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"Let's get this over with."
Madeleine picked up a bottle of water, on the theory that itmight make a distracting projectile, and followed Noi in. One of the smaller apartments, very neat andtidy, with the windows wide open, sheer curtains rippling. No-one in sight. Two doors shut, one open. Competing scents: pine, and rot.
"Oh."
Noi lowered the bolt cutter, gazing into a room dominated bya king-sized bed. A pale cream spreadhad been drawn over the occupant. Twosteps and a twitch of the cloth and they had found an obvious candidate for'him'.
"I almost wish she'd come at us yelling 'Brai
Madeleine nodded, staring at a thick-set man in his sixties,whose cheery strawberry-striped pyjama pants cut into a swelling stomach, theskin unpleasantly mottled. Probably oneof those who had died the very first night.
"Could we even lift him?" she asked. "Where would we take him to?"
"One of the other apartments?" Noi was frowning, but no longer held the boltcutters at ready as she worked through the problem. "I think it's doable. We'll need something to shift him with, butI've got an idea for that. Comeon."
Calling out that they were going to get something to help,Noi led the way down to the wharf's echoing central hall.
"You head back to the restaurant and grab a couple ofpairs of gloves. They should be in thebox in the storage room to the left in the kitchen. Meet back at the elevator."
That was easily accomplished, and Madeleine found Noi hadbeaten her, and was lazily spi
"Luggage thing from the hotel," she explained. "All we have to do is get him off thebed."
The mystery woman hadn't shut them out. The dead man was still large and unwieldy.
"His arms and legs will trail off the sides,"Madeleine pointed out, reluctant to touch the man even with gloves.
"How about this?"
Noi dragged the cover fully off the bed, then pulled out thenear corners of the blue bed sheet. Catching on, Madeleine lifted the section of cloth nearest her.
"Hold your side a little lower," Noi instructed,then lifted hers, straining, and flopped the man onto his side in the verycentre of the sheet. "Now if we tiethe corners across, they'll be like handles."
It was still awkward, and moving him made the smell worse,but they managed to haul the sheet-bag to the side of the bed, and line thebaggage cart up so the man could be pulled through the tubular metal frame tolie more on than off. They exposed alarge stain on the mattress in the process, and Madeleine gagged at the stenchof it, and hastily followed Noi as she pushed the cart effortlessly out of theapartment. After a moment's debate theyreturned and hauled the mattress out as well
"He's gone now," Madeleine called back from thedoorway. "We...let us know if youneed anything else."
She pulled the door closed and caught up with Noi and thecart, two doors down at one of the apartments they'd cleared already, to helpher slide the heavy bundle to the floor. After bringing the mattress, and a quick detour to the apartmentbathroom to abandon gloves and wash hands, they left the empty cart still inthe room and shut themselves outside, heading back to their trolley ofsupplies.
"Time out for existential crisis," Noi said,sitting down. The words were light, butthe girl grey, eyes squeezed shut, arms wrapped around her knees.
Madeleine sat down to wait, understanding that Noi was herebecause her home was filled with the bodies of her family, her wry good humoura façade of normality plastered over extreme grief. Madeleine's ongoing worry about her parentswas a minor thing by comparison, and had lessened after last night's rain,though she wished she could get through to Tyler. Her phone was on its last legs, too, nearlyout of charge.
A distant shout: "Are you two okay?"
Across the central hall, standing on the matching walkway ofthe parallel southern apartment building, was a girl in a dark purple gown andviolet hijab, and a tall, hollow-cheeked man with a neatly trimmed beard, bothof them loaded down with shopping bags. It was such an everyday, ordinary sight that Madeleine had a moment'sdislocation, and told herself that there was no chance at all that they'd foundan open supermarket.
"Yes!" Noi called. "Glad to see you! We've justbeen going door to door checking on people."
The man said something to the girl, who nodded, and called:"Good idea! Wait a sec and we'llcome across!"
"I think our luck's turned," Noi murmured, as thepair took their bags into a nearby apartment – greeted by a weary,green-stained woman – and then made their way over.
"I'm Faliha Jabbour, and this is my Dad," the girl said, when theyarrived. She was about fifteen,round-cheeked and blue-palmed. "What's the plan?"
Noi introduced herself and Madeleine, and explained theirprogress so far.
"So few?" Mr Jabbourasked, his English slow and heavily accented but understandable. "We must hope for better."
"We should do our floor first," Falihasaid. "Check on Pe
Her father shook his head. "For the sake of safety, it is perhaps best to remain within quickreach of each other." He gaveMadeleine and Noi a grave glance, clearly not wanting his daughter to face theapartment of friends.
"We can leap-frog," Noi said. "There's only one bolt cutteranyway."
Leap-frogging worked well, vastly speeding up theirprogress. Falihaknocked, called out, and unlocked the doors, but waited outside while herfather checked the apartments. And soonthey were joined by Carl, then Asha and A
Once every room had been checked, all the Blues went down tothe restaurants and sorted through them while Noi and Sang-Kyu cooked up acouple of massive vats of curry – one chicken, one vegetarian – discussing whatconstituted Halal with Faliha and what was vegan withAsha. And what their food prospectswould be in a few weeks.
Madeleine helped clean up, watching their faces. Everyone red-eyed, smiles fragile. The sun was setting by the time they broke upto deliver curry and head to their respective homes. A gorgeous autumn evening, with a ribbon ofsmoke smudging the northern sky, and a mute tower of black watching, andwaiting.
ooOoo
"What's your cousin like?" Noi asked, as Madeleineunlocked the apartment door. "Worththe hero-worship?"
"I guess. I don'tknow anyone else who is so resolutely…his own self, which is an odd thing tosay about an actor. He says he only everplays himself, though, just in very strange situations."
"An actor? AnyoneI'd have heard of?" Noi parked thetrolley of food, glanced around Tyler's spacious apartment, and fixed on theportrait. She gave Madeleine anincredulous glance, looked back, then said: "Okay, I so should haverealised that. You've the same coloureyes. Why didn't you say anything whenwe were talking about him before?"
"Habit? Oncepeople know I'm Tyler's cousin, that's all they see me as. My parents moved to Sydney so I could getaway from people trying to be my friend or picking fights with me because ofTyler."