by Anna Willett
“Are you in a lot of pain?” She asked, studying his face.
“Right. I’m going to need something I can use as bandages and something for a splint,” Lizzy said from behind her, cutting off whatever Hal had been about to say.
Paige held Hal’s gaze. For a fleeting moment, she felt outside of herself. An unshakable sense that she might lose him swept over her.
“Now, Paige,” Lizzy snapped. “We need to work fast.”
Paige reluctantly let go of Hal’s hand and stood. She felt the blood rushing to her head and a wave of dizziness. She dropped her head and leaned on the Ford for balance. After a pause, she looked up and Lizzy and Soona were on the ground with her husband.
“Hurry up and find me something I can use as a pressure bandage on this bite,” Lizzy ordered.
Page pushed herself off the vehicle and stumbled around to the passenger side of the Ford. The first aid kit’s in the glove box. She pulled it open and grabbed the red nylon case before racing back around the bonnet.
“Okay. Good. Now find something I can use as a splint. Two lengths about a metre long and rigid.” She spoke over her shoulder and unzipped the first aid case.
Paige put a hand to the side of her head. She tried to go through the contents of the boot in her mind, but could think of nothing that fit Lizzy’s requirements. She turned in a circle, biting her lip, when she noticed the gum trees across the road. She remembered teaching her year two pupils about gum trees and how they shed branches so they could retain the moisture within the rest of the tree to survive.
She jogged out of the carpark and across the deserted road; the rain had finally stopped. The area under the trees remained draped in shadows and littered on the ground were fallen sticks and gum nuts. She scanned the area for something larger, but in her panic, everything blurred into a confusing jumble. She forced herself to slow down. She was no good to Hal running around blindly.
Paige closed her eyes and counted to five. When she opened them she saw a metre long stick as thick as her wrist, nestled amongst the fallen leaves. She let out a cry of triumph and snatched it up. Within a few seconds, she had another with suitable proportions and headed back to the Ford.
Half way across the road Paige faltered when a cry broke the silence. A deep ragged sound of pain that echoed off the road and drove birds from the safety of the trees. She staggered, then broke into a run. Skidding across the carpark she became aware of the birds fluttering overhead and the sound of voices in hurried conversation.
She reached the Ford and found Lizzy and Soona crouched over Hal. His teeth were gritted in pain and a sheen of sweat covered his face.
“What are you doing to him?” Paige demanded, pushing Soona away from her husband.
“Calm down.” Lizzy’s voice lashed her like a whip crack.
Paige turned to face the woman. She could feel the anger building inside her. “Calm down? Why was he screaming?” She locked eyes with Lizzy. “What were you doing?”
Lizzy’s eyes were a blue so pale they looked like bulbous chips of ice staring out of her square face. She drew her eyebrows together and clamped her lips into a thin line.
“We pulled him out from under the car so I could examine his injured leg,” she said, clearly not used to being questioned. “But if you don’t want our help …” She let her words hang in the air.
Angry red blotches blossomed on Lizzy’s cheeks. Paige wanted to push her and the other woman away from her husband. A feeling deep in her gut told her that Hal needed protecting, but from what, Paige wasn’t sure.
Lizzy shrugged and stepped back. “Right. We’ll leave you to it,” she said and jerked her head at Soona.
“No. No, I’m sorry,” Paige stuttered. “Please. I just …” She grasped Lizzy’s arm and the women recoiled from her.
Shocked, Paige dropped her hands to her side and tried again. “Lizzy, I’m sorry. I over-reacted. We do want your help. Please.” Paige stopped talking and waited while Lizzy stood there thinking. As well as anger, Paige saw a momentary flicker of pleasure in the woman’s eyes. The look appeared and vanished so quickly, Paige wondered if she even saw it. Could Lizzy enjoy having so much power over her?
“When I heard Hal cry out, I just …” Paige put her hand on her belly, hating herself for playing the pregnancy card. “I’m a bit emotional.”
