Disharmony

job to the next, just like him? Maybe she’d grown up just down the road from him in Campbelltown. They could have gone to school together and not even known it. Not that he ever really went to school very often, but still…

Did she know he existed? Did she know and not care?

Suddenly, he really wanted to know the answer to the second question.

What if he was the way he was because there was a part of him missing? What if she was that missing part?

He knew, suddenly, that he had to find her.

***

Luke found Zac squatting in the hallway outside his bedroom. He’d been wondering whether Zac had actually even bothered to stay here last night. Now that they were out of Dwight, there were probably plenty of places Zac could go. He’d mentioned brothers. He must have had friends or family he could hide out with.

But Zac was there, waiting patiently at his bedroom door.

‘Don’t you ever sit like normal people?’ said Luke.

‘I’m comfortable like this,’ said Zac.

‘What is a vegan, anyway?’ said Luke.

‘What’s that got to do with how I sit?’

Luke shrugged. ‘I don’t know. You are weird, though. What are you doing in the hallway?’

‘I don’t like it here,’ said Zac.

‘Yeah, I can really understand why you feel that way, Zac,’ said Luke. ‘I mean, it really is rundown and dirty, and there’s hardly any space for us. I suppose it would have been much better to sleep under a bridge or out in the freezing rain last night.’

‘Have you seen the cats?’ said Zac.

‘I’ve seen a cat.’

Zac gave him a meaningful stare.

Luke laughed. Cats? Now he doesn’t like cats?

‘You’re freaking me out, Spiderman,’ he said, reaching down a hand and dragging Zac to his feet. ‘Where’s our host?’

Zac shrugged. ‘When are we leaving?’

‘Where do you want to go?’ Luke began walking down the hall, towards the kitchen.

‘Where do you want to go?’ said Zac.

‘I want to find my sister,’ said Luke.

‘Agreed,’ said Zac. ‘I think we need to do that, fast.’

Luke stopped walking. Suddenly, thoroughly, he’d had too much of the riddles. He turned and prodded Zac in the chest with his forefinger. Hard.

‘We’re not going anywhere, Nguyen,’ he said. ‘In fact, I’m going to take off right now and have nothing to do with you, unless you tell me who you are and who you think I am. And why you’re so interested in helping me find my sister.’

‘Deal,’ said Zac, moving back a step. ‘I think I now have something I can tell you. I really didn’t know before why I was sent to help you, but if you are who I now believe you are, you’re gonna need all the help you can get.’

Zac turned and began walking.

‘But if you ever poke me in the chest like that again,’ he said, throwing the words back over his shoulder, ‘you’d better be prepared to live with only nine fingers.’

They found Georgia upstairs in a decked-out lounge room ranging across half of the middle level of the home. The entire back wall of the room was glass, looking out over the harbour. Georgia curled cat-like on a sprawling red leather lounge, her eyes on a massive flat-screen, killing aliens with the gaming control in her hands.

Another haughty Siamese cat sat on an armrest next to her, staring down its long nose at them. A black-and- white cat sat like a miniature panda beside her, cleaning its belly. It raised its lime-green eyes to judge them, and then resumed its duties with particular gusto.

‘Well, don’t you ladies sleep forever,’ Georgia said, without taking her eyes from the screen. ‘Help yourselves to whatever you want in the kitchen.’

Luke figured they may as well eat before they left, so he and Zac headed back downstairs. He cracked the door of the fridge and leaned in. A giant chocolate cake beckoned at face height. There were strawberries, a cling- wrapped bowl of fried chicken, a two-litre bottle of chocolate milk and half a leg of ham.

‘This place,’ Luke said. ‘I love this place.’

He pulled out the ham, a jug of orange juice and a block of Swiss cheese.

‘What can you eat?’ he said.

Zac peered over his shoulder into the fridge. ‘Just pass me the strawberries,’ he said. ‘And I’ll have some toast.’

‘How do you live like that?’ said Luke. ‘Not eating meat?’

‘Well, I don’t know how you live like you do,’ Zac said. ‘You see, when you realise that all animals are sentient, and they just want to live like we do, it seems rather, um, disgusting to murder them and eat their flesh.’

Luke grinned, slicing ham. ‘You don’t seem particularly fond of the cats, though,’ he said.

An orange cat sat on the granite benchtop watching them. His fat hindquarters spread out across the surface like a giant puddle of marmalade.

‘I’m not happy with these cats,’ agreed Zac.

‘Well, I like them,’ said Luke. ‘And I like their house a lot. You reckon you can figure out how to use the griller on that oven?’

Luke sliced more ham and some cheese while Zac grilled four slabs of bread. He decided that now was as good a time as any to find out more about himself.

‘Tell me what you know,’ he said.

‘I don’t think this is the right place to talk,’ said Zac.

Luke stabbed his knife into the wood. ‘Well, I’m not waiting any more, Zac. I thought we agreed.’

Zac met Luke’s eyes and then dropped his gaze to the floor. He raised his left foot and rested it against his right leg. He lowered it, and balanced on the other foot. Finally, he blew a huge sigh.

‘Well, firstly, I’m an elf. So there’s that,’ he said.

Luke left the knife where it was. He didn’t think he could trust himself with it right now.

‘Come on, Luke,’ continued Zac. ‘You know I’m not like you. You people are sooo slow. You’ve seen me run.’

‘So you can run fast.’

‘And fight.’

‘You’re a good fighter.’

‘And what I did with the mushrooms.’

Luke snorted. ‘So, you’re not a gardener or a cook. That doesn’t makes you an elf or a pixie or whatever. Oh my God, Zac, why would you even choose to be an elf if you were going to go all fairytale on me? Couldn’t you at least have been a vampire or something? They’re all the rage at the moment.’

‘You’re hilarious,’ said Zac. ‘Well, how did I open the gates at Dwight when we were about to crash the swamp rat right into them?’

‘You said the guards did it,’ said Luke, faltering. ‘To let the ambulance through.’

‘How did we leave the running track without Singh or anyone else seeing us? Why did the transit cops walk right past us on the train, and not see us at all?’ Zac pulled the bread out from under the grill.

‘Lucky?’ said Luke.

‘Magic,’ said Zac. ‘I have a little. Some elves have a lot. We can draw upon the forces of nature to change the way people see things. And we’re very fast.’

The orange cat stretched out along the benchtop, head on its paws, listening carefully.

‘There’s no such thing as elves,’ said Luke. ‘There are such things as psychiatrists, though. And we need to hook you up with one.’