as he jumps in and switches on the heating.

‘It was my first time on a jumbo and first time overseas,’ I say.

‘Wow, that’s special.’ He glances at my clothes. ‘We’ll need to get you geared up or you’ll turn into an icicle in a minute flat. I’ll take you down to the camping store later for some serious weather protection. Winter in Alaska is deadly but also stunning. Barely a tourist in sight.’

‘Oh, okay.’ He has a point. ‘There’s lots of wildlife in Alaska, right? But are there still animals around even in winter? I love animals.’

‘Sure, the wildlife here is—’

‘Have you heard of Jane Goodall?’ I interrupt, suddenly feeling full of words, things I want to tell him.

He raises his eyebrows, smiling as the wipers clear the snow off the front and back windscreens.

‘She’s my idol.’

‘Really?’ He releases the handbrake and starts to reverse.

‘She’s so amazing. Did you know she discovered animals could make and use tools?’

‘Yes, I did know that. Chimpanzees in Africa.’

‘Tanzania.’ This makes me happy. He may be a fisherman but he’s into animals just like me. ‘Will I see a deer?’ I ask, full of anticipation. Deer are my second favourite animal after pandas, and the documentary on the plane made me love them even more—I learnt they are smart, gentle, sensitive, stubborn … the best qualities, really, for human or animal. Bambi was also my favourite movie as a kid. I forced Mum to watch it with me many times, cuddled up on the couch. I loved it so much she found me the Disney pyjamas. They had Bambi on them, gazing at a butterfly on his tail, and his friends—the bunny, Thumper, and skunk, Flower—by his side. I slept in them until I was so tall the top was cropped and the pants became shorts.

‘We have black-tailed deer and even reindeer.’ He pulls out of the car park and veers onto a large four-lane road.

‘Reindeer? Really, like Rudolph?’