Alice nodded. ‘Thank you.’
‘You want to hold her?’ he asked.
‘Yes, please.’ She beamed.
He opened the cage door. Alice squealed as the puppy leapt into her arms, licking the underside of her chin, snuffling at her ears.
‘There’s no way she would have survived if you didn’t pick her up when you did,’ Moss said. ‘Animals’ needs are no different from ours sometimes. TLC can be as powerful as medicine.’
Images rose in Alice’s mind before she could stop them: Candy’s mischievous smile; Twig’s calm, measured gait; June’s shaking hands.
‘This hot, dry air is hell,’ Alice mumbled as she wiped her eyes. She closed them for a moment, imagining herself from an aerial view, an indistinguishable dot overwhelmed by the expanse of desert.
‘Alice?’ Moss leant forward, touching her arm. Alice jumped, clutching Pip to her. She wasn’t weak. She didn’t need help.
‘I don’t need saving,’ she said quietly.
A strange expression flickered across Moss’s face. He looked past her, out to Main Street where markets were being set up under the shade of trees.
‘I didn’t think you did,’ Moss said slowly. ‘I just know what it’s like to turn up here alone.’ He folded his hands on the table. ‘I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but there’s a saying around here, Alice. Whitefellas end up in the Red Centre for one of two reasons: they’re either running from the law, or running from themselves. It was certainly true —’
‘I’m not running,’ she cut him off, indignation setting her cheeks aflame. ‘From anything.’ She struggled not to let her chin quiver. She didn’t want him to see her cry. ‘You don’t know me, Moss. I don’t need protecting. I don’t need —’ she stopped herself before she said June’s name. ‘I don’t need help,’ she said.
Moss held his hands up in surrender. ‘I meant no offence.’ His eyes had dulled. Why wasn’t he fighting her? Why wasn’t he arguing? She was ready for a fight.
‘I didn’t ask for help,’ she said, her voice brittle. Pip yelped in her arms; Alice realised how tightly she’d been holding her.
‘I don’t understand what you’re accusing me of, or why you’re so angry. You turned up at my clinic and passed out in the car park, Alice. What kind of person wouldn’t help you?’
Pent-up emotion left Alice’s body in a single sigh. Depleted, she ran a finger along the patterns in the Formica tabletop, following the marbled white through the blue, each rivulet like a wave. A memory: her father, zigzagging on his windsurfer towards the horizon.
Without another word, Moss put a ten-dollar note on the table, and pushed his chair back. Alice didn’t look up as he walked away, but when he was almost at the end of the alley, she couldn’t stop herself from calling out his name. He turned.
‘What was it for you?’ she asked. ‘The law, or yourself?’
Moss looked down for a moment, his hands deep in his pockets. When he looked up there was a sadness in his face that hit Alice in her chest. He gave her a half-smile and walked away without answering.
Alice stayed where she was, staring at the space he’d left behind. It wasn’t until Pip nibbled her finger that Alice realised Moss hadn’t charged her for Pip’s treatment.
That afternoon, Moss pushed his legs to run faster until his muscles had no more to give. He eased off, slowing to a jog as he pressed on up the trail that scaled the spine of the Bluff.
He had been determined to tell Alice, and honour his promise to Twig. But when Alice had arrived at the cafe, at first so cautious and then so fragile, he just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t be like the doctor who walked out to him in the waiting area at the hospital and spoke the words that made Moss’s legs buckle. He couldn’t bring himself to be that person to Alice, the person she’d remember forever as the one who told her that her only blood family was dead.
Twig’s words came back to him. June’s own heart killed her. It was a massive heart attack, after the floods. Although he didn’t know June, the words stung. June and Alice had a troubled relationship, but they were each other’s only family. Twig’s voice had cracked. Is Alice okay? Moss didn’t hesitate to assure Twig that Alice was safe. And yes, given the circumstances, of course he’d tell her to call. Of course he’d tell her that Twig needed her to come home.
Moss came to a stop at the summit, heaving for breath as he surveyed the town. What had he set in motion by calling Thornfield? Why had he involved himself in a stranger’s life?
He leaned forward, trying to breathe through his mouth as the hospital counsellor suggested all those years ago. It was their first family holiday. Lucas sat in his car seat, clutching his bucket and spade. Clara wore a new, bright summer dress. Moss took his eyes off the road for seconds. Mere seconds. The tyres veered onto loose gravel and at the speed he was doing, their four-wheel drive flipped. He got a few stitches and a neck brace. You’re very lucky to be alive, the doctor told him. What about Clara and Patrick? Moss had screamed until he was sedated.
Right or wrong, Moss would not — could not — be the bearer of that kind of news in Alice’s life.
The phone call came two days later.
‘Phone’s for you,’ Merle said, leaning against Alice’s door jamb.
‘Who is it?’ Alice took a step back.
‘Pet, I do most jobs in this place, but personal secretary isn’t one of them.’
‘Right,’ Alice said. ‘Sorry.’ She closed Pip into her room and followed Merle downstairs. ‘Thanks for letting me have Pip here, Merle,’ Alice said as they entered her office.
‘No worries. Moss owes me one,’ Merle said. She nodded towards her desk. Once Merle was gone, Alice went to the desk and picked the phone up.
‘Hello?’ she asked nervously.
‘Alice, Sarah Covington. I got your application for the ranger job. Thanks.’
Alice exhaled, relieved again it wasn’t Thornfield calling.
‘Alice?’
‘Yes, sorry, I’m here.’
‘Good. So, your application was impressive. Running a flower farm is no small feat. Since our vacant role here is a temporary contract we don’t have to go to interview, which means, Alice, I’d like to offer you the job.’
She smiled widely.
‘Hello?’
‘Sorry, sorry, Sarah, I’m nodding. Yes. Thank you! Yes,’ Alice said giddily.
‘Great. When can you start?’
‘What day is it today?’
‘Friday.’
‘Monday?’
‘You sure? You don’t need more time to pack up and get organised?’
‘No.’
‘Monday it is. I’ll meet you at park headquarters when you arrive. I’ll get the Entry Station to radio me when you come through, so I know to expect you.’
‘Entry Station?’
‘It’ll make sense when you get here.’
‘Okay. Entry Station. Park headquarters. Kililpitjara. Monday. See you then.’
‘Looking forward to it, Alice.’
The line went dead. Alice hung up the phone.
For once she didn’t will her heart to slow.
Monday dawned clear and hot. Alice and Pip walked the dry riverbed of the Bluff for the last time. Seizing the chance, Alice pocketed leaves from the bat’s wing coral tree. Cure for heartache, she later wrote from memory into her notebook after she’d taped all but one to the page. She packed her few things into her backpack and, after a cursory glance, left the pub room that had been her home.