The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

the fridge. When I opened it I heard something smash outside. Mum heard it too. Her head turned sharply to the window. She looked scared.
    ‘Mum? Mum? Mum? Did you hear that?’
    ‘My puffer, love?’ she said. ‘Quick.’
    I left the water and got her puffer. I was starting to shake. Mum took a suck of her puffer, then she got up and went to the window.
    There came a thump, like something against wood. I was speeding up, pressing against my own skin from the inside.
    ‘Oh, Jesus,’ said Mum. ‘Oh God.’
    I ran to the window, I ran to the door, I ran to the window, I ran to the door, I ran to Mum, I ran to the sink, I ran in a circle, then in another circle.
    ‘Jimmy, stop. Jimmy!’ She went to the back door and looked out and I followed her, and she said, ‘No Jimmy, no!’ and she pushed me back, so hard that I fell. ‘Oh sorry love, sorry,’ she said, taking me to the couch. Panic ran through her streams. Her eyes were stretched – she was going faster than me. She ran back to the window. ‘Oh no, oh god Jimmy, stay there. Stay there on the couch and don’t move,’ she said, and her crying was shot through with fear. She grabbed her keys from the bench and she ran to the back door. I tried to follow her out but she pushed me back again, and locked me inside. ‘Stay still Jimmy!!’ she said. Through the glass I saw her go to the shed door, pull it open and go inside.
    ‘No, Mum, no!’ I shouted, but she couldn’t hear me. For a moment there was nothing, then out came Robby and he was dragging my dad. Mum came out behind them. There was blood gushing from my dad’s nose, and my dad was bending further and further down until he hit the ground.
    Mum fell to her knees over him, holding up her arm, calling, ‘No, Rob! No more! No more! Enough! Enough!’
    I saw Robby go down onto the grass and I saw him put his hands around my dad’s throat. I saw the words Robby didn’t say, the things he wished for, coursing through the hollows of his bones, and wrap themselves around my dad’s neck. ‘That’s the last fucking time!’ Robby shouted. And Dad let him, he let him.
    Mum screamed, ‘No Robby!’
    I began to bang on the glass bang bang bang and smash with my fists like wrecking balls smash smash smash . Robby and Mum looked up towards me. I smashed so hard the glass shook. I was going to smash the house of Nineteen Emu until there’d be nothing left but the stumps. I smashed and smashed and then Robby stood and went out of the yard through the back fence and Mum left Dad lying on the grass as she crossed the yard towards me. She opened the door and I screamed and smashed my fists against her.
    She was crying as she crossed the kitchen with me against her, and pulled my coat from the hook. ‘It’s alright, Jimmy love, it’s alright, it’s your mum, settle down.’ Her body was hot and shaking. She wrapped the coat around me, covering my head so the coat made a blindfold. She covered my ears and held me to her. Under the coat it was dark. The coat was over my face, bringing the world in close, muffling me, slowing me down. She held me against her, my ear to her heart, until I tuned myself to its beat. The sound filled up the space until there was nothing but the steady slowing pump of her heart.
    Dad didn’t come into the house at all that night; he stayed in his shed. Robby came home some time after dinner and went straight to his room – I heard guitar music playing through the wall. Mum asked Robby from the other side of his door if he wanted anything to eat but Robby said no. I looked out the kitchen window to see if there were any signs of Dad in the garage, but I couldn’t tell. Later, Mum went out with a piece of sponge cake. I watched through the window as she tapped on his door. Her fist looked small and white under the shed light where the moths gathered and clung. Her body was wider than the whole doorframe, but her knock was soft and timid. Dad never answered the door.
    Mum left the