After a while Daniel’s words drifted away, and I must have gone to sleep for a short time. I woke up to the sound of the two men talking. They had left the door open a crack, I guess in case I woke up and was a bit scared, and I crawled out of bed and sat at the door to listen.

‘She told me not to come here. She told us all not to come to see her,’ I heard Daniel say, and then he made a kind of choking noise. ‘I told her the time for her to be telling me what to do was over, and that if she didn’t want me back in New South Wales, she’d better think twice before she used me to punish Dorcas, or she’d go from two sons to no sons.’

‘Good for you, lad. Good for you. I hope it won’t take long to sort itself out.’

‘How can she be like this?’ I heard Daniel ask. ‘I just don’t understand.’

‘I think you do understand, son. Maybe you don’t agree, but you do understand. Look what she put you through. After all, it was your mother, not your father, who insisted you leave after … after the incident. I think she’s just got so little fuel in her tank that she can’t face it when things don’t line up properly. She has to tidy them up and trim them straight and try to change their colour, just like she does with all the ladies’ hair.’

‘She didn’t write to me or contact me for the nine months I was away,’ said Daniel.

‘Not even a note?’ I could tell from his voice Mr Driver was very surprised.

‘No. Thank goodness for my weekly call from Dad, and all the letters from Ruthy.’

Mr Driver leaned over and I think he patted Daniel on the hand. ‘I don’t think anything in the world could stop that child writing.’

‘I told Mum and Dad last night I’m going to law school next year.’ There was a silence.

‘I thought your church frowned on going to law school, not that I ever understood why,’ said Mr Driver.

‘They think it sets you up to make decisions that might be against God’s will, or some such rubbish. But I’m going to go. And if they try to fight it, I’ll stop going to church. I’ve had enough of all this Christian goodness. Look where it gets us all.’

‘Well, for what it’s worth, I’ve always thought you’d make a very good lawyer. If they don’t let you stay with them, son, you can have my spare room here if you’d like it. I’ll swap you for some maintenance around the place and free legal advice about how to stop Mrs Kerfoops’s cat from urinating all over my veggies.’

They both laughed. It made me smile for a minute. I heard a chair scrape, and Daniel say, ‘I’ll just look in on her before I go’.