I CROSSED THE front lawn and saw that my father’s ute still wasn’t in the drive. I kicked a piece of broken tail-light along the cement and into bushes that lined the fence. It was from his ute. He had backed into the mailbox when he drove off three weeks ago. My mother saw it happen, so did the neighbours. I was at school. My mother laughed when she told me about it later that afternoon but it didn’t sound funny.

Wind caught the screen door and it banged shut behind me. My mother spun around. She was on the phone and stirring something on the stove at the same time. I knew by the look on her face that my grandmother was on the other end. She rang up every day to see if Dad was back.