Summary
Tom heads over to the shed area of Gran’s house, which contains the old tractor repair business his grandfather used to run before he died, now run by Brendan and his friend, Jonny. Reminiscing on how his grandfather moved the business from Coghill to his home, Tom’s mind wanders until he remembers how his grandfather used to take Daniel to the races instead of their cousin Fin. This sucks him deeper into memories, and he flashes back to when he was walking home that night. He was almost at the end of the road when he heard a car behind him. He was sure it was Daniel, but turned and realized that it was his friends, Snorter and Matt. They start yelling at him to hurry up, and that his brother is stacked (in other words, he crashed).
Shoving the memory to the back of his head, Tom finds Jonny, who tells him that Brendan is inside. After hearing Brendan in the shower, Tom lets himself in so he can check his emails. When he gets in there, he’s shocked to discover how messy it is. He reflects on the fact that he doesn’t know his uncle, something which is epitomized by the fact that they never have talked about the fact that Brendan is gay. Daniel and Brendan were particularly close, and Tom thinks about how happy their relationship was, as well as how happy his mom used to be, as he picks up a photo of the three of them together. Brendan comes across Tom and tries to start a conversation, but Tom is stand-offish. He explains to the reader that he and Kylie only just realized that they were leaving Mumbilli a week ago and that their dad sprung it on them a few days before they actually left, emphasizing that no one was supposed to know about their departure. Before they left, however, he left Matt a short letter letting him know that he was leaving.
In the present, Tom opens the computer to find an email expressing shock at their move. He starts to write a response when the answering machine beeps and his Aunty Kath leaves a message for Brendan about when they’re going to see Fin. The last time Tom saw Fin was about a month ago, and he found it difficult to be with him since, as he reveals to the reader, whatever happened that night left Fin paralyzed from the neck down. He would like to see Daniel instead, but his parents won’t allow him to go. Later that night, Tom is refusing dinner when he learns that Kylie is at a new friend’s house. This prompts his family to encourage him to reach out more, but Tom is skeptical.
Saturday, Tom and Brendan stop at Jonny’s house to collect some stuff for Fin and Tom meets Jonny’s sister, Chrissy, who is in Year Twelve at his new school. Tom finds out that Chrissy thinks the stuff—which is a wool booty—is for their grandfather since Brendan told her a lie so as to keep Fin’s business private. On the way there, Tom recalls another memory with him and Daniel, this one from when they were younger and Daniel shoved him under the water. Daniel was upset with Tom for telling their dad that he had left the car and told him that he was “gonna kill” him. Moving out of that memory, Tom goes to meet Fin. They try to have a chat, but again, things are still stilted between them. Fin confesses that he can’t remember much of that night except for Daniel’s face, while Tom thinks about how much of that night is crystal clear for him. Aunt Kathy comes in with Brendan and Tom watches them talk until the other occupant of Fin’s hospital comes in and starts screaming obscenities. Fin points out that he thinks Tom has had enough, but Tom brushes him off and runs to the bathroom.
In the bathroom, Tom finally recalls the specific details of the accident. He’s in the Statesman with Matt and Snorter as they drive around the corner and see Daniel’s car on its side, crashed into a tree. Tom jumps out of the car and starts running, screaming Daniel’s name as Daniel stumbles out of the car onto the street. This recollection is interrupted as he and Brendan leave the hospital, but as they discuss the topic of Fin’s memory, things resume. Tom is screaming Daniel’s name while Matt tells him to leave Daniel alone so that they can reach the others. Snorter is trying to call an ambulance but can’t get a signal, so they rush to the car themselves. They hear a muffled cry that they realize is Fin, but Tom is still distracted by Daniel. All of a sudden, Matt starts screaming, and they discover that Nicole and Luke are in the backseat and have died in the crash. Fin calls for them underneath part of the rubble of the crash, and Tom goes to sit with him, freaking out when he touches Fin’s head and realizes it’s covered in blood. Fin says he can’t feel anything, while Tom cries and Daniel is breaking down in the bushes. Soon, they hear sirens but it takes them until morning to cut Fin out of the car. Tom sits with Fin the whole time.
Back in the present moment, they return home. Brendan and Tom’s dad exchange pleasantries, but don’t really say much of anything. Tom’s mother is doing slightly better, as she usually does right after seeing Daniel, and asks after Tom. Their conversation is a bit stilted, and she tells Tom that they’re moving Daniel to another section of the jail. She expresses guilt that she messed up with her firstborn, which causes Tom to angrily comment that Daniel ruined everything. His bad mood extends into his meeting with Kylie, who he learns has been in contact with her best friend from home, Becky, after she called her from her new friend’s house. He gets annoyed about Kylie sharing their struggles, and Kylie kicks him out.
That week at school, everyone is talking about rugby tryouts. Rory pulls Tom aside to mention that and also to warn Tom about Kylie hanging out with Brianna and her friends, who he says are troublemakers. Tom starts getting nervous about footy tryouts, and his homeroom teacher, Harvey, checks in on him since he is also the football coach. After giving a few noncommittal answers, Tom heads to the pool to meet up with the others. He’s tense all the way there but decides to go for it and jump straight into the pool. For a second, he feels calm as he cannonballs in. Quickly, the other boys join him. Once they finish and are waiting outside of the shower, Tom comes across Chrissy again. Initially, things are going well, but Chrissy’s mention of Tom’s grandfather ruins his mood.
Weekends for Tom are exhausting. Saturday, Dad and Gran go to visit Fin while Brendan and Mum go to visit Daniel, leaving Tom at home alone. He calls Matt, who fills him in on what’s been happening, but the conversation isn’t going very well and Tom cuts it off early. After hanging up the call, Tom doesn’t feel like doing much of anything and falls asleep curled into a little ball. His dad coming home wakes him up, but Tom decides to skip dinner and just head upstairs instead.
