Sanguine

by Carolyn Denman

  Once Tim had polished off the leftover apple pie and we’d finished teasing him about his new extensive knowledge of sheep breeding, Bane turned back to Tessa. ‘So have you come up with any names for the baby yet?’ he asked.

  I was intrigued. There was a whole new person coming. That person needed a name. There were so many to choose from, how would they know which was the right one?

  Tess stroked her baby bump. ‘We have a few we like. There was a girl’s name we both agreed on right from the start, but of course we need a boy’s name and that’s proving to be a bit trickier.’

  ‘Are you so certain it’s a boy?’ Tim asked. ‘Sometimes those ultrasounds can be misleading, or so I’ve heard.’ He put his dishes away and then flopped down in a spare chair. I threw his new socks at him.

  ‘We’re pretty certain,’ Tessa replied with a smile. ‘And Noah’s family history tends to lean heavily to the first-born being male.’

  I could see Aunt Lily silently cacking herself behind Tim’s back.

  The penny dropped. The new baby would be a male Cherub. Noah’s line. My first born would be female. The line had to continue. What had I been thinking? If I had stayed in Eden, I would have broken the Cherub line. Even now the continuity of the line wasn’t really safe. What would I do if something happened to Bane the way Annie had lost my dad? Would I still be able to continue the line with someone else? The idea was unthinkable. I did not want anyone else, no matter what happened.

  I shook Bane’s arm to get his attention, this was important. ‘We need to have a baby!’

  The rest of the room fell silent.

  ‘Right now?’ he asked calmly, with only his lips twitching and a glint in his grey eyes.

  I could see Tim’s eyes bulge as he took in Bane’s straight-faced reaction. His shocked response reminded me to try to see it from a Nalong perspective. I frowned at Tessa. She had her swollen feet up on a stool and Noah was still massaging her shoulders. It would be hard to go hang gliding with Dallmin like that.

  ‘Maybe not yet,’ I conceded. It could wait a little while. Bane gave a disappointed sigh and Aunt Lily rolled her eyes.

  Tim just stared at Bane as if he had suddenly grown an extra head. ‘I worry about you country folk, I really do,’ he muttered.

  Chapter 23

  Sergeant Mick Loxwood thanked the sullen-faced waiter and sipped at his first coffee of the day, trying to ignore the existence of the vanilla slice in the cake counter. The Tarin Street bakery was famous for them, but there was no point in undoing all the good his early morning run had done. He was finding it harder to keep in shape this year. If he wasn’t careful he would be no good for anything other than office work and that was not what he’d joined the police force for. Even the ‘Tarin snot-blocks’ weren’t worth that.

  Two young women at the next table disrupted his scan of the local paper when they began gossiping with far too much volume about the couple they had seen in the department store the previous day. They had been dancing in the aisles with a ‘totally hot’ dark-skinned guy following them around, singing and using sign language, which was apparently ‘kind of sexy’.

  ‘So different to when we were in school. They hated each other back then,’ one of the girls said, laughing. Her long hair framed a face with thin eyebrows and heavy makeup.

  ‘I thought he’d joined the army, and who knows where Lainie’s been for the last three years? I heard she just took off when Mrs Ashbree died. Didn’t even, like, stay for the funeral. Now she’s back, dancing through Target homewares with the guy who set her locker on fire?’ Her friend made it sound as if it was the most juicy secret she’d ever heard.

  The sergeant paused, mid-sip. Did she say Lainie?

  ‘Do you think she knows about Noah and Tess? Imagine coming back and finding out that your high school sweetheart is married with a baby on the way.’

  ‘I’d give anything to see that reunion,’ the first girl replied. ‘Lainie was never one to hold back … Would she pick a fight with a pregnant woman? I mean, she and Noah were pretty tight. I was sure they would end up together, no matter what they said. What do you reckon, Jake?’

