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Marilyn had vacated.
    ‘Even your mother doesn’t know,’ she whispered.
    ‘Really?’
    She patted her hair and changed the subject with a clunk. ‘So, having fun?’
    ‘Yes, sure. It’s a blast, as usual.’ I said that, but my stomach felt as though I’d drunk too much dam water: all sloshy and yuck. The grandmothers might be secret friends but that didn’t mean the rest of the families were any less fierce with each other. Having a relationship with a guy was complicated enough, let alone factoring in bad blood between our fathers and our father’s fathers. Relationship? Who was I kidding? ‘Might catch up with you then,’ Nathaniel had said. Might . I didn’t need to hear wedding bells in my head because a boy said he might catch up.
    I couldn’t help myself.

CHAPTER 09
    Dad remembered to bring Nan a cup of tea. ‘Where’s your cousin?’ he asked me.
    ‘I . . . we got separated,’ I said. ‘I’m not sure where she went.’
    Dad raised his eyebrows. ‘You’d better go and have a look for her.’
    ‘Me? I have looked for her. She’s . . .’
    ‘Av, please,’ Mum interrupted. ‘Somebody has to keep an eye on her.’
    ‘She’s a big girl,’ I protested.
    Dad sighed. ‘That’s the problem. She’s not as big as she thinks she is.’
    Then Aunty Jacq arrived. No more words were spoken but Dad caught my eye, gave me a look forged in iron. He tipped his hat towards the showgrounds. I reluctantly left my seat in the shade.
    I was supposed to be looking for my wayward cousin but I found myself looking for that trucker’s cap. I didn’t even know what I’d do if I saw him – probably just roll onto my back like Champ and wag my tail submissively in the dust. When he was little, Champ used to pee all over himself with excitement if he hadn’t seen you for a while. I made sure my bladder was empty, just in case.
    The shadows grew longer. The band – Billy Cane and the Long Road, who’d come down from Sydney – were setting up on the pantechnicon at one end of the great arena. I found Naomi and Chooka blowing the last of their cash on the shooting gallery, trying to win a soft toy.
    ‘What’s the matter?’ Chooka asked.
    ‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘Have you seen Katie?’
    He frowned in concentration then shook his head. ‘Did you see Katie, Nam?’
    ‘No,’ Naomi said, and took aim.
    ‘If you do, can you tell her to meet me at the cars?’
    ‘Okay.’
    I walked ten paces and I heard her laugh. I was positive it was her. I realised it had come from the only place I hadn’t thought to look – the most logical place to go hunting for a feral sixteen-year-old looking for action: the beer tent. She was slumped in a white chair with a half-empty plastic beer cup on the table in front of her. There were four guys and two other girls crowded around the table and they looked as though they were set for the night.
    ‘Avvie!’ she shrieked, and all eyes turned to me.
    My body reacted the way it always does when attention is drawn my way – as if my thermostat has broken and the emergency light in my face has come on. I kept walking until I was beside her chair, then crouched and whispered in her ear. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
    ‘What . . . the hell . . . does it look like I’m doing, Mum?’
    ‘They’re looking for you.’
    ‘You found me. Now what are you going to do? Do you want a beer? Todd, can you get my cousin a beer?’
    ‘I don’t want a beer.’
    ‘Oh come on, Avvie, loosen up!’
    ‘I’m as loose as I want to be. Come on, let’s go.’
    ‘Loose? That’s loose, is it? Ha!’
    You can drag a sheep through the paddock, I thought, but you’re much better off getting in behind it and giving it some incentive to move.
    ‘I need your help,’ I lied. ‘It’s getting dark. I want to get changed. Could you do my make-up for me, please?’
    She turned to look at my face. Her head moved; her eyes were a full second behind the action, and bloodshot. She looked sunburned.