I tucked her in and put a rag with some dots on it as a cover for her. I cut up nice pictures of flowers and sunny skies from The Women’s Weekly magazines and covered the top of the box. With a thick black packaging marker, I wrote ‘Sixpence, I love you’ on the top of the box in my best handwriting. I gave her a little kiss and closed the box. I tried not to cry again, but she looked so sad all tucked up that I thought I might never stop crying for the rest of my life.

Mr Driver came to have a look at my work and said he thought I had given her a very good send-off indeed. He said he doubted a guinea pig had ever had a better little bed to rest in, and he thought the decoration on the top was second to none. Even though it was getting dark outside, Mr Driver said we could still choose a spot for her and he would make her safe overnight in her new home in the garden. He took my hand and we walked around the garden. I pointed to a garden bed near the shed that had some flowers in it, and he nodded. We went back inside, and I lifted the lid and kissed her again, and then Mr Driver walked me home.

Dad met him at the door and gave me a hug and put his arm around me. We walked to Caleb’s room where Mum was sitting on the bed, and Ruthy was on the floor next to her, and I said, ‘Sorry for being mean to you, Caleb.’ Mum didn’t say anything to me and she didn’t look at me. I went to my bedroom and crawled into my bed. Dad asked if I wanted some tea but I wasn’t hungry. He said, ‘I’m so sorry, Dorcas,’ and tucked me in and kissed me on the forehead. To keep the quiet away, I made little yowly noises that no one else could hear until I went to sleep.

It must have been much later that I heard noises that woke me up. It felt like the darkest black bit of the night that you don’t get to see that often. I could see a crack of light under my doorway, and realised Mum and Dad were arguing. Ruthy was making little popping mouth noises so I knew she was asleep.

I got out of bed quietly so I didn’t wake her, and opened the door very gently. I stayed in our room but sat next to the crack in the door to hear what they were saying. I often did this. I had learned quite a few interesting things thanks to the crack in the door. It’s how I learned about Grandma being a bit crazy and having Dad to make her well. It’s how I heard about Daniel being sent to New South Wales, and that it was something to do with a girl at church, but I never found out which girl or what happened with her. It’s how I knew that Mum wished she’d never left her family in Scotland, and that if our church allowed divorce, she would have been off to find a decent life for herself ‘back home’. It’s where I found out that Dr Frayne had suggested some tablets for Mum but Dad had said all she needed was the power of prayer and it was a shame she was so like her mother who had never been able to get out of her own way. And Mum said how would he know because he had never met her family and never would if he didn’t insist he was paid properly by Henry Bednarski so they could afford to bring her mother out.