1
The first few days after Doyle left were the worst for Adam. Work was still the best medicine for him. He focussed on his practice and increased his hours. Rose was like family to him. He enjoyed working with her and she treated him like a son. The weeks and months passed as Adam slowly adjusted to solitary life again. Then, one morning, he woke up in his bed, opened his eyes and sat up highly excited.
‘That was them. What a dream. Oh, I can remember it so clearly. Oh, I don’t even have to try to remember, it’s there, like I’d been there. I was at Broken Head with Libby and Ben, back in ‘68. The old camping area was back. I was there, like I went back to ‘68
and they were there. I remember looking into Libby’s eyes and she was crying. I held her fine hands. I looked into Ben’s eyes and he was crying. We all hugged each other, all together. I can still feel the hug. Then they both smiled and gave me a feeling of reassurance, like everything will be all right. Wow, what a dream. It was so real and it’s so burned into my memory.’
Adam spent the whole rest of the day blissing-out on his memory. He only had to close his eyes and he could see their faces. He thought about what was happening to his brain. He wondered if the dream wasn’t some kind of Nitrous-Oxide flashback, some kind of long-term side effect that nobody knew anything about. But he didn’t mind. The dream was the best thing that had happened to him since the disappearance.
2
One freezing, windy, mid-winter’s night, July ‘91, Adam was sitting cosy next to Zeke’s fire, lost in conversation.
‘You know, Zeke, I think that some books are better read stoned. I think that some books might have even been written to be read stoned in order to be properly understood.’
‘You won’t get no arguments from me, mate. Lots of things are better stoned, like solitude for example.’
‘Yeah, that’s true.’
‘So how are you holdin up? How long has it been?’
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‘Nine months. I just keep remembering the good times we had and how Ben was always so caring towards me, like he was looking after me, not the other way around.’
‘He was a bloody amazin kid, mate. The day he got the idea for the jetpack was a classic. It was about a year an a half ago. You were workin that day. There was a howlin gale an he’d only had his roller blades for about four months. Well, he got it into his head to go for a tailwind skate up the fifteen-mile-long bike track along all the beaches from Wollongong to Sandon Point. That’s where he got me to wait for him. The wind, mate, it was at least fifty knots. The ocean was boilin an the trees were strainin bent right over, an even the windsurfers were sittin it out, but not Ben. He came flyin in at Sandon, laughin his head off. He was hysterical. Reckoned he hadn’t had such a good time in ages. He reckoned that he hardly had to skate as he pretty-much got blown along all the way. He reckoned that he was hittin forty miles an hour on some open sections. That’s flyin, mate!
He wanted me to drive him back to Wollongong straight away. Altogether he had three runs that day. He couldn’t stop babblin on the way home. He was a babblin speed freak.
That’s when he got the idea for the jetpack. He said that he wanted to feel like he was skatin downwind all the time. He got the idea to put a small engine, with a propeller on it, on his back. He started the project the very next day. Remember how he hacksawed the brushcutter?’
‘Yeah, how could I forget?’
‘I miss him.’
‘Yeah, me too.’
3
About three months later, Adam finally got a call from Doyle who said he wanted to catch up and talk to him about something. He suggested lunch at Doyle’s the following Saturday. He said that the place made him feel like it was his restaurant. Adam informed Doyle that he’d only ever been there with a woman, but Doyle told him to stop bragging and that he’d see him down at the wharf at 12.00 noon on Saturday.
Adam rolled into Watson’s Bay early. It was only 11.00am so he thought he would have a wander around the place and remember some of the good times he had enjoyed there over the years. He thought it interesting how he kept returning there at different stages of his life, like it was a punctuation mark between what happened before and what happened after. He was really looking forward to seeing Doyle again. He wasn’t expecting
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any answers, but he was keen to hear what he had to say. He strolled down to the ferry wharf and noticed that the ferry was about to come in.
‘Oh, how nice,’ he thought, ‘something to entertain me.’
He leant against a thick, wooden post and settled down to enjoy the ferry docking.
It glided in silently and efficiently and made the lightest contact with the wharf. A young man athletically jumped off it and proceeded to tie it off to a bollard.
It was a beautiful, warm, sunny spring day. The wharf area was teeming with people out for a walk, and kids running around, with dozens of seagulls flying above everybody’s heads hustling for a feed.
They were at least thirty yards apart when their eyes coincidentally met. The young deckhand’s stare locked itself onto Adam and he called out,
‘Doc?’
Adam focussed on the deckhand. He thought he looked familiar.
‘Tommy, is that you?’ He walked towards the fit, suntanned, young man. ‘I can hardly recognise you. You look so healthy.’
‘Doc, we haven’t seen ya for years. How ya goin?’
‘I’m good, I’m good. How’s Bob?’
