The Memory Tree

by Jennifer Scoullar

  ‘After all those drinks?’ she said. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘You’re right.’ He stretched his legs, stood up and started collecting plates and glasses. ‘I’ll sleep on the couch.’

  ‘No need.’ When he looked up, Sarah had slipped out of her little black dress. She stood before him, naked apart from lacy red briefs. Her slim body was toned and olive-skinned, with small, high breasts like a girl’s.

  He took a step backwards. ‘Now look …’

  A loud crash came from inside the house, followed by the sound of breaking glass. Matt swore and went to investigate. A series of thumps and screeches were coming from the lounge room. Hedwig was flapping from bookshelf to dresser to table, pursued by a posse of fugitive quolls. A lamp lay smashed on the floor. Only Matt’s quick reflexes rescued rows of glass photo frames from the same fate. He fetched a net from the laundry and set about recapturing the absconders. Half an hour later, when he’d finally caught them all, the lounge looked like a bombsite. Overturned chairs, broken glass, furniture pulled away from the wall. Matt replaced the tired youngsters in their pen, complete with a bonus supper of rabbit, and set about cleaning the room.

  He kept a close eye on the door, expecting a naked Sarah to come stalking in any moment, but there was no sign of her. It was one o’clock by the time he’d finished. He made a cup of coffee, mainly to delay dealing with Sarah, then crept into the hall. Where was she? He peeked into the bedroom.

  Sarah lay on the bed, hugging a pillow – fast asleep. What a relief. Matt fetched a spare blanket, took off his shirt and lay down on the couch, his mind racing. Thank goodness Penny hadn’t arrived in the middle of Sarah’s little striptease. Matt tossed and turned on the too-short couch trying to get comfortable. He yawned again, his eyes grew heavy and sleep claimed him in the middle of a thought.

  * * *

  Matt woke sometime later in a sweat, and with a sense that something was terribly wrong. He got up, groggy with sleep, and moved through the quiet house, searching for whatever had disturbed him.

  Somewhere outside a motor started up and wheels crunched on gravel. A jeep flew past the moonlit window. What on earth? A swift check of the bedroom revealed that Sarah had gone. Matt sprinted to the verandah and peered into the night. A light shone in the old shearing shed and a sick feeling grew in the pit of his stomach.

  Matt took the verandah steps in one, long stride and ran barefoot to the open shed door. Sleepy raptors shuffled feathers, restless in the light. At first glance all appeared normal and he allowed himself some hope. But when he lifted the lid of the new freezer, his hope vanished. Carcasses piled higgledy-piggledy. He hadn’t left them in such a jumble. Dreading what he might find, Matt turfed out the bodies in a frantic search. ‘No!’ he roared. Theo was gone.

  Matt ran back to the house, trying to make sense of what had happened. Decide. He needed to decide right now what to do. The clock on the wall said five o’clock. He still had time before the park opened. Okay. Shoes. Car keys? Dammit. Sarah had his jeep keys, which meant she also had the office keys, and keys to the other park vehicles were kept in the locked office. He searched the bedside table draw. Bingo, his bike key.

  He’d bought the Enduro last month. A beautiful bike, 654 cc, six gears. Smooth-as-silk clutch, as at home on the highway as in the bush, and a steal at the price, even with its dodgy brakes. The front one made a sickening grinding noise and caused the bike to veer alarmingly to one side. The rear brake felt spongy and offered little resistance. He’d tinkered with it, but not fixed it. Too late now. Matt wheeled out the bike and prayed for a quick start. The machine roared to life and he sped off down the drive.

  Matt hadn’t ridden the bike at night before. It was more disconcerting than he’d imagined, hurtling through the dark, uncertain which way the road turned, despite knowing it so well. The darkness confused him, disguised tight corners, left him unsure of how to lean. His high beam provided just a narrow tunnel of light, and the screaming brakes aimed him at trees – more dangerous than no brakes at all. A combination of gear shifts and sheer dumb luck kept him on the track. Sarah couldn’t be far ahead. She was bound to be slow in an unfamiliar vehicle on these rough roads.

