Little Joe went up the hallway in his singlet and shorts and crept into the poky room where the curtain was closed and Leonie was sleeping. With her back to him in the dim light, Leonie’s form was a hill on the bed, covered in a sackish nightie, the new one she’d got on sale at the Plaza.

Leonie went up and down with her snoring—the sound of it like a soft motor—and she stirred then as if noticing Joe from a dream.

‘Joe?’ she said, still facing the dresser, not properly woken.

‘It’s me, Leelee,’ said Joe.

‘I’m up, sweetie.’ And Leonie rolled onto her back, making a different landscape now on the creased sheet. The quilt had been sleep-kicked to the floor in the wee hours, such was the heat of the summer.

Joe went wide-eyed across the carpet to the edge of the bed. He said, ‘Lee, there are lots of ambulances next door.’

In the kitchen, it was hot and Leonie made breakfast. Joe ate his Rice Bubbles from a plastic bowl and Leonie ate her fried eggs and toast with margarine. The two of them watched through the kitchen window as men in blue uniforms mingled outside next door.

‘Is Barney died?’

‘I don’t think so, sweetie. Those are actually not ambulances. They’re police cars.’

‘Oh,’ said Joe.

Then he asked more questions about the police cars and Leonie answered most of them with, ‘I’m not sure, sweetie,’ and after Joe had finished asking questions there were spilled wet Rice Bubbles and droplets of milk on the red formica table…

Continue reading the extract here…

Clarke will be released on November 1 2022.

Buy a copy of Clarke here.