‘Bob’s the captain. He’s up in the wheelhouse. You should … good mornin miss, mind your step … you should go up an see him. He’d love to see ya … good mornin miss …’
‘How do I get up there? I can’t believe that it’s you, Tommy, and this …’
‘Go up an see him, Doc; it’ll make his day. Up those stairs there.’
Tommy pointed towards a narrow, wooden stairway as another pretty girl distracted him. Adam climbed up the steep stairway and knocked on a polished, wooden door. He saw the brass door handle turn and the door open. Bob’s craggy face appeared in the doorway.
‘Adam? Adam?’
Bob opened his arms and pulled Adam into his embrace.
‘I can’t believe it’s you. I thought we’d never see you again. How are you?’
‘I’m good, Bob.’
‘We tried to see you at your surgery in the city but they told us that you sold out and moved somewhere south.’
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‘Yeah, Stanwell Park, hang-gliding country. I can’t believe what I’m seeing, Bob.
You’re the ferry driver? On the Watson’s Bay ferry? This is like a dream. I’m so happy for you guys. Actually, I’m totally blown away. I’m speechless.’
Adam looked at Bob. He was like a different man. He now seemed self-assured and composed, with a clear, steady focus in his eyes. He spoke slowly, in a low, confident voice, and his English seemed to have become much more refined. The only thing that gave away his past was his potholed face.
‘I can’t talk to you for long, Adam, so I just want to say this one thing, just in case I don’t see you again. There are no words in the known English language that can express the gratitude I feel …’
‘Oh, give it a break, Bob, this is me …’
‘No! Let me talk. What you did for me, what you told me, do you remember?’
‘Aww jees, Bob, I say so many things. How am I supposed to remember what I said to you?’
‘You said that every life you save can make up for one you took. Remember?’
‘Did I say that? Maybe you’ve got me mixed up with somebody else.’
‘I never forgot that. You made me realise it with Tommy, and since then, there’s been heaps of Tommies, you wouldn’t believe it, Adam, and it all started with you and your beautiful heart.’
‘Give it a break, mate, before I start throwing up. So, tell me how you got into this.’
‘I can’t, I haven’t got enough time. I’ve got to keep to the timetable. But listen, Tommy and I do the sunrise shift on weekends. Why don’t you come down to the Quay one Saturday morning and hop on the ferry with us and come for a ride up here with me.
How about it? I can tell you the whole story then. I’ve got to go, mate.’
‘It’s a deal. I’ll be there one day. What time?’
‘Six o’clock ferry to Watson’s Bay. The velvet run.’
‘OK, I’m getting off. A mind blower seeing you, Bob.’
Adam ran down the gangplank just before Tommy pulled it in. He waved goodbye to Tommy and Bob, who he could now see through the pilothouse window. He watched the small ferry undock and silently glide through all the moored boats. The moment briefly took him back to his time with Nancy.
As he stood there on the wharf, he began to feel that special feeling one gets when one is close to the water of Sydney Harbour. He hadn’t felt it in a long time. He promised
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himself to take up Bob’s offer and go for a ride on his ferry one day. He started drifting off into a daydream when he heard,
‘It looks like a jewel in the sun, but just beneath the surface are the catacombs of pure hell. That’s where I operate. How are you, Adam?’
‘As well as can be expected, Doyle. It’s been a while.’
‘Yeah, well, I wanted to wait till you got over your emotions. I figured a year should be enough. You have to be in a fairly cool state of mind to deal with the picture that’s emerging. Anyway, not a lot of new facts have come my way, that is, until now. Hey, let’s go and have some fish-n-chips and a couple of beers. I want to have a good talk with you.’
‘Sounds delightfully schizophrenic, Doyle. You always intrigue me with your comic-strip scenarios.’
‘Well, I hope you took your pills, because you’re gonna need them today, buddy, but let’s sit down and start relaxing and enjoying the view. Don’t you love the name of this place?’
They sat down at a nice outside table in the shade of a large beach umbrella. There was a light, cooling breeze wafting through the restaurant as Doyle lit a smoke, took a sip of his Fosters, then began, quietly and rapidly, speaking to Adam.
‘Twelve months ago, I went easy on you. You were in such a state that you couldn’t handle anything, so I let it slide and let you think what you wanted to think. Get used to the fact that this case will never be solved, at least not officially. Your family has disappeared and will never be found.’
‘Christ, Doyle, is that what you brought …’
‘Look, just listen for a minute. Steel your mind and get objective. I need you to be objective. Imagine … imagine that it happened to someone else. That’s it, it happened to someone else, not you, and you are my partner on the case. That’s how I need you to be.
Can you do that?’
‘I don’t know, Doyle, I suppose I can. I’m your partner and it happened to someone else. OK, I’ll try.’
