Barb nodded. ‘I’ll have everything ready for you.’
‘I’ll talk to the parents, get them to go back out. I would have liked to give them more time with him, but …’
‘But we need to do this, if we’re going to. And not in front of them.’
‘Yes.’ He had to deal with Jason and Simone Marshall’s stricken faces when he told them their son needed more urgent intervention, and they’d have to wait outside.
Next, he washed and gloved up, knowing he’d need to move fast as soon as the artery was exposed. Once Barb had removed the old dressing and applied manual pressure, he swabbed the wound and found the end of the artery before blood filled the area and obscured it from view. He clamped it and that scary welling of blood stopped. Another swab cleared the area and he tied off the artery.
Sam would need a good vascular surgeon in Brisbane, and possibly a laparotomy if they discovered bleeding from the spleen, but for now they’d done all they could. He re-dressed the wound and told Barb, ‘Bring them back in. They should be able to stay with him now until the chopper gets here.’
A few minutes later Barb was able to report, ‘Blood pressure up to eighty-five over forty-two now. Oxygen sat at ninety-seven.’
The sound of chopper blades cutting the air began to thrum in their ears.
Janey sat beside Rowdy on the sand.
Her jaw and eyes and throat ached and stung from tension and unshed tears. She couldn’t let herself cry, because her precious nephew—this sturdy, stricken little being—didn’t need tears from her right now. He needed the best words in the world, and she wasn’t sure that those words even existed. ‘But it just wasn’t enough,’ she said, ‘and the ambulance came too late, and so she died.’
‘She died in the ambulance.’
‘Yes, sweetheart.’
‘I knew she died.’ He sounded so bleak and defeated, confronted with the stark reality that his magical thinking had failed.
Magical thinking.
Should they have guessed, she and Luke? Should they have understood and known? He was only five. Death was such an abstract, impossible concept for him, even though he must have seen it in the bush many times—lizards and birds.
I knew she died.
He’d known it and not known it, both at the same time. Kids could do that, and even adults could sometimes. He had pinned himself heroically to those mixed-up concepts in his little mind and to the hope in his warm little heart. That if he stayed quiet, his mum would get better. That she’d gone to a wonderful place to get better, and somehow his desperate silence would move the necessary mountains and bring her back.
But if he spoke, the spell would be broken.
If he spoke, he’d have to ask the questions he desperately wanted to ask and hear the answers which he was so desperately afraid of.
Because really, in his heart, he’d known …
She held him, hoping that her touch might be enough, even though words just weren’t, wishing with all her heart that Luke was there. ‘But I’m your Auntie Janey, Rowdy,’ she whispered. ‘I’m your mum’s sister, and I love you, and I even look a little bit like her …’
‘You look quite a lot like her.’
‘Do I?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I know it’s not the same as having Mum, but I will take care of you and we’ll go to Melbourne soon for a holiday, and you can see your grandma and grandpa, because they love you, too.’
‘Who are they, my grandma and grandpa?’
Why didn’t you ever talk about us, Alice? Why did you always want to burn your boats and reject your own past?
‘They’re my mum and dad, and your mum’s mum and dad,’ she said.
‘I didn’t know I had them. And who’s Luke? Is he my uncle?’ He sounded cautious about it, just a little bit hopeful, she thought.
‘He’s—he’s a good friend. He’s someone who cares about you, too, very much.’ Because she didn’t think she could tell him the truth just yet, not without Luke himself there. It had to be his decision, not hers.
‘Are we going to live at Mundarri?’ Rowdy asked.
‘No, not there. Because I’m a doctor and I need to work in a town or a city, where there are more people to be my patients.’
‘So where?’
‘Somewhere good.’ She couldn’t tell him blankly that she didn’t know, couldn’t leave him on shifting ground when everything in his whole world had shifted so much already. She added, ‘We’ll think about it, and decide together. But I promise you, it’ll be somewhere good.’
The sound of chopper rotors in the distance came to their ears and grew rapidly louder. It had come for Sam, and she knew she should get back to the medical centre to see if she was needed to help with the transfer.