Tom reflects that Sunday mornings are always difficult for him. He remembers the Sunday morning after the situation with Daniel (August 28th). He thinks of that day as the worst even though there was a lot of bad stuff to come. He flashes back. Brendan gets to their place around 9 to take his mom to the police station to meet with his dad and Daniel. Tom hasn’t been to bed yet, and he and Kylie sit at the kitchen table in silence. Matt and Snorter come back from giving a statement to the police, and report that they encountered Luke’s dad at the station, who was understandably distraught. Luke’s dad had been overwhelmed and said that they should lock Daniel up and throw away the key. Daniel gets put on bail, and the family has to navigate whether Daniel wants to plead guilty or not. In the following days, more and more bad news piles up. They contract a solicitor, Dennis Talbot, who takes Tom to give a statement at the police station. Tom and his mom leave for the station, and before they enter, his mom tries to see if there’s any way Daniel isn’t responsible, but Tom insists on what he saw.
The week afterward, everything is in chaos. The community buries Nicole and Luke, and Daniel cries non-stop throughout the week. Talbot tells them fairly bluntly that Daniel needs to plead guilty to show an acceptance of responsibility and to make the sentence a bit shorter. The hearing takes only twenty minutes when it eventually happens, and Daniel pleads guilty to both counts against him. The magistrate announces that his sentencing will take place seventy-two days after the current date of the 13th of September. Daniel’s bail continues.
Analysis
We learn more about Daniel, discovering that aside from being considered one of the best players on the team at school, he was also the family golden boy. The childhood memories that Tom has of Daniel, however, are inseparable from the harsh moments before the accident. The book reveals more of Tom’s relative distance from his family when he comments that Daniel knows Brendan much better than he does. It also seems like Daniel, Brendan, and his mother all had a relationship that didn’t include him. This may be the reason that Tom is so stand-offish when Brendan tries to approach him, but another part of it is how quickly they were uprooted from their home. The ramifications of Daniel’s accident, then, are bad enough to extend to the rest of the family, even though Matt is surprised to hear that they’ve moved. Aunty Kath’s interruption of Tom’s email-writing reflects how Tom struggles not to view Fin as an interruption of his everyday life.
Because Fin has been paralyzed, it is impossible for Tom to look at him and not have to face the damage that Daniel has caused. Since Tom’s strategy throughout this process has been to avoid the difficult things, he resents visiting Fin even though he also feels like he has to. The reluctance to see Fin doesn’t push him to make new connections, however, and Tom is as awkward around Chrissy as he is around most new people that he’s met. Brendan shows off how considerate he can be by keeping the story about Fin from Chrissy. It’s nice not only for Fin but also for Tom, who is still struggling to navigate the situation between himself and Fin. On the way there, Tom’s flashbacks reveal that violence has been a problem for Daniel for a long time. Despite it being common for siblings to get mad at “tattle-tales,” Daniel overreacts and genuinely could have killed Tom. Daniel’s volatile side is something that he’s struggled with for years, rather than being something that appeared because of the situation between him, Fin, and Claire.
When Tom is with Fin, we can see how that volatile personality has created a rift between Fin and Tom, who, prior to the accident, were both fairly easygoing. Tom’s guilt about that night is about him feeling responsible for his brother’s actions, but it’s also exacerbated by the fact that he’s the only one in the family who was there and who can recall the situation clearly. With Daniel in prison and Fin’s memory mostly gone, Tom has no one that can shoulder the burden of those memories with him. This visit provokes Tom into beginning to reflect on the details of what happened after the crash. Even though they had fought, Tom’s first concern was his brother. In line with everything we’ve learned so far, Tom still loves Daniel even in the midst of Daniel’s misbehavior and his own anger.
In fact, Tom loves Daniel so much that he lets concern for Daniel distract him from the fact that there are other people in the car. It’s only after Nicole and Luke’s bodies are discovered and Fin calls for help that Tom is able to fully turn away his attention. Here, we again see Tom’s capacity for being considerate as he sits with Fin throughout the night as they wait for the paramedics to cut him out of the car. Despite this consideration, however, Tom still has trouble facing the truth of that night. He’s not the only one: the stilted conversations between Brendan and Tom’s dad show how much the family is struggling to navigate one cousin hurting the other. The conversation with Tom’s mom is one of the first times that we see Tom publicly express anger with Daniel. Tom’s comment that Daniel ruined everything comes right after his visit with Fin and is an early glimpse into one of the central conflicts he has with his mother. While his mother loves Daniel, she is also willing to make excuses for him, something which Tom refuses to do. Daniel’s choices affect every area of his life, from his relationship with Kylie to his ability to enjoy himself with the new friends he’s starting to make at Bennie’s.
As Tom closes himself off over the weekend, we see another flashback. Although Tom closes himself off to avoid dealing with painful situations, like trying to talk to Matt for the first time since leaving Mumbilli, doing so inevitably leads him back to the past. Those days after the accident were messy, not only because of everything awful that happened but also because of how their family began to morph from one that was happy into one that is tense and uncommunicative. In the present day, when Tom heads to the police station he sticks to telling the truth and refuses to let his mother make excuses for Daniel. This refusal to make excuses is something that they then leverage to try and get a reduced sentence, although Daniel still feels very guilty either way. We also begin to understand exactly how small Mumbilli is, as Tom recalls town members who weren’t from either family being involved in the case. Daniel’s actions have torn both his family and his community apart.
