The Baby Doctor

by Fiona McArthur

  Sienna sat with Blanche in her office and regretted the bald statements in view of the shocks she’d been exposed to in the last twenty-four hours. Of course Blanche was still upset by Eve’s snake bite, rattled by Maddy’s ex-boyfriend attacking her house and her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and wanted an answer from Sienna now about something she thought she had some control over.

  She gave the older woman a few seconds to recover and glanced out the window to the street. Maddy and Alma had gone to pick through the ruins of the grand old Desert Rose Hotel and then on to Jacob’s empty house to start packing the rest of Maddy’s things now that Jacob had been spotted briefly in Charleville. Douglas said the police were closing in.

  Sienna hoped that Maddy would take up the offer she suspected Alma would be making soon. For both their sakes. Genuine affection and respect existed between the two. Something they both needed to help them heal. The obvious remaining task was to find a safe place where Jacob wouldn’t locate them.

  Blanche still didn’t look ready to hear more despite her urgency earlier. The Mackay matriarch had chafed at the bit while the hellos, commiserations, explanations and description of events had been covered over a cup of tea, and Sienna had known she’d have to tell her the bad news. Unfortunately, it had come out too bluntly.

  Blanche sat back and took a breath. ‘Please explain that.’

  Sienna proceeded. ‘It’s true. A radioactive isotope was accidentally transported in an unprotected state and unfortunately, the truck broke down outside the health centre. The mining company traced it and the log books confirm the dates as those when the women were around the fifteen-week mark of their pregnancies. It irradiated the women waiting in the medical centre before it was repaired and driven away again.’

  Blanche shook her head in shock. ‘How could this happen? Why wouldn’t it be safely shielded? Why didn’t they tell us if they parked the truck? Didn’t anyone notice?’

  ‘It doesn’t look like much, apparently. It’s a metal cylinder with the isotope encased, like a cigar and inside a truck. But it should have been inside a big safety cone.’

  ‘You say they’ve tracked the truck and the radiation “source”. You called it a “source”?’

  ‘Inside a truck. The authorities are examining the truck now. The drivers were affected too, though they didn’t know why they were sick at the time.’

  ‘Why come through here?’

  Sienna went on, reading from her notes. ‘It had a mechanical problem and this was the nearest town. Then it broke down. An employee from the company came and removed the truck twenty-four hours later. Regrettably, distressingly, the radioactive source stayed with the truck, parked within ten feet of the waiting room of the health centre overnight and all of the next day while they waited for a part. The mechanical repair was carried out when the part arrived and the truck was driven away.’

  It had been a perfect, horrible storm of circumstances.

  ‘The fact that three women were pregnant at the same gestation in such an isolated town was unusual. Other pregnant women at different gestations had been allocated different antenatal clinic dates so they weren’t affected.’

  She looked up. She knew Blanche’s empathy would be stirred again with the next information. ‘Sadly, one other woman in early pregnancy was also exposed to the radiation and went on to miscarry two weeks later. Her medical records confirmed her presence in the clinic that day.’

  ‘You have proof of all this?’

  ‘Nobody can prove it all. Some is supposition. There’s a specialist physician, one with interest in effects of radiation on reproduction, and I spoke to her this morning. She confirmed that would be the scenario for very early pregnancies. Such exposed foetuses would most likely spontaneously abort. And the ramifications of exposure at ten to fifteen weeks she also concurred with.’

  Blanche winced. ‘The lady who miscarried. Are you going to tell her, too?’

  Sienna tapped the notes in front of her with one finger.

  ‘Absolutely, yes. The specialist is coming tomorrow and we have appointments here for all four women between twelve and four p.m. so they can ask questions. They’re committed to full explanation to all involved.’

  Blanche screwed up her face in confusion. ‘Why were the women sitting there for hours? Wouldn’t they come and go as soon as they were seen?’

