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to show he agreed with his friend.
    ‘Yeah, we can,’ Francie said.
    ‘And we will,’ Jay agreed.
    ‘Yous’ll go to prison.’
    ‘Five years for GBH, cut in half immediately because the prisons are too full, then halved again for good behaviour.’
    ‘And when it suits us, we’re real charmers,’ Jay said.
    ‘So that’s just over a year. I could do that standing on me head,’ Francie said.
    ‘There’s a course in prison I’d love to take a look at,’ Jay said.
    Johnny smiled. ‘A year in a cell with me own TV is nothing, but a lifetime without a dick, well, that’s a long time, kids.’
    The two boys burst into tears again.
    ‘Right,’ Chris said. ‘We’ll do it.’
    Eugene agreed enthusiastically.
    ‘Good,’ Johnny said.
    ‘Great.’ Francie patted Chris on the shoulder while Jay pushed Eugene forward.
    ‘You can take that ball out of your mouth now,’ Johnny said to Eugene, and he tried, but it seemed really wedged in there. ‘Help him,’ Johnny ordered Chris.
    ‘How?’
    ‘Stick your fingers in.’ Jay offered the basic solution.
    ‘Ah, wha’?’ Chris said.
    ‘Just do it,’ Francie said.
    ‘Ah, Jaysus, lads . . .’
    ‘Don’t be a bleedin’ baby,’ Jay told him.
    ‘Right, right.’ Chris stuck his dirty fingers into his friend’s mouth. ‘It’s really tight in there.’
    ‘Just pull it from behind,’ Francie said.
    ‘But watch his teeth,’ Rabbit warned, walking up behind Johnny.
    ‘Ha hotch me meat,’ Eugene tried.
    ‘Wha’?’ Chris asked Eugene.
    ‘He said, “Yeah, watch me teeth,”’ Rabbit said.
    ‘Just open up a tiny bit more, Euge, will ya?’ Chris made a gagging sound. ‘Oh, I can feel his tongue.’
    ‘Right, I’m bored, let’s go.’ Francie slung his golf club across his shoulders and hung his arms over it.
    Johnny pointed at the two boys. ‘Don’t forget now, watch out for our girl or . . .’ He made a snipping gesture with his fingers.
    Chris stopped digging in Eugene’s mouth long enough to agree. Johnny smiled at Rabbit, and she fell into line between him and Jay, with Francie at the end, talking about his yearning for a battered sausage. When the boys had branched off to stop at the local chipper, Johnny walked Rabbit to her wall, where they sat for a few minutes to watch two dogs chasing each other on the green.
    ‘Why didn’t you bring Louis and Davey?’ Rabbit asked.
    ‘Louis doesn’t have the stomach for it, and Davey . . . Well, if we’d told your brother he would have cut off their little dicks right away.’ He laughed.
    ‘Really?’ Rabbit asked, scrunching her nose. At twelve she wasn’t sure her brother liked her enough not to throw her under a bus if she was in his way, never mind stand up for her.
    ‘Everyone loves you, Rabbit,’ Johnny said. ‘How could they not?’
    Rabbit blushed and he flicked her bunches, got off the wall and walked up to the side door. By then the band had their own keys to the garage. He unlocked it and turned to her. ‘See you on the other side, Rabbit,’ he said, and was gone.
Rabbit
    Rabbit woke in pain and, for a moment, she had no idea where she was. All she could process was an agony so intense she had to call out. It was when the nurse came running in that she remembered.
Oh, no, I’m dying
. Jacinta was a country woman, five foot nothing with a friendly face, a large chest and tiny hands. She checked Rabbit’s file, quickly managed the breakthrough pain, then waited until Rabbit’s fists unclenched and she was breathing more regularly.
    ‘Better?’ she asked.
    ‘Better,’ Rabbit said.
    ‘Good stuff. I’m Jacinta, by the way.’
    ‘The singer.’
    ‘Ah, you heard.’
    ‘“Delilah”,’ Rabbit said, and curled in her cracked bottom lip.
    Jacinta took a swab lolly out of her pocket, unwrapped it and handed it to her. ‘Try it.’
    Rabbit sucked it and rubbed it on her lips. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘So “Delilah”.’
    Jacinta checked her watch, then sat in the recliner