Doyle continued,
‘It took a while, but some amazing new evidence has come through the grapevine, and these are all hard facts. Remember, partner, we only look at facts, OK?’
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‘OK, Doyle. I’m already starting to feel freaked out. There’s got to be some money in freaking people out. You could be a millionaire. Facts it is, facts and nothing but facts.’
Adam scanned down the menu. ‘The John Dory looks good.’
‘I like my Barra.’
‘Jees, Doyle, you like your beer as well, don’t you?’
‘I like the first one. It doesn’t even touch the sides.’
‘I’ll order some more.’
Adam raised his hand and called the waiter. They ordered their meals and another couple of beers. When they settled down again, Doyle continued,
‘I got a report from the computer-statistics guys. They’ve got a new program that can match files of similar cases from anywhere around the world. It comes in handy in cases of missing persons and such. Well, I know the boys up in the computer room and I got them to do a special search for me, off the record, and guess what the computer spat out?’
‘I don’t know, Doyle, its chips?’
‘No, my son, not its chips, but dozens of cases identical to yours. And that’s just the ones we know about. There are new ones popping up every week, all over the bloody planet, and they’re all the same. Mother and child vanish into thin air with all evidence of them having ever existed gone with them.’ After a short pause, ‘What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?’
‘No, Doyle. Couldn’t they be coincidences? Computers can’t really differentiate between … ah … that accurately.’
‘I’ve got the reports. Copies of the original notes taken at the scenes. This has got nothing to do with computers. This has only got to do with observed, factual information, and the facts were that the properties were all DNA clean, just like yours. And I’ve got an even bigger surprise for you. You know the kids?’
‘Yeah?’
‘They were all an only child, about half of them were girls and they were all geniuses and prodigies, all studying at home via correspondence, getting taught by their mothers while their fathers were at work. They were all brilliant.’ Doyle leaned forward across the table and whispered to Adam, ‘Can you see my dilemma here, Adam? Can you understand why my intestines are knotting up? We have discovered dozens more unexplainable disappearances with the identical fingerprint to yours. Can you see the pattern? And they
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all happened around about the same time, within a few months of each other. This whole phenomenon is developing the odour of a grand plan.’
‘So now it’s multiple abductions? A grand plan? Doyle, I think you got your medication mixed up this morning.’
‘It was never an abduction. I just let you believe that that was what I thought. You couldn’t have handled the truth then.’
‘Truth? What truth, Doyle? You fill my head up with …’
‘Only facts, Adam. Look at all the facts.’
‘Yeah, OK, the bloody facts, what about them?’
‘Liberty and Ben went of their own free will. They weren’t abducted by aliens. There was no struggle. They must have known they were going. Maybe they were going reluctantly, maybe they wished you could have come with them, but it wasn’t to be. Ben even finished the jetpack for you. He knew he was going. He even left clues. The one-piece prop guard, Adam, the one-piece prop guard is his way of tipping you off. And the note, nobody’s got a clue what that means, other than the year 2023. And your family, you were all passionately in love with each other, isn’t that a fact?’
‘Yes, that’s a fact.’
‘And she was brilliant and he was brilliant. Fact? Fact! But you’ve got no idea just how brilliant because she had to keep that a secret.’
‘Keep what a secret?’
‘The secret about her and her hybrid son’s true identities.’
Adam accidentally breathed in a French fry and began to cough and choke violently.
One of the waiters came over with a glass of water while Doyle gave him a couple of solid whacks across his back. After a few moments, he settled down.
‘Are you suggesting that my wife, my Libby, was an alien? She’s supposed to have been kidnapped by an alien.’
‘That’s the old story, to keep you sane but still get you partially acclimatised to my way of thinking. I’ve been doing this a long time, mate, sorry if I don’t get too excited.’
‘So, let me get this right …’
‘Keep your voice down.’
‘You reckon that my wife was an alien? From another planet? That’s what you reckon?’
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‘One of dozens. That is a fact. All with a mission from central control. That is speculation.’
‘Doyle, you’re completely freaking me out. Why do you do this to me?’
‘Sorry, kid, I know it’s tough. I know you just fell into this. It’s bizarre, I know, but it’s only bizarre for a while, then it’s just like nitro. You cannot dispute any of the facts that I have presented to you, not one. Listen, there’s a private bar around the corner from where I live. There’s more I want to talk through with you. It’d be better there.’
‘OK, Doyle. Have you got a smoke?’
‘Oh, I might have a little something.’
‘Well, I guess you’ll do for company for a few more hours. You were actually right; I am starting to acclimatise into your insanity. It’s beginning to sound plausible and that is a great concern for me.’
‘Don’t be concerned. Even if we found out everything that was going on, and had hard evidence, even then we wouldn’t do anything about it. It wouldn’t be worth it.
There’s nothing that anyone could do. No, this is just for us to know and that’s it.’
