The Amber Trail

by M. J. Kelly

  Maxine turned to the dog. “Digit! Get that thing out of here!” The dog ran across the room, barking.

  The bird opened its wings and flapped up to land on Dig’s thigh. It pushed its beak forward to snag the cable tie around Dig’s wrist, and severed it.

  The dog leapt up and snapped at the bird, knocking it from its perch. A handful of blue feathers fell to the ground before it took to the air, flapping and squawking, then flew a circle around the room at head height. Maxine ducked and shrieked. The men crouched and held their hands to their heads, waving it away as it approached. The bird completed a lap of the room, then disappeared out the door to the open air. The dog scampered out after it.

  Shiv stared at the doorway and frowned. “What the...”

  Maxine straightened her sari. “Did that bird just...”

  Shiv nodded.

  “Well fix it!”

  Shiv stepped forward to reach for Dig’s arm.

  Dig steeled himself, then dropped his freed hand to his shorts pocket. The water bottle vibrated in his grip as he fumbled the cap loose with his thumb. His stomach churned as he thrust it forward.

  A cloud of hornets swirled into the air, angry and buzzing. Shiv ducked and called out.

  Dig tucked his head to his chest and squinted away from the insects. When they were free, he dropped the bottle and began tugging at the tie on his opposite hand, but it was no use—he remained fixed to the chair as the hornets buzzed around his head. A stinging needle of pain pierced the skin behind his ear, and he slapped the insect away with a grimace.

  Shiv fell to his rear. “They’re on me!” he shouted, swiping at his face.

  Raj scampered into the kitchen and returned holding an aerosol can. He crouched and sprayed a cloud of mist into the air, waving the can left and right, targeting the hornets. The vapour dissipated down and the reek of insecticide filled Dig’s nostrils.

  Hornets dropped to the ground in whining bundles. Shiv pushed backwards across the floor and sat against the couch, breathing hard.

  Dig’s shoulders tensed as the sting on his neck throbbed with discomfort. His thoughts turned to the Epipens stashed in the opposite side of his shorts, and he strained his arm across his body with his back arched, trying to get his free hand into the pocket—but they were just out of his grasp.

  “Tie him back up,” Maxine said.

  The thick-jawed thug stepped forward and grabbed Dig’s arm. Dig gritted his teeth and pushed against him, grasping for the Epipens. His fingertips brushed against the plastic of the needle before his arm was wrenched away and forced back to the arm of the seat. Moments later a cable tie was fixed back around his wrist.

  Dig pulled at the ties again but it was too late. His eyebrows drew together.

  Maxine turned to Shiv. “You okay?”

  Shiv pulled his shirt open and studied his collarbone. “I’m stung.”

  Maxine examined the insects twitching on the floor. “You’ll be okay. It’s just a bee sting.”

  “Hornet sting,” Dig said from behind her. “And he probably won’t be okay. I know that because my father, who’s also his father, died from a sting to the throat last week.”

  Shiv cleared his throat and spat onto the floor. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re probably allergic,” Dig said. “Dad passed the allergy down to me. He most likely gave it to you as well. We’re both stung. And we’re both going to die soon if we don’t get help.”

  Maxine’s face was ashen. “He was not his father!”

  “I was with Dad when he died. It was awful. Let me help you save Shiv.”

  “You stupid...” She scowled and stepped forward with the knife.

  “I know how to help him. I promise,” Dig said. A constricting headache built in his temples. “If you kill me I can’t fix him.”

  Maxine froze, her eyes darting between Dig and Shiv.

  “I’m not allergic,” Shiv said. “It’s just a sting.” But his voice already had a constrained tone to it.

  “I think you know you are. Can you feel the hot flush in your head? I can. Pretty soon your skin will itch. The swelling won’t be far behind.”

  Shiv shook his head. “Wrong,” he said in the same scratchy tone.

  “Our tongue and throat will be next. They’ll swell up and screw with our breathing.”

  “I'm breathing just fine at the m—” A ragged cough overwhelmed him and he shivered. He glanced across at Maxine, his eyes filled with fear. He rubbed his arms—a field of goosebumps covered his skin, punctuated by patches of pink. Dig felt the same goosebumps crawling across his body; a dull ache lay heavy in his chest.

