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Though she had woken grumpy and stiff, she couldn’t remain in that state for long. The presence of little Jo beside her soon cheered her up and when she got out of bed and looked out the window she could see that it was going to be a pleasant day. Adelaide was really turning on the weather. It was great for enjoying the outdoors. She had a shower and got dressed and when she returned to her room Jo was sitting up in bed, reading. “Good morning my little man, how are you today?” she greeted him and kissed him on the forehead. He grinned up at her and held out the book, “you want me to read it to you?” she asked and Jo nodded. She returned to the bed and sat down, Jo snuggled in beside her and opened the book. “Look who’s just moved in next door to us?” Kate began. It was another of Jo’s favourites. “Well little man,” Kate initiated when she had finished the story, “time for you to get dressed and have some breakfast.” Jo dutifully scurried off to his room and Kate met him in the kitchen a short time later.

They had the place to themselves this morning, as Peter wasn’t yet up and Lydia had gone out to get her hair done. It was her regular Wednesday thing. Kate felt like singing, “what’ll it be for my little man today?” she trilled. Jo giggled and pointed to the wheat-bix. “Wheat-bix, just like Benny, eh?” Well, why don’t you take this out to him and I’ll get some for you?” She passed him Benny’s bowl of soggy wheat-bix, and he ran off outside. Benny had become used to sleeping outside now and wasn’t quite so wildly rapturous as he used to be. Kate watched Jo and Benny together; they were firm friends now and trusted each other completely. Kate was so glad that Benny had joined them. He was the stabilising influence and companion for Jo that Kate had hoped he would be. Jo came back inside and Kate reminded him to go and wash his hands before he ate. He returned moments later and they sat down together, Jo with his wheat-bix and Kate with her muesli and yoghurt. They also had crumpets drenched with honey and a sleepy Peter appeared, as they were finishing. “Good morning,” Kate greeted him, somewhat crisply, “don’t you have classes this morning? I thought your presentation was today.” He grabbed an apple, “I’m going to the beach, want to come?” Jo raced off and returned shod and with Benny’s lead before Kate had a chance to decline. “I guess that’s a yes then?” Peter laughed. Kate nodded and they followed him out the door.

Peter had brought a Frisbee and threw it to Jo when they reached the beach. It was close to the ground and Benny reached it ahead of Jo. Then the battle was on to wrestle the Frisbee back. Kate laughed as she watched the boys wrestle with the dog. She looked out over the beach, and saw that it was quiet this morning. Glenelg was a beautiful spot, it was cleaner and quieter than St Kilda, though not as trendy and it lacked St Kilda’s famous cake shops.

Kate fell into a reverie contemplating her home city; she missed it so much it ached. She snapped out of it when the Frisbee whizzed past her head and landed just behind her. She looked up and Benny was headed straight for her! She leant back and retrieved the Frisbee before Benny landed on top of her and she jumped up and threw it in a graceful arc towards Jo. Jo leapt up to catch it in one hand and Peter whistled, “You throw a good Frisbee!” Kate laughed, “I have three brothers, I had to keep up somehow!” Jo threw the Frisbee to Peter, and Peter in turn threw it to Julie. She threw it back to him, ensuring that it would be just out of easy reach. Peter dived for it and caught it, but landed in the sand and Benny was soon on top of him. Kate laughed and sat back down in the sand. Jo ran to assist Peter and another wrestling match ensued. Kate watched them carefully to ensure that Peter was not unduly rough with Jo. She was surprised that Jo entered into the contests so eagerly. Less than three weeks ago, he would have run a mile. Kate smiled; he really was growing in confidence. You would not know that he was different from any other boy, ‘unless you took him swimming, or tried to talk to him,’ Kate reminded herself. She wondered if she would ever be able to teach him to swim. She got up, “come on boys, time to go home. Its school time for you Jo!” Kate called. They boys ignored her, but looked up when she repeated more emotively, “come on now, I mean it! You can come back this arvo if you’re good, Jo.” She walked towards them and deftly snatched the Frisbee while simultaneously snapping on Benny’s lead. She handed the lead to Jo and dusted him off. She kept hold of the Frisbee and took Jo’s hand in her free one as they headed towards home. “Wait up!” Peter called and caught up to them, “we were just playing,” he commented defensively. “I know,” retorted Kate, “and it’s time for Jo’s first lesson. We normally go for a walk after the first lesson,” she said authoritatively. “Oh,” was all Peter replied and they completed the short walk in silence.

