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Nepean Hospital. Julia wanted her to go into rehab after that, but no beds were available at any she called. Not that Blossom would go. She insisted she was fine, she’d just taken a few too many pills and she didn’t need to even go to detox. When Julia played the emotional manipulation card and told her Dee was so devastated by Blossom’s behavior, she blamed herself, and that Eleanor was painting deserts, Blossom reluctantly agreed to detox.
    “But I’ll be fine after that, Jules. You’ll see.”
    After a night in Katoomba Hospital, she was propped up in a bed waiting to be transferred down the mountains to the detox ward. Her words were still slurry but a least she wasn’t crying. Her face was scrubbed of makeup and she looked like a child again, a child with too many burdens. Eleanor had just left, satisfied Blossom was being cared for appropriately. Julia stared at her sister, appalled at her transformation.
    “Rez has had enough of the drugs too. We thought we could move back here permanently and start painting. Rez is an artist too. He’s good. You’ll see. All we need is a new start and we’ll be fine.”
    She avoided Julia’s eyes and picked at a loose thread on the hospital blanket.
    “Rez has been in some trouble in the past, but it’ll be okay now.”
    “What kind of trouble?’
    She shrugged. “Just a bit of dope. The cops claimed he had a lot more than he really did. I’m sure they loaded him up. He got a suspended sentence.”
    Julia’s heart sank. The cop was right. Rez was a drug dealer and Blossom was in thrall to him.
    “Where is Rez, Bloss? Has he been to see you?”
    She nodded. “He's staying with some friends but dropped in this morning.”
    Julia couldn’t believe it. What were the hospital staff thinking?
    “Did he give you anything?”
    “What? What do you mean?”
    “You know what I mean. Did he give you any pills?”
    Her eyes immediately filled with tears. “You don’t trust me, do you?” she wailed.
    “Not particularly. I’ve done ten years with women who were much more skilled than you at lying and cheating. Where are they?”
    “Go away! I hate you! Saint Julia! You do everything to make yourself look good.” She was yelling now. Julia rifled through Blossom’s toilet bag and clothes looking for what she knew would be there.
    “Even after ten years in jail everyone thinks you can do no wrong,” Blossom snarled.
    Sure enough, Julia found a strip of pills in a tampon package. Blossom grabbed her arm.
    “They’re mine. Leave them!”
    “Stop it, Blossom. You can’t go on like this.”
    Julia pulled away from her, the pills in her hand.
    “You don’t understand,” Blossom whispered. “I have to have them. If I don’t have them the red comes back.”
    “What?” Julia’s heart gave one painful lurch.
    “The red. Red blood everywhere…”
    “No. No.” She sat on the bed and pulled Blossom into her arms. “No, there’s no red. It’s just a dream. Forget it.” She rocked her back and forth, dark despair falling over her. “Shh, shh. It’s okay. Nothing will hurt you. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
    “But it’s there. The red and that smell. I can’t remember what it is, but there was a smell…”
    Julia tightened her hold on her sister, willing away the demons.
    “It was nothing. Remember? You were sick with the flu. That’s why Father Pat brought you back early from the school excursion. He used to wear that awful aftershave. That’s the smell you remember. Then I was foolish and went and saw Father Pat after Sally told me what he’d done. That’s what happened. It’s just confused in your head. It was a bad time for a little girl, but it’s over now. It’s all over.”
    “Don’t leave me, Jules. Don’t leave me.”
    “I won’t, baby girl. I won’t.”
    She rocked her, holding on to her fragile, skeletal body. When the staff came to transfer her to Nepean, she was asleep. Julia gently laid her back on her bed, then stood and