The Second Cure
Page 38
‘You and Charlie Zinn. Were you, you know, chewing the carpet together?’
At this moment, I could kill him. I really could. Instead I manage to smile at his leering face.
‘Thanks,’ I say, standing. ‘I think I’ve got all I need for now. And if I don’t, well, it’ll probably be too late. Bye, Jack.’
I don’t look back as the guard lets me out the door and I manage not to throw up till I am outside again. I find a hydrangea bush, and then a low wall to sit on to recover. It is autumn, and there is coolness in the air despite the bright sunshine.
My vocomm tells me there is a call.
My wife.
I grab a tissue from my bag and wipe the bile from my lips, then take her call.
‘Hi, honey,’ I say.
‘I have news,’ says Juliette.
‘Yes?’
‘We’re going to be mothers. Félicitations, maman. Little Charles has nicely embedded in my endometrium.’
I am laughing and crying at once. ‘Oh god, I love you, Juliette.’
‘I love you too, ma chérie.’
We’ve been working on it. My chromosomes, Juliette’s chromosomes, Juliette’s X, the Y from Richard. A biological wonder Charlie would have adored. Juliette confessed a while ago that she wanted to be a mother and I had come around to the idea. But she said she couldn’t, not with the state of the planet. Who could bring a baby into a burning world? she demanded. But the recent CO2 atmospheric parts-per-million results have changed that. Net negative global emissions were one thing, but once the self-replicating photosynthetic nanobots took effect, Juliette’s biological clock went into overdrive.
And who was I to argue?
Acknowledgements
The genesis of The Second Cure took place when I’d returned to Sydney’s Macquarie University to study, research and teach in biology, and became fascinated by evolutionary symbiosis. My knowledge and imagination were fed by conversations with a range of colleagues, particularly Darryl Kemp, Michael Gillings and Michelle Power.
As the writing took shape, my friend Judith Ridge urged me to enrol in Pamela Freeman’s novel-writing course at the Australian Writers’ Centre, and in 2014 I spent six productive months in the company of some talented and enthusiastic budding novelists. Five of us formed a writing group that has been meeting regularly in the years since, and my gratitude to those women for their support, strength, wisdom and humour is deep. Thank you, Catherine Hanrahan, Frances Chapman, Katy Pike and Petronella McGovern. Pamela has become a friend and mentor, and I thank her and Judith for their unsparing advice and encouragement.
In 2015, I was awarded a residential fellowship at Varuna, the writers’ house in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, where I spent two invaluable weeks working on the manuscript. There I met fellow writers-in-residence Harriet Gaffney, Melissa Manning, Rachael Mead and Steven Amsterdam, and our conversations over dinner and over glasses of red before the open fire remain some of my fondest memories. I thank them for their warm encouragement and ongoing advice and friendship. Varuna is a splendid institution and a unique sanctuary for writers, and I acknowledge their generosity and support.
I would also like to thank the people who kindly discussed with me various technical aspects in the novel, particularly Anina Rich of Macquarie University’s Department of Cognitive Science. Dr Rich’s research on synaesthesia is cutting edge and boggling. My thanks go to Les Bell, who shares with me an interest in the intersection of neuroscience, politics and religion; to Anne Brown for her thoughts on the psychology of disgust; and to Dr Tamarind Reynolds for her advice on medical details. Thanks to Andy Ford for reading and commenting on musical segments of the novel.
Of course, any errors or artistic liberties are my own.
My gratitude also goes to David Handler and Sabine Schiller for their close reading of the text and advice, and to Claire Loh and Jennifer Thompson, who joined me on a field trip that left us all astounded.
I want to thank Kate O’Donnell, Alex Ross, Emily Cook, Adelaide Jensen and the rest of the team at Penguin Random House – in particular my commissioning editor, Lex Hirst. Lex is smart, passionate and astute, and working with her has been a delight.
Finally, thank you to my magnificent daughter, Maxine Morgan-Verbruggen, who shared her mother with this novel for so long and made incisive suggestions, and to Martien Verbruggen, my wisest reader, whose patient support – both emotional and practical – made the book possible. Their love turns my life into technicolour.
Photo credit Virginia Szaraz
After practising in criminal law, Margaret became a professional writer, working as a screenwriter and script editor in television for many well-regarded Australian drama series, including Water Rats, A Country Practice and GP.
Margaret’s short fiction has been published in Meanjin and Going Down Swinging. Her works for stage (librettos for music theatre) have been performed to critical acclaim and full houses at major Australian arts festivals.
Margaret recently completed a bachelor’s degree in Advanced Science in Biology at Macquarie University, where she focused on plant science, genetics and parasitology. While studying, she won a prize for popular science writing in an international competition judged by Professor Richard Dawkins.
A Vintage Australia book
Published by Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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First published by Vintage Australia in 2018
Copyright © Margaret Morgan 2018
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Penguin Random House Australia.
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ISBN 9780143790242
Cover image © MizEnScen
Cover design by Alex Ross © Penguin Random House Australia
With thanks to Steven Pinker for permission to use his quote from How the Mind Works
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