  “Finally our lungs will fail,” Dig said, coughing. “We won’t be able to breathe. We’ll suffocate in about ten minutes. I know, because I was also stung last week, and nearly died too.”

  Shiv tilted his head back and opened his mouth. His breath laboured in a constricted wheeze.

  Maxine paced back and forth across the room. “You,” she said. “This is your fault.” She strode to the couch and studied Shiv. He leaned back in the seat, closed his eyes, and scratched at his arms and legs.

  Maxine shook her head, then barked at Raj. “Get him some water.” Raj skipped across the kitchen, filled a glass from the tap, and brought it back.

  Shiv took the glass and began to drink, but coughed, choking the water out onto his shirt. He closed his puffy eyes and frowned.

  “Last chance,” Dig croaked. He squinted into the light streaming through the exterior door. “I know how to save him, but you need to untie me.”

  Maxine marched abruptly across to Dig, the knife still in her hand. She leaned in close, smelling of stale sweat and mouldy breath. “You start talking, or I’ll feed you your own eyeballs.” She placed the tip of the knife against his cheek.

  Dig sat rigidly in his chair, watching the knife from the corner of his eye. The left side of his head ached; his heartbeat thumped in his ears. “I’m dying anyway,” he said. “Kill me if you want, but I won’t help him unless you do three things.” He swallowed. His throat felt like sandpaper. “First, you agree to let me and Chook go.” The cool point of the knife pressed harder against his cheek.

  “Second, you agree to leave our families alone forever.”

  Maxine bared her teeth. “You fix him!”

  “Promise!” Dig’s voice cracked, and he started wheezing. “You’ll...leave us...alone for good...right?”

  Behind her, Shiv hacked a chunk of phlegm to the floor.

  Maxine’s eyes screwed shut. “Yes, yes. I’ll do it! Now just fix him!”

  “I have...your word?”

  “Yes!”

  “Good. Now...for the third thing.” He winced as his vision momentarily blurred. “Admit to Shiv...that we share a father.”

  The room fell silent. Shiv glanced up.

  A sheen of sweat covered Maxine’s forehead. “No,” she said in a high tone. “That’s not true.”

  “The charade’s over now...just admit it.”

  Maxine narrowed her eyes and pushed the tip of the knife further into Dig’s cheek, breaking the skin. Warm blood ran down his cheek. His pulse thumped in the side of his neck as he stared at Maxine through the slits of his swollen eyes.

  “Mother,” Shiv croaked, exhaling the words between laboured breaths. “You don’t have to...lie anymore. I know that...he is...telling the truth.”

  Maxine went to speak, but the words caught in her mouth.

  “You can...admit it,” Shiv said. “This guy is my...half-brother.”

  Maxine stared out towards the deck, silent.

  “Don’t...let me die. Just tell me...the truth.”

  The room fell quiet, save for the sound of heavy breathing.

  “Max,” Girish stammered from the other side of the room as he tugged at the collar of his shirt. “I think it’s time he knew.”

  Maxine closed her eyes. She was shaking, and a bead of sweat tracked down her temple.

  A moment later, Dig fel
t the pressure from the tip of the knife ease on his cheek, and Maxine’s arm lowered to her side. She turned to Shiv.

  “Okay,” she said. “He was your father. Does that make you feel better? He’s still dead.”

  She glanced at Dig with a downturned mouth, then turned back to Shiv. “And you want some more truth? Your father never wanted to know about you. He pretended you didn’t exist in order to preserve the image of his precious family back home in Australia. He already had a wife, and he already had a son. So when you were conceived, you were just an inconvenience.” She raised her eyebrows. “Does that piece of truth make you feel good? Or maybe you would rather have not known?” Her chest rose up and down. “Maybe it would’ve been better to pretend that Girish was your father, than to have one that didn’t want to know you are alive.”

  Shiv blinked and a tear dropped down his cheek.

  Maxine sneered and stepped toward Dig. She lowered the knife and sliced the binding free on one hand, then cut through the other ties. “Get moving,” she said. “If you can’t sort him out quick smart I’m going to slice you into tiny pieces.”