She told Rowdy, ‘You did a great job, trying to warn those kids about the cassowary. It wasn’t your fault that they didn’t listen. I think they were too scared.’
‘It wasn’t her fault either. She was hurt and she was scared, too. She didn’t know how bad it is to hurt a kid like that. She thought they were going to hurt her.’
‘I know, love.’
‘I want her to be healed. I don’t want her to die. She needs to mate with Fred and lay eggs. He’ll sit on them for her and they’ll hatch.’
‘You know all about it, don’t you? Is it the male that sits on the eggs?’
‘With cassowaries it is.’
‘We’d better get back and see how Sam is doing.’
‘When can we see how Elke is doing?’ He stood up and took her hand again, and the simple little gesture of trust almost broke her heart.
I cannot let this child down. Ever.
‘We’ll ask Andrew,’ she said. ‘He’ll know what we can do.’
‘I want her to be healed,’ he repeated, and Janey wondered about the issue’s importance in his mind, if it was connected with Alice somehow—his own mother, and the female bird—and how much his trust in happy endings might be permanently damaged if the adults around him shrugged at Elke’s plight or went out and shot her in cold blood.
She saw the helicopter touch down, its rotors blasting the surrounding vegetation in a mimicry of the cyclone’s recent destruction. Two flight paramedics emerged with a wheeled stretcher, and there was trusty Andrew, guiding them to the medical centre. She followed, but found that everything was under control, with Sam being shifted to the stretcher, covered in a light blanket, and with fluid and oxygen still going in.
Luke reported, ‘We had to tie off the artery and redress the wound. He’s looking more stable now, blood pressure’s up, respiration’s slowed, but there may be a way still to go.’
‘Spleen damage?’
‘Won’t be surprised. Not huge, but something’s going on in there, I think. The leg’ll need some attention, and those other wounds. We gave them a swab and started antibiotics, but that was all we had time for. The mum’s flying with him, and the dad and Josh will pack up here, catch the boat over to the mainland and start the drive down tonight.’ He dropped his voice further. ‘How is he? Still talking?’
She didn’t need to ask who he meant by ‘he.’
‘Oh, Luke, wait till you hear what’s been going on in his head …’ Her voice cracked. ‘But what’s urgent for him now is Elke, the bird. I want to ask Andrew if there’s a wildlife officer or a park ranger. If there’s any chance that she doesn’t have to be killed, and that a vet can work on that wound …’
They went with the paramedics to the chopper, trundling along one of the wooden boardwalks that led between various parts or the resort, while Simone and Jason Marshall made confused plans. Which hospital were they going to? Where would he stop for the night along the way? What time did the boat run? Who did they need to phone?
One of the paramedics—Luke knew him, apparently, he was based in Crocodile Creek, Rhys someone—said to them, ‘Looks like it was touch and go. Bloody lucky you two were here.’
‘Don’t even say it!’
<
br /> ‘Where’s the bird?’
‘That’s the next question now that Sam is stable,’ Luke answered. ‘Although as far as you guys go, I wouldn’t rest on your laurels during the ride.’ He told Rhys about the suspected spleen injury and the gashes they hadn’t had time to examine closely or treat.
‘Fill you in next time I see you,’ Rhys said.
They loaded Sam aboard with impressive speed and efficiency while Janey, Luke, Rowdy, Andrew, Josh and Jason stood on the boardwalk at a safe distance and watched. Janey took advantage of the lull and told Luke about what Rowdy had said.
‘That’s why? Oh, lord …’
The doors closed and the rotors whirred into life again, ready to lift Sam off into the blue promise of clear skies for flying and a major hospital down south.
A young woman appeared along the wide wooden boardwalk seconds after the helicopter had taken off, professionally smiling and perky, summoned by one of Andrew’s radio codes. Hospitality staff? He told her, ‘Help Mr Marshall and his son with everything they need to do to pack and check out and get the boat, would you, Lauren?’