  Matt raced on, body thrust forward, hand heavy on the throttle. He owed Theo this much. If anyone would decide the dead tiger’s fate, it would be him. Where the heck was Sarah anyway? It wasn’t until the road left the forest and approached town that he spotted tail-lights up ahead. Matt honked the horn and increased his speed. She must have noticed him, but the jeep showed no signs of slowing.

  Matt rounded the next turn, eased on the rear brake and timed his acceleration just right. Only a few metres behind her now. They tore into town, towards a concrete roundabout with a lamp post in the middle. Matt took a deep breath and shot around on the wrong side of the road, diving in ahead of the jeep as it exited the intersection. Sarah slammed on the brakes. Her front bumper collected the rear of his bike, threatening to drag it under the chassis. He spun sideways – no helmet, not even a shirt. This wouldn’t be pretty. Matt leapt from the saddle, jumped the handlebars and rolled as he crashed to the ground.

  He lay winded, feeling as if he’d been skinned. When he could breathe again, he drew in great lungfuls of air that stank of burning brake pads. Matt looked back at the jeep, half-expecting it to be gone. There was no telling with Sarah, he knew that now. But the jeep was still there with the driver’s door wide open. Suddenly Sarah was there too, kneeling beside him.

  ‘Are you okay? I could have killed you.’

  Matt hauled himself to his feet, with wobbly legs and a painful shoulder. It hurt to breathe.

  ‘Where is he?’ said Matt, surprised he could speak.

  Sarah pointed to the jeep. Matt staggered over and checked the back. Theo was there alright. He snatched the keys from the ignition.

  ‘What will you do?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ll ask the questions, that’s what I’ll do,’ said Sarah. ‘First one. Whatever possessed you to hide this?’

  Matt licked his split lip. How on earth was he going to silence Sarah? He hunted for a strategy that didn’t involve throttling her on the spot. ‘Get in,’ he said.

  A faint brightness tinged the sky. They sat in the jeep, eyeing each other in the pre-dawn light.

  ‘Don’t ask me to keep this secret,’ said Sarah. ‘Don’t ask me that.’

  ‘What will it take?’

  ‘We should be shouting this from the rooftops. The entire world will sit up and take notice.’

  ‘Exactly. There’s the problem.’

  Sarah’s voice hardened. ‘You have no right, Matt, to play God like this.’

  ‘Me play God?’ His temple throbbed and he checked the impulse to scream each word. ‘I won’t be the one pulling Theo apart, molecule by molecule. I won’t create squirming, suffering, not-quite-right copies of him for science. I won’t hunt down his family to turn them into a freak show. That’ll be your job. Whose side do you reckon Theo would be on?’

  Sarah slapped him, hard. Good, he was getting to her. ‘Haven’t you ever questioned what you do?’ he asked. ‘The ethics of what you bloody do? Have you even thought about it?’

  ‘I want to help these animals however I can.’

  Matt reached for her hand. ‘Devils, yes. Devils still have a place, a chance. But you can’t help these last few tigers. They’ll be inbred, right?’

  ‘Severely so. We’ve completed DNA hair analysis on every museum hide we could find. Even prior to 1900, tigers had hit a genetic bottleneck – practically no diversity at all.’

  ‘Then what chance do they have of being anything besides short-lived curiosities? Of surviving long-term outside zoos and molecular biology labs?’

  ‘Matt … they’re already surviving outside zoos. Your animal is proof of that, and with it as a genetic template …’

  ‘Theo. His name is Theo.’

  ‘All right,’ said Sarah. ‘With Theo as a genetic template, we have a
real shot at cloning him.’

  Matt snorted. ‘Great idea. Why bust our guts protecting anything if we can just clone it back into existence? The Premier will love that.’

  The dawn was bright enough now to show him Sarah’s frown. ‘You’re saying the government could use my work as an excuse to abandon threatened species.’

  ‘In the mistaken belief that they can be resurrected by science whenever it suits them. Yes. Show them a rathole and they’ll run down it.’

  For the first time, Matt saw Sarah’s resolve falter. On an impulse he leaned across and kissed her. ‘Give me some space, Sarah. Please.’

  She opened her eyes and breathed. ‘Maybe we do need time to think this through, to be strategic with our announcement – but I won’t sit on it for long.’

  Matt was dizzy with relief.

  Sarah touched his grazed cheek. ‘Telling the world is the right thing.’

