Agatha woke early. It was the sound of cars going past, commuters trying to get ahead of the Friday morning traffic, that woke her, rather than the sun, which wasn’t up far enough to reach her yet.

After leaving Tully’s in the middle of the night, Agatha had walked quickly, turning corners, trying to retrace the route from Katherine’s to Tully’s backwards in her mind. She wasn’t successful. She had found herself at a dimly lit park that she hadn’t seen on the trip the evening before.

The open space of the park didn’t bring her any relief, rather she found herself scared to be out in the open. Agatha had turned back and walked further along the street. She looked at the fronts of houses, listened to the dogs barking out an alarm to their sleeping owners that someone was approaching, and each time one did, she kept walking. Eventually, weary from the day and carrying her case, which seemed heavier than before, she found a house that, when she approached, didn’t have a barking dog or a security light and offered a front verandah with a couple of outside chairs.

She looked up and down the empty street, stepped silently through the opened gates and up onto the porch. In a few steps she was at the chair, her suitcase beside her. She did another scan of her surroundings, checking to make sure she had not been seen, and then Agatha’s eyes had told her she needed to sleep. She had pulled her knees up and hugged them with her arms, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The sound of cars zipping along the street woke her from that restless sleep. She crept off the verandah and headed back to the park. The predawn light was enough for her to see a picnic table on the other side, at which she could open her suitcase and get something to eat.

The sound of running feet made her jump with fright. An early morning jogger raced towards her until, from a few feet away, they jogged off the path and around her. Agatha caught the stare in her direction. The jogger was soon out of sight and Agatha decided that she needed to hurry. Reaching the picnic table, she placed her suitcase on top. It was then that she noticed a large black mark on its corner, possibly from when she knocked it in the dark last night. Using the palm of her hand, she tried to wipe it away, but it was stubborn. She couldn’t get rid of it. She felt her chest tighten. She didn’t want her orange suitcase to be damaged. Again, she tried to remove it. Her effort made no difference.

The sounds of more footsteps and the yap of a dog disrupted her thoughts and reminded her that she needed to hurry. She found a muesli bar, smoothed out the items on top and closed the case. Looking around her, she decided that with the dawn light getting stronger every minute, she needed to move on.

She was determined to remember the way to Katherine’s house. It couldn’t be far. Maybe if she found her way back to the train station? Or asked someone to call her? Agatha walked through the park, the morning air cool, the muesli bar enough to stop from feeling hungry.

She reached the other side of the park within a few minutes. More people walking dogs appeared, each one giving her a smile and a morning greeting. ‘Morning,’ she replied, keeping her voice as calm as she could, as if it was totally normal for her to be walking somewhere at this time of the morning while carrying a bright orange suitcase.

Sandy Vale seemed like a world away from Greensward; even though people seemed to be always in a hurry to get somewhere else, just like in Greensward, Agatha thought it was a different kind of hurry, a friendlier kind of hurry. She thought of Mrs Beluga, who had lived across the street from her parents for as long as she could remember, and how she was always watching, always had something to say. Agatha, like her parents, blamed Mrs Beluga whenever the council workers turned up, or even Nell. Someone had to have called the authorities. ‘It’s that old Mrs Beluga,’ her mother had said, over and over. ‘She has her nose in everyone’s business.’

While she was with Katherine, Agatha had never met anyone who came close to being like Mrs Beluga. Sandy Vale probably didn’t have any Mrs Belugas.

Agatha walked on. As more people came out of their well-kept houses and made their way to their cars or down their streets to the bus stop, Agatha felt like she could blend in a bit more, even though her orange suitcase had not dulled a single shade.

As she approached the end of the street, she could see it was taking her towards a main road. A few people had gathered on the opposite side, at a bus stop. Agatha paused for a moment and then crossed the road. She approached a woman who was standing a bit back from the rest of the small group who were waiting.

‘Excuse me,’ Agatha said, using her hand to push her hair behind her ear. It had occurred to her that she should have brushed her hair at the park.

‘Yes?’ the young woman replied.

‘I need to get to The Vale. Does this bus go there?’

‘No. This goes to the train station. But if you go around the corner, over there,’ she pointed to the end of the street, ‘and wait at that stop, that bus will take you there.’

The woman looked at Agatha and then down at her suitcase. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked in a hushed tone. Agatha stepped back. Both hands gripped the handle of the suitcase.

‘Yeah. I’m fine.’ She didn’t sound convincing and the woman didn’t look convinced. Agatha stepped away and crossed the road again. On the other side, she briefly turned back and saw the woman had her phone to her ear. Agatha moved faster. Maybe there were Mrs Belugas here too – they just looked different.

It didn’t take long for the bus to arrive. She got on, waved her card and found a seat behind the driver. The Vale was one place Agatha knew well. She was sure she could find her way to Katherine’s house from there. They often went to The Vale, for the supermarket, the bakery, the department stores or just to window shop, somewhere cool to escape from the summer heat. There was a medical centre at the very end of the large shopping centre. Katherine had taken her there for a compulsory check-up when she had first moved in with her. Next to it was a café. Just the thought of it made Agatha realise how hungry she really was.

Comfortable that the bus would take her where she wanted to go, Agatha relaxed into the seat. Even though she had slept for a couple of hours, she felt exhausted. She didn’t want to go home. She couldn’t get to Katherine’s. She felt stuck – she was nowhere. She lowered her head onto her folded arms. The bus hummed on, turning this way and that. Agatha closed her eyes and pictured Chief running around the back garden, chasing the water from the hose she held in her hand, snapping at the stream of cool water.

‘We’re at The Vale,’ the bus driver announced. Agatha sat up, looked out the window and saw the familiar shopping centre car park, with a slow steady stream of cars arriving. She let out a large sigh of relief. ‘Nearly there,’ she said to herself, as she picked up her case and stepped off the bus.