‘No. Not her. You. You didn’t ask, Dad. You just told me she was coming home. It was good before. And then she came back and you took her side. I didn’t have a place.’

‘Oh, honey …’ He leans in and starts covering my face with kisses. His skin is all scratchy because he hasn’t shaved, but I don’t care because he smells like dirt and trees and him.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘I didn’t think. I just wanted us to be all together again.’

‘I know.’

‘I should have talked to you first.’

‘Yeah. You should have.’

‘I won’t do it again. If you promise never to climb on a roof again,’ he says, looking straight at me.

Thinking of Matt, I nod. ‘Dad, my hoodie … I didn’t leave it at Ellie’s. I left it on a rooftop in the city.’

‘Oh. Right. So you’ve done this before?’

‘Yeah. I have.’

‘Why?’ He looks like he’s trying to process this strange pastime.

I shrug. ‘I don’t know. It made me feel something other than lost.’

He nods, his eyes filling with tears. He scoops me up and pulls me so close I can feel his ribs, his breathing, heavy, pushing my arms out and then in.

‘I love you, kiddo,’ he says into my hair.

As he peels me away, he smiles and I see the greyness lift from his face. ‘Bridge and Ellie are outside. And your mum.’

‘I’m tired.’ I don’t want to see my friends. I can cope with Mum, but I’m not sure what to say to Bridge and Ellie.

‘You’ll be right,’ says Dad as he stands up. He lifts down a large plastic vase filled with a spray of gum leaves from the shelf and places it carefully onto the side table near my bed.

‘It’s the last of the Separation Tree. The canopy is getting removed today. Thought you might like to have some of it with you,’ he says, leaning into the leaves and smelling them.

‘Is it dead then?’

‘Yep. We tried everything, but it can’t be saved. They’ll keep the trunk and a few of the branches. It’ll end up looking more like a coat rack than a tree, though. We’re hoping to grow some saplings from the seeds. Keep it alive that way.’

‘I like that idea.’

Dad leans down and kisses me on the head. ‘Back in a sec.’