The last house on the outskirts of Mildura disappeared behind them. A vineyard, with rows of grapevines covered in plastic. Sam watched in the side mirror as the road swallowed it up. The car lurched around curves and over hills. Dettie didn’t slow down, and she hadn’t spoken since they’d put their seatbelts on. Sam was tugged from side to side and Katie bounced on the back seat, singing. His blanket had been kicked onto the floor and he had the straw hat on his lap, covering his arms.
‘Do you think they can put the teeth back in?’ Katie leant forward to ask.
The car rattled over a line of potholes and Dettie jerked it back towards the middle of the road.
‘You know, the boy?’ Katie asked. ‘I heard at school if they find the tooth they can stick it in again. Except for if you swallow it. Then it’s gone.’
‘He’s fine,’ Dettie said, not glancing away from the road. The tight sound—the sound from the telephone call—was still in her voice.
Katie played with her kneecaps, thinking. She sat forward. ‘Wasn’t I fast to get the first-aid kit, Aunty Dettie?’ she asked. ‘I ran really fast.’
Dettie nodded, staring at the back of the ute ahead of them.
‘Sam was fast too. But I had to run all the way to the car and back.’
‘Hmm…You were both fast.’
‘And he was just getting water, but I had to look everywhere. Even under the seats.’
Dettie hummed quickly.
‘And then, when I lifted up the pillow—’
‘Katie!’ Dettie snapped. ‘I’m trying to concentrate on the road.’
The car veered around a corner and the hat shook off Sam’s knees. Katie’s mouth hung open. Her eyes darted from Dettie to Sam to the first-aid kit beside her. She was going to say something, then slumped down in her seat and chewed her lip.
Dettie cleared her throat, blinking. ‘I was very proud of you both,’ she said, and loosened her grip on the steering wheel.
The shaking eased off as they swept around each bend. The air vents hissed.
In the glove box, under the car manual and scrunched receipts, Sam fished out a faded map and a pen that worked. He folded the map so its blank side was exposed and wrote as legibly as he could manage, Are we still going to Perth? He held it up to Dettie.
At first she didn’t look, but he kept holding it. Eventually, she glanced down at it, twice. She raised an eyebrow, and smiled. ‘Yes. Yes, of course, honey. How silly. Don’t you see the signs? You watch next time one comes along.’
White road markers shot past on the road. There were no signs, or none that he’d seen that said Perth. But he knew that Perth was west, and they were driving towards the sunset.
He scrawled again on the paper, Does Dad want us to come?
This made Dettie look at him strangely, steadily, like she was weighing up something in her head. She re-read the message. ‘Now that is a very silly question,’ she said slowly. ‘Your daddy’s waiting for all of us. In Perth. Waiting for us to get there.’
He ducked a moment, writing, and lifted the map. Where’s Mum?
‘Yes, your mother too.’ Dettie exhaled a hiss. ‘She’s waiting.’
‘Mummy?’ Katie sat up. ‘Is Mummy there already?’
‘Yes, yes. She’s with your daddy. They’re setting everything up. Now settle down.’
Sam started on a question, but Katie was faster, ‘How did Mummy get there so fast?’
Dettie checked her side mirror. ‘Hmm?’
‘To Perth. How did she beat us?’ Katie stretched forward.
‘Well, she’s—she’s not there yet. But soon. She’ll get there before we do. And she’ll be waiting.’
‘How did she get in front of us?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘But how?’
‘She just did!’ Dettie snapped. ‘Now both of you stop bothering me. I need to drive.’ The car jerked.
Sam scratched out what he’d written. The look of the words sitting there, exposed on the page, bothered him somehow.
Katie moaned and flapped her arms. ‘I’m hot.’
Dettie jabbed the fan’s setting as high as it would go. ‘There. Is that enough?’
‘Can we open a window?’ Katie whined.
‘Katie, I don’t want bugs—’
‘There’s no bugs. I’m hot…’
‘Katie, so help me—’
‘I want to wind the window down.’ She had her fingers on the handle.
‘Katie!’ Dettie barked. She had turned, looking back, taking one hand off the wheel. ‘Do you want me to pull this car over?’
‘Mummy lets us wind the window down. All the way down.’
‘Well, your mother isn’t here.’
‘Where is she?’
‘Honestly, Katie, if you don’t settle down—’
‘I’m sick of this!’ Katie yelled, kicking the back of Sam’s seat. ‘I want to go home!’
Dettie slammed on the brakes. The car skidded and wobbled. It veered to the left. Katie screamed. The belt pulled the wind out of Sam’s chest and the motor sputtered. When the vehicle had stopped they were nosed into the dirt at the side of the road. Dettie’s buckle snapped open and she leapt out.
‘Quick! Get out! Come on!’
Sam fumbled with the doorhandle. His hat was crushed under his feet. Whimpering, Katie scrambled out and stood in a patch of grass, looking back at the car. She grabbed Sam’s elbow tightly, afraid, twisting his sunburn.
Ahead of them, Dettie was wringing her hands. ‘You want to go home?’ she called out. ‘Back to that? Back to a house that—’ She squeezed the bridge of her nose, covering her eyes.
Katie stared at the engine. Sam’s legs shook. Dust was settling around the wheels. Suddenly, he wanted to run again. The feeling tightened his legs. Katie’s fingers gripped harder.
‘Look where we are,’ Dettie said. ‘Both of you. We’re nowhere.’
In every direction all Sam could see were browning fields and long stalks of straw. A corrugated tank tilted like a giant sleeping head in the paddock closest to them, and further along, a barbed wire fence was bent under a fallen branch.
‘We don’t have a home anymore,’ Dettie said, swiping at the flies. ‘This is us now. Our home.’
Katie was bent over. She was crying.
‘Remember that kangaroo? Remember? On the side of the road?’ Dettie was pointing off behind them, pacing on the spot. ‘Because that’s what happens in the wild,’ she said. ‘Out here. And that’s us now. Wild. So if you want to end up like that, then fine.’
Sam felt sick. Tears stung his eyes.
‘Out here,’ Dettie said, pressing a hand to her neck, ‘there’s no giving up. We have to hold on to each other and not let go, or we’re lost.’
Waves of heat lifted from the bitumen. Their shoes were sinking into the tar.
‘I want to go home,’ Katie whispered.
Dettie smiled, and the cold look in her eyes started to fade. ‘There is no home back there, sweetie. It’s gone. There’s just Perth now. Where you belong. With your daddy. And your mummy.’ She lowered her arms, her shoulders going slack. ‘And with mean old Aunty Dettie who has to drive you there.’ She peered down at them with a sad smile, tilting her head.
Katie’s grip on Sam’s elbow loosened. A soft breeze pushed the grass around. An ant crawled up Sam’s ankle and he shuddered, recalling the way the kangaroo had rippled with insects. He hurriedly kicked his leg, bending to brush it from his flesh.
Shaking her wristwatch until it faced upward, Dettie checked the time. ‘Now let’s all get back in the car, shall we? Let’s stop messing about. We’ve got to go and put our family back together. Quick smart.’
Sam and Katie were still trembling, but they followed her, slowly. As they climbed back in Dettie noticed Katie was wiping her eyes with a handkerchief.
‘Where’d you get that?’ she asked.
Katie jerked, surprised. ‘Mummy gave it to me!’ she yelled, and stuffed it into her sleeve.