Part Two Chapter 1
Harriet stood, wide eyed and mouth open, staring at the scene Zeph had painted on the warehouse wall. She noticed now that the door opened onto a beach, and it was as if she could smell the salt air. How could someone do something like that? Yet clearly Zeph had done it, and in a freezing warehouse, hungry and with little sleep.
‘Not bad, eh!’ he said. His voice was warm and confident. This was a different Zeph.
Harriet felt a pull to approach the door, to run her hand along the stone wall, to touch the rough grain. But she didn’t move. She couldn’t. She just stared.
‘Do you like it?’ said Zeph. Unnecessarily.
‘It’s magic,’ she said. ‘It’s … it’s just unbelievable Zeph. I can’t believe it’s possible. It’s unreal.’
The two stood for a moment, shoulder to shoulder.
And then, suddenly, she knew exactly what she would do next.
‘Zeph,’ she said. The urgency in her voice seemed to surprise him. A shadow of doubt passed briefly across his face. ‘Zeph,’ she repeated. ‘I want you to stay here. Don’t go anywhere. Not for any reason. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
‘Why? Where are you going?’ He reached out and touched her arm.
‘I’m coming back. I’ll be back soon,’ she said.
Zeph was frowning.
‘I’ll be back soon,’ she said again. ‘As soon as I can. I have to get something. You wait here.’
Harriet didn’t stop running until she could see the yellow weatherboard exterior of Molly McInness’s house, with its chained bike and wooden bench on the porch.
This was going to be a difficult conversation.
The sun was setting in the west and an evening chill was in the air. There was a light on outside the front door.
Harriet stood for a moment, waiting for her breathing to settle. Then she knocked.
She could hear music coming from inside. Opera or something. A high male voice reached some kind of crescendo. The music was very loud. She knocked again, then banged on the front door’s art deco glass panel.
The music stopped and she could see a watery silhouette coming down the passage. Then the door opened.
‘I thought it might be you,’ Molly said. ‘Did you leave something from earlier?’
‘Can I come in?’ said Harriet, then noticed Molly’s apron. ‘You’re cooking. I won’t be long.’
‘Do you want some?’ said Molly stepping aside for Harriet to enter. ‘There’s plenty for two. Or three if Zeph wants to join us.’
Harriet shook her head, then followed Molly down the dark passage towards the bright kitchen. Molly pointed to a stool at the kitchen bench. There was a half drunk glass of wine next to an open cookbook. The sweet smell of fried onions gave the kitchen a homely, inviting feel. Harriet half-wished she could stay.
‘Ms McInness,’ she said as Molly returned to the onions. She wanted to call her Molly. ‘Ms McInness, can I have another look at the ruby brooch?’
Molly smiled. ‘Of course.’
She took the onions off the stove, wiped her hands on her bright blue apron, and left the room. When she returned, she was holding the little box, which she carefully opened on the bench in front of Harriet. The brooch sat in its nest of tissues.
Harriet lifted it out, and, as she’d done earlier in the day, held it reverently in her cupped hands.
‘It’s magic,’ she said.
‘That’s what you said this morning,’ said Molly.
‘It’s literally magic,’ said Harriet. ‘Not just beautiful. Not just wonderful. It’s magic.’
Harriet could see that Molly was puzzled. A little uneasy even.
‘Ms McInness, would you come with me for a little while? With the brooch?’
‘What do you mean?’ said Molly. She was frowning now.
‘I want to show you something that Zeph has done.’
‘Zeph? Harriet, this is beginning to sound a bit weird. Why the brooch? What has Zeph done?’
‘Ms McInness, I can’t really explain, you’ve got to see it for yourself. I really want you to see it.’
‘But why the brooch Harriet? I don’t understand.’
‘Please come. If I’m right, you’ll understand when you see it. But if I try to explain, you’ll think I’m crazy. Please. Please trust me.’
‘This is very strange Harriet. I’m in the middle of cooking. Can it wait until tomorrow?’
‘No, it really really can’t wait. It’s important. Please Ms McInness. I promise it will make sense. But you have to see it. I can’t explain.’
‘OK,’ said Molly taking off the apron. ‘Where are we going?’