  Dig dug into his pocket as black dots danced across his vision. His breath hitched in his chest as he fumbled the Epipen out with a shaky hand and positioned it over his thigh. The pin fired and a rush of adrenaline climbed through his body. He clenched his teeth and closed his eyes.

  “What are you doing!” Maxine screamed. “Move!” She yanked his collar and pushed him to the floor. He landed in a heap beside Shiv, panting.

  Shiv lay slumped against the base of the couch. His neck was a swollen pink mass. His eyebrows were drawn together. He sucked in breaths one by one and expelled them with a grimace.

  Dig’s body ached, but he reached into his pocket and grasped the second Epipen. He crawled forward and dragged it up to Shiv’s thigh, then fired it through the skin.

  “Welcome...to the family.”

  Over the next few minutes Dig lay beside Shiv, taking in air. The squeeze in his temples slowly released, and his lungs regained composure.

  Maxine watched from the kitchen bench, leaning forward on the stone surface. Another cigarette burned in her hand. Raj and Girish remained in the corner of the room.

  Eventually, the wheezing in Shiv’s chest also dissipated, the colour returned to his cheeks, and his breathing slowed to a regular pace.

  “Feeling better?” Maxine said. The faint trickle of the river echoed through the exterior doorway.

  Shiv nodded weakly.

  “Good,” she said, and cleared her throat. “Because I think it’s time we all put this behind us and got on with things.”

  Shiv stared at the ground and shook his head in the negative.

  Maxine narrowed her eyes. “Got an opinion on that?”

  Shiv blinked, then pursed his lips before speaking in a husky voice. “I’ve had enough.”

  Maxine butted out her cigarette, and walked across the room. “You’re angry,” she said. “I can understand that. But now we need to get on with business.”

  “Get on with business? Or get on with lying to me to settle your old scores.”

  “I didn’t tell you for a reason. I was protecting you.”

  “Protecting me? You made a fool of me. You sent me over there blind, with no thought of letting me know the truth.”

  Dig nodded. “And you forced my dad to pass on the extracted opium. That was his side of the bargain in exchange for you keeping quiet.”

  Maxine turned sharply and jabbed a finger into his face. “Did you think I was going to let him just forget us?” Her face flushed red. “I didn’t want to give him those hops. I didn’t need the complication of dealing with distributors in Australia.” She bared a set of cracked, brown teeth. “But what I did want was for him to be reminded. All the time. So I made him take the hops, but I sent Shiv over to pick up the packages every few months. So he couldn’t forget him.” Her last few words faded away, and she stared at the wall. “So he couldn’t forget me.”

  Her attention broke, and she wiped at the corner of her eye. “He had to suffer too,” she said with eyebrows drawn together. “Not just us.”

  The room fell into silence.

  Girish turned to face the window, and Raj stood by the door with his arms folded. Shiv lay by the couch, staring at the floor, his lip quivering.

  Maxine blinked and adjusted her hair. “But now it's time to move on.”

  “No.” Shiv waved at the room. “I don’t want to be part of...this...anymore.” He sat forward and rubbed at his temples. “I’m out.”

  Maxine gave a strained smile. “Oh come on. You’re just a little upset.”

  “Yes,” Shiv said. “And the only way to stop that is to be away from you. You are...toxic.”

  Maxine squatted close to him, her eyes cold. “You aren’t going anywhere. We are your family.”

  “No you’re not.” Shiv nodded at Girish and Raj. “Those two are your family. I’m just your bastard. Your failed history that you can’t ignore. Your reminder of the guy who broke your heart—then left us both behind.”

  Maxine clenched her teeth. “And so your answer is to be just like him. To run away and leave me.” She held up a finger. “Well you aren’t going anywhere boy. You’re part of this now, and you should know already that nobody walks away from this place who isn’t one of us.” She pointed at Dig. “Including him and his friends.” Maxine nodded to the thug brothers, and they moved to stand beside her. “Do I need to add you to the list?”

  “I thought you agreed to let them go?” Shiv said.

  Maxine laughed. “You should know better than that.”

