Pictures of Lily

. . but when he reaches me, he simply sniffs at my hand.
    ‘You want some food?’ I ask, irrationally disappointed that he’s not going to pick a fight. He gazes up at me with dark eyes. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have any.’
    He’s almost as tall as me, but I’m no longer frightened. I tentatively reach out and stroke his soft, furry neck and he puts one dark paw on my arm. I giggle to myself, delighted.
    ‘What’s your name, hey?’ I remember Michael telling me about the Tasmanian Devil called Henry. ‘I think I’ll call you Roy,’ I decide out loud. ‘Roy the roo. And I’ll recognise you from this little chunk missing from your ear.’
    At that moment, Roy’s ears prick up and his head whips round in the direction of the gate. I follow his gaze to see a large group of Japanese tourists bustling into the paddock. They animatedly point in our direction, cameras at the ready.
    ‘So much for chilling out on the grass with you,’ I say sadly to Roy. He turns and lazily hops away.
    I wander aimlessly for a while, pausing to marvel at pelicans half my height and hurrying past scarily enormous emus with long, bendy necks. I eventually consult the map and realise I’m only around the corner from the koalas. I don’t want to be a typical tourist, but . . . what the hell. I’ll have to keep it from Mum though, otherwise she’ll think I’ve gone soft.
    There are only a few people waiting in front of me in the queue to get up close and personal with Australia’s most famous animal, and I sit on the long wooden bench and watch as a sandy-haired man in beige shorts and a dark-green polo shirt feeds eucalyptus leaves to a koala while chatting to a couple in their twenties. There’s a family waiting in front of me and the two young sisters are bickering about who’s going to touch the koala first.
    ‘You can pat him at the same time,’ the mother says eventually, rolling her eyes at me. I smile at her as her daughters impatiently push through the gate to take their places next to the koala and its keeper. The oldest girl has hair exactly the same shade of blonde as Kay. Hot tears prick my eyes. I quickly brush them away.
    I’m not an only child. My dad has two other daughters: Kay, who’s four, and Olivia, who’s not yet one. Olivia’s first birthday is in two weeks’ time, a few days after my own. I’m going to miss her party. I’m going to miss Kay’s in March. I’m going to miss so much . . . They’ll probably forget all about their big half-sister on the other side of the world. And the new baby won’t even know I exist.
    Lorraine, my dad’s wife, is three months’ pregnant, a fact she only revealed to me recently when I raised the possibility of moving into their spare bedroom. It was my last-ditch attempt to avoid leaving England, and it failed.
    ‘Hello?’
    I look up to see the sandy-haired keeper waving at me. The family have long gone.
    ‘Sorry.’ I jump to my feet, embarrassed.
    ‘Lost in your thoughts?’ he asks kindly as I approach him.
    ‘Just a bit.’
    ‘Are you English?’
    ‘Yeah. Did my deathly-white limbs give it away?’
    ‘Accent,’ he corrects, smiling. ‘Here on holiday?’
    I shake my head. ‘For good.’ Supposedly .
    ‘So,’ he turns his attention to the koala. ‘This is Cindy.’
    I snort.
    ‘What?’
    ‘Sorry, it’s not that funny. It’s just that Cindy is my mother’s name,’ I explain.
    ‘Oh!’ Recognition lights up his face. ‘Are you . . .?’
    ‘Lily Neverley. I’m with Michael.’
    ‘Ah, right, gotcha! Welcome to Australia.’
    ‘Thanks. And before you ask, it was long.’
    ‘Long? Oh, the flight.’ He grins. ‘Been asked that a lot today, have you?’
    ‘By everyone in the staffroom earlier.’
    ‘Well, I’m Ben.’
    I reach out and shake his proffered hand. He’s probably in his late twenties, early thirties. He has short sandy hair and is tall, lean and as tanned as you’d expect from an Australian who works outside in the sun every day. Just as with Michael, I like him immediately.
    I nod at the koala. ‘And this is Cindy?’
    ‘Yep. You can pat her on her back if you like.’
    ‘She’s really soft,’ I murmur. ‘Hello,’ I say to the koala. ‘Are you enjoying those nice green leaves?’ I turn to Ben. ‘I met a kangaroo earlier. He was disappointed I didn’t bring him any food.’
    ‘They like the pellets you can buy at the entrance.’
    ‘Thanks for the tip. I might get some later. I’ll be steering