Lizzy looked from Paige’s face to her belly then nodded. Paige let out a breath and swallowed hard. If it had been anyone else, Paige didn’t think she’d have any problem with asking for help. Begging Lizzy left a sour taste in her mouth, but she had no option, except to placate the women until they got Hal to a hospital.
“I see you found something,” Lizzy said pointing at the sticks in Paige’s other hand.
Paige nodded, relieved the woman’s anger had dissipated. Lizzy nodded to Soona, and the big woman took the sticks from Paige’s hands.
Paige looked down at Hal. His eyes were closed, but his breathing sounded even. She noticed that the snake bite had been bandaged and felt a pang of regret for judging Lizzy so harshly. They’d obviously been administering first aid. Her eyes drifted to Hal’s left leg and she sucked in her breath.
His lower leg was swollen to at least twice its normal size. Just above his ankle she saw a gash deep enough to expose muscle and bone. Paige put her hand over her mouth to block the gasp that threatened to escape. She began to lower herself next to her husband when Lizzy’s arm shot out in front of her.
“No,” she ordered. “You need to move back and let us do what we need to do.”
Confused, Paige looked from the sticks in Soona’s hands to the crooked angle of Hal’s ankle, realisation dawned on her. They meant to straighten and splint his leg. She shook her head and started to protest, but Lizzy grabbed her shoulders and turned her away.
“You wanted our help,” she reminded Paige. “We can’t get him in the ute unless we splint his leg.”
“But the pain,” Paige moaned, and felt like the world had turned upside down. It seemed like only moments ago that she and Hal were laughing and making plans for the future. The next instant she found herself handing him over to two strange women, agreeing to let them hurt him in unimaginable ways. Her legs felt weak and her mouth suddenly dry.
She walked on numb legs and stood behind the old Holden. Bitterly aware of her own cowardice, she crouched down and covered her ears. When the screaming shredded the air she closed her eyes and whispered “sorry” over and over. The horror of that moment eclipsed everything that had gone before in Paige’s life.
Chapter Three
The shadows grew long across the bitumen as evening rushed to block out the day. Paige sat in the bed of the old Holden, one hand on Hal’s chest to feel its constant rise and fall, the other gripping the side of the tray. His eyes stayed closed and he slept. She brushed back a lock of brown hair from his damp forehead.
After Lizzy and Soona had finished splinting Hal’s leg, he’d lapsed into unconsciousness. “Shock” was Lizzy’s one-word explanation for his condition.
He stirred again when the three women eased him onto an old door which Soona found around the back of the factory, and lifted him onto the back of the ute. As the door landed on the bed of the Holden, Hal’s eyes had opened and he’d groaned before slipping back into unconsciousness.
Paige dragged her eyes away from her husband and watched the road disappearing in front of her. On either side, lush bushes and shrubs turned from green to grey in the dusky light. At irregular intervals, towering gum trees lined the road. Paige stared blankly around seeing only isolation. Lizzy had convinced her that the two-hour drive to the nearest roadhouse would put Hal at further risk. It made sense that a twenty-minute drive to Lizzy’s house to use the phone would be safer than driving Hal over rough roads for two hours. So, instead of speeding towards civilisation, they were heading farther away.
Paige’s back throbbed and her butt felt raw from sitting on the worn rubber mat lining the ute’s tray. With each
bounce and dip, her discomfort intensified. She hated herself for even acknowledging her own distress when Hal suffered so much. I’m weak and a coward. I should’ve held his hand, but I was scared. She thought of the way she’d hidden, her face burning with shame.
She wondered if she was doing the right thing by agreeing to go back to Lizzy’s instead of the roadhouse. Was she doing it because she was too weak to argue and too tired to fight for her husband? She hoped Hal wouldn’t pay the price for her feebleness. She pulled her phone out of her bra and checked the time; five-fifteen. They’d been driving for fifteen minutes.
Less than five minutes later, the ute veered to the left and Paige felt it make a wide arc. She turned and peered through the back window of the cab, but grime and dust blocked her view. She took her hand off Hal’s chest and leaned over the tray, drawing up her knees and swivelling her head to lean over and see the front of the vehicle, like a refugee scouring the coast for a safe harbour.
