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time you cleaned in here?’ Caitlin lifted and sniffed a tin of Carnation milk. Someone had hammered a hole through the lid.
    ‘I don’t clean, and there’s your mother’s mail.’ Jack gestured to the stack of envelopes on the bench. He pushed open the fly-screen door, and went down the wooden steps into the overgrown backyard.
    ‘Ignore him,’ Caitlin said.
    ‘I’d only be returning the favour,’ said Colby.
    ‘Jesus, this place is a mess.’ Caitlin ran a finger along a window sill, inspected the dirt, and walked down the hall to the room she’d occupied as a child. ‘It’s the same as when I lived here.’
    ‘You’re joking?’ said Colby. There was no carpet or linoleum or anything on the floor, and no plasterboard on the walls. The beams doubled as shelves.
    ‘This was my favourite toy when I was a kid.’ Caitlin reached for an old coconut, carved to look like the laughing head of a chimpanzee.
    ‘It’s not exactly cuddly, is it?’ Colby took it from her,and rolled it through his own hands. ‘Why didn’t you take it with you, when you cleared out? In fact, why not take it now? Put it by your bed. It’ll scare off any other men who might try to stay over.’
    ‘Don’t be stupid.’
    Colby put the coconut back on its exposed beam, and took Caitlin into his arms, so her sandy head rested on his chest.
    ‘You had one wild childhood,’ he said.
    ‘I know,’ she said, sighing. ‘Look, I’m sorry. Can we go?’
    It was the first time since they had become lovers that Colby had seen her less than happy.
    ‘Sure,’ he said.
    Caitlin led the way back down the hall to the kitchen. She picked up her mum’s mail, and left the house through the strip-vinyl door. Colby hesitated, thinking, ‘Are we supposed to say goodbye?’ He could see Caitlin’s father standing in a cloud of smoke on the back porch, grinning at Colby.
    ‘I’d watch her if I were you,’ Jack said, ‘she’s not the full quid.’
    ‘Excuse me?’ said Colby.
    ‘ Will you piss off! ’
    Colby turned in time to see Caitlin coming back into the house, at speed. ‘Heh-ho!’ he said, reaching for her waist. ‘It’s okay, babe.’
    ‘There you go,’ said Jack, grinning. ‘Screw loose.’
    ‘I’m going to kill you,’ said Caitlin, but Colby had her by the waist and would not let her go. She turned on her ankleso fiercely that it twisted, and she had to limp her way back to the Moke.
    ‘You show very little respect for your daughter,’ Colby said, and maybe he’d have said more, but the Moke had started up. Caitlin was leaving. ‘Wait up,’ he said, striding over the dried leaves, gumnut shells and ibis poo, towards where she was revving the engine.
    ‘Get in,’ said Caitlin, ‘before I do something stupid.’
    Colby slammed the car door. ‘I’m in.’ It wasn’t a clean exit. Caitlin tried to accelerate, but she wasn’t properly in gear. They skidded on leaves, and stalled. Caitlin swore, but finally they were away.
    For the first few minutes, neither said anything.
    Colby broke the ice. ‘Your dad’s a jerk.’
    ‘Tell me about it.’ Her tone was sharp.
    ‘Right,’ said Colby. ‘So. Do you want to talk about this?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Okay.’
    They drove back to Rent-a-Moke with the wind rushing through the glassless windscreen into their faces. They parked under a banana tree. The owner came out of the rental hut, dusting her hands together.
    ‘No charge for you, love,’ she said. ‘We miss your mum now she’s on the mainland.’
    ‘Yeah, well, I don’t think she misses much here.’
    Colby had never seen Caitlin in such a mood. The sun – so high and bright when they’d set out – was lost behind a cloud. They boarded the ferry, and rode homesitting on benches on the deck, with Caitlin’s golden hair whipping about her face, and seagulls swooping on the breeze.
    ‘I sense a storm,’ said Colby.
    ‘Me too,’ said Caitlin, ‘and I’m not often wrong.’

Chapter 8
    ‘Just so you know,