She wanted him to make the decision. He hated the way she put him on the spot, but he let it go and just nodded.

After ten minutes of walking in silence, they reached the closed gate of The Mulgas. The dog found a way to squeeze through the fence, yelped a little when a stray wire caught its leg, then looked back at them and panted to show it was alright.

She leaned on one of the gateposts, elbows out like they would stop her going any further. ‘Looks like your father’s still using the old water tank,’ she said, nodding down the hill towards the homestead.

He didn’t know what she wanted him to say, so he focussed on the gravel at his feet.

‘Are you going to give me a break soon?’ she said.

He shrugged.

‘You can ask me whatever you want, you know,’ she said. Expecting him to know the right questions only annoyed James and made him feel afraid there was more to know than he wanted to hear.

‘Did you steal things?’ he asked, positioning himself by the other gatepost.

‘Your cousin’s got a very big mouth.’

‘Did you go to court?’

‘It was just clothes, for you kids,’ she muttered.

‘Why?’

James sensed her turn, but he refused to meet her halfway, for fear it would make her stop explaining. She exhaled and a little cry came off the air at her mouth.

‘Sometimes people do bad things. Good people. It takes a while for others to understand, but we shouldn’t end up loving them any less.’

‘Mum, you can tell me. I’m old enough.’

She shifted the position at the post and planted her chin against the heel of one hand, eyes looking far beyond the old homestead.

‘A thunderstorm had kept us all awake very early the morning Gregory was found, and you boys grizzled through your breakfast,’ she said. ‘Your father wasn’t much better. He was in a bad mood because he hadn’t bothered to connect the new water tank, and we’d just had enough rain to fill it. Alan was pestering him to get a lift up to the school bus, and little Gregory was whinging about going too.’

James had heard this story told in many ways over the years. He would endure her telling again, because this time she might go further than ever.

‘Doris was the one who distracted me with a phone call,’ she said.

Everyone had been recruited into their share of the blame, but that detail was new.