An hour later, they were both comfortably sprawled in a private booth in a small bar just off the main road in the Brighton-le-Sands café and restaurant district. Doyle was ordering the drinks and revving up the conversation.
‘A grand plan, Adam, that is what the evidence points to. Look at the facts. All the mothers came to this planet alone and they all left with a hybrid, ten-year-old child. So, going by the hard evidence, if that was the final result then that was the original mission, to bring back a half-Earth child each, that had spent its first ten years of its life on Earth.
Why? Why not just take the children … er … even before they were born? Why go through the whole deception hassle and then go back? Adam, we must review the … what must we review, partner?’
‘The facts, Doyle.’
‘Got it in one. Have you not told me that you and your wife loved each other? Is that not a fact?’
‘That is a fact, Doyle.’
‘Why did the alien put up with ten years of deception? Was it love? I don’t think so.
I think it had something to do with Ben and his development. They wanted him to know his way around this planet before they took him back to his mother’s.’
‘His mother’s planet? God, Doyle, we fell in love, in the most perfect way.’
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‘I’m sure you did, but I’m not so sure if she did.’
‘You weren’t there and now you are speculating. That’s against your principles. You can take it as gospel I got nothing but love and caring from both of them.’
‘But why did all the mothers leave when all the hybrid kids were ten years old? Why not eight, or six?’
‘Could it be that they might be meant to come back?’
‘What? That is an interesting idea, Adam. A return to this planet, even alone, would not be such a difficult thing for those kids. They were all brilliant anyway.’
‘It would be like coming home for them, back to the planet of their birth.’
‘Let us, for the moment, assume a return sometime in the future, let’s say the year 2023, just as a logical, evidence-based choice. But that’s not the main issue. The main issue is why are they coming back? Why were they born here at all?’
‘You know, Doyle, if she was an alien, she sure looked like a normal human being to me.’
‘That’s because they are human, just like us. They just grew in a different paddock and got started a whole lot earlier.’
‘So, what’s all the mystery?’
‘They are the same, but they are different as well. Why do you hide anything?’
‘You hide something because you don’t want anyone to see it.’
‘And what has been hidden in all the disappearance cases?’
‘Ohh, the DNA!’
‘That’s right, Adam, the DNA. Removed, in toto, by some inexplicable means. That’s the biggest fact of all. It’s what really got me into this case.’
‘So, they’re different in some way?’
‘Some recognisable way, via their DNA.’
‘So, what type of difference could they have? It would have to be very subtle because I sure didn’t notice anything different about Libby, except that she was extraordinary.’
‘I don’t know that we should speculate on that right now, but I’m sure that if I ask you the right questions, I can dig up some hard evidence of their differences. I reckon the answers are all in your head, Adam, and it’s my job to dig them out.’
‘So, you think that I know things that I don’t even know I know?’
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‘It’s the common scenario, kid. In every case the key witness usually doesn’t know what they know because they’re the ones that have been deceived, see? So, I’ve got to dig it out of them. It’s what being a detective is all about. Knowing what questions to ask.’
‘You were right about the nitro, Doyle. I think I’m detecting a bit of nitro.’
‘What did I tell you. When you get on my wavelength it gets so exciting that you sometimes think that you’re going to jump right out of your own skin. By the way, how much of this have you told Zeke?’
‘Oh, he knows a bit, but he doesn’t know it all. He doesn’t know about your alien theory. I haven’t broached that with him yet.’
‘Tell him. Tell him the lot. I want him in on it. He spent so much time with Ben and Liberty that he must have seen something that he doesn’t even realise he’d seen. One day we’ll all get together at his place and work through a few questions.’
‘Boy, Doyle, it’s certainly got you sucked in, big time.’
‘Voluntarily sucked in, kid. There is a difference.’
4
A few nights after his meeting with Doyle, Adam visited Zeke. Although Zeke had seen it a year before, just after Doyle brought it back, Adam thought he would bring the prop guard with him. He felt that he needed something physical to hold while he talked to Zeke about Doyle’s crazy, one-track logic.
‘He only thinks in UFO terms, Zeke. He doesn’t even consider any other possibility.
If it wasn’t for his bloody facts and the bizarre evidence, like this one-piece prop guard for example, I would have given him the flick a long time ago, but he just keeps stringing me along and keeping me interested. Watch out, he’s got you in his sights now. He wants to ask you some questions.’
Zeke studied the prop guard and mostly kept silent while Adam did all the talking.
Adam brought him right up to date in Doyle’s logic.
‘That’s about the whole story so far, Zeke.’
Zeke sat quietly for some time, deep in thought, then took his bowl and pipe and started loading it up. He looked up at Adam. His eye burned with light as he broke into a smile.
‘You wouldn’t wanna tell this to too many people.’
