Minimum of Two

by Tim Winton

Jerra Nilsam looked down and gripped an arm. His joined fingers were a bracelet on his son’s wrist. He felt blood. Yes, that was blood there, and he looked up at the nurse in defiance.

  ‘Go to hell,’ he said. ‘This one’s mine.’

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  A number of these stories have appeared before, in Island, Bulletin, MJ, Australian Literary Magazine, This Australia, Matilda, Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Follow Me, and Scripsi: the author thanks these publications.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tim Winton has published twenty-one books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian/Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). He lives in Western Australia.

  ALSO BY TIM WINTON

  Novels

  An Open Swimmer

  Shallows

  That Eye, the Sky

  In the Winter Dark

  Cloudstreet

  The Riders

  Dirt Music

  Breath

  Stories

  Scission

  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

  Down to Earth (with Richard Woldendorp)

  Smalltown (with Martin Mischkulnig)

  Plays

  Rising Water

  Signs of Life

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (Australia)

  707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia

  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Group (NZ)

  67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand

  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL, England

  First published by McPhee Gribble, 1987

  This digital edition published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2012

  Copyright © Tim Winton, 1987

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  Cover design by John Canty © Penguin Group (Australia)

  Cover photograph by Jacqui Henshaw

  eISBN: 9781742537351

  penguin.com.au