She nodded and introduced herself to Jason and Josh, then led them in the direction of their cabin, making shocked and soothing sounds when she heard their story.
As soon as Lauren and the Marshalls had gone, Luke said quietly to Andrew, ‘Something needs to be done about the bird, and we’re hoping that doesn’t just mean a hunt and a bullet.’
‘I’ve been trying to contact Ben Chandler, the head ranger on Wallaby Island, to get his advice. There are only three rangers in North Queensland qualified to handle injured cassowaries, and fortunately he’s one of them. This is beyond the realm of our aviary staff. He’s supposed to be calling me back. Most of the island’s shut down over there because of cyclone damage, but I know he’s around, and he’s good.’
‘Working around the clock, I imagine.’
‘Aren’t we all? I’m sure he won’t want the bird killed if we can possibly avoid it, because they’re a protected species and numbers have dropped dangerously low in the wild. Let me get back to my office and see if we’ve heard from him yet. It’s around the corner of the building from the medical centre, if you want to check back in a little while. Or you can phone from the mainland later on and I’ll give you an update.’
‘Thanks, Andrew.’ After he’d gone, Luke turned to Janey. ‘Should we head back? That five o’clock boat we planned on taking is leaving soon.’ The dazzling heat and colour had just begun to fade, and the air felt cooler. There was a fresh breeze blowing. It would be lovely out on the water.
She nodded. ‘I guess that makes sense.’
But when they told Rowdy about the plan his little face went tight and pale, even though he only nodded. Janey couldn’t stand to see the defeat and resignation in his face. She bent to his level. ‘You don’t want to go back yet, do you? You want to wait and see if Elke is safe first.’
He burst into tears. ‘She can’t die. I don’t want her to die.’
‘Oh, sweetheart …’ Suddenly Janey was crying too, aching for him.
‘Mum died …’
‘I know, and we’re all sad about it, and there hasn’t been—’ Her voice caught ‘—time to cry.’
‘I didn’t say goodbye to her.’
To that, there were no words.
The two of them hugged hard, and then Luke was there, too, crouching down with his arms hard and warm around both of them, his strong shoulders shuddering and his lips pressed tight together. Rowdy cried and cried and cried, and neither Janey nor Luke tried to stop him or tried to say anything of comfort, because the best thing seemed to be just this.
Holding each other.
Letting the tears come, for as along as they wanted.
If they earned a few curious or concerned glances from people passing by, they didn’t care.
When it was finally over, they all felt a little better. Rowdy said, ‘We can help them with Elke. I want to.’
‘What do you think we could do, sweetheart?’ Janey asked.
‘We could show them the place where she ran into the rainforest. We could follow her tracks.’
‘Let me talk about it with Luke.’ She straightened and stood, not knowing what to do, needing Luke’s input. ‘Want to have another look in the gift shop while we do that?’ she asked Rowdy.
‘OK.’
They walked back to the sprawl of the main resort building and let him wander in the gift shop on his own, keeping an eye on him from where they stood on the deck just outside the gift-shop door.
‘It’s important to him,’ Luke said. ‘Pretty obvious why.’
‘Because he needs a happy ending. But if it ends badly, if they can’t find her or if they do have to destroy her, will it make things worse?’
‘Except maybe it’s not a happy ending he needs,’ he said slowly. ‘Maybe it’s just an ending, a clean, unequivocal one, the kind he never got with Alice.’
‘Even if it’s a bad ending?’ She searched his face. ‘If they decide to put Elke down? Are we prepared to take that risk?’
‘I don’t see that we have a choice. He’ll want to know the truth, whether he’s there to witness it or not. And I don’t think we should try to hide the truth from him.’
‘No, you’re right, we can’t do that.’
‘If those women at Mundarri—I know they meant well but if they’d been clearer to him about the truth of Alice’s death, he would have had an easier time. He would have been able to ask questions instead of believing he had to bottle them all up. Janey, I think we have to stay on here until we have an answer for him.’