  Sienna tapped another spot on her flow chart. ‘That’s another part of the picture. The day the women had been exposed, the flying doctor had been delayed on another call. There’s a record in their log books. The affected women spent four hours sitting in the air-conditioned clinic having a lovely extended morning tea and lunch session.’

  Blanche closed her eyes briefly. ‘While, tragically, their unborn babies were exposed at the worst possible gestation for genetic mutation. What happens at that time in pregnancy?’

  ‘Between twelve and fifteen weeks is when the soft cartilage in the skeletal system is becoming bone. So the skull was forming. Hence the microcephaly.’

  Blanche shuddered, as if this couldn’t be true. ‘That’s so upsetting for everybody.’

  Sienna agreed. ‘It is a horrible set of circumstances. But, I don’t think it’s a set of circumstances that will be repeated so that’s at least one silver lining of recognising the cause. It’s not like there’s another reason we had the cluster. Though, I’m liaising with the flying doctor’s antenatal and early childhood clinic to bump up the awareness campaign of cytomegalovirus and the incidence of microcephaly.’

  Blanche looked punch drunk. ‘I don’t understand?’

  ‘It’s a long story, but cytomegalovirus, or CMV, is another rare cause of microcephaly in babies, a herpes-like virus that lies dormant in a human once it’s been contracted. Now seems an opportune time to campaign while families have heightened sensitivity to preventable congenital problems in babies. So basically, extra-good hand hygiene for child-bearing women who are caring for children. I’ll send you the handouts.’

  ‘I’d like that. Do you need money for that?’

  Sienna smiled at the woman. Blanche sincerely wanted to make sure families weren’t at risk just because of lack of funding.

  ‘This one will be paid for by the government,’ Sienna said. ‘The information is printed and already out there, we’re just taking advantage of resources while we can. It’s a simple, healthy precaution for decreasing exposure to the virus for pregnant women by encouraging handwashing after changing nappies or caring for children. There’re studies that prove extra awareness is effective and I have support to get the info out there through RFDS.’

  Blanche closed her eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. ‘You’ve done an excellent job again, Sienna. Thank you.’ She stood and glanced around. ‘And I must apologise for the lack of resources you had.’

  Sienna shrugged. ‘I’m getting less picky in my old age.

  Blanche laughed. It was good to see.

  Sienna said gently. ‘Everyone I spoke to helped a lot. The families involved were very helpful. They really are the most amazing women and mothers, Blanche.’

  ‘I know.’ Blanche rung her hands. Sienna had never seen her show that much emotion before. But then Blanche had had a big day. Even she could be forgiven for being overwrought. ‘It’s just so heartbreaking that these babies have been affected for life.’

  Sienna remembered Annette’s incredibly brave comment that things happen. ‘Can I share a thought with you, though it doesn’t change anything, because it made me think when I heard it. One of the mothers told me life can hand you a challenge at any time, not just from birth, Blanche. Thanks to your funding, these women have found out why and they’ll be well supported financially so that they can give their children the best opportunities without hardship, and further safeguards will be instituted against any company that doesn’t follow stringent rules. Companies will be caught and penalised. We’ve identified another risk and prompted safety precautions for CMV. All because you pai
d to have this investigated. It’s a very worthwhile thing that you’ve done. Thank you.’

  Chapter Forty-five

  Douglas phoned to say he’d return to Spinifex around four o’clock. Blanche and Lily flew away in the helicopter, and surprisingly it had been a very pleasant middle of the day as the three remaining women allowed themselves to take a breath.

  Sienna observed Maddy feeding Bee, the young mum barely watching what she was doing she’d grown so confident, while she and Alma had a delightful conversation about prospective towns they could look into with a view to settle.

  Sienna’s mind wandered and she decided perhaps she would breastfeed, while she was on maternity leave anyway, and then she’d head back to work after six months, and reassured herself of course she’d be only too glad to have her body to herself again.

  The stressful phantom in the room again was Jacob, who hadn’t been sighted as expected, despite the police net spread to identify him or his car.