Jo’s writing was improving rapidly and he almost had his two times table down pat. Kate was so proud of him. He would certainly be ready for school in the New Year and might even be able to start in grade one. ‘At least if he was in grade one he wouldn’t be so much older than the other kids,’ Kate thought. He would be two or three years older than the prep kids, but only twelve or so months older than those in grade one. Lydia knocked and poked her head into the room, “you two hungry? I’ve got a quiche in the oven and its almost done.” Kate looked up, “thanks, Lydia. We’re nearly done here.” She looked back down at Jo’s work, “just finish that page Jo and then we’ll have some lunch.” The quiche was delicious and Kate offered to do the dishes. Lydia and Jo went back to Kate’s room to start the afternoon’s maths lesson. They would have two lessons this afternoon as they started later than usual this morning. The front doorbell rang as Kate was putting the last dish away. “I’ll get it!” she called as she went to answer it. It was an Express Post deliveryman. The package was for Kate and she signed for it. She took it back to her room and excused Lydia. She looked over Jo’s shoulder; he was puzzling over a page of simple subtractions. She left him to it and sat on her bed with the unopened, small package. She looked at it for a while, it had come from Melbourne, but she didn’t recognise the writing on the address label. She gave it a gentle shake and then slowly and carefully opened it. Several envelopes fell out, as well as a couple of CDs, and a small box wrapped in silver paper. She inspected the envelopes. There was one from each of her friends and one addressed to Jo. She called him over and he climbed up on the bed beside her. She opened his letter and read it out to him. It was from Ben and was filled with cute anecdotes of his life on the beat. Kate sent Jo back to his maths and opened Steve’s letter, as she was eager to hear from him. The letter began with an apology, he had been a little angry, but he had been able to put it behind him now. He missed her and was sorry that they hadn’t parted on better terms. He told her about his business and life in general. Then, right at the end, as if it was an afterthought, he mentioned that he’d met someone. Kate put the letter down. Steve sounded happy and she was glad that things were working out for him.

She opened Sarah’s letter next. It was short, only a page and a half. She was busy preparing for final exams and applying for jobs. She had some news, but she wanted to leave it for Josh to tell…. Kate practically ripped open Josh’s letter and her suspicions were immediately confirmed. He and Sarah were getting married! Kate wanted to call and congratulate him, but she knew that she couldn’t. She read the rest of his letter. I was only marginally longer than Sarah’s and he too was busy with exam preparations and job applications.

Next she turned to Bess’ letter. It was long and descriptive and Kate decided that she needed a cup of tea to accompany it. She went to the kitchen and returned with cookies and a glass of milk for Jo in addition to her hot cup of tea. He smiled up at her and showed her his workbook. Kate bent down and corrected a couple of the sums and then drew a smiley face on the page. He grinned and reached for the cookies. Kate sat back on the bed and returned to Bess’ letter. Bess wrote of work, progress with Alex, and finished with the news that she Alex would be in Adelaide with Alex’s parents for Christmas! Kate was so thrilled with the news, and she wondered if the Morovas already knew. She opened Alex’s letter and recognised the writing as the same as that on the address label. The letter was short, like Sarah’s. He wrote of his work and Bess and mentioned about their plans for Christmas. He also wrote that he had also written to his parents to ask them about their plans for Christmas. Kate put down the letters and looked at her mug. She had already finished her tea. She went to make another one and found Lydia in the kitchen preparing dinner.

“What was in the package?” asked Lydia curiously as she turned the potatoes in the oven. “Oh, just a few clothes and letters from my family in Melbourne,” Kate replied nonchalantly. “That’s nice,” replied Lydia as she closed the oven door, “you must miss them.” Kate nodded and poured the now boiling water over her teabag, “yeah, I guess I do. I don’t know what I’m going to do at Christmas. It was always a big deal in our household.” Lydia placed her hand on Kate’s shoulder, “well, you and Jo are more than welcome to spend it with us. Of course, we Russians don’t celebrate it on the 25th of December, but when we do you’ll know about it! Actually, my son is coming over from Melbourne. I got a letter from him today. He’s bringing his new girl, Bess. It sounds quite serious. You know them, don’t you?” Kate smiled and nodded, “Bess is an old friend of mine actually. We went to school together.” She returned to her room. Jo had finished the maths exercises she had given him and was now drawing a picture for Ben. Kate corrected the exercises and praised Jo on his efforts. Jo wanted to go outside and play with Benny. Kate shooed him off and returned to her bed. It was time for Ben’s letter.

Kate clasped the precious letter to her chest as tears brimmed in her eyes, every part of her ached to be with Ben again. She longed to see him, to hear him, to touch and smell him. His feelings remained unchanged and he had written her a long and detailed letter. He wrote of work, and the developments in Jo’s case, which reminded Kate to call her Police contact about Jo’s pictures. He was keeping in touch with the gang and they all missed her. He was also playing tennis with Josh regularly and had met her parents. He desired more than anything to drop everything and rush to her side, but he knew that it could possibly put them in danger. The letter was filled with love and emotion and as Kate had read it she felt just like Ben was there in the room talking to her. She closed her eyes and didn’t open them again until she felt Jo tug at her elbow. He was clutching Benny’s lead and indicated that he wanted to go to the beach. Kate carefully put all the letters away and made sure she had some change in her pocket. She grabbed her mobile phone with one hand and took Jo’s hand with the other. They collected Benny at the back door and headed to the beach. Kate spied Peter as he got off the tram and headed towards home but she ignored him and hoped that he wouldn’t see them. Jo was playing fetch with Benny and splashing in the shallows. Kate plonked down onto the sand, perhaps Jo was overcoming his fear of water, or maybe he only feared contained water. She recalled the first time she had put him in the bath and the look of fear he had displayed on that occasion. Now it all made sense. She pulled out her mobile phone and found the Adelaide Police contact number in her phonebook. She dialled and it was answered on the fourth ring. “Hi,” Kate said after the officer had identified himself, “I was wondering if I could come in and see you, there’s something quite sensitive that I need to show you. It’s important to Jo’s case.” They arranged to catch up after Kate finished work on Thursday afternoon. Kate called out to Jo, it was time they got back, and dinner would be ready soon.