‘I’ll show you,’ said Harriet. ‘But bring the brooch. You’ve got to bring the brooch.’
Zeph was sitting at the warehouse entrance as they approached. His earlier animation had seeped away. He looked, instead, confused, slightly resentful.
‘Zeph… Ms McInness…’
Harriet stopped. How to say the next bit? What was the next bit? For a panicked moment she wondered if she’d been in the grip of some utterly irrational notion which, now that the moment had come to explain it, had suddenly revealed itself as foolishness.
‘Harriet, what’s going on? Zeph?’
Zeph shrugged his shoulders.
‘Trust me, please,’ said Harriet. ‘Come inside. Zeph, show Ms McInnes what you’ve done.’
‘It was for you,’ said Zeph. ‘Not her.’
There wasn’t anger in Zeph’s voice, nor even the bitterness of a perceived betrayal. What Harriet heard instead was a note of resignation, as if he was being reminded suddenly of the way the world works. Things turn to shit.
‘Zeph it isn’t what you think. Please. Both of you, come inside. Please.’
Zeph slowly got to his feet and led the way in. Molly followed, then Harriet.
Inside all was dark.
‘Harriet,’ said Molly. ‘This is not a good place to be. It’s not safe.’
Harriet switched on the torch in her phone. It was a strong light, though not strong enough to light up the whole wall. She moved closer to Zeph’s painting and began to highlight different parts. The rough stones in the wall. The ivy. A spider under a leaf. She could sense Molly’s mood shift.
‘Zeph did this,’ said Harriet. She felt less tense now that the focus was on the painting. She moved the light towards the half-opened door and the beach scene beyond. She heard Molly gasp.
‘It’s wonderful, isn’t it,’ Harriet said. She turned to look at her two companions. ‘Ms McInness?’
Molly seemed not to hear. Her eyes were fixed on the door.
‘Zeph,’ said Harriet. ‘Hold this.’
She passed him the phone.
‘Ms McInness,’ Harriet repeated, a little louder this time. ‘Ms McInness! Could you pass me the ruby brooch?’
Without taking her eyes off Zeph’s painting, Molly allowed Harriet to take the brooch.
Again Harriet cupped it in her two hands. It was warm, perhaps from Molly’s hands. Yet Harriet also felt another kind of warmth, a kind of energetic emanation.
‘What are you doing Harriet?’
But Harriet hardly heard Molly’s voice. Instead, she approached the door, the ruby brooch held out in front of her, like a priest approaching an altar.
Focussing her eyes intently on the beach scene glimpsed through the partially opened door, Harriet imagined, then heard, the boom of the surf on the rocks. She imagined, then heard, a seagull. She imagined, then smelled, the warm salty air.
She reached out, still with the ruby held in front of her, and pushed on the door with her clasped hands. She felt it move and then saw it swing slowly open.
She put one foot through the door and placed it gently on the rocks beyond. Then, mildly surprised that she sensed no resistance, no invisible barrier, she thrust the whole of herself through.
She was in a cave, hemmed in on each side by dark rocky walls, a cave which opened out onto the beach where she could see and hear waves from a restless sea beating against a rock platform.
She turned to see if either of the others had followed, but there was no sign of the door through which she had just passed.
Harriet felt a momentary panic. What had she done?
But she still had the ruby in her grasp. The ruby was reassuring. The ruby had some kind of power that she felt she could trust. Still with her two cusped hands holding the ruby, she touched the back of the cave wall. It was as if the wall was a hologram. Her hands passed through. In a moment she was back in the warehouse looking at Molly’s and Zeph’s incredulous faces.
No-one spoke. Zeph dropped the phone. The light went out. They stood in momentary darkness.
Harriet sensed Zeph crouching and groping. Then, suddenly, there was light again.
‘Harriet, what’s happening?’ said Molly. She looked frightened now. ‘What’s going on?’
‘It’s the brooch,’ said Harriet. ‘I knew it was magic. I knew I could trust it.’ She hadn’t known this, of course, but her earlier doubts were now forgotten. ‘I knew as soon as you showed it to me that it could lead us to a different world.’
Harriet looked now at Zeph, who had given the light to Molly and was now running his hand over the solid and seemingly impenetrable surface of the painted door.