‘Nobody knows, Zeke, other than you, me and Doyle.’
‘She was somethin.’
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‘Who, Libby?’
‘Yeah. Have you ever met a cooler chick?’
Adam looked at the floor and sighed,
‘No, never. The stories she used to tell me, honestly, Zeke, she was a master story teller, like it was an art, and the stories take on a whole new perspective now, now that Doyle has brainwashed his crazy theory into my head.’
‘She used to come up here for visits durin the day when you were at work. She used to bring Ben with her. I think they liked the isolation an tranquillity of me place. Libby used to tell me that bein here made her feel very relaxed. No people for miles around, she used to say. They both always wanted to know all the minute details of any project I was workin on. You know, come to think of it, she spent a lot of time talkin to me, pickin me brain about me gravity theory. She always got really excited talkin to me about the gravity sail idea. She’d keep bringin up the subject an geein me along. You must find the first step on the stairway, she used to say. An I used to reply, the stairway to the stars, Libby? An she replied, the stairway to the galaxies, Zeke. What about the stuff she gave us to smoke?
What was that stuff?’
‘She never really said. I just thought it was hash she brought from California that came from somewhere else. I remember now, I asked, is it from California? And she replied, oh no, it’s from a lot further away than that.’
‘It wasn’t like any hash I’d ever smoked before.’
The two friends looked at each other as they contemplated the possibility that Liberty, their dearest and closest friend, might have blown in from another planet with alien dope. As they sat there, deep in thought, flashing in a whole new light on times they had spent with Liberty, they heard the familiar bucket-of-bolts sound of Doyle’s car roll up at the back of Zeke’s hut. They heard the squeak and clunk of his car door opening and slamming shut, followed by footsteps approaching. There was a knock on the door and Adam got up to open it. Doyle’s shadowy face stared at him out of the blackness, dimly lit by the low, ambient light spilling out of the room through the partially-open door.
‘We were just talking about you, Doyle.’
‘Yeah? And what is the verdict?’
‘The jury’s still out.’
‘That’s good for me.’
‘Two times in one week, Doyle, I don’t know if my medication is up to it.’
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‘That’s why I brought you some of mine.’
The late October evening still had a chill in the air due to the higher altitude of the escarpment. Zeke tended to one of his last fires of the winter season, making his guestroom cosy, warm and inviting for his two visitors. Doyle threw his jacket over a chair and sprawled himself next to Adam on the ratty old lounge. He threw a small, plastic bag on Zeke’s rustic coffee table, smiled and casually quipped,
‘Every time I come here, I don’t know if it feels like I’m visiting Obi-Wan Kenobi or the Clampetts.’
‘You should talk, Doyle. Visiting you is like taking a pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Eric Von Daniken.’
Doyle lit a cigarette and said,
‘I see you boys started without me.’
Zeke handed Doyle his pipe and replied,
‘Well, you better catch up then.’
‘I know it’s like bringing coal to Newcastle, but you boys might be interested in trying some of this.’ Doyle picked up the little plastic bag off the coffee table. ‘It’s called The Soul of Morocco. Apparently, the dope that this hash got made from was grown high up in the Atlas Mountains, in central Morocco.’
Zeke’s ears pricked up with interest.
‘Jees, Doyle, where’s a bloke like you get his hands on stuff like that?’
‘Ahh, it’s who you know, boys. Some of us have got mates in narcotics, don’t we.’
‘So, this is some poor Arab’s dope that got busted trying to bring it into the country?’
‘I believe that the poor son of a bitch was a Berber.’
‘Boy, Doyle, you’re like no cop I’ve ever met before.’
‘Well, I am retired.’
Zeke cleaned his pipe and attended to making a new mix incorporating some of Doyle’s Soul of Morocco. Doyle opened the conversation.
‘I asked Adam to brief you on my investigations.’
‘Yeah, he told me everythin.’
‘Good, and I bet that you’ve both been going over things that happened with Liberty, things that may make a lot more sense in the new light. Those are the things I want to know about. Strange things, bizarre things, unusual things. They’ll come to mind; don’t you worry about that.’
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‘Good old Doyle, it’s funny-farm time again.’
‘Make jokes, Adam, but I know something that will wipe that smirk right off your kisser.’
‘Not another fact, Doyle?’
‘Picked it like a nose, son. As a matter of interest, I’ve known this for more than six months, I just never bothered to tell you.’
‘The suspenders are killing me, Doyle.’
Zeke contributed,
‘You’ve got my attention, Doyle. What’s the news?’
‘I had Liberty’s background checked. She presented her US papers to various institutions here in Australia. They took copies. Everything was in order. There’s just one problem, there’s no record, in the US, of her ever being a US citizen. There is no record of her ever even visiting the US, or California, or Maine, or anywhere. I sent them copies of her US papers and guess what I got back.’
