Lew leaned in. “Some dinosaurs had two brains.”

Annie felt a twinge of anxiety. Lew had started to say some strange things since leaving Cedar Hills.

“’Cos they’re so humongous,” he went on, “they had one in their butts to work their back legs.” He glanced at Annie, as if aware of her concern. “Like the tree, I mean. If you shot them in the head, they’d keep moving. For a while, anyways.”

Raj suddenly put on a strange nasal voice. “I’m terribly sorry, sir, I can’t answer that question, but let me consult my butt.” Clearly nervous, he let out a high-pitched laugh.

Annie smiled at him. “Do you have brothers and sisters?”

He nodded. “In India.”

“Why are you here?”

“Oliver Travers was my uncle.”

“Who’s that other man?”

“My uncle as well.”

“Where’s your mom and dad?” Lew asked.

“My mum died and my dad’s in Australia.”

“Mum.” Annie couldn’t help imitating his accent. “My mum.”

“In Australia,” Lew said, “they have the top ten most poisonous snakes and insects in the world.”

“Oh, yeah?” Raj said.

“They’d have the top twenty if it wasn’t for the cobra—that’s from India. They have a spider in Australia can jump right up from the ground into your face.”

“Goes for the eyes,” Annie said.

“That true?” Raj asked Lew, but Lew’s attention had been taken by something in the trees.

“Yeah,” Annie quickly took up. “We read it in the National Geographic. They can dig your eye out with their fangs.” She demonstrated with two hooked fingers.

“No.”

“Honest. That’s right, ain’t it, Lew?”

But Lew, utterly absorbed, had begun to murmur something to himself.

“And the spiders,” Annie continued loudly to distract Raj, “can use that eye to see. That’s why they hardly ever go for people with glasses, ’cos it’s really hard when they need to change their prescriptions.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire,” Raj cried out, laughing, though Annie could see that he was slyly observing Lew, and after a moment Raj asked him, “Have you got brothers and sisters?”

Lew didn’t respond. Annie hated this. “Lew,” she shouted.

Still he didn’t respond, so she reached over and touched his knee.

He reacted as if he had been shocked. “What?”

“Do you have brothers or sisters?” Raj repeated.

Lew shook his head.

“You had a brother.” Annie wanted this done with.

“I had a brother,” Lew said, “but I harmed him. I killed him.”

“You didn’t do nothing,” Annie said. “He just drowned.”

Lew was staring strangely—with that awful empty calm—at Annie. Raj clearly didn’t know if they were joking or not.

“He drowned,” Annie said.

Raj nodded. “My mum drowned. In the monsoon floods. She was trying to pull out a water buffalo that got stuck in the mud and she was swept away.”

A voice called up. “Hey, guys.”

It was Nora. Annie leaned over the edge and didn’t try too hard to hide her irritation. “Howja know we were here?”

“I tried down the branch. Alv said you might be here.”