Hello? you say. Somewhere in the background there’s the sound of voices – Hello? Dad? – then they are gone again and it’s back to the hissing not-quite-silence, the sound of black trees, pine-needle soil, the dark unknowable universe swirling like sharks around you. You hang up, feeling worse now than if he hadn’t called at all. You wish you hadn’t lied to Mam! You wish someone in the world knew where you were! Then it hits you. Someone does know.