  The waiter blushed, clearly having been caught listening in. ‘I dunno … Mum needs me out the back …’

  As the young man managed to escape getting drawn in to the gossip, the policeman tried to focus beyond his suddenly racing heart. He needed to remember the dynamic between the four young people on the day he had interviewed them about the incident with Harry Doolan. They had all seemed friendly enough back then. If anything, he got the feeling they would have all remained loyal even if he’d tried to play them against each other for information. It had never come to that, but the unusual series of events at that time had left him with a lingering … unease.

  A young mining executive had developed sudden onset amnesia after a violent altercation with Harry, and then Sarah Ashbree had died in a car accident, which was followed a few days later by Harry’s death from late-stage cancer, and then Lainie had disappeared. It had taken a fair bit of manoeuvring to keep the local paper from hassling the Ashbrees and Lily Gracewood. He had hoped that by keeping the pressure off them, someone might have relaxed enough to let something slip, some new direction for enquiry, but the run of dramas ended, and everything seemed to make sense—except perhaps for the unexpected way that Noah, of all people, had picked up Harry’s duties in the local Aboriginal community. And then there was the mystery of the blood on the knife …

  The problem was, Mick knew it wasn’t the first time that family had scored more than its fair share of tragedy.

  And now Lainie was back. Coffee scalded his throat as he gulped it down. Perhaps if he hurried, he could finish his paperwork at the station by lunchtime, and then pay a visit to the Gracewood farm. If he went during his lunch break, perhaps his staff wouldn’t ask where he was. Yes. Best to get it done today. He had some questions that had already waited far too long for proper answers.

  Chapter 24

  Even I realised that Tim was dawdling as Bane and I watched him re-pack his bag, rolling up his jacket so tightly he could have used it as a cricket bat. He was supposed to have been driving back to Adelaide by now because he had a plane to catch. The others had all said goodbye to him earlier and Noah and Dallmin had gone to work in the top paddock. Noah was trying to keep the inquisitive elf busy with good old-fashioned outdoor tasks. Tessa and Aunt Lily had gone into town to do some grocery shopping, since the unexpected influx of people had depleted the pantry of everything except baked beans. That had been ages ago. It was nearly eleven am and Tim still hadn’t left.

  He zipped up his bag and then looked around the room as if hoping to find something he’d forgotten. Then he patted his pockets like an old man pretending to look for his glasses, but who really wanted to think of something else to talk about. Two wants. Time would sort it out. It always did, eventually. I would miss him though. He’d been fun to talk to, updating me on all the super-hero shows that now had their own Netflix deals, which new X-box games I had to buy, and telling me all sorts of things about what Bane had been up to while I was gone. Lately he had even started to let me hug him and kiss him on the cheek. And he’d danced with me. I felt a little smug about that. It wasn’t like his army mates could see him, so where was the harm?

  Before he could protest, I hefted his bag over my shoulder. He needed to go. He had said so, which meant I would help him go. Apparently he had a job to get back to. The rain was beating hard on the tin roof as I strode out to the car, slinging his bag onto the back seat. No more delays, he would just have to get on with things. If he wanted to stay with us more than he wanted to be in Brisbane then time would pass and he would be back. All would be well. I locked my arms around his neck and squeezed all my affection and gratitude into a final hug, hoping he would return because I had only managed to get him to sing once, the previous evening, when Bane had shown
Dallmin how to play the piano.

  ‘Come back soon, Tim, I have more dances to teach you. Ones you can teach Nicole.’ I smiled at the astonishment on his face. As if he thought none of us had noticed his interest, seriously. He had been asking unsubtle questions about her all morning.

  ‘Sure, I’ll be back. And next time I’m going to take a video of the deaf guy playing the piano. That was seriously weird. We could make money with that footage. I mean, he was freakin’ talented.’

  Deaf? Oops, I hadn’t thought about that. I peered sideways at Bane but he just tugged my sleeve to coax me back under cover. So no big deal then.

  Tim fiddled with the car keys as we waited under the porch for the rain to ease off. It didn’t. ‘So are you still sure about selling all your stuff? You don’t want to … think about it for a while?’ he asked Bane. The way he tilted his jaw slightly away from me made me think he would have liked to say more, but Bane gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder.

