It made Abby sad that Ray spent his work days alone. It reminded her of the smell of a childhood lunchbox, made her picture an old man eating alone in a restaurant. He had tried to take on employees before, but they never stuck with the job long. Last season he hired Russ Graves, a man who was, to hear Ray describe it, a few peas short of a casserole; not smart enough to get bored and not imaginative enough to get lonely. But as it turned out, he was both. His resignation letter explained that if he didn’t quit, he was likely to fill his pockets with stones and throw himself into Elk Harbour.

‘How was work?’ she asked.

‘I spent the better part of my afternoon fishing a dead possum out of Dan and Louise Buckley’s indoor swimming pool,’ he said.

He peeled off his singlet.

‘Did you bring it home for my taxidermy?’ she asked.

‘I thought about it, but it had been in there for a while from the look of it. And the smell. I don’t think even you’d go near it without spewing. How about you? Work okay?’

‘Same old,’ she said.

‘You’re home late. Did you work back?’

‘Delahunt Street is a lake,’ she said, stepping out of her slacks and into her raggedy old pyjama bottoms. ‘It took me an extra ten minutes to get home.

‘It’ll be at least twenty-four hours before it drains, and that’s only if we don’t see any more rain overnight, which seems unlikely.’

‘God, when did we become the type of couple to talk about the weather?’ She dropped her Buy & Bye tunic into the washing basket and climbed under the covers. ‘Jesus, it’s freezing in here. Hurry up and come keep me warm.’

Ray slunk into bed and she spooned him aggressively.

‘Eileen Betchkie came in tonight,’ she said.

The muscles in Ray’s forearms tensed suddenly, then relaxed. It was a micro-movement, nearly imperceptible to the untrained eye, but a wife knows.

‘Oh, yeah?’

‘Yeah. She told me you didn’t go by her place, but I thought you said you were there yesterday. Apparently there’s a load of paperbark trees that will blow over if you fart on them. She worded it better than that, but you get the gist.’

‘I swear to God that woman is losing it,’ he said. ‘I spent the whole day in her yard with the chainsaw and either she didn’t notice or she forgot. I don’t know which is scarier. To be honest, I’m not sure she should be living out at that place all alone.’

Abby inhaled slowly. ‘So you did go to her place yesterday?’

He was silent for a moment. He then rolled over in bed to face her and asked, ‘Where else would I have gone?’

‘Stepping out on me with another woman, obviously.’