MARY AND ANDY SPENT the day together, going from one mall to the next. Killing time, talking, laughing, and teasing each other. They passed a men’s apparel shop. Mary dragged her inside. ‘I want to get something for Julian,’ she said.
‘Yeah, right. What? A scrub?’
‘Don’t be impertinent,’ her mother scolded with a smirk, wagging a finger to boot. Andy made a face and went away on her own to shop. She found a knitted hat, what Banjo called a beanie. She was in two minds whether to get it for him. After all, it was now late spring, and it would likely be the summer before they saw each other again. Too hot to wear a beanie. But then it would be winter in Australia when he returned – in New South Wales, anyway. Queensland, from what she could recall, didn’t have winters. After much umming an
