Free Wake by Elizabeth Knox Page B

keeps wringing her hands and saying she has to do something. I said that we needed some kind of grapnel. She goes, “What’s that?” And I say, “You know, like in the movies, when they have a hook on a rope for climbing walls?” And then—get this—she says: “Would the supermarket have one?”’
    William laughed.
    â€˜So I decide she’s a bit limited and figure I’m pretty much on my own. I couldn’t tell whether you were still alive. Your eyes were partly open, and drying out by the look of them. I was wracking my brain. That was when Sam began acting really strange. She got a paper and pencil out of one of her pockets and started writing furiously. She was holding her pencil the way clumsy kids at my primary school used to. You know? Making holes in the paper. She finished her note, and covered the paper with one hand, then put her other hand on the big patch of blood on her shirt—like someone taking a pledge. She was pressing really hard. She went dead white and fresh blood oozed through. By that time I was yelling at her, then I lost the plot for a bit because I got another whiff of that weird smell. It’s a little like medical-grade alcohol. When I started paying attention again I see she’s dropped the note. She’s wiping her nose, and looking at the blood and snot as if she hasn’t noticed it before. Her expression was so strange, William—displeased, and really cold.
    â€˜Then she spots her note, and picks it up. She reads it, screws it into a ball, and throws it at you. It bounced off your cheek. I guess she was trying to check if you were alive. You looked awful. Your skin had gone kind of yellow.’
    â€˜How do I look now?’
    â€˜Terrible.’
    Sam loomed out of the dark again. She tapped on the driver’s window. Lily jumped, then collected herself and made a ‘give us five’ sign. Sam didn’t go back up the path, only hovered by the car, looking chastened.
    Lily turned back to William and went on in a whisper. ‘She took charge, found a tow rope in the kit in your trunk and made a big knot in one end. She said something like, “Apparently we need a grappa. I could sure do with a drink about now, but I guess what she meant was a grapnel.”’
    â€˜ She who?’ said William.
    â€˜Exactly.’
    William frowned at Lily.
    â€˜That expression better not be sceptical, mister. We saved you. And, you know, trying to do that wasn’t a done deal. Sam wondered whether you were dead—like she was going to give up. But then it started raining, and a raindrop plopped into one of your eyes, and your eyelid twitched. We kept throwing the rope and shaking it to make a loop around your foot. It took forever. Whenever something wasn’t working Sam would change tactics. I just did what she told me to.
    â€˜And look at her now.’ Lily jerked her head at the patient, abject figure by the car.
    â€˜She’s odd. Practical with problems, but paralysed when she interacts with other people. One of those people.’
    â€˜Maybe. Or maybe she only got a small dose of whatever it is that drove everyone else mad.’
    â€˜I promise I’ll keep a close eye on her. But we should go in now.’
    They got out of the car. Sam looked relieved. She hurried ahead of them up the higgledy-piggledy paving path. Her outdoor light switched itself on. William came up behind her and found its switch. He shut it off. ‘We should show no lights,’ he told them. He drew them indoors—then locked the door.
    Sam Waite was the only one of the survivors in Kahukura during the deadly moment—the moment when everyone went completely and comprehensively insane. Sam went insane too. Then she went away. When she came back she found herself sitting at the big pine table in the kitchen of Mary Whitaker Rest Home, her place of employment. The windows of the long room were all open. There was