The Painted Sky

by Alice Campion

  Just outside of Wandalla, Nina drew over to the side of the road and sent a text to Harrison.

  Selling. Will send contract. Nina.

  CHAPTER 10

  ‘When I give you the nod, press the red button,’ said Dominic. His toothy grin threatened to reach his oversized triangular sideburns as his fingers danced over the controls like a maestro playing a grand piano.

  ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe we’re actually doing this!’ cried Olivia as she grabbed Nina from behind, her pink spiky head bobbing. ‘Dom, you’re the Man!’

  Fingers of glowing red light crept from the control box across the slick black surface of Cockle Bay. With a twist of a dial, Dominic sent green dots flying after them, popping and squabbling as they crowded in and around the red streaks.

  ‘Wait for it … wait for it …’ he said.

  Nina’s fingers quivered near the control switch. Who would have thought back at art college that Dom would get a light show gig like this? In those days, he’d spent most of his energy investigating the effects of new drugs.

  Yet here he was at the renowned Sydney Illumination Festival. Artists came from all over the world to astonish the crowds with displays of light-based art. And Nina herself, only six weeks home from Wandalla, was taking part, admittedly a small one, in this show that had taken Dom almost a year to put together. Elegant and over the top as always, he’d splashed out on a new ultra-shiny suit in a delicate shade of lime, reflecting the splashes of light dancing around the room.

  ‘And … now!’ yelled Dom. Nina pressed the button and the harbour burst into a hundred shades of yellow, red and orange, raging across the water’s surface like a bushfire. Above the music, the crowd roared. The rush of excitement lifted Nina from her seat and she and Olivia jumped up and down in each other’s arms, squealing like preschoolers.

  ‘Unbefuckinglievable!’ shouted Olivia, her face reflecting the blue lights which now fell like rain on the red storm, gradually extinguishing it.

  Nina felt the energy of this place and these people flow through her. She was jumping, laughing, dancing. She hugged Olivia hard.

  Later, in one of the harbourside bars, a dozen of their former college mates stood to cheer as the trio entered. Alice was still in her bubblegum-Goth phase, Nina saw, as she waved to the girl wearing an explosion of short pastel clothing and facial piercings balanced on four-inch platforms at the bar. Alice waved back, then flung her arm around a girl beside her, dressed as her doppelganger. She pointed to the girl and raised her eyebrows. Nina responded with an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Thank god, it looked like she’d finally got over Chloe.

  Standing on tiptoe, Nina scanned the bar for Theo. He’d promised to come and offer Dom his congratulations. Now that Dom was finally getting some recognition, Theo seemed to think it was worth the effort. Nina felt mean thinking that, but there was enough truth in it to niggle at her.

  ‘You still an apple martini girl?’ a voice at her left elbow yelled over the music.

  She turned and let out a yelp of delight. Martin and Lin folded their arms around her.

  ‘I’ll get the drinks. See you outside,’ mouthed Martin. He was so tall and skinny Nina was reminded of a praying mantis. He headed to the neon-lit bar. Lin dragged Nina out into the sultry evening air.

  ‘I can’t believe it’s you! I haven’t seen you since you went bush. God, you are gorgeous – where did you get those earrings? And that nose – I want that nose – that nose is straight out of a Modigliani,’ babbled Lin.

  Nina laughed and hugged her. ‘I’m so glad you guys came. Still together, then?’

  ‘Yeah, for work and play.’

  Nina had set them up at art school. The tall, shy designer and the tiny energy ball from Hong Kong that was Lin. Her rounded neat curves tucked under his arm were soon a fixture everywhere anything was happening. The perfect odd-sized match.

  ‘We just started up a games design company. We’re halfway through what we like to call “Visionary”. It will be one of the few online games without exploding heads and impalements.’

  As Lin described the details of her dream game, Nina’s gaze wandered to the mighty arch of the bridge. Seagulls drifted like snow around the lights at its zenith.

  ‘If you ever get bored with that view you’ll know your creative life is over,’ said Martin, handing her a pale green drink. ‘Is Leo coming?’

  ‘Theo,’ corrected Nina. ‘Yes. He’s coming. Just has to shmooze some clients for his firm. It’s like Mad Men over there.’

  ‘And he’s Don Draper?’ said Lin.

  Nina smiled.

