Geoffrey Cousins - The Butcherbird

As Jack entered, great shafts of light fell down through the three-storey-high glass roof and lit the yellow sandstone floor in soft pools. In one of these shimmering enclaves stood Louise, smiling at him, relaxed, willowy, tanned, in jodhpurs or some trousers vaguely reminiscent of horses and a cream cashmere vest that set off her shoulder-length blonde hair and brown skin. She was a handsome woman, that was how Jack thought of her; fit, athletic, strikingly attractive, with an aura of confidence and commitment. And she was his wife and he loved her. She came forward to embrace him and ran her fingers up through his hair in a gesture that always affected him. ‘So, the great sailor returns from life on the high seas. Didst thou conquer the waves? Didst thou haul on mighty hawsers and splice the main brace? And hast thou returned to thy safe port and the bosom of a soft woman?’

Jack led her through the sculpture court into the kitchen that ran the entire width of the house. She was always teasing in this way, bringing him to earth or to heel, whichever she deemed necessary, and he loved her for that as well. It had been the same when they were partners together in the business. She’d been a competent architect-not in his creative league, never able to take the leap from a logical solution into the poetry of design, into the shadow puppetry of shapes and light falls-but brilliant in all the practical necessities of contracts and councils. He’d missed her when they started a family and she decided to commit to that. He missed sparring with her when they came together for coffee, when she looked over his shoulder at the sketches on the drawing board, sometimes mildly critical, but more often with, ‘Not just a pretty face, are you, Jack?’ He fed off her approval and the work was always better when they were in tune with one another. But he’d become the architect everyone loved so much he’d stopped being an architect and become a property developer. He’d moved effortlessly from design to building to financing as he collected people, or more as they collected him and his charming talent. But somewhere along the track, the profitable, seamless footpath of success through Sydney’s best suburbs, he felt he’d lost some of Louise’s respect. Not that she ever overtly showed this to Jack or anyone else. But he felt it.

‘It was a motorboat actually, or ship more likely. Enormous great thing. But not much call for hauling on the mainsails. Anyway, how was the literary event?’

She examined Jack carefully. He was a hopeless liar or dissembler, which was one of the things she loved about him, along with a basically good heart, a sound set of human values-capable of eroding at the edges, but in the main sound. An immediate attempt to change the subject usually indicated nervousness.

‘You would have loved it. Locked away in an overheated room in Bowral discussing whether Truman Capote did or did not contribute to Harper Lee’s only novel and whether J.D. Salinger actually exists or is merely a figment of his daughter’s imagination. Or something like that. But tell me more about life at sea. Who was there? What was said? I stand, or sit, ready to be amazed.’

Jack drummed his fingers on the wooden table, unaware he was telegraphing more signals of uncertainty. ‘No one of great interest really, no one you’d know. Oh, except Archie Speyne from the museum. He was swanning about chatting up Mac. And a couple of business people and some broken-down old pollie. You didn’t miss much either.’

‘Really?’ She paused and slowly twisted a strand of hair between thumb and forefinger. ‘And no wives? No women at all? That must have been dull. What is Mac Biddulph, a misogynist or gay or something?’

Jack laughed, not knowing it was the wrong laugh. ‘Hardly. I don’t think he’s gay, that’s for sure.’

‘Really?’ Another, longer pause. ‘I didn’t realise you knew him at all. And no stimulating conversation or even gossip for me to share with the girls at tennis?’

‘You don’t play tennis.’

‘Quite so. But if I did, and I might take it up, I’d need gossip to bring with me or I’d be driven out of the group and publicly stoned as a woman of low morals.’ She was smiling broadly at him, no hint of suspicion or condemnation.

‘Well, I sold the penthouse in The Pinnacle, so it wasn’t a wasted weekend. Mac snapped it up, which pretty much closes off the sales for that one.’

Her eyebrows arched up in surprise. ‘That’s extraordinary. It’s a wonderful penthouse, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t have thought it was anywhere near grand enough for Mac Biddulph.’

Jack squirmed in the swivel chair, rose and began to pace. ‘That’s what I said. But he’s bought it as an investment.’

Again the eyebrows shot up. ‘An investment? Either he must have new ideas on how to get a return on six and a half million dollars that we don’t know about or he’s prepared for a long wait for a capital gain.’

Jack opened the see-through refrigerator door, peered into its lighted recesses, closed the door again. ‘I guess that’s up to him. Anyway, I took a bit less than the asking price to get the deal through. No point in being greedy. Bird in the hand.’

She followed him with her eyes, wondering which cupboard he’d open next in his exploration of cutlery and crockery. ‘And which bird did we get in the hand-a sparrow or a goose?’

‘I took six. It’s a fair price and we’ve made an indecent profit on the whole development.’

‘Indeed we have, darling. I’m just a little surprised you decided to grant some of it to Mac Biddulph, who hardly seems a deserving case, when winter is coming and blankets, warm food and thick clothing will be required for less fortunate citizens.’

Jack had reached the atrium and paused as if deliberating whether to disappear into it or circle back towards her. She decided to solve his dilemma.

‘You know best, darling. Come on, I’ll make us a decent cup of coffee, something not available within a hundred kilometres of a literary retreat.’ But as he approached, she couldn’t resist one last shot. ‘Still, I hope you don’t get invited on that boat too often. Half a million dollars makes an expensive weekend.’

A few nights later they sat at dinner together. It was a ritual they all treasured. Considering sixteen-year-old girls were supposed to be rebellious, especially with their fathers, and thirteen-year-old boys to have the attention span of cocker spaniels, it seemed a custom from another time. But any night they were all home, which was often, they ate as a family, with Jack acting as quiz master in another strange Beaumont custom.

‘Who was the King of Spain in 1922?’

‘That’s dumb, Dad. We know they were all called Carlos. Ask a proper question.’

Sarah would be another Louise, he could see that already. She was captain of the hockey team, frighteningly good at maths, and more than capable of instructing her father in the finer points of his behaviour.

‘Yes, well, you may know that but a reasonable percentage of the world’s population is unaware of these mysteries.’

Sarah tossed her head so her long hair shook from side to side, something she had observed many twentyyear-old girls in the coffee shops of Paddington were wont to do. ‘Nonsense, Dad. Everyone knows it. Now ask us something decent and remember you have to know the answer.’

Louise interjected. ‘A family rule which has stifled many a brilliant question in former times.’

Jack observed them all with deep affection. This was the family sport, scoring points off Dad, but he knew it was their way of expressing love and that the day it stopped he would have lost more than respect. He looked across to the dog sleeping quietly on the rug, for support, but received none.