  He forced a smile. ‘Neither of us have had much sleep. I’ll take you home.’

  ‘Put on a shirt first,’ she said. ‘I don’t mind, but Mrs Murphy might.’

  Matt found a windcheater in the back and pulled it on. A few cars were already on the road. He dropped Sarah off outside the tearoom in the full light of a Hills End morning. Doris Briggs nodded to him as she went past. Of all the rotten luck. Who knew why she was out and about this early?

  ‘Promise me.’ Matt held Sarah’s shoulders with an intensity that seemed to send old Doris into a flutter. ‘Promise you won’t tell anyone, not yet.’

  ‘I promise.’ Sarah kissed him goodbye on the lips, slow and lingering. ‘From now on we’re in this together.’

  Doris flew as fast as her walking frame would allow to take the news to town.

  Chapter 27

  Matt did a quick U-turn, then barrelled out of town. He braked when he spotted his damaged bike by the side of the road, got out and hauled it into the bushes. Then he drove a few hundred metres up a side track, parked and closed his eyes. He felt paralysed, the events of the past twenty-four hours tearing through his aching head. What a fool. So many ways he could have averted disaster; not answering Sarah’s call in the first place, having dinner with Penny last night instead, leaving Sarah at the pub with Drake or taking her straight home or being sober enough at midnight to drive.

  Matt had no idea how long he’d been sitting there. He checked again that Theo was safely stowed in the back. He could hear the occasional car heading east along Binburra Rd. One of them would be Penny’s. After some Panadol and a long drink of water he knew what to do.

  * * *

  By the time Matt arrived at Binburra, Penny was briefing staff and volunteers about the day ahead. He joined the small group on the steps of the visitors centre. When Penny saw him she dropped her notes. He picked them up and handed them to her. She seemed so unsure around him. It hurt.

  ‘What happened to you?’ She took in his fresh cuts and bruises. Blood had soaked through the sleeve of his windcheater, causing a dark stain. ‘You’re a mess.’

  ‘I have to speak to you.’

  Penny’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. ‘What, so now you want to talk?’

  He scrubbed his hands over his eyes and waited.

  ‘Go on then.’

  ‘Somewhere private?’

  She gave him a guarded look. ‘Meet you up at the house in a few minutes. I have to feed the babies anyway, but you’ll need to be quick. I’m going home to cook Ray a Sunday roast. He needs cheering up.’

  ‘This won’t take long.’

  Penny resumed the briefing while Matt headed for the house. Uh-oh – the empty wine bottles. The two unwashed glasses. Sade on the stereo … the unmade bed. Penny could get the wrong idea.

  Matt sprinted up the hill, burst in the door and threw the bottles under the sink. He rinsed the glasses, ejected Sade from the stereo and hid the offending CD under a couch cushion. His injured arm grew stiffer and sorer by the second. The bedroom next. Whoa, Sarah’s phone, there on the floor beside the bed. What a find. He checked it for photos. In the back of his mind was the fear that she’d already sent images of Theo into the ether. But there was nothing more recent than the two of them together at the pub. He deleted the shots and slipped the phone into his pocket.

  Matt was in the process of plumping pillows and pulling up the doona when Penny came in. ‘Are you actually tidying up?’

  He reached out his good arm, threaded his fingers through hers and led her to the kitchen. ‘I need your help, Pen.’ A weight was already sliding from his shoulders.

  Penny’s eyes bored into him for what seemed like forever. She pulled out a chair from the rough-hewn kitchen table. ‘Sit down. You look like you need some coffee.’

  He stared into his mug, throat so tight, he could barely swallow the hot liquid.

  ‘Matt?’ said Penny softly, encouragingly.

  He looked up. For pity’s sake, just say it. ‘Sarah knows about Theo.’

  Penny slowly pushed back her chair. He endured the stunned expression that crossed her face. ‘You didn’t trust your own wife, but you let a hotshot molecular biologist in on the secret? Yeah, you sure can rely on her not to tell anyone.’

  ‘I can’t. Of course I can’t.’ He wrung his fingers together, rubbed his cheek. It set his cuts bleeding. ‘We need to move Theo.’

  ‘Sarah knows where he is?’ said Penny. ‘I don’t understand. How? Why?’

