I sighed and turned away. ‘I don’t need this,’ I said. Mom was due home any time. Dad was probably rolling up his tent to walk down Black Rock as we spoke.
‘We never said this was an exclusive relationship,’ Orlando reminded me, his voice harsh and precise. ‘Say I meet a girl at a campus open day, we spend some time together – what’s the problem?’
My stomach lurched, my heart thumped. I had all the usual physiological symptoms. ‘Whatever,’ I whispered.
‘I’m not saying it actually happened in Dallas,’ he backtracked. ‘I’m saying it could have.’
I walked away from him into the studio. ‘Grow up, Orlando, for Christ’s sake.’
He didn’t seem willing to take my advice. Instead, I heard the front door slam and the sound of tyres squealing on tarmac as he drove away.
He says it’s his Irish temperament – the Celtic quick temper. I say his mom spoiled him when he was a small kid. There was a baby boy who died before she gave birth to Orlando. After a cot death, as a mother how can you ever relax?
I didn’t hear from Orlando after he stormed out of the house. I spent Friday evening with my parents, and early Saturday I set out on a hike of my own up Black Rock.
‘Take my GPS,’ Dad offered. ‘Everything looks different after wildfire has run through. And watch out for new sink holes.’
I guess they would both have preferred for me not to set out, but neither had got in the way of me making my own decisions, not since I was around twelve years old, and so they weren’t about to start now.
‘I need some me-time,’ I told them, putting a camera into my pocket alongside Dad’s GPS. ‘Plus, I’ve begun a new project. I want to make more landscapes – part photography, part painting – a kind of montage. I need to take pictures.’
So I drove the highway then took the track leading up the mountain, parking my car under a stand of aspens near to a Forest Service notice board showing a red flag alert and a warning list of all the fire hazards in the area. For those who couldn’t read English there were drawings of cigarettes, matches, bottles of flammable liquids and campfires with bright red crosses through.
I left the car and struck out on foot, enjoying the silence and the wide-open space ahead of me. My boots crunched over pinkish-grey gravel, a surface created by the weathering of the granite boulders that lay scattered on the steep slopes. Spiky yucca plants thrived here at ground level, plus thorn bushes and the coarse, fleshy Indian tobacco plant with its poker-shaped, yellowing flower spike. I shot close-ups, thinking I could use the intricate plant formations in my paintings.
Walking on, I made for an area of felled redwoods that the Forest Service had cut down ready for chainsawing into sections and trucking off the mountain. This must have been some time back, because there was no smell of resin, and long, feathery grass had grown up around the fallen trunks. I sat down on one and flicked back through the morning’s pictures.
‘Tania?’ a familiar voice queried.
I looked behind me and saw a tall figure approaching. He was dressed in a dark jacket zippered to the chin and a black knitted hat that fitted his head as closely as a skull cap, coming down over his forehead but not hiding the sculpted lines of his lean cheeks and jaw – Zoran.
He came within twenty feet then stopped to wait for a couple of dogs, sleek and grey like oversized greyhounds, which sprang out from behind a tall boulder. ‘I thought I recognized you. Hey, good to see you.’
My first thought was that he’d spoiled my solitary morning, my me-time. My second was that for some reason it didn’t feel like a total accident, and my third was that our rock star looked remarkably like any other hiker on Black Rock. ‘Hey,’ I replied, slipping my camera back into my pocket and fending off the panting dogs.
‘How are you doing? It’s a great morning to be out on the mountain, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah. I’m doing good, thanks.’
‘No sign of the fire up here, huh? That was the miraculous escape when the wind took it in the opposite direction, towards the lake. Still, I thought I’d take a walk up this way to check there are no rogue embers lying around.’
‘How far are we from Black Eagle Lodge?’ I asked.
Holding out a hand to help me scale the nearest rock, Zoran invited me to take a look. ‘Put your foot on this ledge, now this one. It’s OK, I won’t let you fall.’
My hand was in his; he was hauling me up to the top of the rock then pointing to a canyon half a mile away where his house nestled. Tails up and tongues lolling, the dogs had already headed home. ‘See it?’
