'He claims,' said Jenny tactfully, 'That he flew through a radioactive cloud thirty years ago and that it didn't do him any harm - thus it's all righ… - Helen Garner

And always Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne, over and over the same photo in glaring greens and reds, of a tram, huffy, blunderous, manoeuvring itself with pole akimbo round the tight corner where Bourke Street enters Spring.

'What's funny?' said Pin, shifting uncomfortably in the hospital bed.

Ideas came swarming through her, and like many people who labour in the obsession of solitude, she lacked the detachment to challenge them.