‘What?’
‘The US authorities reckoned that the papers were forgeries, perfect in every detail, but forgeries nonetheless. They said that Liberty was a fictional character that never lived in the US, and just to rub it into your noses, I brought the report with me.’ Doyle pulled a letter out of his pocket and threw it on the table in front of Adam. ‘I found this out six months ago. Since then I’ve been checking up on some of the other cases, and guess what?
You guessed it. None of those mothers existed either. They all got in on forged documents as well. One of the outstanding facts was the degree of perfection of the forgeries. They were indistinguishable from the real thing. Same level of expertise as the DNA clean-ups and the prop guard.’
‘She’s never been to California? But what about all her stories and the doggy-cise business with her friend, Jamie?’
Zeke was keeping very quiet, trying to handle the full impact of the fact that he had been best friends with an alien, a magnificent, exciting, beautiful alien. He commented,
‘You’re suckin me in now, Doyle.’
‘I know I’m sucking you in. I just had to do it in stages. I can’t have you boys spinning out on me.’
‘What about her cheque account, Doyle? She always had money. She said it was from her uncle’s trust fund.’
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‘I had her bank account checked ages ago. She kept about ten-thousand bucks in it most of the time. There was only a record of periodic cash deposits made at various bank branches around your area. It seems to me that she was putting the cash in herself.’
‘Where would she get cash from?’ Adam enquired, surprised.
‘Where did she get everything from? She brought it with her. It was probably counterfeit cash, perfect and indistinguishable from the real stuff. What else could it have been?’
‘What about her uncle and her dad, the boat builders that drowned, and her mum?’
‘According to US records, those people never existed.’
‘You know what constantly amazes me, Doyle?’
‘No, Adam, what?’
‘Your psychotic imagination, that’s what.’
‘Oh, ye of little faith. Shall I remind you that I have told you nothing but hard, confirmable facts? Do you want another one? I got the airline records checked and guess what, she never flew out of America, or any place else either. It seems that she just popped up out of thin air, with a bundle of cash.’
‘So, there’s no record of her flying into Australia on any flights, from anywhere?’
‘Not under her name.’
‘Where did she come from then?’
‘From someplace that wasn’t America. Or do you think that if I searched every other country in the world I’d find her?’
‘There are a lot of countries.’
‘No! I wouldn’t find her because she didn’t come from any of them. She came from…’
Doyle pointed at the ceiling with his cigarette, ‘…up there.’ Adam and Zeke both looked up at the ceiling. Doyle asked, ‘Are you getting goose bumps? I am.’
‘That’s because you are a freakshow, Doyle.’
‘I laugh at your jest, Adam, but I must remind you that I am not the news; I am only the bringer of the news. It is the news that is the freakshow. I have never disagreed with you on that point.’
‘So, you’re saying that she deceived me, in the biggest way possible.’
Zeke quickly softened Adam’s outlook.
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‘No no no, Adam, she never deceived you. She loved you with all her heart. I know that for a fact from the way she spoke about you. You were her life an I have a strong, ever-present feelin that you still are.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I mean your story is not over. It’s just begun. There’s more for you an Libby, sometime in the future. I feel it in me. I can’t describe it, an it wasn’t deception. She did what she had to do an we won’t know what it was all about until the time to know comes, when it means somethin.’
Adam hung his head in sadness. He was suddenly close to tears.
‘Do you think so, Zeke? Do you really think I’ll see Libby and Ben again?’
‘I do. Inexplicably I feel it deep inside me. She says her heart beats at the same time as yours.’
Doyle sat up startled.
‘What did you just say?’
‘Yeah, who says?’ Adam added.
‘I can’t believe that I just said that. What’s in this hash, Doyle?’
Doyle was switched on like a relative at a will reading. He repeated Zeke’s phrase, word for word.
‘You said, she says her heart beats at the same time as yours. Did you hear that, Adam? There is another one of those things you don’t like. I believe it’s called a fact.
What’s going on, Zeke? Did she tell you before she left? Were you in on it?’
‘No way! I don’t know why I said that. That’s weird … I thought it, I felt it an I said it
… like she said it.’
‘We use the word weird a lot around here lately, don’t we boys?’
‘I reckon it’s your bloody Moroccan Soul, Doyle. Zeke has obviously started to hallucinate.’
Doyle thought he’d change the subject.
‘You know why I like coming down here to visit you boys? It’s because I can go out and have a good piss in your yard and feel completely relaxed knowing that there’s no one around for miles that can see me.’
Doyle got up to step outside. Zeke made a comment.
‘If you’re in a killin mood, why don’t you go an kill a few weeds in the garden.’
After Doyle stepped outside, Adam whispered to Zeke,
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‘What do you reckon, is he a nut?’