  ‘Nothing to think about. Some things are just more important to me. Priorities, Tim. No regrets. Although I’d like to keep my guitar, if I can.’ He braved the pelting rain and opened the car door. ‘Thanks for all your help. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for everything you’ve done. You’re a real mate. Tell everyone goodbye for me. I’ll miss them heaps.’

  ‘Not enough to come back, though?’ his friend tried once more.

  Bane gazed at me with an expression of wonder and smiled. ‘No contest.’

  Tim nodded and then gave him a quick unexpected hug before tucking his long legs into the driver’s seat. ‘Take care, Mr Botox,’ he said, starting the engine. ‘Damn. We’re going to have to come up with a new nickname for you now. Not that anyone will believe me.’

  ‘So don’t tell them.’

  ‘Sure. ‘Cos they won’t ask at all.’ He shook his head. ‘Listen, I’ll call you when I have your stuff sorted. I might even drive your car down here if you decide not to sell it.’

  I laughed and shook the rain from my hair. I knew he would think of a reason to return if that was what he wanted.

  Not long after Tim left, Noah’s ute rattled its way back and skidded to a hasty stop right on the doorstep. From the lounge-room window I watched Wendy jump down from the tray to follow Noah as he jogged back to close the gate, and then Dallmin climbed out of the passenger seat, blood streaking across his right hand and wrist. With pursed lips I headed to the kitchen for the first-aid kit while Bane went to open the front door.

  ‘Lainie!’ Dallmin called out in a loud whisper as he entered the kitchen.

  I turned and faked a smile.

  I’m bleeding. There is no Fruit. What do I do? he signed. He seemed more fascinated than worried. Noah followed him in, wincing as he was splattered with fresh blood. Sign language probably wasn’t ideal given it was Dallmin’s hand that was injured. Bane wisely lingered back in the doorway.

  ‘Come over to the sink so I can clean you up,’ I said. ‘You can speak out loud now. Tim’s gone.’

  Noah wiped his face with his shirt. All it did was smear the blood even more. ‘Sorry, Lainie, he cut himself on some corrugated iron. We were trying to clean up that old burnt-out hay shed in Skinny Paddock.’

  ‘Don’t apologise. Dallmin’s the one with no sense of self-preservation.’

  ‘Which is exactly why it’s my fault,’ Noah said.

  He had a point. ‘Well you’d better go and get cleaned up before Tess gets back or she might think her instincts have become all baby-scrambled.’

  I washed the cut under the tap and tried to assess the damage. Compared to what Dallmin usually did to himself, it was nothing. Bleeding like crazy though, so I rummaged for a Band-Aid, which Bane promptly chucked back. Possibly his army training was more useful for assessing injuries than anything I’d learnt in the last few years.

  He pulled another packet out of the kit. ‘Let me take this one. It should really be stitched if he wants to avoid a scar but at least let me use some steri-strips to hold it. He’s also going to need to see Dr Vertan for a tetanus shot.’

  It was fascinating to watch how deftly he dressed the wound.

  ‘Once I get him back home the scar won’t be a problem,’ I said. Now that I’d had a chance to study myself in a mirror I realised just how thoroughly the Living Fruit did its job of healing. I barely got away with keeping my freckles. They’d definitely faded, and yet I’d been in the sun constantly.

  ‘There, how does that feel?’ Bane asked the patient, who was sniffing at the bottle of antiseptic.

  ‘It stings. What do I do to heal the sting?’

  Bane turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

  ‘Nothing,’ I replied to Dallmin. ‘You have to wait until it heals on its own. The pain is there to remind you to be careful with your hand while it’s damaged. It’ll subside eventually but in the meantime you’ll just have to put up with it. Unless you want to go home?’

  ‘Not until I’ve flown.’

  Honestly, he was like a two hundred-year-old toddler. He even looked a bit sulky, and none of us replied but I could almost hear Noah’s teeth grinding. Bane glanced my way and then set to work disinfecting the sink. We all had arguments we couldn’t use and it was getting really hard to keep quiet, so to avoid starting up another awkward conversation I busied myself around the kitchen too.