  She gestured at Jules’ body in the centre of the floor. “First, we need to get rid of her.” She turned to the thugs. “Drag her outside and throw her in the river.” The men nodded and stepped forward.

  “No!” Shiv said firmly. “Leave her.”

  They stopped and glanced back and forth between Shiv and Maxine.

  “Do it!” Maxine shouted.

  “Leave her!” Shiv repeated.

  The thugs remained frozen, eyes wide.

  Maxine stepped forward and slapped the bald-headed thug hard across the face. He winced and dropped his gaze to the floor. Maxine glared around the room. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll do it myself if I have to.”

  She walked to the tarpaulin and squatted over the lump that was Jules’ feet, then took hold of the material and began to drag the body across the floor toward the rear door.

  Shiv tried to push himself to a standing position, but his balance wavered and he dropped back to his rear—seemingly too weak to support himself.

  Maxine tucked in her chin and dragged the tarpaulin further, shuffling backwards, step-by-step, moving closer to the deck—when a figure appeared behind her in the doorway to the toilet.

  It was Chook, leaning against the frame, his long blonde hair matted to one side of his head. One arm was curled up against the front of his chest. The other held the metal towel rail in his grasp like a hurley stick. His jaw was set, and his eyes steely.

  “He said leave her alone, you bitch.” Chook lifted the rail, then swung it down, hard.

  The railing bounced off the crown of Maxine’s head with a ringing clang! and she collapsed forward to the floor, face down.

  The thick-jawed thug bolted across the room. Chook stood over Maxine, panting, then lifted the metal bar and swung down a second time, smashing the pole into the back of her head with a crunch. A fine mist of blood splashed out onto the concrete like a halo, and covered Chook’s arms and face.

  The thug thumped into Chook, knocking him down and pinning him to the floor. The metal rail dropped to the ground with a clatter.

  A deep red rivulet of blood ran from Maxine’s ear and pooled across the floor.

  Raj arrived beside Maxine, pulling at her shoulder, and rolled her over to her back. Her head fell to one side; her vacant eyes were heavily lidded. Blood ran from her nose and ears.

  “M
other!” Raj shouted. “Can you hear me?”

  Her last breath caught in her throat with a gurgle.

  Raj clenched his jaw and his eyebrows knitted together.

  Girish arrived beside him, holding up her limp hand. His head was tilted to one side and a tear ran down his cheek. “My darling.”

  Shiv remained on the couch, watching with his lips pressed together.

  Raj’s gaze locked on Dig and he pushed himself to his feet, his eyes wet with tears. He reached down to pick up the solid handrail from the floor. It was covered in a red sheen.

  Dig tried to stand, but a wave of vertigo clouded his head and he clung to the couch for support. “Raj,” he said. “Take it easy.”

  Raj scowled and stepped toward him, the rail dragging a groove across the concrete behind him. His lips quivered. “It’s your fault.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “I don’t care.” He clenched his teeth and lifted the bar like a baseball bat, then planted his foot forward. Dig winced and held up a protective hand.

  “No.” Shiv appeared behind Raj and locked his hand around the end of the bar. Raj grimaced and tried to yank the implement away.

  “No more,” Shiv said.

  Raj glared at him. “You aren’t in charge of me.”

  “I am now,” Shiv said firmly. He stepped forward and stood over him. “I’m taking over things now. Got that?”

  Raj looked from Shiv to Girish, and wrinkled his nose. “Taking over? Who gives you the right?” Tears ran down his face as he tried to wrestle the bar away from Shiv's grasp. “You’re nothing but a bastard. A treacherous bastard.”

  Shiv shoved Raj in the chest, and Raj landed heavily on his rear beside his father. Girish placed an arm around his shoulders, and he hitched in sobs.

  Shiv's chest rose up and down. “Anyone else here got an issue with that?” He eyed the thugs. They shook their heads.

  Shiv turned to face Dig with the bar still hanging from his grasp. Dig pursed his lips and met his gaze. Silence hung in the air for a long moment. A rivulet of blood tracked down the bar and dropped onto the floor.

  “You need to go now,” Shiv said.