It quickly became routine, as she more than pulled her weight around the house. Two of us would go to work, One would go to school, another to college, and the last would wander around Perth, gradually getting to know the layout. She seemed particularly attached to King’s Park, often borrowing a pair of binoculars and a bird guide for the day.

During the evenings, she was like a mouse, as if frightened to draw attention to herself, but slowly, slowly she was relaxing. We got a few new dishes from her, such as a rather nice toad in the hole and a so-so shepherd’s pie, but early days. Murdo’s job offer was due to start in a fortnight, and was only part-time, in fitting with her visa. I got lost in the rules, despite our contacts via Bobby, but it was something like a minimum number of hours must be worked, but leaving the option for more if the holder wanted. I drove her into Hillary’s one morning for the obligatory interview, and a few days after that, one of Murdo’s boys stopped by the house with the uniform, which was really just a blouse, skirt, scarf/cravat thing and a high-viz waterproof jacket, which left Clara peering up into the blue.

The lad, Kelvin, laughed.

“Believe me, love: when it rains here, it can bloody RAIN. Doing boarding in it, you’ll want that coat! I’d get a hat as well, for both the wet stuff and the sun. Anyway, boss sends his best, and hopes you’ll enjoy. See yaz!”

That night was our trip to the folk club, which also drew the Butts (minus Dal), so it was almost full circle for our young lovers. Ish was Excused Cooly Aily, of course, even though LC suggested he just play it the other way round, but I did a couple of songs for my own spot. The ‘act’ was a grizzled guitarist who specialised in the works of Banjo Paterson and Eric Bogle, so we got lots and lots of Ocker stuff, much of the references and in-jokes sailing past my own head, never mind Clara’s. Beer was consumed in moderate quantities, and Clara was most definitely relaxing more with each day. I was amused to see several of the younger audience members looking at her a little sharply, but it was amusement only, because it was clear that some of them might have had their own designs on our boy’s body. It was neither the first time, nor the last, by far, that I caught the epithet ‘Dishy Ishy’.

We had video chats with her friends at home, though, and while I am sure there will have been private chats, I was touched by how she made real efforts to find times for the calls when our whole family could be involved. Maz was more than happy, but with an edge of concern, as she explained in bed one night.

“She’s living her dream, darling. That boyfriend/girlfriend thing she got groomed into, well, her and Ish are just about spot on there. It’s us, though. Family. That’s what she lost, what Debbie and her girls sort of gave back. I think that’s why she makes such an effort with her cooking, even if, well”

“Even if it’s not always successful?”

“Unfair, darling. Even if it doesn’t always quite rise fully to the occasion. She’s anxious that it’ll fall apart again, even if she doesn’t know it consciously, and I worry. Then I see her with our son, and, well. That spot on the sofa, it’s theirs now, and when our little one cuddles up on her other side, she just melts”

She wriggled a little closer, as was her way ever since she had been rescued.

“I just think we need to be a little careful when she starts work, just in case she has any wobbles”

That day came sooner than I had realised, and Maz drove her in for her first morning, painfully neat in her new working rig, while I took my bike into the State building for another batch of stunning newbies by Powerpoint. Clara had made a point of insisting that she would come home on her own, just to get used to the route, but by the time I got home that evening, she was still fizzing.

“I have to learn the till, so I was just looking over shoulders for that bit, but then we have to guide the passengers out, so I got to speak to people. They were all so nice!”

Bubbly as anything, she continued chattering away about the chances of moving to a job as a ‘hostie’ on the boats themselves, serving drinks and snacks and getting a chance to see quokkas, “But I need to do a certificate thing for working on deck, so I have to wait…”

She eventually ran down, dreamy smile seemingly fixed in position, as Maz dished out a stir-fried rice dish with a surprising quantity of red chilli sauce in it.

“Might be a bit spicy”, she said. Thank god we had enough ice cream in the freezer for afters. I hatched a plan with Ish, and he arranged a doctor’s appointment for his girl.

Her first weekend off, I called the family into the living room on the Friday evening.

“You may be wondering why I’ve gathered you here this evening”

“Get on with it, Dad!”

