Pictures of Lily

who’s still standing in the doorway, then pull away from the kerb, stalling immediately.
    ‘Sorry, sorry. I won’t watch you,’ Michael shouts, before going inside.
    I wipe my forehead and attempt the manoeuvre again, this time with success.
    ‘He’s a good guy,’ Ben says of Michael.
    ‘I like him,’ I reply. ‘He’s definitely one of my mum’s nicer boyfriends.’
    ‘Take a right here. Has your mum had a lot of boyfriends?’ Ben asks casually.
    ‘Oh, dozens.’ I flick on the indicator.
    ‘Don’t forget to check your mirrors,’ Ben reminds me.
    ‘Whoops.’ I do as he says and make the turn.
    ‘Straight ahead through Crafers, then we’ll take a right at the roundabout. Did you get along with all of them?’
    ‘They were alright for the most part. I liked Bill, her last serious one.’
    ‘He’s the one who lived in Brighton, right?’
    ‘That’s right.’ I mentioned him on Saturday night when I relayed the story about Shannon and Dan. ‘She was with him for almost four years, which was practically a record. I was sad when she got bored of him and we had to go back to London.’
    ‘That’s a great little restaurant.’ I glance left as we pass a place called Jimmies. ‘A sexy blonde sometimes sings there on Thursday nights,’ Ben adds.
    I crunch the gears as my insides prickle with jealousy. I don’t know why it hasn’t occurred to me that of course Ben will have a sex life. For all I know, he could have a girlfriend. I immediately want to rule out that possibility, but the question won’t slide off my tongue.
    ‘Yeah, right here,’ he directs as we approach the aforementioned roundabout. ‘Mirrors,’ he adds.
    We start to climb up into the winding hills. Purple, pink and yellow wildflowers line the sides of the roads.
    ‘How long was your mum with your dad?’ Ben asks after a while.
    ‘I think she was only with him for a few months before she got pregnant. They got married, but they didn’t last long after I was born. After the divorce she moved on to Simon.’
    We pass the gates to the conservation park.
    ‘This is a different way to how Michael drives to work,’ I comment.
    ‘Yeah. I didn’t want you to have to manoeuvre your way up a steep dirt track on your first lesson.’
    ‘Thanks.’
    ‘Straight ahead,’ he says.
    Out of the right-hand window I see the castle that I noticed from my bedroom window on my first day here.
    ‘What’s that?’ I ask.
    ‘Carminow Castle,’ Ben replies. ‘It burnt down in one of the bush fires and was left empty for years.’
    ‘Spooky. And what are those?’ On the other side of the road there are towering structures shooting upwards into the sky. I spy another burnt-out house to their right.
    ‘Transmitter stations for television and telephone. Hey, look! Black cockatoos!’ I nervously follow Ben’s gaze to see two black birds flying over the roof of the car. ‘Very rare,’ he says.
    ‘Cool,’ I comment, looking hastily back at the road.
    ‘So what was Simon like?’ He reverts to our earlier discussion.
    ‘I barely remember him,’ I reply. ‘But I’ve seen pictures of us all on a beach in Dorset when I was two. Then there was Desmond. We went to live with him, too. I have vague memories of collecting eggs on his farm in Yorkshire. Mum flitted from man to man for a few years after that. Most of the time we lived in a little flat in East London, until she met Bill and we were off again. I liked living by the sea.’
    As if to illustrate my point, through a break in the pale-grey bark of the gum trees, we can see the city of Adelaide and beyond it, the ocean sparkling cool and blue.
    ‘Wow. Do you mind if I stop and take a photo?’
    ‘Course not.’
    I manage to pull over on the side of the road near someone’s driveway, and turn off the engine. While Ben waits patiently in the passenger seat, I remove my camera bag from the footwell and take a couple of shots.
    I climb back into the car, commenting, ‘The views up here must be amazing in the winter.’
    ‘In the winter?’
    ‘When the leaves fall off. You can barely see the coast at the moment for all the gum trees.’
    ‘Oh.’ I can hear the smile in his voice. ‘The leaves don’t fall off. They’re evergreens.’
    ‘Sorry. What an idiot.’
    ‘You, Lily Neverley, are anything but.’
    It’s the first time he’s said my full name. Warmth radiates through me as I check my mirrors, indicate, and pull out of the driveway and back onto the main