I did as I was told, and found a Jag hood ornament. ‘No way.’

‘But, but,’ he said, ‘promise me? It’ll be the very last thing you do.’

‘How much did it cost?’

‘Don’t worry about that. You gotta have one.’

It was heavy, perfect, polished. ‘I can give you something for it.’

‘No, you can’t. She’s gonna cost a lot. I’ll help out where I can.’

A few minutes later we were back at it. More Lenin, and how I’d structure an essay on Bruce Dawe. ‘It’d be better if Pop helped,’ I said.

‘We’ll be okay.’

‘When it gets to the engine. He’d be the one.’

‘Well, he’s decided.’

‘I keep asking him.’

‘That’s all you can do.’

‘I thought, after the trip, things might change.’

We sat silently, thinking.

‘It’s the keeping going,’ Peter said. ‘When you can’t see the point.’

Then, Val, in the distance. ‘Pete, you comin’ in?’

Like he was seven, still, out on his bike, and she’d cooked his tea.

‘Comin’.’ He stood, took his bottle, and said, ‘Bout another week and it’ll be ready. I promise, drinkable, at least.’

And was gone.

Perhaps I was complicating life. I’d already learned, it was all about asking the right questions. Meeting Ron on his way to the shops the previous day, saying, ‘Mum only goes to Tom the Cheap now.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Reckons those girls are rude down at Woolies.’

Then he’d said, ‘You thought about that problem I posed you?’

I’d taken a moment. ‘The subject almost completed his education; almost received a scholarship; almost secured a teaching position. But life had other plans.’

‘Keep it scientific.’

‘And with the death of both parents, what had seemed important, no longer seemed important.’

He’d said, ‘And who told you that?’

I’d just smiled. He knew, of course. Don had the answers to everything.

‘So?’

‘I guess that’s enough to make anyone rethink things?’

‘At some point you lose your ambition and settle on something. But car seats, that’s something I enjoy. Something my dad taught me, so I guess, in a way, I owe it to him.’

So maybe Pop was asking the God of Datsuns what really mattered? And maybe He was saying, Spend time with your family, Doug. Plenty of other people know how to fit a timing chain.

As the big, white (lost) rabbit of the universe sniffed about for food. Les, in the distance, calling, Carn, Susie, I gotta lettuce leaf for you.

I remembered Pop saying, Somewhere near the hutch. Stripped-back Pop, covered with a fine layer of dust, wandering the backyard looking for something he’d lost. Me saying, What is it? What are you looking for, Pop?

The rabbit.

There must have been hundreds, millions of them by now. Ernie’s inbred bunnies, spread across Gleneagles. But why was it you never saw them?