11
After Douglas had left, Evie stumbled through the rest of the day in a daze. Eating supper, seeing Jasmine to bed that night, sitting by her bedside listening to her reading, kissing the child goodnight – she did all this as if in a trance, her body acting automatically, while her brain was elsewhere. When Jasmine was asleep, Evie went downstairs. The house was silent and there was no sign of Benny. She went into the garden from where she could see Aunty Mimi silhouetted at the kitchen window washing the supper dishes.
The garden was dark, with a sea breeze stirring the leaves, helping cool her down and keeping the mosquitoes at bay. Evie breathed in the sweet heady scent of frangipani, and the soft, subtle pine smell of the casuarina trees. Moths circled in the light spilling from th
