He pulled Lindi over to the wall and they slid down it, crouched on the ground, all bundled up with each other. Lindi sobbed into his shoulder.

Trig stared at them.

“HOI! HOI! HOI! HOI!”

It was the Parker brothers, building up for a juggle.

Lindi kept sobbing.

Jed kept hugging.

Trig kept staring.

“Let’s go watch the juggling, Trig.” I pulled his arm. He was stuck to the spot.

“Come on.” I yanked him away. “Let’s go.”

Trig and me found our way to the front. The Parker brothers were there, leading the clapping and whooping. Trig joined in, but my hands wouldn’t clap and my mouth wouldn’t whoop. I just kept seeing Lindi and Jed in my head, crouched by the wall, sobbing and hugging.

You’ll be taken away from everyone you’ve ever known.

Robbie Parker disappeared round the back and reappeared with two axes, a fork and spade. Must’ve raided Dad’s shed. He threw the spade and axes to his brothers. They caught them with sure hands and spaced themselves out across the road. Everyone took a step back. We’d all seen the Parker brothers juggle before. They were good, but not as good as they thought they were.

Garden tools tumbled in the darkening air. The sun dipped down behind the houses.

People are going kill you if you don’t manage to kill them first.

Spikes and blades and shovels spun upwards and somersaulted down into the brothers’ hands.

You’d swap your middler place for that, would you?

The crowd whooped and oooohed and spilled its drinks and dropped its food.

You don’t know how easy you’ve got it.

After a bit, Grif got cocky. He turned to wink at Hilary Sundae and missed a catch. The crowd scattered like spooked pigeons. The only person who didn’t move was Mayor Anderson. The fork stabbed into the ground right in front of her, not a ruler away. She stood there, still as you like, hands on her hips.

Grif froze. Robbie went over. He got a firm grip on the bottom of the handle and pulled it out of the grass. He said something to the mayor, then gathered up the axes and the spade.

The crowd grumbled.

“Je-ed! Je-ed! Je-ed!” Neel clapped his hands.

Lyle joined in.

“Je-ed! Je-ed! Je-ed!”

Everyone joined in.

“Je-ed! Je-ed! Je-ed!”

Lyle and Grif found Jed behind the wall. They pulled him out and lifted him up. He struggled. Get off, I heard him shout. But no one listened to him, not tonight.

“Je-ed! Je-ed! Je-ed!”

Robbie and Neel found Lindi and picked her up too.

They lifted the two of them up to the sky. Like offerings.

“Lin-di! Lin-di! Lin-di!”

“Maggie?” Trig shouted over the chanting.

“Yeah?”

“Lin-di! Lin-di! Lin-di!”