“Stop interrupting then, my lad. Caroline: tell us again what you enjoy”

“Hands and feet and jamming and snorkels and Big Sis!”

“Well, you can’t have the first three yet, till your brother’s hand is fully better”

“Snorkel and Sister?”

“Yup. Where should we go?”

“Espy?”

“Bit far, that”

“Rotto?”

“That’s a good suggestion. Who do we know who can tell us how the tickets work?”

Clara almost whispered, “I get discount”, and I grinned at her.

“I was counting on it, love. Shall we log on and see what’s available?”

Another near whisper.

“The doctor said I’m okay now, to swim”

Maz patted her knee.

“That, sweetheart, is why we waited. We’ll show you where we got married, as well. Now, you know how the prices work, so you drive”

Up bright and early on the Saturday morning, the wind thankfully almost non-existent, we took the bus to the ferry port, where Clara was greeted with hugs and ribald comments such as, “So this is the famous Dishy Ishy! He got any brothers?”

That one was greeted by a surprisingly pugnacious LC with the words, “No! He’s got a sister!”

We sat out in the breeze for the crossing, which was much smoother than I remembered, and just as we came off the long walk down the jetty, Clara got her first “It’s so CUTE!” of the day. We’d booked tickets on one of the hop on/hop off buses, and at my wife’s urging, we rode it out to Cape Vlamingh, where her bird-naming mode took over. Clara just stared at the water in Fish Hook Bay”

“Mister Rhodes?”

“Mike, love. Told you that”

“Well… never been swimming before, not, well, when Nana used to take us out to Pembrokeshire, I always had to wear control pants, just to cover up, you know. This, well… Bit nervous how it will feel, with, well…”

“I really think that’s a subject to discuss with Maz, love, not me”

“Yeah… Just nervous. She scares me more than you do”

That was an interesting comment, but one I decided to leave alone for the moment, at least as far as my wife was concerned.

“Do I scare you, Clara?”

“Um, sort of, at first. You’re just so protective of Ishy and Carolyn”

“Do I still scare you?”

She looked hard at me, then smiled.

“No. I think I understand you better now. I’m sort of… I’m watching you for tips, now”

“Tips for what?”

“Well…”

Maz was watching some sort of heron thing under a rock arch, while Ish was explaining to LC, I assumed, that yes, it was rock, but unavailable for Hands and Feet. Clara took that in with one sweeping glance, then turned back to me.

“You know my story, Mike. All romantic, I am, and I think back now, to how I was groomed, used. Debbie lifted me up a lot, and the other girls, but… With Ish, it’s real again. First time round, I was so, so stupid, but this time, Ish, it’s, well, you”

“Why me?”

“What I worked out is that you’re like a sort of umbrella. You decide who is underneath, who’s protected, aye? And that’s the scary face, the top of the umbrella, front of the shield sort of thing. I’m behind the shield, under the umbrella now, and… And this is hard to say. I’m in love”

I had guessed that, of course, from what she called him, but then she added, “With two people, Mike”

“Sorry?”

She was beaming now, a radiant smile that transformed her face.

“My little sister. How could anyone not love her?”

How could anyone not warm to such a big-hearted woman?

“Shall we give my wife a prod and suggest a move on? I think it’s time for getting wet”

Clara nodded, and we rounded up errant offspring and obsessed spouse and headed back along the boardwalk to the bus stop. We ended up at Little Parakeet Bay, after only two stops by salt flats for Maz to continue her litany, and Clara was entranced, especially when two pelicans walked past only a few feet from her.

Sheltered sand, crystal clear water, gentle slope to the beach; it was almost perfect. My wife treated me to a view of that delightfully-filled one-piece costume again, one she was filling out more and more each day as she recovered her lost weight, Ish, to my surprise, opted for budgie-smugglers, Clara had a Speedo racing style costume that left very little doubt about the size of her chest while the high leg did something to disguise her lack of hips, and LC was in a one-piece swimsuit with long sleeves.

This umbrella wasn’t needed that day, and we ate our evening meal in the Settlement with a quokka at our feet. Who could ever want to live anywhere else?”

The next morning, both Clara and Ish were almost insufferably smug, and I realised that swimming had most probably not been the only test applied to Clara’s new anatomy.