I nodded. ‘I thought I’d walked further than that.’
‘Distances can be deceptive on the mountain. This is actually my land, though I don’t fence it off. Hikers are free to walk where they want, within reason.’
I got it! Zoran must have high-level security around his actual ranch house. There would be cameras covering every angle – someone had caught me on camera, told the boss and he’d come out to investigate. No, not quite correct – Zoran had been higher up the mountain, walking down to my level. OK, so a security guy whose job it was to check the monitors had used a two-way radio to communicate my presence. This was how Zoran had known I was here.
‘Actually, Tania, you’re not our first visitor of the day,’ he continued. ‘And I think maybe you know the guy I’m talking about.’
I was feeling uneasy, getting ready to walk on, but now I hesitated. ‘Really?’
‘A guy named Aaron.’
‘Really?’ Not Holly’s Aaron, surely? He was the last name I expected to hear.
‘Yeah, that one,’ Zoran grinned, apparently interpreting my internalized reaction. ‘He goes to your high school. You do know him, right?’
‘He’s … he was my neighbour’s boyfriend.’ Until he suddenly broke it off.
‘Was?’ The past tense seemed to throw the great man momentarily off balance.
‘Until a few days back. Then they had one of their fights and fell out of love – again!’ Even as I delivered the information, I knew it was none of Zoran’s business and I regretted sharing with him.
‘Out of love?’ he repeated, jumping down from the rock with unexpected ease and waiting for me to follow. ‘That’s news to me.’
‘Holly told me he’d started dating another girl.’
Zoran nodded. He strode a few steps down the mountain, waited again. ‘She’ll be interested to hear that Holly is out of the picture.’
‘She will?’ I was totally confused. Why did he keep on saying things that kept me intrigued? Why didn’t I feel free to walk away?
‘Cristal is the name of the girl who just got together with Aaron,’ he explained. ‘She works for me. Why not come down and join us for coffee?’
Which is why, against my better judgement, I visited Black Eagle Lodge a second time – out of sheer, unadulterated curiosity about Aaron’s new girl.
I walked down the mountain with Zoran, watching the sun glint on the glass frontage of the house, noting that my memory of a vast main entrance with an elevator and an underground corridor leading deep into the rock was correct.
‘You like the concept?’ Zoran was clearly proud of his architect-designed home. ‘We faced some tough engineering challenges, but I came out with a totally unique building, don’t you think?’
‘I do.’
‘Electronically it’s extremely sophisticated. The doors don’t have conventional locks or handles – they’re all operated remotely. Every room has a sound system and a plasma TV screen built into the walls. And you see the block that lies next to the main house? That’s my recording studio.’
‘Cool,’ I said. To me all the electronic wizardry seemed too much like big boys’ toys. Personally I’m more interested in the artwork people hang on their walls than the circuits they put behind them.
‘Behind that is the chapel,’ he continued.
Chapel! Now, I hadn’t been expecting that. I mean, in this day and age, whose faith is str
ong enough to include a chapel in their architect’s plans? ‘You have your own place of worship?’
Zoran looked closely at me and smiled. ‘It’s very important to me, especially since my accident.’ He waited for my response and when I didn’t give one he went on. ‘You read about my car crash?’
‘Actually, my dad told me about it.’
‘I drove my Porsche over the brow of a hill at ninety miles per hour, the wheels lost contact with the ground and I hit a wall. I had a few slow-motion seconds to think, OK this is it – the end. But, what do you know, I came out alive, which was another of those miracles, I guess. After that, why would a person not believe in a higher power?’
‘Sure, I see that,’ I agreed, distracted by the transformation of the outdoor amphitheatre where the concert had taken place. Instead of a stage with its sound and lighting systems, I saw a fenced area containing the two grey dogs I’d seen earlier, plus around twenty horses standing beside what looked like a brand-new prefabricated barn.
‘You like horses?’ Zoran asked, changing direction so that we headed away from the chapel towards the arena. ‘These are wild mustangs. It’s part of the reason I built this place – I intend to buy a couple of dozen each year from the government as part of a planned adoption scheme.’