  As I handed Dallmin his cup of tea, I took away the magazine he was flipping through. Even though we hadn’t taught him to read English, there were written languages in Eden and he was very quick to learn. I had no doubt he would figure it out if we gave him an opportunity. Noah had already hidden the TV and all internet devices so he wouldn’t accidentally be exposed to news items or The Walking Dead. Or reality cooking shows. I had a feeling they were keeping me away from it all too, for which I was quietly grateful. Bad news stories were not likely to be the healthiest things for my state of mind at this point. But how long could we avoid the evils of this world? How long before we messed up, and Dallmin no longer laughed at his injuries? Already he looked different. He was starting to lose that carefree demeanour and looked much less sure of himself. In fact there were times, like now, when he looked downright miserable. I wasn’t surprised, but it was disturbing. I couldn’t work out if it was good or bad. On the one hand, he might decide that Nalong was too horrible and decide to go home. On the other hand I was concerned that misery would just help him to comprehend the difference between good and bad. That was way too close to good and evil as far as I was concerned.

  The kitchen window curtain billowed inwards, and I noticed that the rain had paused for lunch. The world looked so dreary. Wet leaves hung crying from the trees and there was mud everywhere. My heart longed for the blossom-fragrant warmth of Eden. How would I ever get used to this place again?

  Once we finished our tea I took Dallmin’s good hand in mine and pulled him up.

  ‘Come on, it might help if you can hear the music.’

  I needed the river—the brown angry river that I had loved growing up in, which now seemed a pathetic and bland reflection of the true River of Life. I kissed Bane on the cheek so he would know I didn’t need him to follow, and led Dallmin out of the house.

  Slipping along the riverbank, we made our way to the shallow bend where the water wasn’t too swift. I shed my shoes and socks and plunged my feet into the icy water. Late autumn meant the river was already cold enough to shrink a person’s kidneys, but I yearned for the music. If I could have immersed my head under without Bane getting all snippy I would have. Not that he would have let it show, but both Dallmin and I knew whenever he disapproved of things. His body language got so conflicted. Like when I’d shown Dallmin the view of the property from the windmill at dawn. Apparently I should have waited until it was a bit lighter to climb up. So rather than put him through that conflict again, I just stood in the water and soaked the echo of the Garden in through
my toes.

  With my eyes closed I focused on the sounds of life all around me. Birds pecked for rain-brave worms, joining their song with the frogs who were exploring their freshly expanded playground. I could feel that there were fish in the river, and a couple of platypus fossicking along the riverbed farther upstream. With a tilt of my head, I stretched out my senses to feel the signature energy of all the plants and animals around me. The world might look dreary and yet it teemed with life. All the world’s creatures beat their wings, pumped their hearts or skittered their many legs in time with the music of the river. So few of them even realised they were doing it. There was even a human downstream, somewhere, tugging discordantly at the harmonies. Probably someone fishing. Hunting to kill would certainly upset the weave.

  ‘Keep your hand dry,’ I warned Dallmin as he sat down in the water. He was shivering and didn’t seem to care. He was listening too. I found a submerged rock and sat down as well, and for a while we stayed quiet, saturating our souls with the feel of the river.

  ‘I do not enjoy this place,’ he finally confided. ‘There is not enough laughing here. When I first came, I thought I would not be able to stay. I felt I would rather move across than remain, and I almost turned back. I have never felt that before. Everything was so … unripe.’

  Unpleasant. Bitter. Not yet mature enough for its promised sweetness. Somehow, with his basic English, Dallmin had found the best description of the world I’d ever heard. My heart filled with sympathy. Given how much trouble I was having, I could only imagine what it must have been like for him when he’d first arrived. He did not belong here.

  ‘I’m sorry, Dallmin. I had no idea you intended to come. I should have told you what it would be like and you might have decided not to. It’s my fault you’re here at all, and now I’m terrified that you won’t be able to go back.’