‘He sucks you in. He’s followin a trail of logic that’s gonna pass right through our brains, I think. … Hey, how’s his hash anyway?’
A few minutes later, Doyle was back inside. Adam quipped,
‘You have left your mark, Doyle. The dogs will be howling for weeks.’
‘I love it,’ Doyle replied. ‘It feels like being a caveman, getting in touch with my ancestral past.’
Doyle settled back into the lounge and announced,
‘It’s pick-and-shovel time, boys. I think I might take a trip through your stoned little minds and see what I come up with.’
‘To find out stuff we don’t even know we know?’
‘That’s right, Adam.’
‘So, start already.’
‘OK, but I’ll just have to have one more hit on that pipe … uno momento, amigos …
sssss … Morrrocccco … ahhhhhh … now … ah, can either of you open this discussion with an account of an unusual or strange memory involving Libby or Ben?’
Adam and Zeke just sat there, thinking.
‘OK, let me rephrase that. Can either of you ever remember seeing anyone behave in an unusual or involuntary manner around Libby or Ben? Just relax and think. There must be something in your memories. It might have happened a long time ago.’
‘There was this one really strange thing that happened.’
‘Good, Adam, I knew there were going to be things.’
‘It happened a long time ago, before Ben was born, before we were even married. It wasn’t long after we met. We had only been living together a few weeks, that’s right, I wasn’t even working at the time. It was the middle of a hot summer and Libby decided to take us up the coast on a surfing trip in her van. I’ll never forget that trip as long as I live, but not for this reason. The incident was just a small, insignificant thing, a fleeting event that was almost over before it even began.’
Doyle lit another cigarette while Zeke listened intently.
‘We were driving up to Noosa to catch a swell. On the way, we spent a day at the Currumbin Creek rockslide. I still remember it as one of the most magic days of my life.
The night before, we camped by a creek in a roadside rest area, half way in along the Currumbin valley road. It was the middle of the night. We were both fast asleep when we
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got woken up by the sound of a car driving up. We couldn’t see the car even though we had the van door open because the van door faced away from the road and towards the creek and a small campfire we had lit. All we could see was the night all lit up in car headlights. We heard the engine stop and the car doors open. We then heard two men approaching. They were swearing and spewing obscenities, and raving on about judgement day.’
‘It sounds like a bloody horror movie.’
‘That’s what it felt like, Doyle. I instinctively tried to get up, but Libby stopped me, that’s right, then she shushed me. The two men almost reached the van when they suddenly started howling with pain, like headaches. They moaned and swore their heads off and basically retreated back to their car and took off.’
The three men just sat there silent for a while as they tried to imagine what kind of girl this Libby actually was.
‘You never mentioned anythin like that to me before.’
‘I know, Zeke, I never actually thought too much about it. There were lots of weird things happening to me at the time.’
Doyle got back to business.
‘She stopped you from getting up to defend her?’
‘Yeah.’
‘She was taking the initiative for the defence?’
‘What are you talking about, Doyle?’
‘She must have figured that she could handle the situation herself.’
‘You think that she did something to those guys?’
‘The result of a successful mission is always its original objective.’
‘I think that Doyle thinks that she had somethin to do with those blokes’ headaches.’
‘How could she do that?’
‘How indeed,’ remarked Doyle. ‘Remember anything else?’
‘Actually, there was this one other time. It was years later. Ben was about four and we were all out shopping and I was driving the car. I remember I accidentally overshot a red light by a few feet, causing a tip truck, going the other way, to swerve to miss me. The truck pulled over and this huge, ugly driver got out and started running towards our car with his fists clenched and screaming obscenities. I started winding up the window when Libby coolly told me to wind it down again. I said, are you crazy? But she just said, it’s OK,
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wind it down. The truckie was already there, swearing and banging on the window. As I wound the window down, he completely changed. We all just sat there stunned as he said, that was a close call, would kind sir like me to apologise? I couldn’t believe it. I said, no no no, it was all my fault and I apologised to him and then he said, sorry to bother you, sir, and walked away.’
‘No way!’ Zeke said, laughing.
‘What a wealth of information you are, Adam. I feel like I’ve hit the mother lode.
These are new facts. A new kind of Liberty is emerging out of the fog.’
‘Are you suggesting, Doyle, that Libby somehow controlled the minds of those people?’
‘No, Adam, you’re suggesting it.’
Zeke weighed in with a story.
‘About two and a half years ago, Ben came up to the Burgh with me. I had to pick somethin up from the hardware store. Ben waited for me out in the street. I was standin at the counter an I could see him through the big window in the front of the shop. Three bigger kids walked up to him an started talkin to him. Then I saw the biggest, fattest kid push him on his shoulder. I was about to step outside when I saw the big kid look down at his pants. He’d completely pissed his pants. Both his mates started laughin at him, so he ran off with his mates chasin after him. He went home, I guess. I stayed where I was an watched Ben standin there like nothin just happened. He didn’t even look flustered, absolutely no fear, an those kids were at least five or six years older than him.’