The house took her breath away, and for a moment, her mouth hung open in disbelief. She’d expected a modest country cottage, not the sprawling three storey ornate Edwardian mansion that loomed out of the hill like a tombstone. Nothing about Lizzy and Soona gelled with the house. Their clothes were clean, but well-worn, and their vehicle ancient and on its last legs. How then, Paige wondered, did they come to live in a mansion?
As they drew closer, Paige noticed the crumbling brickwork and the sagging roof. Even in the dying light, she could see the building needed an overhaul. Even so, the place was a monster and the thought of Lizzy and Soona rattling around in it, out here in the middle of nowhere, seemed more than a little eerie.
The Holden came to a stop to the right of the building, where the wrap-around veranda turned the corner of the house and a ramp rose towards the back. Paige wanted to tell Hal that they’d arrived and soon she’d be phoning for help, but he seemed peaceful and blessedly pain free so she decided not to disturb him.
The doors of the cab flung open on both sides and Lizzy and Soona clambered out.
“Go get one of the stretchers,” Lizzy said.
Soona nodded and lumbered towards the front of the house, her faded denim dungarees bunched up between her long sloping butt cheeks.
“Maybe we should leave him here,” Paige said over the side of the tray. “Getting him out of the ute will be painful, why don’t we leave it for the paramedics?”
Lizzy watched Soona disappear around the house and then walked to the back of the Holden. She unbolted the flap and dropped it down. Paige crawled towards the woman on her hands and knees, careful to avoid bumping Hal as she went.
“I don’t think we should move him,” Paige said from the tray of the ute. “It’s too painful.”
Lizzy had to look up to meet Paige’s eyes. The woman’s mouth thinned to a straight line and her tangled grey brows drew together in determination. Paige swallowed and continued. “If you’ll just watch him while I go inside and phone for help,” she paused and forced out a dry laugh. “We’ll be out of your hair soon.”
Lizzy held her gaze for a second, Paige steeled herself for an argument. To her surprise, Lizzy nodded.
“The phone’s in the kitchen. It’s quicker to go around the back and up the stairs. Door’s never locked,” she said and stepped aside so Paige could climb down.
The area on the side of the house had probably once been lawn, now only a shambling expanse knee-high with weeds. She followed a path of broken flag stones that led away from the ramp and around the back of the building. The light disappeared fast, making each step a little more shadowed than the last. Paige picked her way along the path and had a crazy thought, what if I fall and break my ankle? We’d be stuck here for God knows how long. An irrational thought, but Paige slowed her pace and took care to put one tentative foot in front of another.
At the back of the house, the path met a set of rickety steps. A steep narrow climb on ancient greying wood led to the rear veranda and a once white screen door. On the left were tubs and cartons piled haphazardly. Some contained household goods including battered lamps and broken crockery. Others were overflowing with papers and books. A cluster of wicker chairs and a circular table sat on the right of a screen door. Farther to the right stood a rough stone wall and low archway that Paige guessed housed a laundry room. The whole area smelled of boiled vegetables and something sharp and chemical.
Paige opened the screen door and entered the kitchen. Enough weak light filtered in from the veranda to illuminate the details of her surroundings. A huge, heavy oak table dominated the room. Every inch of the place looked original, right down to the deep, speckled-concrete double sink.
Paige found a light switch on the far wall and flicked it on. The switch moved with a solid click and a single overhead bulb flickered to life. She looked around the room and spotted a grey rotary-style phone sitting on an ornate phone table complete with yellow velvet seat and cushioned armrest.
She tilted her head back and looked at the time-stained ceiling. She glanced over at the deep alcove housing a large, battered, iron stove, above it a mantle cluttered with old clocks and photos. On the wall above the mantle hung a framed needlepoint with the message; THE HEART OF HEAVEN IS THE HOME. She let out a long, even breath and blinked back tears. Until she’d seen the phone with her own eyes, there’d been a small frightened voice inside her – one that came from too many horror films – that didn’t believe Lizzy and Soona had a phone.
