The Island(86)

She sent them off and when they were gone, she crawled through the long grass until she was near the place where the bushfire had burned itself out. A great scorched area of the land, and in the middle of it a charcoal-black snow gum tree. A tree that had evolved with the fire over millions of years and that looked dead but whose slow patient heart was beating still.

She lifted the binoculars to her eyes and saw Tom sitting in a wicker chair underneath a branch in the shade. There was an IV in his arm connected to a bag of saline hanging on a jerry-rigged IV pole.

He had a walkie-talkie in his hand.

But there was something not quite…

He was pale and looked dead, but when she studied him through the binoculars, she saw that he was blinking.

He was alive. It was really him. No Weekend at Bernie’s trickery from the O’Neill clan.

But something was wrong.

She scanned the horizon. All around the tree, the vegetation had been torched, leaving only red dirt. There didn’t seem to be anywhere for the O’Neills to hide, but still, she approached cautiously, on all fours, sniffing the air like a lioness as she reached the edge of the grass.

Heather picked up her walkie-talkie. “Tom, are you there alone?” she whispered.

All she heard back was static.

She crawled closer and tried again. “Tom?”

She tried all the channels and looked again through the binoculars. He was breathing. And those eyes seemed alert enough.

It was just a hundred yards of burned grass from here to Tom.

The O’Neills had kept their word. They were nowhere to be seen.

She had one bullet left.

She quietly loaded a .303 round into the rifle and picked up the walkie-talkie again. “Tom?”

Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

“Tom?”

Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

She tried again and again but all she got was that long, doleful whisper of static that had been hissing in the background for thirteen billion years.

Sssssssssssssssssss and then, out of the void, Matt’s sudden, startlingly clear voice: “Heather, where are you, mate? We’re waiting for you and the kids. Tom hasn’t given us the all-clear yet. Come on, don’t blow this…”

She turned down the volume on the walkie-talkie and crawled right to the last blades of spinifex.

Tom was still in his chair in the shade of the dead tree, a silhouette in the setting sun. He was wearing a hospital robe and a straw hat. That bag of saline going into his arm.

He was doing something.

He was fidgeting with the walkie-talkie.

Heather prepared to get up and walk to him.

She did a final scan of the terrain with the binoculars.

Was there anything odd?

Nah, all was—

Wait.

What was that?

A glint of light on the burned ground. On the burned ground, where there should be no light.

Sun on gunmetal? Sun on shotgun barrel? Would they have had time to dig themselves foxholes in the burned land, Matt, Ivan, some of the others?

But why hadn’t Tom warned her?

Tom would know it was a trap, he would—

Because his walkie-talkie had no batteries!

Heather backed into the grass.

She let out a breath.

Oh, Tom. I wanted to talk to you. I needed to tell you that the deal was off. To tell you that the kids had made a choice. And they chose me. They trust me to put them first and protect them and keep them safe. They still love you, of course they do, but they don’t trust you. Because of Judith. Because of what happened on the stairs. And what happened with us here on the island.

But I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to hear your side of it. I wanted you to talk to me in that Tom voice. I wanted you to convince me that Owen had gotten it wrong. Heather, are you crazy? Owen is mistaken. I found Judith like that. Kids’ brains work differently. You know Owen. He doesn’t see things straight. He doesn’t know what happened. Tell me I’m wrong; tell me I was blind too, Tom.

I fell for your whole act. You came to see me for the first time on February 14. Valentine’s Day. I’d forgotten that until a couple of days ago. We’d had three massage-therapy sessions by the time Judith died. You met me while Judith was still alive. After our third session, we went out for a drink. Remember? I told you I couldn’t possibly see a client outside of work and you were so funny and cool and you insisted. “Just a quick drink next door.” Then you didn’t come in until late May.

Judith’s accident was March 3. Was I the woman you and Judith were fighting about? Or was there someone else too? I hope it wasn’t me but I think maybe it was. Judith was smart. She sensed it. She knew it was happening again. If we hadn’t met, maybe Judith would still be alive.

I know you, Tom. You’ll deny it and you’ll talk about how people remember things differently and you’ll mention that Rashomon movie I still haven’t seen and maybe you’ll tell me I’m too young to know the way the world works.

Or maybe not. Maybe you’ll come clean about everything…and I’ll explain I have to leave you here and you’ll understand. I’ll tell you that I know that Matt’s a liar and there will be no deal and the only way to save the kids is to leave you.

Tears again.

Tears dripping down her cheeks onto the stock of the Lee-Enfield.

She thought about Tom and then she thought about her dad. She would get by without either of them. She would be by herself. And it would be OK.