Without moving my head, I look left and right. I give myself even odds. But I don’t want to enrage him. Or leave the child exposed.

  I think he’s afraid.

  Fuck you, he says.

  He wants to do right, I say. He knows what’s right. It’s still in him.

  You can shut it now, he says.

  It’s okay, I say. To her, to him, to myself – who can tell?

  The morning sun hits the junk-strewn wasteland, catches every rusted rim and edge. It’s beautiful. And, truly, it’s enough.

  Last night – this morning, I suppose – I dreamt I was a thing of the sea, rising from darkness into the light of a billion tiny particles, each a body I could feel against my own. And nearer the surface there was a greater light, a creamy glow that lit the skin between me and the world beyond, and when I pressed on to break through it there was more than I could see and feel, but I found I could suck in air as cool and clean as the deeps themselves, and it was good, like something new and previously unimaginable. And as I stretched my limbs to float and to glory in it, my skin mottled with moving shadows. So I tilted my head. To see a constellation of hovering birds. They were black and white and grey. Suspended in nothing, sculling air. Their beaks and eyes and feet glistened. The sounds they made were urgent, hectic, curious, needy. I couldn’t tell if they were there to greet me or to peck me to pieces, but I raised my hands to them anyway. And I waited.

  Singing.

  BOOKS BY TIM WINTON

  NOVELS

  An Open Swimmer

  Shallows

  That Eye, the Sky

  In the Winter Dark

  Cloudstreet

  The Riders

  Dirt Music

  Breath

  Eyrie

  The Shepherd’s Hut

  Juice

  STORIES

  Scission

  Minimum of Two

  The Turning

  FOR YOUNGER READERS

  Jesse

  Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo

  The Bugalugs Bum Thief

  Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster

  Lockie Leonard, Legend

  Blueback

  The Deep

  NON-FICTION

  Land’s Edge

  Local Colour (with Bill Bachman)

  Down to Earth (with Richard Woldendorp)

  Smalltown (with Martin Mischkulnig)

  Island Home

  The Boy Behind the Curtain

  PLAYS

  Rising Water

  Signs of Life

  Shrine

  HAMISH HAMILTON

  Hamish Hamilton is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

  First published by Hamish Hamilton, 2024

  Text copyright © Tim Winton 2024

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, published, performed in public or communicated to the public in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd or its authorised licensees.

  Cover design by Adam Laszczuk © Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd

  Cover lettering courtesy Shutterstock/19srb81

  ‘The Dream’ words and music by Michael P. Franks, Russell Keith Ferrante, James Haslip, Marc Russo. © Twenty Nine Palms Music, administered by Universal Music Publishing Pty Ltd in Australia & New Zealand, Teeth Music, La Viera Music, New Shoes Music, Kalabash Music. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted with permission. Special thanks to Michael Franks.

  ISBN 9781761344923

  penguin.com.au

  We at Penguin Random House Australia acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the Traditional Custodians and the first storytellers of the lands on which we live and work. We honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ continuous connection to Country, waters, skies and communities. We celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories, traditions and living cultures; and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.

 

 

  Tim Winton, Juice

 

 

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