She nodded, and he took her hands and squeezed them, then bent his head to rest on her shoulder for a moment. His cheek brushed against hers, but he didn’t kiss her. Neither of them spoke. She didn’t know what the moment meant but valued it anyway just because, as always, connecting with him seemed to keep her feet on solid ground.
They collected Rowdy from the gift shop and headed for the resort office to find Andrew. He met them halfway, striding at a rapid pace, with his walkie-talkie pressed to his ear. When he saw them, he said, ‘There’s been another sighting, and Ben is already on his way by boat from Wallaby Island. He has a vet with him. She’s been helping him with the injured wildlife, and she’s had experience with cassowaries, too.’
‘Where was Elke seen?’
‘There’s a bird-watching hide at the end of a walking loop that runs off the rainforest trail. Ben thinks she might be drawn to human contact because she was raised in captivity. She associates people with food. A couple of serious parrot botherers spotted her through their binoculars and saw that she was hurt.’
‘Parrot botherers?’
‘Amateur birdwatchers. But she disappeared into the rainforest again. Ben reckons it’ll be bloody hard to catch her if she doesn’t want to be found. We’ve closed all three trails now. We gave each of them a sweep by vehicle and got people to cut short their hikes and head back, but the birdwatchers had gone off the trail in search of a cross-eyed, red-belted fig-whistler—’
‘That’s not a real bird name!’ Rowdy whispered to Janey indignantly.
‘And we missed them. Let me show you on the map, and you can tell me how the location relates to where you saw her. Ben should be here very soon, and I’d like to have something concrete to tell him about where to start looking.’
He led the way to the big, colourful map board that showed the whole resort, complete with stylised palm trees, pictures of cabins and boat-launching places, and even a mermaid splashing her tail in the water.
‘This can’t be drawn to scale,’ Luke said.
‘No, it isn’t. I hate these things. I like real maps, with a scale and contour lines and grid references. But those don’t make the resort look so pretty and interesting.’ He pointed on the map to something that looked like a grass hut. ‘Here’s the bird-watching hide. It has windows covering an outlook of 270 degrees, and the birdwatchers re
ckon they were looking in this direction.’ He made an angled line with his hand.
‘That’s back towards where we must have been on the mountain trail when Elke attacked Sam.’
‘Show me the spot.’
‘Here.’ Luke pointed. ‘Janey, Rowdy, do you reckon?’
‘We crossed a bridge over a little creek, with rocks,’ Rowdy said.
‘You’re right, we did, I’d forgotten. So if that’s accurate—’ he pointed to the stylised picture of a bridge, surrounded by tree ferns ‘—then we were a bit further than I said. About here.’
Andrew circled his finger over the map. ‘And this is pretty thick rainforest, all through here, between the trail and the hide. So maybe she’s taken up residence somewhere in there.’
‘She might like the creek,’ Rowdy said.
‘She might. And Ben could use it for access, because it runs right through the centre of the rainforest and the vegetation gets dense in there.’
‘That’s great, Rowdy.’
‘Can we come, too?’ he asked.
Janey and Luke exchanged looks. She pressed her lips together and gave an imperceptible shake of her head. Her memory of the cassowary kicking Sam so viciously with that razor-sharp claw, more than six inches long, was too fresh and real. She didn’t want to go back on that trail with a child, even with other adults around. Those little buggies didn’t offer much protection.
‘I think he needs to do this, Janey,’ Luke said quietly. She shook her head harder. ‘No.’
‘And he might be of real help. He’s observant, and he knows his birds.’
‘No, Luke, I—’
He turned to Andrew. ‘How about if we take a ride to the bird hide in one of those buggies and watch from there? And if you had a spare walkie-talkie for us? She might get flushed back to that spot if she’s disturbed in the thicker forest.’ He dropped his voice. ‘Janey? Good compromise? We’ll all be safe in the hide, but he’ll be genuinely involved, too.’
This time she nodded. ‘Thanks. I was overreacting, I guess.’
‘Believe me, I knew what you were thinking.’
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