Even if Clancy had heard the phone ring, she wouldn’t have answered it. Clancy didn’t like talking to strangers, especially not on the phone.
So the message sat blinking on the machine for a whole day before Harriet, Clancy’s mother, discovered it. And then all hell broke loose.
‘But you must have heard the phone!’ said Harriet.
‘I didn’t!’ insisted Clancy.
‘No one rings land lines anymore. She probably thought it was a scammer,’ said her younger brother, Bruno, helpfully.
‘She’s in another world.’ Her older sister, Tash, was scornful. ‘She wouldn’t notice if the whole building blew up.’
‘Were you reading, Clance?’ asked her father, Tim, hopefully. He was a teacher, and he still dreamed that at least one of his children would develop a love of books.
Harriet hadn’t heard the phone because she was out at work. Tim hadn’t heard it because he was at school, preparing for the new term that was about to start, and then at a rehearsal with his jazz band.
Bruno hadn’t heard it because he had been on the computer all day, wearing headphones. He was in trouble for that now, because he was only supposed to have two hours of computer time a day, even during the summer holidays.
‘You can’t blame me,’ said Tash. ‘I was at the oval playing footy with Az and Miranda. I wasn’t even here.’
‘You should have been.’ Harriet glared at Tash over the rims of her red spectacles, the ones she wore in court to make witnesses feel uncomfortable when she cross-examined them. ‘You know I don’t like you going out and leaving the little ones alone when your father and I aren’t home.’
‘Nine’s not little!’ protested Bruno. ‘It’s virtually double figures.’
‘Clancy’s old enough to be in charge, isn’t she?’ said Tim mildly. ‘She’s starting high school in a couple of weeks.’
‘Four weeks and three days.’ Clancy gave her father a reproachful look. She was trying not to think about high school until she absolutely had to.
‘This is so unfair!’ cried Tash. ‘I’m the one who’s out in the fresh air, doing physical exercise, and I’m the one who gets yelled at?’
‘Hey!’ said Tim. ‘No shouting at your mother.’
‘I don’t need you to defend me, thank you, Tim,’ said Harriet crisply.
Clancy’s stomach churned. She couldn’t bear it when her family argued, the words swirling and banging off the walls like a swarm of trapped insects. At least when they were all staring silently at their various devices, lost in their individual universes, there was no shouting.
Then Harriet turned on her. ‘Tell me the truth, Clancy. You heard the phone ring, but you were too scared to answer it, weren’t you? For God’s sake! You should have grown out of that by now.’
‘I didn’t hear it,’ faltered Clancy. ‘I was … thinking.’
Tash rolled her eyes. Bruno burst into unkind laughter. Even Tim shook his head. Clancy felt her face burn. Why hadn’t she just said she was reading? Then at least Dad would have stuck up for her.
But it was true, she really had been thinking. She’d started re-watching Cosmos on the iPad (streaming it illegally, which Harriet would definitely disapprove of), and then she’d got stuck on the idea of the endlessly expanding universe.
Endlessly. Expanding. All those stars, all those galaxies, rushing away from each other into the cold, silent, empty dark. Everything falling apart. Forever. Energy leaking away into nothing. Order collapsing into chaos, inevitably, irreversibly. This process, Neil deGrasse Tyson informed her, was called entropy, and it was Clancy’s new least favourite idea.
But Harriet would never understand that Clancy hadn’t picked up the phone because she was worrying about entropy.
The call had been from their uncle Mark. Clancy couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him, except in photographs, and at Nan’s funeral. But he was Tim’s brother, and he was in trouble. Mark had always been wild; but never as wild as this.
‘I didn’t even know he was in New Zealand,’ said Tash.
‘No one did,’ murmured Tim.
Bruno bounced on the couch. ‘Is Mark going to jail? Are we related to a criminal?’
Clancy asked cautiously, ‘So, what has he done, exactly?’
‘He broke into a zoo and let all the animals out.’ Tash folded her arms. ‘So juvenile.’
‘It was an aviary, and he released the birds,’ said Tim. ‘Some kind of environmental protest, something about endangered wetlands. He meant well.’
‘There was property damage, too,’ said Harriet. ‘Extensive property damage, allegedly.’
‘No one was hurt,’ said Tim. ‘Don’t make it sound worse than it is.’
Harriet snorted. ‘He’s been arrested. How much worse do you want it to be?’
Harriet made decisions quickly; they had lost too much time already. She and Tim would fly to New Zealand to rescue Mark: Harriet because she was a lawyer; Tim because he was Mark’s brother and the one Mark had called for help.
‘You’re the only one Mark’s ever listened to,’ said Harriet.
‘Apart from our father,’ said Tim. ‘But—’
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. They all knew that Pa couldn’t help with anything anymore.
‘New Zealand, cool,’ said Tash. ‘About time you guys took us overseas.’
‘You can’t all come,’ said Harriet. ‘Far too expensive at such short notice. Just Bruno.’
For once, Clancy and Tash were united.
‘Bruno?’
‘Why Bruno?’
‘Because he’s a boy? He is such a spoilt brat!’ Clancy scowled at her brother.
‘Why can’t I go? I never get to do anything!’ cried Tash.
Tim put up one hand. ‘It’s nothing to do with being a boy. It’s because he’s the youngest. You two are mature enough to manage. We’re trusting you.’
Bruno chanted, ‘I’m going to New Zilland. I’m going to New Zilland.’
‘Dad! Bruno’s being racist,’ called Clancy.
‘Fine, go to New Zilland.’ Tash shrugged. ‘I’ll stay with Az.’
Clancy began to panic. ‘What about me? You can’t leave me at home all by myself!’
‘Everybody out!’ cried Harriet. ‘Tim, will you clear the room of children, please? I need to make some phone calls.’
‘Clear the court for Her Honour,’ said Tim.
Harriet gave him a sharp look. ‘Sarcasm is not helpful at this point. And if you were capable of organising yourself and your idiot brother, I wouldn’t have to—’
Clancy didn’t wait to be cleared. She ran to the small bedroom she shared with Bruno, and slammed the door on everyone. But it was no use. This apartment was too small for arguments: the thin walls shook with angry voices and the air was sour with resentment like the smell of burned food.
Clancy huddled in the corner of the bunk. She couldn’t lose herself in Cosmos again because she’d left the iPad in the living room. Instead she listened to Harriet’s clear, firm voice as she booked flights and hotels, and arranged emergency leave from work. ‘Shouldn’t take more than a couple of days,’ Clancy heard her say. ‘Lucky it’s summer and there’s not much on, and my husband’s on holidays, of course, until school goes back – yes, he’s a music teacher—’