‘Then a big, handsome man like you wants to help? Absolutely. You go right ahead and drag that into my shed.’

She cracked him up. He took up the rod and tried to keep his face expressionless. It was surprisingly heavy. And yet she’d been dragging it, at her age! He decided not to lift it onto his good shoulder and began dragging it too. ‘This your shed?’ he asked, and she nodded. ‘And what mischief do you get up to over here, Mim?’

Inside the naturally lit shed, with sunlight streaming in the windows illuminating Mim’s work, he saw the almost completed miniature homestead, just like the ones he’d seen on the way in. ‘So these are your creations.’

She reached out with one veiny hand and stroked the sloping tin roof. ‘They are. They’re models of the chalet cabins, scale versions of those we’ve made to use for the tourists.’ She looked at it with pride. ‘It has all the things I like in a cubbyhouse.’ She chuckled. ‘Full-sized, though, the metal gets a bit heavy for me.’

Indeed! She was so tiny beside him. ‘You’re a marvel,’ he told her, truly meaning it.

‘My late husband taught me to weld and I enjoy it. It’s one of my artistic bents.’ She pointed to the windowsill and there lined up like the Dubbo Zoo were tiny native animals in all sizes made from metal.

Zac studied them. ‘I like the emu.’

‘He’s my favourite, too. Cheeky.’

‘The tourists will love them. You’re onto a winner there.’ He thought of the woman who’d driven him here – physically and figuratively. ‘Which one is Ava’s favourite?’

Mim inclined her head at the sill. ‘The lizard – the thorny devil. Ngiyari.’

This was not what he expected. ‘He’s fierce.’

Mim chuckled. ‘He is if you’re a black ant. He can eat up to a thousand a day.’

‘Ah. He’s high maintenance. Like me.’ Zac listened to himself with some shock. Was Ava changing him already? He was employing self-mockery, something he hadn’t thought he’d mastered, and he liked how amusing it felt and the way it lightened the load of drama his life had held lately.

Mim cackled. ‘I heard that about you.’ Unfortunately, she didn’t expand and he wondered what Ava had told her. ‘I think this little fella reminds her of Uluru. She reckons she sees one every time she goes there. Her friend, Denise, says it’s her desert friend. Once that granddaughter of mine saw a nest of tiny baby devils just hatched and fell in love. Strange girl.’ She looked at him from beneath her white brows. ‘She’s tough, but she’s softer than her mother.’

Mim waited after this statement, so he weighed up the thought and didn’t fill the sudden silence to interrupt her. He was rewarded when Mim said, ‘Did Ava tell you about Amelia?’