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left it there. I was relieved, although I knew that there could be some unpleasant undercurrents around if and when Gray had to be together with UncleFelix over the next few days, especially if the rats stayed red. So far they looked like they would. I’d checked them a few times off and on during the day and there were no signs of their changing, not even to the pink Martha would have preferred. No, they were still a rich tomato red.
    Once we were seated around the table, Mum said, ‘Uncle Felix, I was reminding David that you and Mum used to live round here when you were kids.’
    Uncle Felix smiled at the memory. ‘It was such a great place to spend your childhood,’ he said. ‘We did have wonderful times. There were paddocks on the slopes then, filled with slippery grass to slide down on wooden sledges, or we’d slide down between the trees on the pine needles in the pine forests. My, how we sped! Hugely dangerous, of course, and probably wouldn’t be permitted these days by the fun police.’
    ‘Fun police?’ I asked.
    ‘That’s what I call them,’ said Uncle Felix. ‘You know, the people who don’t like children climbing trees or racing downhill on bikes or swimming outside the flags—’
    ‘Steady on, Felix,’ said Dad. ‘There’re plenty of good reasons for those restrictions, you know. Do you know how many children are drowned in this country each year?’
    ‘Oh, I know,’ said Uncle Felix. ‘I do know. But, balance, John. Balance. If you clip children’s wings, they’ll never be able to fly.’
    ‘Hmmph,’ said Dad, unconvinced. ‘Nor will they fly if they break their skulls falling out of trees.’
    ‘Metaphor, John, metaphor,’ said Uncle Felix forking a baby potato into his mouth.
    ‘Uncle Felix,’ I said, interrupting, ‘you talked about pine forests. Did you put any of those into the Axillaris books?’
    Uncle Felix turned to me. ‘Oh, yes,’ he said, ‘I put all sorts of places in these hereabouts in the books. Why wouldn’t I have? It’s what I remember.’
    ‘So, the pine forest that Bella and Felix—?’
    ‘Oh, yes, that was very real.’
    ‘And the concrete shed?’
    Uncle Felix gave me a shrewd look, and then said, ‘Oh, yes, that too.’
    ‘Would it still be there?’
    ‘Almost certainly,’ he said. ‘It was a public utility and made of concrete. I imagine the need for it still pertains.’
    Mum said, ‘I was saying to David that, if you have time while you’re here, you might like to go for a walk together and show him some of your old haunts?’
    ‘Of course, I could,’ said Uncle Felix. ‘It might be very interesting for us both.’
    ‘Great,’ I said.
    And I meant it. Uncle Felix’s books were pretty real to me, even if they were quite off-the-wall in places, but to actually go with him to the places he’d written about would make them even more meaningful.
    Uncle Felix put down his knife and said, ‘So, Nancy, you and David have been talking about me have you?’
    Mum looked a little flustered. ‘Not really. We were talkingabout
Into
Axillaris
— you know, the one David’s reading right now — and I mentioned that some of the places—’
    ‘Nothing I should be worried about then?’
    Mum laughed. ‘Uncle Felix, have you ever done anything you should be worried about?’
    ‘Of course I have. Haven’t we all?’
    ‘I did mention that you used to do conjuring tricks …’
    ‘So I did.’
    Martha looked up with interest. ‘Tricks? Can you still do them?’
    ‘I shouldn’t think so. It was a long time ago so any tricks of mine would be all rusted up now.’
    Martha looked disappointed. ‘Could you try?’
    ‘Oh, I suppose I could try,’ said Uncle Felix reluctantly. ‘John, do you think you could oblige me with a fifty-cent coin?’
    ‘Sure,’ said Dad. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change. He sorted through the coins and then passed Uncle Felix a fifty-cent piece.
    While we looked on curiously, Uncle