‘Oh great, now Ben’s one of them.’
‘We already know that Ben is a hybrid. What we don’t know is how much of him is his mum and how much of him is his dad. Can you make somebody piss their pants, Adam?’
‘Oh, give me a break, Doyle. Zeke, you never told me about the kid pissing his pants?’
‘I mustn’t have never come around to it.’
‘What we are dealing with here, boys, is the power of the mind. All the facts point towards it. She had the ability to fly across light years of space like it was a drive to the corner store. She could control a person’s behaviour without even having to see them, without any physical contact. She pulled off the biggest deception of the century and took an Earth kid back home, who could probably do everything she could. I’ve gotta have another smoke.’
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‘Lloyd! Lloyd talked about the dominance of the telepath.’
‘Who is Lloyd, Adam?’
‘Lloyd was this smart guy I knew at uni. He talked about evolution and how it was human destiny to evolve into telepathic beings because of the dominance of the telepath.
He said that a full telepath would be completely untouchable because everyone would be totally transparent to them.’
‘Telepathy. Look what we have dug up out of your stoned little minds. You’re lucky you’ve got me to talk to.’
‘I’m not so sure, Doyle. Sometimes I fantasize about what life would be like if you had never shown up.’
‘About as much fun as a fart in a crowded elevator, I reckon.’
Zeke picked up the prop guard lying on the floor next to him and asked Doyle,
‘So, you reckon that this guard wasn’t made on this planet?’
‘There’s no known way. It’s one piece and not cast.’
‘Hey, Adam, can I keep the guard for a while? I’d like to take a closer look at it. I’ll take good care of it.’
‘Aww, go ahead, but not for too long. I thought I’d give Ben’s jetpack a run one day.’
‘Thanks, mate.’
‘It’s getting late, boys, and I’ve still got a big drive in front of me. We made a lot of progress tonight, but we’re still not much closer to the answer to the big question.’
‘What’s the big question, Doyle?’
‘Why? Why is all this happening? But we know why they didn’t want us to find any DNA, don’t we, boys?’ Doyle began to awkwardly extricate himself out of the low lounge in preparation for his departure. ‘We’re not finished. I’d like to talk with you boys some more. It’s been a blast. I’ll be in touch.’
‘I’ll be holding my breath, Doyle.’
‘You might want to stock up on your medication as well, Adam. Something tells me you might need it. This story’s not over yet.’
Zeke saw Doyle out the door.
‘Don’t be a stranger, Doyle. I might let you in on me project if you come round again.’
‘What are you up to?’
‘I’m workin on a gravity sail.’
Doyle’s eyebrows shot to the sky, accompanied by a rare smile.
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‘Under normal circumstances, Zeke, I would pass you off as a total nut, but under current circumstances,’ Doyle’s voice suddenly changed into sounding very interested,
‘Jees, really? I must drop in then, and check it out.’ He looked up before he entered his car.
‘How is the sky out here? So many bloody stars. See you around, Zeke. … She said her heart beat how?’
Zeke heard Doyle laughing as he drove off into the darkness. When he came back inside, Adam spoke to him.
‘I think he knows a lot more than he’s telling us.’
‘I’m sure of it. Do you like how he’s lettin us think that we’re figurin everythin out ourselves?’
‘Yeah, but he’s figured it all out already.’
‘I wonder what else he knows?’
‘Or thinks he knows.’
5
It was late at night. Adam soon left Zeke’s place and drove slowly down the hill. He decided to pull into the empty car park on top of Bald Hill. He stepped out of his car and walked out to the tip of the point. Standing there in the chilly, offshore breeze felt like standing on the edge of the world. He had lost count of how many times he had launched from that spot. He remembered the adventures and tragedies he had lived through from there. He remembered all the young characters that so magnificently played out their roles, as if performing in some epic, Elysian opus.
He hadn’t flown since Libby left. He could feel himself drifting away from it. It frustrated him because he lived there, but the loss of his family had taken away all his will to fly. He looked into the night with its long string of Wollongong lights and spoke to her.
‘If you’re really telepathic, Libby, then maybe you can hear me, even if I can’t hear you. Well, it’s been a big day, sweetheart. We found out stuff about you. It’s all a bit weird, but you have to know that I still love you, darling. I don’t know why you had to go. And Benny, if you can hear me … I love you, son,’ he started to cry, ‘and I miss you … too much.’
That night, he drifted away into a deep, deep sleep and dreamt that he got a visit from Ben and Libby. They all sat around the veranda table in the afternoon sun and talked to each other for hours. When he woke up in the morning, he could still feel the warmth of her lips on his.
…….
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