‘That’s neat.’ After our talk about the chapel, I was beyond being surprised by anything Zoran said. He could have told me that he was importing Buckingham Palace brick by brick from London to rebuild it here on Black Rock and I would have believed him.
Was I impressed? Sure I was.
Those mustangs were so beautiful. The dogs ran towards us and the horses raised their heads as we approached. They flattened their ears and flared their nostrils before the whole bunch set off at a lope around the arena. Their hooves thudded on the dirt surface, raising dust. One stopped close to the barn door and reared up, another rocked forward to kick out with its back legs. Then Daniel walked out of the barn.
My sun god was now dressed in jeans and a dark green and blue plaid shirt over a white T and he carried a coil of rope, kicking up dust with his cowboy boots as he walked towards Zoran and me. He was lean and mean and could have walked straight out of a western movie – I’m serious.
‘Hey, Tania.’ He greeted me casually before launching into a discussion with Zoran about documentation for the mustangs. ‘It’s more complicated than adopting a kid,’ he grumbled. ‘I can work with horses no problem, but I’m the first to admit I’m not good with paperwork.’
‘Hand it over to Cristal,’ Zoran suggested. ‘Did you pick out a horse for me to ride?’
‘They just trailered them up here,’ Daniel explained. ‘But straight away I like the big sorrel with the white flash.’ Pointing to the horse he’d chosen, he waited for Zoran’s approval.
‘Good choice,’ his boss agreed, accepting Daniel’s obvious expertise and already walking away, expecting me to follow. ‘You can start work with her later today. Right now you can put them all in the feed stalls and give them grain.’
I almost had to run to keep up, so I had no time to stop and talk with Daniel, even when I heard him call my name.
‘Tania, you never texted me back about meeting for coffee!’
‘Sorry, I didn’t get the chance,’ I yelled. A glance over my shoulder told me that my once-upon-a-time sun god Daniel was leaning on the fence rail in the full sunlight, sleeves rolled back and looking like a young Brad Pitt. My shallow heart skipped a beat.
‘Feed the horses then join Tania and me,’ Zoran called. ‘We’re in the studio.’
If Aaron wasn’t expecting to see me among the banks of switches and screens in Zoran’s recording studio, he didn’t show it. Who knows, maybe he was too fixated on Cristal to even notice my arrival.
Surprise – Cristal was out-of-this-world gorgeous! I mean really, no surprise. Her smooth skin was so pale against her wild, flame-coloured curls that it seemed actually to give off light. Her green eyes were set wide apart and the permanent position of her full, cupid-bow lips was slightly open. I stored the details of my first impression for when Holly dragged them out of me next time I saw her. ‘Nothing like you,’ I would report. ‘Cristal doesn’t look as if she ever went near a gym.’
Zoran introduced us. ‘I found Tania on the mountain. She was taking photographs for her new art project.’
‘Hey, Tania. Daniel told me all about you.’ Cristal’s voice was clear and deep, not breathy and girly. She looked me in the eye when she spoke, probably wondering why I was frowning. She wouldn’t know that what worried me was that I didn’t recall mentioning to Zoran the exact reason for my hike up Black Rock. ‘He was wowed by your bird of paradise costume at the party, said he picked you out from all the other boring angels.’
I smiled briefly, turned and said hi to Aaron. He nodded back and I thought he looked more than a little sheepish.
‘Cristal sure knows her way around this sound board,’ he mumbled.
‘I’m so sad I missed the party,’ Cristal went on eagerly. ‘I only flew in on Monday. I took a bus from the airport then Daniel came down to the country club to drive me up here, which is where I met Aaron.’
‘Zoran says you work out here,’ I said lamely.
She nodded. ‘I’m a sound recordist. We’re remixing tracks for a Zoran Classics album.’
‘Cristal’s hoping that I’ll lay down some new tracks too,’ Zoran interrupted. ’But I tell her I’m sorry to disappoint her – she’ll have to be satisfied with old songs.’
Cristal arched the most delicate pair of eyebrows I’d ever seen. Subtle green shadow on her upper lids enhanced the colour of her emerald irises. ‘We live in hope,’ she sighed.