  By ten to four, Maddy and Alma were resting in their shared room while the baby slept in the wooden crib Alma had found at the closed shop. Sienna waited nervously for the father of her child, who still didn’t know her news, to arrive home.

  For a man who liked to live alone, Douglas’s small house brimmed to overflowing with women. Poor guy. A week ago she would have said it served him right for not letting her stay in the first place. Maybe she did need to marry him and just come for conjugal rights like Eve had laughingly suggested. This whole world out here had become even more outrageous every day and sometimes she didn’t recognise herself. She could hardly remember the Sienna of a week ago. Just a week!

  She thought of that night she’d phoned Douglas. Leaning back in her office chair, mistress of all she surveyed in her red shoes. Wickedly lusting after a man she realised now she was in love with. But she still had deep, unresolved doubts that their happy future together could easily work. She knew that. Douglas knew that. Unfortunately, the growing baby inside her didn’t know that. So they would have to work on it.

  But first, there was a lot to tell Douglas with all the official confirmation they’d had, though he’d been filled in somewhat by Art the professor. There’d been Blanche’s visit, Maddy’s return and Alma’s disclosures. And she wanted to hear the latest on Jacob. There were so many other subjects to talk about without the important news she still had to tell him.

  But it was there. Haunting her. Making her fade out in the middle of a conversation with others.

  She heard his car pull up and her stomach dropped while her heart seemed to lift in her chest. She moved to the door to watch him stride up the path, tall and too observant and watching her with an investigative gleam in his eye, until she felt like one of his suspects. About to be found out. His scrutiny made her even more nervous.

  ‘Douglas. You’re back.’

  He raised his brows. ‘Is that a problem?’

  She was so over this. ‘Why would you say that?’

  ‘You tell me?’

  She turned away and led the way into the house. ‘There’s a lot to tell.’

  ‘How did it go with Maddy? I heard Blanche brought her back.’

  Maddy. Right. ‘She was upset. Devastated really, but she’d had a rough twenty-four hours . . .’ Sienna thought again of her own rough twenty-four hours and how she was going to tell Douglas. Her sentence trailed off.

  When she snapped back Douglas was looking at her. She hurried into speech. ‘How was your day? Any leads on Jacob?’

  He was frowning at her. ‘No. A dead end in Charleville. They think he’s gone interstate.’

  ‘Sorry? What did you say?’

  The conversation proved so difficult to remain focused on. She saw that Douglas had crossed his arms and his mouth was firm. Dark-grey eyes narrowed on her.

  ‘Are you okay?’ His searching regard watched her with concern and she registered again how Douglas was one of the few people who really did see her, could stay unwaveringly on her frequency, find her true north like a compass needle.

  She needed to tell Douglas.

  She blinked. What did he say? She searched and came up with, was she alright? No. She wasn’t. ‘We have appointments with all the mothers concerned tomorrow, and the physician and I will finalise the report we need to submit.’

  Douglas tilted his head. ‘Not what I asked.’

  She walked into the kitchen to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea. What she really wanted was a drink. A strong alcoholic one that she couldn’t have. She also needed privacy. She needed to find a space where she could sit down without the fear of interruption. Sit and take his hand and look in his face without a whole town watching. Maybe she should ask him to take her out to the lookout again.

  The idea grew. There were a few interesting clouds for Douglas and she had an agenda that she didn’t know what she was going to do with. She seriously couldn’t think when Alma or Maddy could walk in at any moment.

  She could feel him behind her, could feel his gaze burning into her neck, which of course she must be imagining, but deep inside she wanted him to hold her, cradle her in his strong arms and tell her everything would be fine. She was pathetic.

  ‘You’ve been different,’ he said. ‘You’re weighed down with something big. I can feel it.’

  She looked at him then. Looming over her protectively, those dark brows of his angled in concern, his jaw a strong, determined line to get to the bottom of what it was, his beautiful mouth, one that could firm into uncompromising but soften like satin when he tasted her. She’d dreamed about that mouth.

