‘How would I know?’ said Leonie. ‘I wasn’t there. That’s not what First Nations means, you know.’

‘Of course, sorry,’ I said.

‘Nah, I do know,’ said Leonie, laughing at me. ‘Just messing with you. White people are pretty easy to mess with.’ Leonie leaned across and mock-punched me in the thigh, then put her hand back on the wheel and answered me straight. ‘So down where Bromley Cairn is – down there on the flat – that was never forest. That was grassland. Beautiful country, really productive – yam daisies, other tubers, kangaroos. Managed by mob, no accident, you know? But yeah, it’s a much tougher gig working down there now running sheep. Everybody’s working really hard for not much.’

Right on cue the car descended out of the forest and onto the flat, with square after square of uniform green and brown paddocks taking up the view from the window.

‘I guess setting up in Bromley Cairn has got me thinking – I can’t help trying to imagine what it would have been like when the house was new, and what the land around it would have looked like. It’s hard to imagine.’

‘Yeah, well. If that’s hard to imagine, maybe one day we’ll show you the gully.’

‘The gully? Why, is it pristine down there? All native plants?’

Basil piped up from the back seat. ‘Wait, did you just say you were setting up in Bromley Cairn?’

I sighed. ‘Yes, Basil. I had to. It’s the only place I can study.’

‘I told you not to use the old house.’

‘Oh I see. You told me not to. Well in that case.’

Leonie frowned at Basil in the rear-view mirror. ‘Basil, why are you being so weird about the old house? The girl needs room to study.’

‘Well, Bromley Cairn sucks, is all.’

‘You’d do well to follow her example. He should be more like you, Anna. He really should. I really drew the short straw there.’

‘Mum!’

‘Just saying, Baz. Just talking broadly, you know.’ Leonie smirked into the rear-view mirror, some secret meaning passing between them.

Basil looked away out the window again, smiling to himself too. ‘Fucking hell, Mum,’ he said quietly.

I didn’t bother trying to figure them out. I had drifted away. I was trying not to think about the fact that I hadn’t made any contact with Nassim. That I still hadn’t let him know. I knew I should call him, should already have called him. But I didn’t want to think about it right then. Because for a moment I felt happy. I felt happy in this car, with these cool and funny people. And I wanted to stay happy. So instead I grabbed onto what Leonie had said, and set my mind chuckling.

Ha. Baz, I thought, and, still laughing to myself, filed the nickname away for later.

19

We pulled up on the gravel patch between the little house and Bromley Cairn and saw that Bette was watching us through the kitchen window as I stepped out of Leonie’s car. Leonie and Basil waved extravagantly at her and I laughed at them. Eventually Bette smiled quietly and lifted a hand to them, and they drove away.