‘I’m sorry, Carla,’ I said. ‘Write the article, it doesn’t matter. But right now I need to see my baby.’
‘I’ll chase up Dorothy,’ said Carla and she hurried out of the room.
‘I thought you were gone,’ said Jonah, burying his head into my shoulder. ‘I saw you lying in all that blood and you were grey. I really thought I’d lost you.’
‘You didn’t lose me. Stop thinking about it.’
‘Uncle wasn’t talking, just praying and sweating. That really worried me, that he couldn’t stop what was happening.’
‘I’m sure Uncle had it all under control. Have you told him and the girls?’
‘Yeah, they’re waiting for you to wake up. Mum’s made gallons of zura. She reckons it’s good for your milk.’ He kissed me and I knew everything was going to be all right . . . except for the zura.
‘Knock, knock,’ said Dorothy. ‘There’s someone to see you.’ She was holding out a small bundle of blue to Jonah.
‘Let me help you up first,’ she said to me.
‘He’s so perfect,’ said Jonah, gazing at our baby. Dorothy raised the top half of the bed so I was sitting up. Jonah passed me our son. ‘Be careful, yes, yes, like that. Isn’t he perfect?’
When I took hold of my baby, it was like I had been waiting all my life for the moment. He was asleep and I kissed his wrinkled face and inhaled the warm, earthy scent of his new skin. Jonah pulled out his phone, took some photos and then called the girls and Uncle.
‘Would you like to give him a feed?’ asked Dorothy. ‘He needs it.’
As soon as Dorothy positioned his face near my nipple, he opened his mouth, as if biting the air. A hot rush of emotion engulfed me as my baby took to my breast like a fish to water. Dorothy said she’d be back later to put him in the humidicrib. My baby sucked and when sated, fell asleep, a thin stream of colostrum running from his open mouth.
Chapter 46
The three old folk rushed in. Mum and Yenah each carried an enamel bowl and Uncle his alligator case. They cooed as they huddled around the baby. Yenah reckoned bubba had Jonah’s nose and Mum thought he had my eyes, even though he was fast asleep.
‘We need a name,’ said Jonah.
Uncle took the baby from me and spoke to him in traditional language for a few minutes and looked to the heavens. I heard ‘Zesus Krais’ and ‘angel blong heaven.’ Other than that, I had no idea what he was saying.
‘Karrmoi,’ Uncle announced and then turned to me. ‘Karrmoi is a mangrove fish with a bad sting. Same like kibbim but karrmoi more worser. Make you nathakind dizzy.’
So, it was Karrmoi, son of Kibbim, son of Kaigus, son of Geigi.
Dorothy wheeled in the humidicrib and placed Karrmoi inside to sleep in the warmth. My heart was exploding with love, exponential love, love that could fill the hearts of all the people on the island, in the world. My face hurt from smiling each time I looked at my baby. What I really wanted was to be alone with Jonah and Karrmoi, my little family.
‘My gel, kai kai that zura,’ said Yenah, thrusting a fried scone into my hands.
‘I’m not that hungry.’
As I turned to look again at Karrmoi, I saw the discreet nod Uncle gave to Jonah. I put my scone on the bedside table.
‘You remember what happened in court?’ Uncle asked me, just as Jack and Jenny came in, squealing with delight.
‘Oh, sorry,’ said Jenny when she saw Uncle and the girls, silent and serious.
‘Come, my gel,’ said Uncle. ‘Come, my boy. Ah, you boy blong Abel Lakoko?’
‘Yes, Uncle.’
Jack and Jenny gave me a box of chocolates and a present wrapped in pale blue paper. We chatted for a bit but I could tell from Jack’s and Jenny’s Cheshire Cat-style smiles that something major had happened.
‘So, Jack, spill the beans.’ I offered him a chocolate from the box. He studied the description sheet carefully, popped one choccy in his mouth, took a second, swapped it for another, and then grabbed a third.
‘Life is short, Jack,’ said Jenny. ‘Fine. I’ll tell her.’ She smiled and shook her head. ‘You were right, Thea. We searched Robby’s house and found boxes of paperwork, all in date order, receipts, letters, documents, you name it.’
‘He doesn’t throw anything away,’ said Jack with a full mouth. ‘We found a copy of a letter Melissa wrote to Robby in late February saying she had tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen so she was writing instead. She was two months pregnant and she didn’t know whose baby it was. She was sick of Robby trying to control her and she was leaving with Alby to stay with her father at the end of April when she’d submitted her assignments.’
‘So,’ said Jenny, ‘when Robby discovered the potential for a fraud case against Dave, he took the opportunity to kill Melissa for cheating and frame Dave.’
‘To get back at Dave for framing him years ago,’ I said.
‘With Melissa’s letter was the best find – a receipt for a Victorinox kitchen knife purchased on his VISA card.’
‘Well, he’d need that receipt to claim a refund,’ I said, ‘if she’d survived and he was charged with attempted murder.’
Jack said Robby would be stuck in the watch house for a couple of days before being flown to Cairns.
‘How could he do it?’ I asked. ‘Terrible. So terrible.’
‘Just think,’ said Mum, ‘you don’t have to worry about any of this. Put it behind you.’
‘And we go help you, my gel,’ said Yenah. ‘You go get your strength back and me and Sissy here, we go take bubba for you.’
I smiled, thinking they’d probably discussed how to get lots of grandson time. Karrmoi stirred in his sleep and made the strangest face, pushing his lips far out. He was so beautiful. I wanted to hold him again.
‘I’m not sure about Robby’s dog,’ said Jack, choosing another two chocolates. ‘I was going to take Bear to my place, but he’s a bit wild. I don’t know what to do with him.’
