Free Wrath by Anne Davies

that’s probably where I am.”
    â€œNot a bad thought, Luca. In fact, that’s the place where all your thoughts are—but you’re not your thoughts, are you?”
    â€œNo, I don’t think so.”
    â€œThen what are you?” This was too hard. It seemed like a simple question, but I just couldn’t answer it.
    Dad had laughed. “Don’t worry if you can’t answer it now. It’s the question we’re all born to think about. Time for bed. We’ll talk more another time.” And we’d wandered back inside, brushing bits of grass off each other’s backs, and I’d felt comforted but couldn’t really work out why.
    I lay there, thinking about this memory, when I felt Katy sit down next to me. “What are you thinking about?” she asked, lying back next to me and resting her head on her hands like I was doing.
    â€œNothing much. Maybe a bit about Dad.”
    She didn’t say anything for a while, and then she said, “You’re pretty rude to Ray, Luca.”
    â€œWhat do you mean? It’s just that I don’t hang off everything he says like you and Mum do.”
    â€œNo, it’s more than that. You hardly even answer him when he talks to you. He hasn’t done anything to you.”
    â€œHe shouldn’t even be here!” I exploded. “He should have his shoes under his own table every night instead of having ’em under Dad’s!”
    â€œWell, Dad’s hardly ever here!” Katy spat.
    â€œThat’s not his fault,” I shot back, rising to sit and face her. “He’s away working for us, not having a fun holiday. How would you like to drive a truck all day and part of the night for days and days, unload, and turn around and do the same thing with more stuff every day of the week?”
    â€œI know,” she said, turning away from me. “I get that he works hard. But when he comes home, he’s horrible. He’s not like Dad at all. He hardly speaks to us, and he and Mum look like they can’t stand each other.”
    There was no defence to this. What she said was true. “But Mr Ray Bloody Reid shouldn’t be here just ’cos Dad can’t be.”
    â€œMum can have friends too, Luca. And he’s really nice to me.”
    â€œYeah, he buys you stuff.”
    She winced. “What’s wrong with that? He’s just being kind. Mum says because he’s new here, he hasn’t got many friends yet, and she’s lonely on her own, so it’s good for both of them. She’s happy when he’s around. She laughs like she used to.”
    â€œIt’s just wrong,” I muttered, but I couldn’t think of anything to say to convince her. I just knew something was horribly wrong and our little four-wheeled machine was heading for a crash.
    Dad came home a few days later. It was a Saturday, and I hoped he’d come to Geraldton and watch the footy with me. I knew it was a long shot; he usually slept all day Saturday. I didn’t get much of a chance to even mention it. Mum came out to the truck as he pulled up and waited for me and Katy to say hello to him, and then she moved forward and instead of saying hello to him too, she said, “Dan, we need to talk. You two leave us in peace.”
    Katy and I looked at each other, surprised, and then we looked at Dad’s face, but it didn’t look surprised; it looked mean and wary, not like I’d ever seen him before. We slunk off. I looked back once, but Mum and Dad had gone inside. Katy was silent, and I couldn’t think of anything to say. Her hand reached across to mine at the same time mine reached out to hers. We hadn’t done that in a while. We turned to each other with the same little smile on our faces and then burst out laughing as we realised that we must look like a mirror image.
    â€œCome on!” I shouted. “Race you to the river!”
    Katy squealed as I got a