BACK IN CHARGE

I’M ON A PERFECT beach-house holiday, oblivious to the fact that an insidious parasite has silently burrowed its way into my brain and is well on the way to destroying my life.

It was idyllic. The kind of getaway that I dream of when I’m neck-deep in work. Two families, three kids under five, all of us packed into a rental house one street back from the beach.

Thanks to COVID, I hadn’t seen my Queensland family in over a year, including a nephew I’d never met. He’s nine months old, all smiles and so chubby he’s got five elbows. When he reaches up to hold my hand it’s like a set of fingers balancing on a tower of pudgy dumplings, coming up to