I pointed my toes. Just another few centimetres. That’s all it needed. Three or four centimetres.

Churrrrrrr-utt.

“Have a good trip.” Thwack, thwack. Neel, giving the jeep its goodbye smacks.

I had to do it.

Feel your fear.

I jumped.

CHAPTER 31

I hit the gable and fell forwards, right off the front. A rolling, gashing crash of knees and arms and roof slates. Landed hard on the cobbles near Mayor Anderson’s front door.

Legs. Hands. Brain.

Nothing worked.

What was I doing?

Una.

Una.

Una.

Got to stop the jeep.

It chugged round the corner and puttered straight past me, front lights glaring on the ground ahead of it, black smoke chuggering out of the back.

I scrambled up and hurtled forwards. I leapt for the back, got a foot on to the footplate and a hand on to the roof rack. I pulled myself in close, gripped on tight and gulped down a throatful of smoke.

Don’t choke, Maggie. Don’t cough.

A shadowed face on the inside of the window.

Una.

The jeep juddered my bones.

It carried us out of the square, north-east, towards the dairy.

The footplate was narrow, and my hands screamed from gripping.

One backwards glance from the mayor and I’d be spotted.

The roof, Maggie.

Got to get on to the roof.

I bent a knee in, wedged my foot on to the door handle and – one – two – three – I pushed myself up.

I squeezed in between the bars of the roof rack.

I lay on my side.

Night-time air swooped around me.

We rattled past the dairy, along the edge of northside fields and over the bent bridge. Then we crossed in front of the mill and drove straight through the wheat-field boundary without even a moment’s wavering.

I closed my eyes and held on tight.

Mayor Anderson wound the jeep across wide roads, winding left, then right; left, then right; left, then right. Trying to dodge the bushes and roots, I s’pose, but she didn’t miss them all. I got flung backwards and forwards, side to side, up and down. It was rockier than a ride in Mr Chowdhry’s tractor.

Trees swiped at me from both sides and blocked out the moon. I turned on to my front and made myself as flat as I could, lower than the roof rack. The branches beat on the bars, right next to my ears.

The cold jeep roof vibrated underneath me.

Breathe, Maggie. Breathe.

Fennis Wick was behind us, getting further and further away.

Mum, Dad and Trig, getting further and further away.

The old, dead relatives fading.

The engine chugged and spluttered.

The branches grabbed and scratched.

I swallowed, but my mouth didn’t work properly. A big lump of nothing sat at the back of my tongue.

I shivered. Shoulders shaking, knees shaking, heart shaking.

The jeep slowed down, swung to the left, and stopped.