The lad wasn’t back home until half past one in the morning, dropped off by a college minibus, and he was in a rather advanced state of the giggles by then. Drunk as a skunk, but still our boy. The rest of us were suitably quiet the next morning. I mean. He’d earned the hangover that time.

School continued to be a learning experience for LC, which seems an obvious thing to write, but I am actually speaking of her socialisation. She had never had a friend before her rescue, and I would never, ever lose that anger over the description of what would happen each time a fellow slave was spoken to, but our girl was asking us questions now, and the sheer number of new people on our holida- cum-tour had broken so many of her remaining barriers.

Maz and I were mixing and matching her delivery to and collection from school, and after a couple of weeks I noticed LC spending a minute or so saying goodbye, or at least saying something, to particular girls. I pointed this out to my lover, and she nodded.

“Making her own friends, darling. Time for that barbie?”

“Um?”

“She only has six girls in her class, plus twelve boys. Just the way the demographics went, I suppose. Anyway, we could run a Saturday arvo event for the kids, then a proper evening one. Time we opened our front door again. I had thought of the climbing club… Mike?”

“Go on”

“Just had another thought. That place does kids’ parties”

“Instead of our barbie, then?”

“Nope. Before. Most of the kids, if not all, will have cleared off after the first part, so if I speak very nicely to Geeta, everything could be ready to go once we’re done at the club. It’s… I want to show our friends we don’t need coddling, can look after ourselves, but, well, you understand?”

“I do, love, Hang on: that’s her teacher”

I slipped out of the car.

“Miss Gianni?”

“Mr Rhodes!”

“Mike, please”

“Oh, and Miss Gianni for me”

She dropped her voice.

“Avoids confusing the little dears, Mike. How can I help?”

“Socialisation, is all”

“Ah. I know the background, of course, but Carolyn is doing really, really well. What were you thinking?”

I talked her through our revised plan, and she snorted slightly.

“If it’s a proper weekend barbie, the only parents going home after the first bit will be the ones whose kids are already spark out. Sounds like a goer, all told, though. Could I add another suggestion?”

“Go on”

“Almost all of our pupils are locals, like yourselves. School has two little buses. Can’t pay for the party, but if we call it a post-school event, then it saves messing about with cars, if people prefer”

“That would be brilliant!”

Her voice softened even further.

“I read what happened, Mike. Can’t take that away, but we can try and make it better now. Let me know once you have time and date, and I’ll do a class note. I’ll need a time for the party, and before you say anything else, no: you are not paying for the whole class”

I rather suspected that the climbing centre might have some input on that front, but I didn’t care, and as it turned out, I was right. In the end, there was only one family that cried off, and that was because they were already booked for a weekend in Mandurah. I did lay the law down with LC, though.

“No climbing alone, love, and the same for your friends. Ish has put the little wall up in our back garden, so if anyone still has energy, they will have somewhere to use it”

Down to the Wall we went, some of the parents looking a little uncertain, as was LC.

“Will this be like the Castle place, Dad?”

“A bit, love, but not as big”

Into the office, a ‘kids’ party table’ already laid out on the mezzanine level, and Vern started the hard-sell for membership while handing out the hired harnesses and boots. The cheeky sod had a video running on loop over the till, and to no surprise on our part it consisted mainly of our family, which brought a surge of conversation to and around our girl. That sent the noise level soaring, and I realised I should have brought some ear plugs. I seemed to spend most of my time belaying strangers, large and little, with LC at my side giving out a stream of technical advice---her, that is, not me--- before I was pressganged into attempting Rhodes’ Reach, which went easier than I had expected, at least for Ish, Dal, Maz and myself. Vern stopped by to “show how it was really done”, cruising it, and I started to understand how far away from the real world I had been in those six empty years.

We even got two of the dads up, although the rope may have been a little tighter than was strictly allowed. One corner of the hall, though, held something new, and if I say that LC kept repeating “DO IT AGAIN!” and “HANDS AND FISTS!” its nature will need no explanation, and neither should the barbie that followed at our place for our main circle of friends and more than a few survivors of Childageddon.

One benefit of the time on the climbing wall, as well as the tiny version in the back yard, was that infant energy levels ran down far more quickly than would have been the case at a more typical children’s party, and our last ‘new’ family group was leaving by seven thirty, LC looking a little disappointed. Get used to it, kid: Geeta and Val salved her pain by bringing out a second tranche of food, this time more interesting in terms of spice and bite.

We were now, in essence, down to an ‘extended family’ group, for Val’s had more than earned their place, of course, so Dal did his usual fiddly stuff with laptop and TV screen for a photo session, which warmed my heart in so many ways, as one of the loudest voices pointing out Important Stuff was our girl’s. The choices of detail and focus were idiosyncratic at times, especially where dogs were concerned, but Dal and his father had more than enough of their own snippets to add, especially regarding the shots from The Peak.

It may sound an incredibly boring evening, with a group of people drifting to and from a barbie or collecting a fresh drink, all while looking at holiday photos, but it was far from that, especially when Kul tried out his impression of Jimmy Kerr’s accent. Maz snorted happily at that one.

“Kul, it’s like when you add all those cod-Aussie phrases, ripper, cobber, she’ll be right. Doesn’t matter how many times you say ‘canny bonny hinny pet marra’, you still won’t sound like him”

Dal gave a loud “Thank god for that!”, and I waved a hand.

“He’s coming down here, you know. Couple of weeks from now. He’s doing an Aussie tour, and the first two dates are nearby, at Hillary’s and then inland from Mandurah”

Geeta was the one to laugh out loud that time.

“And you have tickets? Without talking to these two?”

I felt my face heating.

“I wasn’t sure, Geeta. I spotted the dates while we were away, and Maz and Carolyn were enjoying the music, so…”

“Husband! Internet access!”

“I hear and obey, oh great SWMBO”

The rest gathered round my laptop (Kul is far from shy), and as it turned out, they had enough tickets for all of us in both events, ripper, bonzer, she’ll be right, marra, pet.

“Mike?”

“Yes, cobber?”

“When’s he due?”

“Um… no idea, actually”

This time I got the whole car mechanic tooth-sucking and tutting routine, as Maz fished in her purse for a bit of paper and Ish cackled in mock hilarity. In turn, Maz passed me an e-mail address for Mark and Kelly, and a smirking Ish gave me the exact date. I realised I might have to start restricting his choice of haircuts after all.

“See, Dad? Not the only one who can sort a proper plan. I…”

The confidence shot away like a startled deer, and I had my little boy back, just for a few moments.

“I wasn’t sure, Dad. Clar said… I asked her if she thought you two might want some time away together, just the two of you, so of course she said there’s Elsie, and what did I think big brothers were for, so she said I was learning, and then I asked Steph”

Maz took his hand, the gentlest of smiles in place.

“So you went to someone sensible, ey? Ish, darling: yes, Dad and me, we need some, er, quality time occasionally, but after so many years that we lost, well, not wasting any more of them. Just remember that each of us was without one of you for all that time, so the same thing applies”