‘Ognian is a colour?’ Alice asked in surprise. Her name was a colour too.
‘It can be,’ Oggi replied, taking a big bite of his jammy bread. ‘Iph-meams-pire,’ he said.
‘Pardon?’
Oggi laughed and swallowed. ‘My name, Ognian,’ he said. ‘It means fire.’
‘Oh,’ Alice said. The babble of the river intermingled with a bellbird’s call. Winter light broke through the trees.
‘Say something else,’ Oggi said after a while.
‘Something else,’ Alice said, her cheeks flushed with the joy of making him laugh.
When Alice got home, June was in the kitchen, watching over sizzling frying pans. Candy and Twig were at the table, reading. Harry sat at Twig’s feet. His tail thumped at the sight of Alice. The three women looked up.
‘Happy birthday,’ June said, her eyes on Alice’s locket.
‘Happy birthday, sweetpea.’ Candy closed her recipe book.
‘Hi, Alice. Happy birthday.’ Twig folded up the paper.
June’s frame was hunched. Candy’s face was pale. Twig’s movements were slow and heavy. All three tried to smile but none of them had happy eyes. No one mentioned Alice’s wet hair or her sandy feet.
‘I’m making birthday pancakes. Would you like some?’ June’s voice shook.
Alice gave June the kindest smile she could.
‘Coming right up.’ June poured more batter into a pan.
Alice angled herself onto one of the chairs.
‘How about some sparkling birthday juice, Alice?’ Twig offered, sliding her chair back. Alice nodded. Twig went to the cupboard to get a champagne flute, giving June’s hand a squeeze as she passed. Harry curled at her feet with a thud. Alice watched the women. The way June’s shoulders always shook a little. Twig’s sad eyes. Candy’s blue hair, which, no matter how bright it was, couldn’t hide her sorrow. Alice wasn’t the only one who was sad and missed people she loved.
June served pancakes with butter and syrup. Twig set a flute of apple juice and fizzy water beside Alice’s plate.
‘Thank you, June. Thank you, Twig,’ Alice said.
June dropped the spatula covered in pancake mix. Twig’s mouth gaped open. Candy shrieked. Harry, unable to decide between licking the pancake batter off the floor or turning in circles, decided to do both.
The women descended upon Alice, wrapping her in a group hug.
‘Say that again, Alice!’
‘Alice, say Candy Baby!’
‘No, Alice, can you say Twig?’
Standing in the centre, Alice looked up at their faces, gathered around her as tightly as petals in a new bud. Although it was her birthday, sharing her voice felt like a gift for them all.
She smiled to herself as the women danced around her. She’d found her voice. Now June had to keep her promise to find Alice answers.
14. River red gum
How do I yearn, how do I pine
For the time of flowers to come
Meaning: Enchantment
Eucalyptus camaldulensis | All states and territories
Iconic Australian tree. Smooth bark sheds in long ribbons. Has a large, dense crown of leaves. Seeds require regular spring floods to survive. Flowers late spring to mid-summer. Has the ominous nickname ‘widow maker’, as it often drops large boughs (up to half the diameter of the trunk) without warning.
Alice gripped the steering wheel, white-knuckled. She kept her eyes on the traffic light, waiting for it to turn green. Her left leg shook from the strain of pushing the clutch.
‘Okay, Alice, we’re going to proceed to the end of Main Street, where you’ll execute a U-turn, please.’ The police sergeant kept his head down, scribbling on the clipboard in his lap. It was early, that hour before the school run started and the shops unlocked their doors and flipped their signs over to OPEN. Overnight spring showers had turned the road quicksilver in the morning light. Alice narrowed her eyes. The light turned green.
She eased her left foot off the clutch. Wait until you feel it take, Oggi had told her dozens of times, sitting beside her in the old farm truck. The thought of him calmed her. When the clutch engaged, she pressed her right foot on the accelerator. Not so much as one kangaroo-jump. Exhaling, she reclaimed her grip on the steering wheel, smiling to herself. She glanced at the sergeant. His face was unreadable.
Through the traffic lights and down Main Street, mindful of the speed limit. The road stretched flat ahead of them, a black ribbon leading out of town, curved into bushland. Alice kept her eyes on the exact spot where the road disappeared between the scraggly gums. She yearned to follow; the possibilities of where it might lead made her feel faint.
‘Pull over here, do a U-turn please, and we’ll head back to the station.’
Alice nodded. She slowed down and flicked the indicator on but spotted double lines in the middle of the road. She turned the indicator off and kept driving.
‘Alice?’
She kept her eyes on the road. ‘Double lines, Sarge. Illegal.’ Alice willed herself to stay calm. ‘I’ll be turning left up here at Fatty Patty’s. We’ll head back to the station that way.’
The sergeant tried to stay deadpan but Alice caught the flicker of a smile cross his face. She turned at the fish and chip shop and drove the quiet streets back to the station.
June and Harry were in the car park when Alice pulled in. She beeped repeatedly as she parked.
‘Attagirl!’ June clapped her hands together. Harry yapped huskily. He was an old dog now.
‘I’m driving home!’ Alice screeched, punching the air as she followed the sergeant into the station. A short while later Alice walked out with her licence in her pocket. No matter how many times the sergeant had cautioned her to hold a more serious pose, her licence photo was filled with a wide grin.
Alice angled the truck onto Thornfield’s driveway and did a careful U-turn in front of the house. She pulled the handbrake up but left the engine running.
‘You going somewhere?’ June undid her seatbelt, an eyebrow raised. Harry’s eyes darted back and forward. ‘Everyone’s waiting to see you.’
‘I know, I’m just going to pick up Oggi,’ Alice said, beaming, ‘since I passed and everything.’
The slightest shadow flickered across June’s face. ‘Of course. Plenty of pancakes for everyone.’ She smiled, but her eyes were cold.
Alice drove through town, taking long, cooling breaths until all the things she wished she could say to June stopped burning inside her. Harry panted at her side. The more kilometres she put between herself and Thornfield, the calmer she grew. The closer she got to Oggi, the happier she was. As she’d been ever since she was nine.
When Alice took the last left onto the dirt road just before the town limits sign, Harry started to bark.
‘Nearly there.’ Alice laughed. Sometimes she thought Harry loved Oggi even more than she did.
She pulled up in front of Oggi’s house; he was waiting for her on the verandah. Emotion surged through her with such intensity that she almost expected sparks to fly from her fingers when she reached for the door handle.
‘I got it,’ she sang, grinning as she swung out of the truck with her licence in her hand. Harry followed.
Oggi’s face lit up. Alice wanted to drink it down, that look, the light in his eyes because he loved her.
‘I knew you’d pass,’ he said, taking her face in his hands, kissing her deeply. Hair fell across his eyes and she drew back to brush it away, the bracelets on her wrist chiming. She’d deliberately picked them from her jewellery box to wear today. River red gum. Enchantment.