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Night was coming down. Better give him some air. She unzipped the bag and pulled him to the top and left the zip half undone.
    ‘Oh no,’ Mr Craze groaned, and straightened up from the boot shaking his head.
    ‘What?’ Mrs Craze said in alarm. ‘What is it?’
    ‘Just remembered that I took the jack out last week and forgot to put it back,’ Mr Craze groaned again and let his head roll back in a dramatic fashion. ‘Can’t believe I did that.’
    ‘So how are we going to change the wheel?’ Ruth snapped.
    ‘We’re not, Ruthie,’ her father replied apologetically.
    ‘We’re going to have to ring for roadside service.’
    ‘What!’
    ‘No,’ Mrs Craze groaned too. ‘Ken … tell me this isn’t happening!’
    Mr Craze looked at Marcus. ‘Have you got your phone?’
    Grim-faced, Marcus handed his phone over. ‘Better be quick,’ he said, ‘the battery’s almost out.’
    ‘So typical of this family!’ Ruth yelled. ‘Nothing works.’
    ‘We all do!’ Mrs Craze shouted back. ‘For goodness sake, Ruth.’
    ‘Ruth, would you please …’
    Mr Craze dialled the number and turned away to speak to the operator. But he had some difficulty describing exactly where they were. They’d taken one of the back roads as a shortcut, so no one was sure. Marcus was sent to find out the name of the bridge they’d just crossed. When he came back with the news that it was called Happy Chance Creek they all groaned.
    Mr Craze told the operator and switched the phone off. ‘They’ll be up to an hour,’ he said. ‘Just have to be patient.’
    ‘Why does this always have to happen to us?’ Ruth moaned in frustration.
    ‘Ruth, you are not helping,’ her mother said sharply.
    ‘ Ruth, you are not helping ,’ Ruth mimicked.
    ‘Watch yourself, my girl,’ said her father.
    Ruth shrugged as though she couldn’t care less and walked off towards the bridge. She was so angry that if another car had come past she would have hailed it and tried to get a ride back to the city. As it was, there was no other traffic at all. Ruth leaned on the white wooden railing of Happy Chance Bridge and fumed to herself. Why did this have to happen on the one day when she really needed to be home at a certain time? She looked at her watch and sighed. It was nearly six, the time she was meant to turn up at Lou’s house for the sleepover. Everyone in the whole year wanted an invitation to Lou’s place and she’d finally cracked it. Now look where she was! On a bridge in the middle of nowhere! She didn’t even have Lou’s number to ring to explain what had happened. The darkness was creeping in around her.
    When she got back to the car, Marcus and her parents were standing to one side staring morosely at the busted tyre. Ruth opened the back door, about to join her little brother who was playing on the back seat. But she stopped in shock when she saw what he was playing with. Paul must have spied Rodney at the top of her bag and taken him out.
    ‘Stop!’ Ruth yelled. ‘Give him to me now, Paul!’
    ‘Oh, let him play with it, Ruthie,’ Mrs Craze said. ‘It keeps him occupied.’
    ‘No!’
    ‘He’s not hurting it.’ Her father tried to grab her arm to stop her getting into the car, but Ruth slipped out of his grasp and managed to snatch the rat away from her little brother.
    Paul started howling.
    ‘You are such a pain, Ruth,’ Marcus said, glaring at her. ‘Why can’t you let him play with it? He wasn’t hurting it.’
    ‘Rodney’s mine!’
    ‘You’re too old for that stupid rat anyway,’ Marcus sneered. ‘Kids your age don’t play with toys like that. You should give it to Paul.’
    ‘Why don’t you go and … and try out a new hairstyle,’ Ruth shouted. ‘Pretty boy!’
    She’d walked in on Marcus in the bathroom that morning. He’d been preening, and hadn’t known she was there. She’d watched him as he turned his head this way and that, put on a smile and then a sultry frown.
    ‘Hi, handsome,’