‘You need the ruby,’ said Harriet. ‘Here, try it with the ruby.’
Zeph hesitated.
‘Go on Zeph,’ said Harriet again, handing him the ruby. ‘Hold it like this,’ she said, ‘and don’t let go of it. Come back quickly, though. We’ll be waiting.’
Zeph nodded and held the ruby in his outstretched hands. Then he, too, pushed on the door and in an instant was gone.
Harriet and Molly waited.
‘Harriet, what’s going on?’ said Molly.
‘It’s OK,’ said Harriet. ‘As long as we’re careful. The ruby is the key. We can pass in and out as long as we keep hold of the ruby.’
‘But how did you know?’
‘I can’t explain it,’ she said. ‘I just knew. As soon as I saw Zeph’s painting, I knew.’
Suddenly Zeph’s hand appeared through the door, and then the rest of him.
‘That’s … that’s something,’ he said.
‘Your turn Ms McInness.’
‘I don’t think … I’m not sure I want to,’ Molly said.
‘Go on Ms McInness, it’s amazing. It’s a whole other world through there. Really. It’s another world.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Molly. ‘I’m not sure why. I just think I don’t want to. Not yet anyway.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m sure. You go again. Both of you. I’ll wait here. Can two people go at the same time?’
‘I’m not sure,’ said Harriet. ‘Let’s try. Zeph?’
Zeph nodded.
‘Take your time. Explore a bit. I’ll wait here.’
Harriet again felt a beckoning from the world beyond the wall. She and Zeph joined hands around the brooch, and then, together, slowly, they approached the door again.
They pushed.
The door dissolved.
They pushed through, pressed awkwardly together by the narrow gap.
They had taken their first few steps out of the cave before they realised that they were still both clutching the brooch and holding hands. Zeph let go suddenly and for a panicked moment Harriet thought the ruby brooch was going to slip out of her grasp onto the rock platform and slide down into the ocean. She clasped it to her beating heart.
‘Sorry,’ said Zeph. He was looking flushed and anxious. Excited as well. A whole mixture of things really, she guessed. Like her.
‘It’s OK,’ Harriet reassured him. ‘We’ve got to be careful with the brooch though. I’d hate to think what would happen if we lost it.’
‘Yeah, not good,’ said Zeph.
Harriet pinned the brooch to the inside of her jean’s front pocket. Then she began to walk carefully over the rocks towards a sandy patch off to her left. The beginning of a beach perhaps; it was hard to see from where she was. Every few steps she checked to make sure the brooch was still in her pocket. She knew it couldn’t possibly fall out, but she checked anyway.
Zeph, she saw when she turned round, was standing on a bigger rock looking out to sea.
And now she noticed how much warmer it was here. They’d left a winter world behind the door and stepped straight into a sparkling summer morning.
Harriet reached the sandy patch. It was indeed one end of a tiny beach. A tiny enclosed beach. To her right, the open sea. To her left a steep hill. A sheltered, protected cove. It felt peaceful in the morning sun. It felt like a good place to be after the confused tumult of the past few hours.
But she felt an edginess as well, and kept glancing back at Zeph. Whenever he slipped out of sight, she felt a momentary panic.
There was something else about this place, something elusive but particular. It looked like any number of beaches she’d visited along the eastern seaboard of Australia. And yet.
Then it struck her. The sun was rising from over the land, not as she would have expected, from over the sea.
There could be a simple explanation of course. This could be on the west coast of some island or continent. Or it could be that in this other world, the planets were differently aligned. And were perhaps populated by different creatures. The seagull had been reassuring, though she hadn’t actually seen it. But what else lived here?
Harriet moved cautiously up the beach. The day was warming up quickly. She took off her jumper and felt the warmth through her t-shirt, and on the bare skin of her arms and neck. She took off her sneakers and socks and felt the squishy sand through her toes, the pleasure of it all balanced, if as on a knife’s edge, with a fear that they were not alone in the area.
Then she noticed Zeph waving. He didn’t look alarmed. Perhaps he just wanted to make sure they kept in touch. She started to make her way back.
‘It’s nice here, eh,’ he said as she approached the rock on which he stood. ‘But shouldn’t we be getting back?’
‘I guess so,’ said Harriet. She was reluctant to leave though.
