Peter gazed through the sheriff’s reflection, watching the snow flurry over the brightly coloured town, and resolve settled deep inside him. “OK,” he said. “OK.”

10

Cooper’s head hung low over his lap. The window to interview room seven wasn’t frosted like the one to the sheriff’s office. Anyone passing down the corridor on their way back to reception could see in. But perhaps that was the point. The room was just a box with two chairs in it. The walls were so bare that the one missing carpet tile almost became a feature. Cooper sat with his back to the window facing Tokala, answering a series of questions. Tokala was leading the registration process for all Returnees so they were probably having the same conversation he’d just had with the sheriff. Only it didn’t look that way and there was no desk dividing them. Tokala sat with both hands flat across a clipboard. His dark eyes were so unblinking that his entire being seemed distilled to focus on Cooper. There was a voice in the room asking questions, but Tokala’s mouth wasn’t moving. He just sat there with his long hair unbound across the chest of his zip top, studying Cooper and on occasion smiling warmly, like he was eagerly receiving everything he had to tell him even though he wasn’t the one doing the asking.

Voices broke further down the corridor. Peter glanced back and a woman with a swinging ponytail and a file in her hand marched out of one door and disappeared through another. The door slammed. When he turned back, Tokala was looking up at him. Peter mouthed the word sorry and moved away from the window. But Tokala smiled, as if the intrusion was welcome, and indicated for him to come inside, so Peter quietly let himself in and crouched on the floor beneath the window.

Cooper remained hunched over. He glanced up towards the corner of the ceiling where a small mesh box had been fixed. The box crackled and a dull voice entered the room.

‘What’s your favourite food?’ came the voice from inside the box.

Cooper tucked his hair behind his ears. “Racoon. They never quit stealin’ stuff.”

‘What’s your favourite colour?’

“The sky just before it snows.”

‘What’s your earliest memory of being embarrassed?’

“Takin’ a piss all over Essie Morgan before she could get me outside in time.”

‘What’s your most recent memory of being embarrassed?’

“Honkin’ of guts when I shoulda worn a fresh T.”

‘Why?’

“Cos I was trying real hard to impress Peter.”

The mesh box crackled.

Peter looked down at the carpet tiles and his stomach churned a little.

‘What makes you feel big?’

“The mountains.”

‘What makes you feel small?’

“Here.”

‘Do you wish you’ d lived in the world that came before?’

“No.”

‘Are you glad the world before is gone?’

Cooper shifted about in his seat. “No.”