  ‘Oh, for the life of an advertising sales exec. Tell you what, why don’t the two of you come over for dinner next weekend? It’s okay, I won’t let Lin near the stove. No Vegemite noodles or Weet-bix and ice-cream, I promise,’ Martin said, ducking the swing of Lin’s Hello Kitty bag.

  ‘Yeah, we want to hear all about the boondocks,’ said Lin. ‘Do you still have that red dress you got at the market? Wear that. I need to get a sketch of it for one of my characters.’

  ‘Tell you what, come along to mine instead. You haven’t been over for ages,’ said Nina, remembering that Martin’s cooking was even worse than Lin’s. ‘I’ll ask Liv and Dom as well. It’ll be a reunion.’

  Lin held up her glass. ‘Here’s to us, the most brilliant graduating year ever to come out of that place.’

  They clinked glasses and Nina savoured her perfectly chilled cocktail. Not something you could easily get at the Wandalla Bowlo.

  ‘God, I have so much to tell you guys. You are not going to believe it,’ she said.

  ‘But tonight,’ Martin swept Lin and Nina into a bear hug under his chin, ‘tonight is for dancing and kissing and howling at the moon.’ He let out a Tarzan-like yodel that echoed across the water and Nina laughed. It felt good.

  ‘Oh, shit!’

  ‘What is it now?’ said Theo, stepping into the kitchen in a waft of designer fragrance.

  ‘I can’t believe I forgot garlic. It won’t taste of anything without the garlic,’ flustered Nina.

  ‘There’s a jar in the fridge. The fresh stuff isn’t worth the trouble.’

  ‘Oh thanks, I forgot.’ Nina took a deep breath.

  ‘It’s only your starving artist friends anyway.’ Theo checked his reflection in the toaster and spiked his hair up. ‘They’ll be glad for a decent feed.’

  Nina retrieved the jar and stirred a spoonful into the biryani spice mix frying on the stove.

  ‘That Dom guy got a good write-up in the paper for his show. Did you see it?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah, it was fantastic. I wish you could have been there.’

  ‘Me too, but those guys from Kraft wanted a fun night out in Sydney and you don’t say no to that.’

  ‘I guess not.’ Nina selected a knife to chop the mint leaves. ‘Did you get the account?’

  ‘We’ll hear on Monday. You know, you look incredibly sexy in that apron. Sort of wenchy.’ Theo reached around her from behind, grabbing her breasts in his hands. ‘And I’m the lord of the manor.’

  Startled, Nina sliced deep into her finger. Fat bright drops welled up and fell onto the wooden block, mixing with the herbs.

  ‘Shit!’ Nina grabbed a paper towel and pressed it tight against the wound.

  ‘You know that’s even sexier,’ murmured Theo, pressing his crotch against her backside. ‘Wounded maiden …’

  ‘Jesus, Theo, will you stop playing around?’ said Nina, trying to keep the pressure on the cut. The spice mixture in the frypan was beginning to catch.

  ‘Oh, go on, please? It won’t take long,’ said Theo in a wheedling voice, hitching up her dress at the back.

  ‘God, Theo, honestly.’

  ‘You know how stressed I’ve been with this Kraft thing. Please. You’re always wanting things more spontaneous.’

  She could feel the pulse of his erection against her flesh as his hands crept around the front and began tugging at her undies.
/>   ‘Theo. Oh, crap!’ The rice boiled over.

  ‘That’s it, good girl. You want to be my kitchen wench, don’t you?’ In one swift movement, her underwear was around her knees and he was entering her, his fingers digging into her hips.

  Nina felt trapped. She should break away now and give him a good smack around the ear. But then a sulky Theo would snipe at her friends all night. He was almost certain to be done before the rice was.

  ‘Yeah, that’s it, struggle, servant, you’re not going anywhere,’ gasped Theo, building up a rhythm.

  A singeing smell reminded her that the spices were still on the heat.

  ‘God, please, Theo,’ she began in her most reasonable voice.

  ‘Yeah, beg for it, take it!’

  If she didn’t get the rice off the heat right now, it would be gluggy. She reached across to the back of the stove again, causing Theo to quicken his pace. Using her uninjured hand she dragged the heavy pot across the bench-top towards the colander. She tried to straighten, but his hands pushed her torso back close to the work surface. Using the edge of the sink as a lever, she managed to tip the pot sideways. As its contents steamed and frothed out of the pot, Theo gave a final breathless heave and croak and collapsed forward.

