Damn. Keep forgetting. Alessa – don’t suppose you have any other ideas?’
‘I’ve been pondering it all afternoon,’ Alessa said, putting down her book and looking pained. ‘I reckon we’re going to find that everything’s closed. Appalling. Right when I arrive wanting modern Australian three hat.’
‘Michael’s house has solar power. I was just there. We had yum cha,’ Cressida said, and was rewarded by Alessa’s mouth drop. She looked into the house through the open bi-fold doors. ‘Where’s Helena?’
‘She went out, she wouldn’t tell me where,’ said Alessa. ‘She had a conspiratorial glint in her eye though.’
‘Oh no,’ said Cressida.
‘I know.’
‘Yes well I’m hoping it doesn’t involve any large furry animals this time,’ Alessa said. ‘I did get an email from Jerome before your laptop went flat, incidentally.’
‘Oh really? That’s a first. He’s alive then. What did it say?’
‘You wouldn’t believe it,’ Alessa said. ‘He said we should be going out in protest in support of the terrorists.’ She cocked her head to one side, remembering. ‘That “at last someone is taking direct action on this crime against future generations AKA climate change, and you should both be burning your practising certificates in front of the Supreme Court in protest at their arrests”. Quote unquote.’
‘Does anyone even do that anymore?’ asked Cressida, leaning back on Felipe’s chest. ‘Richard said there’d been four arrests. Are these the same ones? The Eraring Four or something?’
Alessa shrugged. ‘Don’t know. We can ask though. Next time you email. He’s probably got better access to news than we do.’
‘So impulsive,’ Cressida said. ‘If he’s so passionate about them why isn’t he back here protesting?’ Her brother. She loved him to pieces, but sometimes he was so … well, so twenty-seven.
There must be some way she could get onto a charged laptop though, she thought, regarding the world over Felipe’s forearms. She looked at the pool. It did look inviting. Her shift was sticking to her in the heat.
‘Alright,’ she said. ‘Alessa, where are those bathers?’
‘Helena’s room, third drawer down,’ she said, and glanced up at her sister. ‘Try not to mess anything up in there. Helena likes to keep it neat.’
Cressida gritted her teeth. ‘Of course.’ When her sister said something like that it made her feel like going in and doing exactly what she’d said not to, while also dropping a couple of her earrings in the nearest tray of cat litter for good measure. She wouldn’t, of course. But it felt good to think it.
There was the heavy slam of a car door and Helena appeared at the back gate wearing a trilby with her leopard-skin scarf tied over it and down under her chin. She was carrying a long black case that looked like a violin, along with a plastic bag of shopping. She murmured hello and kept going. Cressida followed and found her standing on the other side of her bed, looking flustered.
‘What’s that?’ Cressida said, standing in the doorway.
Helena looked down at the plastic bag on the bed.
‘That? Nothing. Just a few bits and pieces. Alessa and Felipe said they were going for a jog. I thought all of you would be out.’
‘In this heat?’ she said, noticing something long and thin in the plastic bag. ‘Wait, is that … since when did you play baseball, Helena?’
‘It’s not for that,’ Helena said, grabbing the bat. ‘It’s just, well, you know … Cressida, there are looters out there. Police everywhere. The alarm system’s not working. We need to be safe.’
‘Oh Helena,’ Cressida said, walking round to her side of the bed and taking it from her. ‘You’re completely safe. We’re all here, for goodness sake. What else have you got in there?’ She opened the plastic bag. Inside were two small black and white canisters, some D-bolts, something that looked like a torch, and a kilo of chops.
‘But what if they have guns?’ Helena said. ‘Marjorie down the road told me that number 52 got broken into. They cleaned the place out. No-one was home, thank goodness. But it … it worries me.’
Cressida pulled out the torch.
‘Where did you get all this stuff?’ she asked, digging through the bag. ‘Helena, that’s what the door locks are for.’
‘Wellington Surplus on Carrington Street. They took cash. Don’t touch that,’ Helena said. ‘It’s a flashlight with 2.5 million volt stun gun. They smashed their sliding door, Cressida. With a tyre iron they found in the back shed. I have a right to take precautions.’
Cressida squatted down beside the bed. The long black case was under it.
‘And what is this?’
‘Nothing. Oh, don’t look. It’s better if you don’t. Please,’ Helena said, putting her face in her hands. Cressida pulled out the case and opened it. Inside was a rifle.
‘Helena. How did you get this? You have to take it back.’
‘No,’ Helena said. ‘I used Leo’s … Leo’s clay target licence. It’s the only one they would give me. I wanted a handgun, but you need a different permit for that.’
‘A handgun. Helena, are you out of your mind? The few people that get killed in home invasions are the ones that have the guns. Everyone knows that. And if the other guy has one, you have three times the chance. Or something.’
‘Really?’
‘Why did they let you have this? You didn’t …’
Helena grimaced and nodded. ‘Well he did make me power of attorney.’
‘You’re telling me they let you buy a gun as someone’s attorney,’ Cressida said. ‘That is the nuttiest thing I’ve ever heard. Helena. I mean it. You need to take it back.’
‘Cressida? Did you find the bathers?’ came Alessa’s voice from the hallway. At the look on Helena’s face Cressida shut the case quickly and slid it back under the bed. ‘Just about to,’ she called out, standing up. ‘Take it back, Helena. Or else I will,’ she said quietly. More loudly, she said, ‘What a good idea, Helena. We’ll fire up the barbie. Give me those chops and I’ll put them in the esky.’
9
Head still pressed against the headrest, Robert opened one eye at a squint and found the clock on the dashboard between the adjacent hulking shoulders of the pilots. Twelve more minutes, going by what they’d said earlier when he’d managed to be heard asking across the scream of the engine. Surely he could hold out for that long. He had given up trying to speak to his ever-present security detail in the next seat, concentrating instead on his breathing and trying not to let loose the fist of panic that was welling in his throat. He had always hated flying, and helicopters were a whole extra layer of nightmare. Whenever he and
