He was still killing zombies when Dad came home. After a four-week break, Max was way down on points and didn’t feel like going to dinner. But Mum told him to get off that bloody thing, and Dad frowned at him from the table, so Max had to go. It was chops and three veg again, and Mum had forgotten to buy tomato sauce so he had to have barbecue sauce instead, which was disgusting. He got in trouble for eating too slow and then for using his knife and fork wrong, and then for not chewing the meat off his bone. Why couldn’t everyone just leave him alone?

During the meal, he kept trying to see what Dad had done with his pack of cigarettes. Sometimes he left them on the kitchen bench or out in the shed, but mostly they stayed in his pocket. Mum was in a bad mood, so she told Max to wash the dishes. ‘What about Suzie?’ he said. ‘She never does anything.’

‘Just do it,’ Dad said, ‘or I’ll knock you into next week.’

Dad didn’t smack him much but when he did, it hurt, so Max put on Mum’s pink rubber gloves and squirted dishwashing liquid into the sink. He took ages washing the dishes because it was fun playing with the bubbles and sometimes Mum got so fed up she couldn’t help taking over. But not tonight. Mum put Suzie in the bath and then, in the lounge room, she and Dad started arguing. Dad was watching the news and drinking beer, and Mum was folding the washing.

‘We’re out of money again,’ she was saying. ‘Why’s that, Shane?’

‘Dunno. You must be spending it.’

‘Rubbish. Look at you with your beer. Pissing it up against the wall.’

‘I work my arse off all week. Man’s gotta wind down.’

‘How am I going to pay the bills?’

Max didn’t know what they were on about. They said they had no money, but they were always buying cigarettes. Mobile phones cost heaps too, and Mum and Dad both had one, so they couldn’t be broke.

‘Where’s all the money gone?’ Mum said. ‘You still haven’t told me.’

‘Bought a round of scratchies this week. I was feeling lucky.’

‘You blew it on scratchies? What a waste.’

‘I put a hundred on a horse too. Tip from Toby.’

‘Did it pay up? Bet it came stone fucking motherless.’

Dad was quiet. Then he said, ‘I’d had a shit day, darlin’, and I was trying to cheer myself up.’

Mum wasn’t having it. ‘What sort of shit, Shane?’

‘Haven’t you heard? Greenies took photos of the site we’re working on and they must have reported it. They found a wedgie nest up there and the department has stopped us logging till they can sort it out. The department stuffed up. They should’ve known about the nest.’