  ‘That was great, wasn’t it?’ he puffed in her ear as she lay with her face in the half-chopped and bloodied mint leaves.

  ‘Yeah, great,’ she agreed, fighting to keep the sarcasm out of her voice as the doorbell rang and the sound of her friends’ cheery voices echoed in the hall outside.

  ‘Mmm, wonderful food, sweetheart. Just as delicious as the chef.’ Theo kissed his fingers across the table at her with just a hint of innuendo.

  ‘So, what is it exactly that you do in advertising, Theo?’ said Martin, helping himself to palak paneer. ‘A designer, like Nina?’

  ‘More on the business side. Sure, I could have gone down that road but I’m not really one to coast. The corporate side’s demanding but, hey, someone has to pay the bills, right, guys?’ he said, pouring wine into his glass.

  ‘You guys are into art, Theo’s into Kraft,’ said Nina.

  ‘Cheesy,’ Olivia laughed. She held up a piece of naan bread she’d had been carving into a mask and viewed Theo through the eyeholes. ‘But I thought you might have been a model. You’re pretty enough. Isn’t he pretty, Dom?’

  ‘Sure, in a Michelangelo’s David kind of way,’ said Dom, looking him up and down.

  ‘Let’s hope the likeness is only from the waist up then,’ said Olivia. ‘I cannot abide a man who is lacking in the trouser department.’

  Theo flushed as Nina’s friends burst into laughter.

  ‘I don’t think Nina has any complaints,’ he said, struggling to match the light tone.

  Nina looked at the tablecloth. She was still fuming about the session in the kitchen, but determined not to let it ruin this rare get-together.

  The good-natured laughter got more raucous with Nina’s silence. Theo laughed along weakly.

  ‘So, you never told us what happened out the back of beyond,’ said Lin, the peacekeeper. ‘You inherited a house from your dad, right?’

  ‘No, my uncle,’ Nina replied. ‘Though Dad did grow up there. The Springs – out past Wandalla. It’s a gorgeous old place but it needs a lot of work. I just want to sell it to someone who’ll give it a bit of love.’

  ‘What’s it like, the wide, brown land?’ asked Dom. ‘I’m thinking “outback” for my next installation.’

  ‘Well, it is very, very wide and very, very brown at The Springs, worse luck. There aren’t any springs and the bore’s dried up.’ But even as Nina spoke the words, the image of that noble skyscape and the cark, cark of lonely-sounding crows came back to her. Maybe it wouldn’t sell for much, but it was far from worthless.

  ‘Check it out,’ said Nina, passing her camera to Dom. ‘I was planning to hang on to it for a while in the hope of finding out a bit more about Dad but I just drew blanks.’

  ‘Oh that’s right. I forgot about your dad,’ said Martin as Olivia leaned across the table and placed a hand on Nina’s shoulder. ‘Love his stuff. Hard to believe he came from out there.’

  ‘You know, Martin, not everyone outside Sydney is a six-fingered banjo player,’ said Olivia in mock indignation. ‘Just most of them.’

  ‘Liv!’ protested Nina.

  ‘I’m allowed to say that – I’m from out there and let me tell you there are still plenty of places where your aunty could also be your daughter …’ Olivia drew breath, ‘and your mother-in-law.’

  ‘Stop,’ said Nina, laughing.

  ’Good to see you laugh. Mission accomplished then,’ replied her friend. ‘You’ve been too, too quiet since you got back.’ She looked accusingly at Theo.

  ‘Whaaat?’ he asked, grumpily.

  ‘Well, I would have loved to have found some odd rels out there,’ sighed Nina. ‘If I only had some, maybe they could have shed some light on Dad.’

  ‘But surely someone must have known him. Did you talk to his old friends?’ asked Lin.

  ‘Yeah, plenty of people knew him but none of them had much to say really. As soon as I seemed to be getting somewhere the door would always shut. And then there was this one unbelievably bitchy woman I met, who Dad once painted in the nude. I mean she was in the nude, not Dad. Anyway, apparently she had the hots for him years ago.’

  ‘Eeeew,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Exactly,’ Nina replied. She launched into a scathing, but very funny description of Hilary and Paramour. ‘She’s actually my only buyer. I need to sign the contract my solicitor drew up, but I’ve been it putting off. Hilary Flint gives me the creeps. I made friends with her daughter, Deborah, who’s just lovely but she wastes a lot of time running around placating Mummy. Nightmare.’

