‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Thank you for rescuing me.’
‘No, it’s us who must thank you,’ said she.
‘Why?’
‘Your work, your care,’ she said. ‘Your boss has explained the extraordinary lengths you went to and the way you stood up to her in our defence. The doctor has told us how you found him and bullied him into helping us. And thanks to your wire, our solicitor has confirmed the identity of my companion.’
Something that had been bothering me could now be resolved. ‘But tell me, how did you know he was your husband – before this – when they arrested you?’
She frowned, recalling the scene.
‘Seeing him attacked I knew I could not bear to lose him.’
‘I can understand that,’ I said. ‘You had become so close.’
‘It’s not just that,’ she replied. ‘It was more. I found I could not bear to lose him – again. It was the same feeling as in my dream, but for the first time it came to me outside sleep. I realised who he was only as I said the words.’
‘Like a hidden reef,’ I said, tracing a line in the sheet with my finger. ‘It’s like a reef that’s hidden under the water – you can’t see it, but as soon as you hit it you know what you’ve hit.’
‘Yes indeed,’ he agreed. ‘Spoken like a true sailor. And we had lost our maps.’
‘Maps? What a way to put it,’ she said, laughing with him. ‘I must tell the doctor that one. Does that make him a cartographer?’
‘Of the human condition – I think he’d like that. So,’ I said, turning to him. ‘Was that you on board the pirate ship?’
‘Yes, we think so,’ he replied. ‘But I was a prisoner, not a pirate. According to the sailor who saw me, I jumped overboard before the second explosion – the one that sank the vessel. He saw me carrying something – I think it was my wife, too precious to be left behind.’
‘And the pirate captain?’
‘I killed him.’
‘We do not know that as a certainty,’ the woman said hurriedly. ‘We can only surmise.’
‘But it would explain many things,’ he said. ‘Our escape, my amnesia. Such a violent event, combined with the physical impact of the second explosion, could have led to what the doctor calls dissociative amnesia. He has done a good deal of study on the effects of trauma on the mind. We hope, between us, to be able to retrieve the truth.’
‘So,’ I said, working it out as I spoke, ‘you ended up where you were going all along.’
‘We just took a different route and met you on the way,’ he said.
‘And you were never dead?’
He shook his head, holding his arms out from his side as if to say ‘Here I am’.
‘I am happy to say no, it was all a mistake.’
‘Nor was he trying to kill me,’ she said. ‘I have discussed that dream with the doctor, who said it represents some unresolved anger between us. He is requesting copies of my case notes from the clinic in England where he first treated me. He wants us to stay and work with him – he believes that with time and treatment he can restore our pasts to us.’
The truth seemed more confusing than my imaginings.
‘We learn something new about ourselves every day,’ he said. ‘For us, the past unfolds like the future. Would you like to hear more of what we have discovered?’
Theirs would be a strange tale, but no stranger than they deserved and I wanted to hear it.
‘First,’ said she, opening the drawer of the bedside table. ‘These are from your friends. We thought you’d like to open them yourself.’
She held out a small stack of white envelopes, of the sort that contain greeting cards. I took them. A slow smile spread across my face, like the glow of the afternoon sun.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the editor of this book, Rob Cullinan, for discovering The Lifeboat manuscript and supporting it all the way to publication, with great skill, understanding and constant encouragement. Thanks also to Madonna Duffy for her faith and enthusiasm, and all the staff at UQP for their care and expertise.
So many family and friends helped me along my way, with critiques and kind words, not all literary. I would like to thank: Sian Newey, Robyn Williams, Roley Nuske, Louise Newey, Geoff Winestock, Miriam Van Lith, John Gowing, Carol Scott, Justin O’Leary, Jennifer Wright, Louise Shaw, Deborah Soukup, John Donoghue, Amy Kludas, Shawn Stevenson, Paddy Newey, Eva Knopke, Neil Steffens, Ashley Knopke, Kate Newey, Helen Peacock, Tim Ingleton, Angela Knight, Nick Newey, Lisa Newey, Brett Knopke, Victoria Broecker, Terese Fiedler and Yoshi Kobayashi. Thanks to Brock Elbank for the beautiful photographs and Arts Queensland for the grant.
My thanks to my two children, Mila and Sam, created along with the book, for unknowingly forcing me to get it finished, and lastly to my husband Chris, for love, financial security, and laughing at housework left undone.
First published 2008 by University of Queensland Press
PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
This digital edition published 2016
www.uqp.com.au
© Zacharey Jane
This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any foram or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Typeset in 12/17pt Garamond Premier Pro by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Cataloguing in Publication Data
National Library of Australia
Jane, Zacharey.
The lifeboat
I. Title.
A823.4
ISBN 978 0 7022 3642 6 (pbk)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5853 4 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5854 1 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7022 5855 8 (kindle)
Lifeboat Page 17