  These were good questions. Last night flashed in fast motion across his mind’s eye. The laundry floor strewn with Penny’s frozen specimens. Sarah’s disappointment at not finding devils in the house freezer. Her nakedness as she slipped out of her dress. Sarah was bold and brash and impulsive. Disrespectful of Penny’s work and single-minded about her own. He should have locked the shearing shed before going to sleep. No, he should never have taken her to Binburra at all.

  ‘Matt, answer me.’

  He ran his finger along the table. ‘It’s complicated.’

  She glared at him with reproachful eyes. ‘If you want my help, I need to know everything.’ She was right, she deserved to know. Most of it, anyway.

  ‘Sarah and I went to Nandena last night to see Lisa’s band.’

  Pain showed in the crease of her brow, and he hated knowing that he’d put it there. Hated that pride and anger had made him choose Sarah over his wife last night.

  ‘You said you were doing something work-related.’

  ‘We were. Sort of. I guess we ended up celebrating. There’s good news, Pen. Wonderful news. Sarah found a population of devils with different MHC genes, right here in the Tuggerah. She wants to test your frozen samples next.’

  ‘So …’ He could see Penny’s mind ticking over, processing what he’d told her. ‘These devils might be able to mount an immune response to DFTD cells?’

  ‘It’s possible, yes.’

  Her mouth curved into a slow smile. ‘If we can identify some of them, we can begin a targeted genetic rescue program.’

  How beautiful she was. Sapphire eyes, bright with delight. Soft, full lips with that slight gap between her teeth. High, freckled forehead, framed by wayward copper curls. He felt the magnetic pull of his wife, like he was falling in love all over again.

  ‘This is great news,’ she said. ‘But it doesn’t explain why you told Sarah about Theo.’

  ‘I didn’t. After dinner last night I brought Sarah back to Binburra to collect some research notes. I knew she was impatient to DNA test hair samples from your frozen devils, but I had no idea that she’d go looking for herself.’

  ‘You mean she poked around in the freezers without asking? Where were you?’

  He wanted to say that he’d been asleep, and that Sarah had stayed the night at Binburra. He wanted to explain about the kiss in the jeep outside Mrs Murphy’s. But that explanation could ruin the precious reconnection they were making. He’d tell Penny the gist of it, that would do for now.

  ‘Matt, I asked you where were you while Sarah was in the shed?’


  ‘Aah … busy with the babies.’ He felt a little sick as he said it.

  The answer seemed to satisfy Penny. ‘What a nerve that woman has. She must have been blown away to find Theo.’ Penny gave him a searching look. ‘You know Sarah will go to the press. We’ve lost the chance to do this our way.’

  'I don’t think she’ll go public, not yet.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Matt’s mouth went dry. ‘I asked her very nicely not to.’

  There was a heavy moment of silence. Penny buried her chin in her hand, and stared at Matt until he squirmed. ‘You do know she has a crush on you.’ More squirming. It wouldn’t take long now. Penny’s eyes grew large. ‘She made a play for you, didn’t she?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Sarah’s keeping this secret as a personal favour. Keeping your spectacular science-shattering secret because she fancies you.’ Penny sank down on a kitchen chair. ‘Do you fancy her too?’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t, and I also don’t know how long she’ll keep quiet. I need you to take Theo to Ray’s right now. Hide him in the bait chest.’

  Penny studied him awhile, then tossed her head. ‘I’ll be damned if that fake-tanned Yankee home-wrecker will make the announcement before we do. Are there photos?’ Matt hesitated, then extracted Sarah’s phone and handed it to his wife. She grinned. ‘I won’t ask you how you got that.’ Her search revealed nothing untoward. ‘Well, then, let’s get to it. I’ll feed the babies while you put Theo in the jeep.’

  Matt gave his wife a swift kiss, and a familiar flash of desire stirred his blood – a flash of hope too. Together they’d get through this.

  McGregor placed two large cardboard boxes on the breakfast table beside Fraser’s coffee and scrambled eggs. ‘Your homework arrived this morning, sir,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘Courtesy of Miss Penelope.’ He handed Fraser an envelope. The note inside said, Read everything. Watch everything. Love, Penny xx.