  ‘So, how much do drought-stricken wildernesses go for these days, anyway?’ asked Lin.

  ‘Not much. Nowhere near what you’d get for this tiny place. I quite liked the idea of being a lone woman farmer or maybe having a break from work for a while out there but I guess I’m destined to stay glued to a computer screen, designing other people’s stuff.’

  ‘These photos are like Sidney Nolan. The colours,’ interrupted Dom, passing Nina’s camera to Martin.

  ‘Will you go back before it’s sold?’ asked Olivia, helping herself to biryani. ‘We could do a road trip. You’d come, wouldn’t you, Dom?’

  ‘Oh yeah. I’m working on a soundscape for The Dead Ends’ new album. I am so over city noises. Something from out there would be sick.’

  ‘The Dead Ends, they’re wild,’ said Martin, and the four of them began a lively debate about the band’s last album.

  Theo rolled his eyes and slumped back in his chair. He extracted his phone from his front pocket and began flicking through messages. Nina looked at the bowl of rice. It had turned out gluggy after all. Slow anger burned inside her.

  ‘So, what do you reckon, Theo?’ asked Lin, politely including him in the conversation.

  ‘I dunno. That stuff’s a bit of a wank. I mean people pretend to like it but …’ He turned back to his phone and continued flicking.

  ‘Oh, okay,’ replied Lin, surprised.

  Olivia and Dom broke into stifled giggles.

  Nina saw Theo through their eyes: a petulant, spoiled boy who dismissed anything he couldn’t understand.

  ‘Nice shot of Bach,’ said Martin, flicking through Nina’s pics.

  Nina bit her lip.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Lin, placing her hand on Nina’s back.

  ‘It’s Bach,’ said Olivia. ‘Sorry, Nina, I didn’t have a chance to tell them.’

  ‘It’s okay, Liv. I’m just still a bit …’ Nina’s eyes smarted but she forged on. ‘He got bitten by a brown snake. My neighbour had to put him down. He was in such terrible pain.’

  ‘Oh, no – how horrible!’ Lin’s eyes started to well over in sympathy.

  ‘Oh, come on, Nina, there’s only so long you can milk that story.’ The
o’s tone was light, conspiratorial. He obviously expected the others to laugh. Instead they stared at him in silence. ‘Why don’t I pass the hat around?’ he faltered, returning to his phone messages.

  ‘Hey, easy on, Theo,’ said Dom, shooting a disgusted face across the table at Olivia.

  Theo scowled.

  Nina felt her heart pounding, a tide of resentment and fury working its way up from her chest in a great surge. ‘Put it down!’ The voice that came from Nina’s throat was so unlike her usual light tone that the table fell silent.

  Theo looked up, surprised.

  ‘Put that fucking phone down, Theo. These are our guests!’

  Everyone sat, goggle-eyed.

  ‘Put – it – down. Jesus, you …’ Nina was on her feet. She snatched the offending device from Theo’s limp hand, strode to the balcony doors and yanked them open.

  ‘Nina?’ Olivia got up from her chair, concerned.

  Dom, with a gleeful grin, held his phone high to capture it all on video.

  Nina pulled back as if to hurl a javelin.

  ‘Nina! I’m sorry! Calm down!’ Theo lunged, but with a single movement, Nina threw the phone in a perfect arc. It landed with a satisfying smash in the building site across the road.

  ‘Fuck you, Nina.’ Theo grabbed her arm.

  ‘No, fuck you, Theo. You really don’t get it, do you?’ she hissed.

  ‘Ah, I think you’d better settle down now, mate,’ said Martin, pulling him away.

  ‘It’s none of your business, dick-wad!’ yelled Theo, shrugging him off. ‘This is between her and me. Just shut up, freak.’

  ‘We’d better go, so these two can work it out,’ suggested Lin.

  ‘No. It’s not you who should leave. It’s him,’ said Nina, desperate for the scene to end. ‘Just go, Theo.’

  For a moment it was unclear what he would do. The air crackled. Theo stalked to the door, snatching up his car keys. ‘Right, that’s it. It’s over. You’re a real bitch sometimes, Nina. Call me when you’ve cooled down.’ Theo yanked open the door and slammed it behind him, his footsteps echoing down the stairs.