‘Maybe the old house –’ I started, but Basil cut me off.

‘Bromley?’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t recommend Bromley.’

‘What’s “Bromley”?’

‘Oh, um, Bromley Cairn. The old house. That’s the name of the old family estate.’

‘Oh right. Why wouldn’t you recommend it?’

‘Hmm? What?’ Basil was looking distracted. It was feigned distraction, I was sure of it.

‘Why shouldn’t I study in Bromley?’

‘Oh, because . . . I just don’t think you should.’ Basil had gone weird, all clammed up and using airy sentences.

‘Tell me why.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s pretty creepy, don’t you think?’

‘That’s not a real reason.’

‘And some of the local delinquents used to drink and smoke pot in there, who knows what they’ve left behind. And there’s wild animals.’

‘Wild animals? What, an angry sheep or two?’

‘Just, I just reckon – Wait, have you been in there already?’

‘No, I –’

‘Don’t.’

‘Do you think it’s haunted or something?’

‘No!’ Basil looked uncomfortable. ‘I mean, not really badly haunted. But yes. Okay? You got it out of me. Yes, it’s a little bit haunted.’

‘I don’t believe in ghosts.’

‘Okay, well I do and I’m telling you it’s actually quite a lot haunted. There’s some weird shit in there, believe me.’

‘My non-belief in the paranormal is not modified by the degree to which you might believe something is haunted.’

‘I just really don’t want you to go in there. Please tell me you won’t.’

‘I wasn’t even –’

‘Don’t work in Bromley, okay?’

‘Wow. A royal decree.’

‘Maybe don’t even go in there.’

‘Um, okay, sure Basil, boss of the universe.’

‘Promise?’

‘Seriously?’

Basil sighed loudly and shook his head. ‘I can’t stop you. But I just wouldn’t if I was you. Especially not upstairs.’

‘Noted,’ I said. And he seemed to finally let it go. We both stood and began our precarious descent. ‘So, are you one of these local delinquents?’ I asked him.

‘Me? No.’

‘Ha. You could’ve fooled me.’

‘Why, because I’m Aboriginal?’

‘No, because you’re fucking annoying.’

We reached the bottom of the cairn and began walking back towards the little house. Bette’s face appeared in the kitchen window, watching us, and then it disappeared back into the dark world of indoors. When we reached the house Basil stopped at the back door.

‘This is where I leave you, ma’am.’ He bowed low with a flourish.

‘You won’t come in?’ I wasn’t sure why I asked that, it just seemed . . . something. Hospitable.

‘Yeah, nah. Actually, I’m not really welcome in Bette and Hessel’s castle.’ And before I could ask more he had walked off, stepping out across the gravel with his head held high and haughty like a lord to where Leonie was waiting for him in the car. I watched him go, and found myself smiling.

As they drove away, I could see Basil’s arms waving about inside the car, gesticulating something to his mother who threw back her head and laughed as she drove. It was a little happy moment between a mother and her child that I found unexpectedly hard to see.