I keep thinking of Mum, where the boat is, who I can be without her” p86. “ Your heart can’t grow when it’s hurting like that. Dylan blames herself for her mum’s death, and she is travelling towards the Guyanan family associated with her violent father but she courageously tries to make sense of her shifting world and create a new story for herself. Dylan takes with her a tiny metal fish she found while running away from one of her dad’s angry outbursts before he left them forever, and a snow dome containing the Eiffel Tower her mum gave her, along with a photo of Dylan and her mum in happier times. They travel from pub to pub, Pat distributing promotional material for a brewery and gambling away his money on the pokies. Pat and Dylan set out on a road trip away from the town heading towards her father’s family she has never met. We would put her on the autism spectrum but she has the ability to see inside some people’s lives. 14 year old Dylan doesn’t fit in, both for her brown skin and fuzzy hair and the way she sees the world so acutely she has been called “ dumb as a stump, or smart as a stick” or “ a teabag: takes a while for things to filter through” p7. The outback Australian town of Beyen is far from the sea where Dylan could find a ship to take her mum back to France, but she is buried in the cemetery and Dylan wonders: “ How can I be real without Mum?”p21. Dylan’s French Mum is dead and now they will never go to Paris together instead, she is left with Pat O’Brien, her mum’s boyfriend who has his own issues.
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