‘Coffee!’ Daniel entered through the sliding glass door. He offered us a tray loaded with steaming paper cups decorated with stencilled silver angels, presumably left over from the Heavenly Bodies party.
‘Aaron!’ I hissed while Cristal, Daniel and Zoran took their drinks then put on headphones and gathered over a sound board. There was an issue with balance, volume, whatever, on one of the old recordings. ‘What are you doing here?’
Aaron blushed then shrugged. ‘Cristal invited me – it just kind of happened.’
‘And you don’t say no. I mean, you really lucked out!’
‘You don’t get to be sarcastic,’ he warned me sharply, nodding towards Daniel. ‘As far as I know, you and Orlando aren’t even on a break.’
And that was enough hissing and whispering because Zoran had settled the sound problem and Daniel was beckoning us across.
As we drew near, I half heard the tail end of a conversation between Zoran and Cristal.
‘They fell out of love?’ Cristal queried in a low voice, obviously surprised and repeating what Zoran had told her. She shot a quick glance in Aaron’s direction.
‘… Not a good fit,’ he muttered back. ‘Oliver is a better candidate.’
Like I say, I didn’t hear most of what they said and I didn’t know who Oliver might be, but I did notice Cristal stayed at the sound board while Daniel, Aaron, Zoran and I left the studio and headed for the house.
‘Cristal has work to do,’ Zoran explained to a puzzled and disappointed Aaron. ‘Daniel, maybe you can take Aaron outside and show him our new arrivals.’
With a quick nod Daniel took Aaron towards the arena where the mustangs stood sniffing the air and tossing their tangled manes. I watched Daniel’s rear view – long legs, tight butt, broad shoulders – maybe looking for a single imperfection that would steady my rapid pulse. Nope, nothing. And now the guy could train horses too.
‘I’ll let you into a secret – Daniel is really into you,’ Zoran confided without a shade of embarrassment.
What can I say? I didn’t know what to do with the information but I was deeply flattered and my pulse continued to race. ‘So I guess I should carry on with my hike,’ I sighed.
‘Let me show you something first,’ he offered with a smile. ‘With your background, I just
know you’ll find this interesting.’
He led the way through the main door into the white marble hallway, down two storeys in the elevator and along the silent corridor beyond. ‘You like ethnic art?’ he checked. ‘I have an extremely rare object to show you.’
I nodded, expecting him to stop and deliver a short lecture as we reached the row of Aztec masks – origins, spiritual significance, that sort of thing. He would pick one out – maybe Tepeyo-thingy, god of the underworld. But no, he was in so much of a hurry to show me his latest precious object that he brushed carelessly against the last mask in the row. I held my breath and watched as the mask – a ceramic representation of a primitive elongated face decorated in a red and black – slipped from its hook and fell to the floor.
I heard the impact, saw the mask smash and fragment, immediately crouched to help Zoran pick it up. But the shards seemed to shift under my fingers, sliding together again as if drawn by a magnet and fitting right back into place. I found myself staring down at the black circles painted around two bulging eyes and the piece of bone piercing a broad nose. The mask was back to its original condition as if the accident had never happened.
‘Not a problem,’ Zoran said with a strange knot of concentration between his brows. He put the mask back on its hook.
‘But how—’
‘Don’t ask,’ he cut in. ‘Just follow.’
First I wanted to yelp then I wanted to groan. That was so weird, like stepping out of reality into a dream for five brief seconds – so short that now I couldn’t believe that it had happened. Shaking my head, I almost felt my brain rattle inside my skull.
‘Come with me,’ Zoran insisted. He led me into a storage room next to the small cinema where we’d watched the recording of last week’s wildfire and went to a white cabinet built into an alcove in the wall. Sliding out a drawer, he beckoned me across.
So now I was looking down at a small, solid gold figurine – a snake’s head with pointed teeth in its jaws and a long, forked tongue hanging down. The body curved in an S-shape and ended in a plate decorated with bright-green stones. The whole thing was perhaps three centimetres long. ‘What is it?’ I asked, still queasy after the mask episode.