There was a rhythm to the way Harry Fletcher did things, year in, year out.
If you hadn’t started studying by the time he tied the new canes of the Albertine rose up the verandah post, then you were getting behind. When exam results came out, he’d be putting a new coat of glossy black on the front door and washing down the weatherboards in preparation for Christmas visitors. You could rely on him asking after your results and showing an interest in your choices. He knew everyone’s name in the street, and he would talk to anyone; he always had a word to the postie, the milkman, everyone’s visitors, delivery men, council workers, kids cycling by during the holidays on their way to the beach. Anyone walking a dog.
Love. Duty. And the habit of decades.
Not a task was left undone, no small r
