Poddy had offered to give him a lift into Alice and would be here soon. Poddy had said he’d been going anyway, and that he’d pick him up at eleven. Standing outside his bedroom door, the one that led to the verandah, Zac felt the immenseness of this place in the middle of Australia envelop him as if trying to ease into his soul. The sweep away to the MacDonnell Ranges seemed even more mesmerising and he wished they’d gone to the foothills again; the top of the path down to the river made him think of when Ava had taken his hand. He looked away to the distant red dirt and sparsely covered paddocks, where he knew that so many turns and fence lines led to places he’d never see. The sadness for something lost that he didn’t remember sat on his shoulder like one of the crows he’d woken to the sound of this morning. No.

It was time to leave.

His backpack sat on the verandah and the front door stood open as he looked to the entrance of Ava’s home.

She came through and headed his way, moving gracefully, like a dancer. She’d told him that story of when she was little and the memory made him smile … A thought intruded as a fragment of recollection, tantalising, beckoning, so close … Something sizzled for a moment, then it was gone. He grimaced with the frustration.

What did you say to a woman you’ve found out you’d slept with and didn’t remember? Bloody hell. He had no idea except, ‘I’m sorry. So sorry for any distress I’ve caused you and your family, Ava.’

‘It was never your fault.’ She held out her hand, composed and pleasant. She was all class and he wished he had more to offer her, but the feeling of impending doom that he seemed to be carrying around made him anxious to leave before he hurt this family any more than he already had.

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t help your memory,’ Ava said as she touched his outstretched hand very briefly. She stepped back to stand beside her diminutive grandmother, who had also appeared, and he couldn’t read the expression on either of their faces. The thought crossed his mind that they’d never looked so similar as they did in that moment.

‘Goodbye, Zac.’ He heard finality in that farewell and it jarred with him. Jarred like a cymbal on his head, but the ringing didn’t produce memories. Just a headache. Come on, Poddy. Arrive. She’d be better off without his dramas.

Then the odd ringing tone of the satellite phone went off in the house and Ava turned away to answer it. He and Mim just looked at each other.

When she reappeared, the shock on her face made him step towards her. ‘Ava?’