She gave a little laugh and crossed the room. When Hal recovered, she’d tell him all about Lizzy and Soona. He’d see the funny side in all this and they’d look back on today and, well, maybe they wouldn’t laugh, but at least find some dark humour in the situation.
Paige snatched up the receiver and dialled triple zero. The last zero spun back into place while she waited. A hollow emptiness on the line sent a cold finger down her spine. She squeezed her hand around the receiver and counted to three. Nothing. She clicked the slots up and down on the cradle and listened for a dial tone.
Silence.
She slammed down the receiver and grabbed the cord. It snaked out of the phone and into the wall. She pulled the cord out and then plugged it back in, hoping that securing it firmly in place would fix the problem. She lifted the receiver and listened. Nothing.
Paige sank down onto the velvet phone-seat and put her head in her hands. She felt like a mouse trapped in a maze of dead ends, desperate to escape but too stupid to stop scurrying around and think.
She ran her hands through her hair and then straightened up. She had no choice but to put her faith in Lizzy. The woman claimed to be a trained nurse, so maybe it was time to put her dislike for Lizzy aside and start thinking about what Hal needed. She stood and walked out of the kitchen.
“Your phone doesn’t work,” she said, approaching the ute. She hoped it didn’t come out sounding as much like an accusation as it did in her head.
Lizzy and Soona stood on either side of a medical stretcher with folding legs and wheels, the sort used by ambulances to move patients, except this version looked larger and about twenty years out of date.
“I’ve had Comm Tec out twice this year, but it’s always something. Water in the transfer box or dust on the overhead line.” She shook her head. “Two women on their own should take priority, but do you think those big-wigs in the city care about people like us?” Lizzy asked, looking from Soona to Paige.
Soona ignored Lizzy and let her blank gaze settle on Paige’s belly. Lizzy seemed to be waiting for someone to answer her so Paige asked, “How do we get help? If the phone’s not working, what should we do?”
“We get him inside,” she jerked her head towards Hal. “Then we get some fluids into him and monitor that bite until tomorrow. Once we’ve taken care of him, I’ll drive to the roadhouse and get help.” She paused and fixed Paige with her thin-lipped stare. “Unless you’ve got a better idea?”
“I’m all out of ideas.”
Chapter Four
The accordion door stood open on the tarnished green, metal lift that dominated much of the black and white tiled foyer. The wheels on the trolley squealed with each rotation. Soona pushed the stretcher into the unlit lift; Lizzy crouched slightly and slammed the sliding gate.
“Take the stairs,” Lizzy said and set the lift in motion.
Paige watched open-mouthed as the prehistoric lift creaked its way upwards and the two women’s legs disappeared from sight. She climbed the wide staircase, shoes pounding on the faded blue runner, keeping time with the sluggish rise of the lift. It came to a wheezing halt on the third floor. Paige rounded the banister and watched Lizzy exit the lift and stride across the landing followed by Soona, pushing the stretcher.
Hal’s eyes were open. He raised his head and looked at his wife. “Paige, where are we?” His words were slurred.
Paige reached out to take his hand, but Soona pushed the stretcher forward knocking her hand away. Paige fell in line behind the woman, but could see nothing bar Soona’s wide back and bow-shaped rear end. She followed the women into a small narrow room. A single metal framed bed, stripped down to a bare mattress, stood against the wall.
“Get some sheets and make up the bed,” Lizzy instructed, and then opened a narrow cupboard, its contents hidden by a panelled door. Soona let go of the stretcher and disappeared out of the room, her brown lace-up shoes, sliding across the hardwood floor.
Paige stepped up to the stretcher and took Hal’s hand. “How do you feel?” She whispered, grateful to be looking into his eyes and speaking to him again.
“Like a car landed on me,” he said.
Paige managed a weak smile and bent to kiss him on the forehead. His skin, cold before, now felt hot against her lips.
“I’m going to put in a bung and start you on a drip,” Lizzy said in a terse tone. She wheeled a small trolley towards the stretcher. “It’s important that we keep you hydrated. I’m also going to give you something for the pain, but nothing too strong,” she added, as though Hal had said, “Give me the strong stuff.”