The booze hit the right spot. All of them drew breath, glasses held away from their bodies.

‘So, what’s it like being back?’ Pete said.

‘It’s been quite enlightening, actually,’ James said over the noise.

Dad choked, sending a frothy spray down his front and onto Pete’s leg.

James felt a sudden grip on his arm as his father led him away.

‘Come over here and talk to me,’ Dad said. ‘You made me lose a bet, you know?’

They got to the line of poker machines before James managed to wrench his arm free. Leanne was sliding coins into the myriad of promises while Doris hovered.

‘Twenty bucks you cost me,’ his father said, ‘but I seriously didn’t think you’d be bothered to show. I thought Alan would come, for sure.’

‘Dad, can I just have the envelope?’

‘Hold on a minute there, cowboy! Let’s just sit and catch up a bit, eh? You staying at my place tonight?’ his father said, simultaneously pushing James onto a stool with one hand while expertly sucking at his beer.

‘Nope. I’ve got work tomorrow,’ James said.

‘Oh? I was hoping we’d have time for a chat.’

‘You said you wanted to chat here, so let’s chat.’

‘When are you going to come up this way and grill a few of our politicians? Most of them are crooks, but don’t say your old man told you!’ and he exhaled a throaty laugh.

‘Can I have the envelope, please?’ James said.

‘Listen, just ask me whatever you want about your Mum, and I’ll tell you.’

‘Dad-’

‘Think about it. You might thank me later. Anything you want to know about your Mum, you can ask me, right here.’

James drew courage by gulping at his drink. As it reached a point deep inside him, he whispered, ‘I didn’t come home to talk about Mum.’

His father started to laugh. ‘Well, you were always her favourite. It blinded you both. You know nothing, actually,’ he added, angrily brushing the air with the back of one hand and putting his beer down. The other hand plunged into his pocket and tested his coinage for another round. ‘If you were ever to get married, you might.’

‘Why do you think I’m not married, Dad?’

‘That, my boy, is something I have spent a lot of years wondering! No one in the family wants you to be a loner.’

‘What, like Tony?’

His father looked across to Bill, who was talking awkwardly with his son-in-law, nodding and shrugging with the compliance of a boy, and James sensed the first troubled sign on his father’s face.

‘Yeah, like Tony,’ Dad said, shaking his head. ‘He seriously needed to get a life.’

‘Bullshit,’ James said, under his breath.