From the corner of my eye, I saw Jonah handing the fetolith to Uncle, who held it up to the light. They were in quiet conversation. I was half-listening to Jack and trying to watch Uncle and Jonah.
‘Bring him around to meet Gapu and Chief,’ said my mother. ‘They might get along, might calm him down.’
‘Aberray,’ said Jack.
‘But, Rosie,’ said Yenah, ‘we got all them guinea pigs coming blong to the prep teacher who’s leaving for the Christmas holidays.’
Prep! I remembered Alby. How could I have forgotten him? ‘What about Alby?’ I asked. ‘Where is he?’
‘He’s with a teacher couple,’ said Jenny. ‘Melissa’s father is flying up tomorrow morning.’
Jonah and Uncle were still whispering, heads close. Uncle was shaking the fetolith as if he was angry with it. Jack took another chocolate and Jenny replaced the lid.
‘Come on, Jack,’ she said. ‘We’ll be able to get a feed from the Railway if we hurry.’ She leaned over and hugged me. ‘Well done. He’s gorgeous.’
‘Yawo, goodnight, konichiwa.’ Jack waved to us and turned to Jenny as they walked out. ‘Nah, I beliful now. Chocolate’s really filling, you know?’
‘Well, why would you go and eat crap when you . . .’ Jenny’s voice faded into the corridor.
‘Lily, em mina kind handsome, that sergeant,’ said Mum and the two of them giggled.
I looked at Uncle. ‘It was Leilani and that man wearing the red lava lava, wasn’t it?’
‘The man, my gel, it was the man. Did one of them touch you, soft wat?’
I told him about Leilani and the man coming to my office, Leilani grabbing my arm and the man, calming me, then leaving feathers in my office.
‘What sort of feathers?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Kuzi feathers, that’s what,’ said Uncle. ‘Feather blong to the s
ea eagle.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me about this?’ asked Jonah, stunned.
‘I didn’t know he put a spell on me. Police get assaulted all the time in the line of duty.’
‘Now you sabe maydh,’ said Yenah.
‘My gel, you almost been killed in the line of duty.’ Uncle held out the claw. ‘Do you know what this is?’
‘The doctor said it was a fetolith, an—’
‘No. It’s the claw blong to the kuzi. Them feto . . . feta . . . feta, wanem that one, my boy?’
‘Fetolith,’ said Jonah, winking at me.
‘It’s not that. It’s the claw blong to the kuzi. Them feto-thing, the doctor never been seen one before. I been see this one plenty time, in kidney, in heart. Maybe barb blong stingray or tooth blong shark. It’s maydh.’
I had a flashback to the evening Jonah and I celebrated my pregnancy surprise, and the mutilated sea eagle on Greenhill. A shiver ran through me.
‘So Leilani got the man to put the claw in my belly to make me so sick I’d get off the case. She thought that might be the end of things against Dave.’
‘The wrong use of maydh,’ said Uncle.
‘It’s just as well you listened to us, darling,’ said Mum, giving me a serious look.
On the one hand, I thought rationally, like a kole person the way I’d been raised. Pregnant women often haemorrhage and go into premature labour requiring emergency caesareans. And often, there is no medical explanation. When Carla found the fetolith, she needed to have a rational explanation for it.
Then I thought like an Islander, the person I felt I was becoming. The well-dressed man was hired by Leilani to make maydh for me. He killed a kuzi and lodged the claw inside me when he visited me at the station. Very slowly, the claw worked my body into a state of dis-ease. Who knows what would have happened if it weren’t for Uncle.
‘How did you save us, Uncle?’ I wasn’t sure he’d answer that question.
‘With prayers to our good Lord Jesus Christ.’ He winked at me and I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. I should have known Uncle would never disclose the lore of maydh. I smiled and let the tide of the day’s events wash over me.
‘Okay, mipla go go now,’ said Uncle.
We said goodnight and the girls promised to bring more zura for my breakfast.
When we were finally alone, Jonah said with a big smile, ‘Well, what a day.’
I small heart jump when I be look Jonah. He was so handsome he made my heart miss a beat.
I smiled, realising I had just thought in Broken English for the first time. ‘I matha go sleep,’ I said.
Jonah lowered the head of the bed so I was lying flat and he pulled the lounge chair close. He picked up Karrmoi and leaned in to kiss me.
‘I love you,’ he said.
‘I love you, too,’ I whispered and reached out to touch our nut-brown baby.
Acknowledgements
This book would not exist had I not trod, in 2006, with good intentions from the tranquillity of full-time work into the hazy chaos of full-time motherhood and teetered on the brink of insanity as a result. Nor would it exist without my amazing mentor, Dr Anna Kassulke, who patiently helped me work through many of the 79 drafts and edited countless short stories while I tried madly to learn something about the craft of writing. Finally, this book would not exist had the 2012 Queensland state elections not been the catalyst for the creation of the Queensland Literary Awards which I entered purely to pay the entry fee as a show of support and never expected to win.
Many thanks to the following: Dear friends who pored over drafts and made valuable suggestions; medical advisors Doctors Catriona Arnold-Nott and John Cooper (okay, there’s a little literary licence); my husband for his long-suffering support; the Queensland Literary Awards Committee, including judges, sponsors, donors, buskers, volunteers, supporters and everyone who made the awards possible; University of Queensland Press and Varuna Writers’ House for the 2010 Publisher Fellowship; and a final thanks to my parents – for everything.
First published 2013 by University of Queensland Press
PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
www.uqp.com.au
[email protected]
© 2013 Catherine Titasey
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Quote on page vi has been reprinted by permission of United Agents on behalf of:
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