  She tried to smile. ‘How can you feel weight on my mind?’

  He stepped forward and put his arms around her. Lifted her easily. Swung her so his nose rubbed against hers and put her down again. ‘You do seem to weigh the same.’ Then he kissed her and stroked the line on her brow with the tip of his finger. ‘You’re not sick, are you? You haven’t got radiation poisoning?’

  If someone had said to her a month ago she’d be trying to have this conversation she would have recommended anti-psychotics.

  She swallowed a hysterical snort. ‘Worse than that.’

  She thought then that he knew, but his face didn’t read that way. Not that she could read him most times. When he chose to block her out he could do it. She wasn’t so sure she could do the same to him.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Concern laced his voice.

  ‘You’re right. There is something I need to talk to you about – but we can’t do it here.’

  He glanced at his watch and then jiggled his keys in his pocket. ‘Where would you like to go?’

  They sat together on the wooden sunset platform and stared at the vista in front of them stretching out like a moonscape under the streak of clouds.

  ‘Cirrostratus,’ Douglas said. ‘Where a large region of warmer air pushes against colder air. The warmer air gently rises en masse over the colder air.’

  ‘I wish the colder air would come down here,’ Sienna said. The heat made it sticky, but there was a warm breeze that helped. Douglas had said it wouldn’t storm and she believed him. She wished it would. It would make more sense to feel the way she did inside if a raging maelstrom surrounded her on the outside.

  The silence lengthened until Douglas broke it. ‘So it seems you’ve done what you came here for?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ She hadn’t meant to get pregnant.

  His brows creased. ‘Found the answer again. Blanche must be pleased.’ He turned his head to fully see her. ‘What did you think I meant?’

  ‘Nothing. Blanche. Yes. She is pretty horrified actually.’

  He was still frowning at her. ‘I can imagine. But the disaster task force seems to have everything in line for support for everyone involved. So now you’re ready to go again?’ He looked away.

  ‘I’ll miss you,’ he said to the open plain. ‘When do you leave?’

  She stared at his profile, admitting it made her heart ache with sadness. ‘Day after
tomorrow. We’ll finish too late to go tomorrow.’ Then she said, half to herself, ‘And I’m not driving in the dark in case I see that bloody light again.’

  He sat up straighter. Turned to look at her with deep interest. ‘What light?’

  She shook her head. ‘So much has happened. I can’t believe I haven’t told you. The Min Min.’

  His eyes widened. He pulled his head back to focus. ‘If anyone else had told me that I wouldn’t believe them. So it’s true.’ He stared at her. ‘There you go. When?’

  ‘The day the pub burned down. Was it only yesterday? And Alma said something always happened soon after it was seen. Though I’m not sure how this can have a happy ending when her pub burned to the ground and she doesn’t want to run it again.’

  ‘What?’ His brows notched together as he tried to make sense of her statements.

  ‘Nothing. Alma’s superstitions. But yes, I saw a strange light that I thought were headlights and it turned out to be some bizarre,’ she shuddered, ‘and I admit creepy, beam of light that I couldn’t explain.’

  He rubbed the back of his neck, perplexed. ‘So what did you do?’

  ‘I put pedal to the metal and left it behind.’ She grimaced at that. It was so far down her list of concerns. Maybe I imagined it.

  ‘Good choice.’ But she suspected he could still see that whatever she had on her mind superseded something that should have been riveting.

  He fixed his stern look on her. ‘When are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?’

  ‘You really can tell?’

  He gave a small, deep, mocking laugh, looking at her incredulously. ‘You’re joking, right?’

  She frowned at him. ‘I thought I was doing so well.’

  He raised his brows, shaking his head slowly as if mystified as to how she could possibly have come to that conclusion. ‘Um. No.’ He took her fingers and wrapped them in his. Looked down at her small hand and squeezed gently. ‘I’m a little worried actually. I’ll ask you again. You’re not sick, are you?’