‘How about I go back and see if Ms McInness will join us for a bit?’
Zeph looked doubtful, nervous even.
‘I’ll just poke my head through. See what she thinks.’
‘OK,’ said Zeph. ‘But I’m coming down now. I’ll wait in the cave.’ She sensed his need to stay close. She shared it.
Harriet carefully unclipped the brooch and, with Zeph a step or two behind, re-entered the cave. As before she cupped her hands around the brooch and then pushed through the cave wall.
She was gone less than a minute before she reappeared, breathless and white-faced.
‘She’s gone,’ said Harriet. ‘The warehouse is empty. And it’s broad daylight through there. I don’t get it.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Zeph. ‘And what’s that?’
Harriet was not only clutching the ruby brooch, but also an envelope. A sealed envelope. With Harriet and Zeph’s name clearly printed on it.
‘This was sitting there,’ Harriet said. ‘On the warehouse floor.’
‘Open the envelope,’ said Zeph.
They sat leaning against the rock wall of the cave. Harriet handed the brooch to Zeph and tore open the envelope. Then she read aloud its contents.
Hi Harriet and Zeph,
We’re worried sick and hope you are OK. I’ve been coming to the warehouse every evening, but it’s over six months now since you disappeared and perhaps you are never coming back. We hope and pray that you are OK. We hope you will read this letter.
‘Six months?’ said Zeph. ‘We only just got here!’
Harriet bit her lip and read on.
… hope you will read this letter.
Just in case you’re thinking of returning after all this time, I must warn you.
DO NOT STAY IN THIS WORLD!! Go back to whatever is on the other side of the door, and go back as quickly as you can.
I hope and pray that you’ve found this letter. If you’re reading it in our world, go back as quickly as you can! Now! Read the rest when you are safe.
Harriet paused and looked over at Zeph.
‘Go on! Keep reading!’ he said.
Perhaps you’ve already seen some of the effects of the Devastation. Perhaps you’ve looked out the warehouse windows and have seen what has become of Melbourne. If not, all to the good. It’s enough for you to know that for the time being we are alive. Max and I have worked out a plan to get us out of the city and to a place which we hope will be safer. The Devastation came so suddenly. We had no time to prepare. It was terrifying, unimaginably terrifying. You’re well out of it. We’ve been making do for the past few months, but the time to leave has come. We will have left by the time you read this.
And now I have to tell you both the most important thing. This is going to sound very strange, though perhaps after what we experienced last winter in the warehouse, strange is a relative term. Perhaps, by now, you’re ready to hear what it is that I must tell you.
Harriet, you remember me talking about my Granny Metcalfe. She was the one who gave me the ruby brooch. What I didn’t tell you was that she also gave me a letter when she gave me the brooch. The letter is only now beginning to make some sense.
I have the letter still and have just fetched it from the back of a drawer. Here it is.
An old note was carefully folded in with Molly’s letter, and Harriet now read this out loud.
Molly dear, this brooch I entrust into your safe keeping. The red of this ruby is an eternal flame which can never be extinguished. It lives when all else is shattered. It lives when the world is consumed in a devastation. Its flame lights the way to the only salvation. Keep it, guard it, and when the time is right, entrust it to those who can cross the threshold. Only they can save the world. For they must seek and find the woman twice-dead and bring back to the world the seeds of the resurrection. For the scattered seeds of the resurrection shall cover the spoiled earth and the poison shall be leached away, and life will return where once there was desolation.
Molly’s letter continued.
How could I have forgotten these words when you came asking for the ruby brooch!
But I did.
How could I have not remembered them when you walked through the door!
But I did.
It was only when Max said something to me about our world being consumed by the Devastation that a switch flicked and I remembered the letter and Granny Metcalfe’s words.
You and Zeph are our only hope. You have crossed the threshold. You must find the woman twice-dead, find the resurrection seeds, and return to us.
As Granny Metcalfe used to say to me each night, ‘God speed you on your journey, child, and may the spirit of all that is good fill your heart with courage and resolve.’
We are alive. If you are reading this, then there is hope.
Molly McInness
Harriet folded the letter and looked at Zeph.
‘Holy fucking hell,’ said Zeph.