The questions were directed at her husband. The Perdu family were in the country because of his talents, which would be used in reviewing and taking charge of a pharmaceutical company. He was invited, a local government initiative, the customs process a formality.

The customs officer looked at Ava intently. She smiled. She would’ve been surprised if her name appeared on any watchlist, but she was a spy so there lay a tinge of apprehension. Her deeds would be shrouded by her husband and his business.

“It’s a lovely area you’re settling in. Just out of the city. Small community. Your daughter will make some good friends. Country people are friendly,” the customs officer said.

“I hope so,” Ava said. “It’s a long way to come to make enemies.”

2 – Madeleine, why so soon?

Lunar Eclipse. A Sunday night, next autumn (fall)

CLOUDS PASSED OVER the blood red moon.

An abandoned house sat in the middle of a large, grassy and weed infested block. Its rusted roof glowed from the moonlight and its wooden veranda creaked and moaned. The grounds of the house were secured by a fence with parts peeled back providing access to the uninvited. Madeleine Perdu was one of those uninvited. She started going there for solitude and it was there where the thought first came and it wouldn’t go away.

A dark shadow passed over the house. The creaking and moaning ceased. The quietness of the early evening broken by a loud crack as a piece of timber snapped. A thud and a body rolled on to the damp grass.

A chill was entering her back. She stared up, squinting. Something red, centred, hidden, obscured, trapped. The moon? Like her heart, it also obscured, entwined by the things of the world: her parents, her friends. Her nasty friends. Yes, her heart bounded up, slowly suffocating, trying to break free.

Her heart, now burning. Not all fires needed to be extinguished.

Dreams and nightmares. Was there a difference?

Confused thoughts. Why could she not think of better things? Why such dark and complex thoughts?

She wondered what she looked like from above. A tangled mess? The pain came. She closed her eyes. Darkness. Something wasn’t right.

She screamed.

<°)))><

Lee-Ann Rose and her daughter stood among the onlookers.

There had been a blood red moon last night. The doomsayers would be out in force, saying it was a sign the end is near. Their prophecies failed yet again, but it would happen one day. All the tribes of earth will see and many will mourn because of the truth. And the times were indeed strange. Strange and sad. Overwhelmingly sad.

Her daughter had known Madeleine. She was a friend. How close? Lee-Ann wasn’t sure.

The teddy bears came quickly, nested among flowers, interspersed with pictures. The mementos lined the wire fence surrounding the old property. The kids often congregated here, her daughter too. A darker teddy bear stood out among the growing pile. Ethnic cause? Did Madeleine take her life because of her ethnicity? Lee-Ann squeezed her daughter’s hand. Their eyes met.

“Can we go, Mum?” her daughter, Isabella, asked. “I don’t like it here.”

Lee-Ann nodded. How had suicide become something so attractive, so valiant, so glamorous? Did they do it not understanding they would die? Maybe believing they would be brought back to life like those strange events some time back; events to which she had some links. Obscure links, but links all the same.

Who was at fault? The rumours had already started. They said it was the teasing, the bullying at school. But Lee-Ann had a feeling it was something else. Something she was involved with.

“Is her Mum here, Isabella?”

Isabella shook her head. “She’s overseas, as always, most probably in France, but I’m sure she’ll be rushing back.” Isabella took her hand out of her mother’s and grabbed the wire fence with both hands. “They say her mum was some kind of spy. We teased her about that, and lots of other things too. I’m so sorry, Madeleine.”

Lee-Ann swallowed and touched her daughter’s shoulder.

As a mother, she felt Madeleine’s mum’s loss. How tragic. Indeed, how tragic.

<°)))><

Ava Perdu sat in the car looking at the people gathered. She closed her eyes. Guilt. Not enough time spent with her daughter. Always on her mind but always pushed back. No one had taught her how to be a mum. She was trained for other things. Well trained. And that was where her energy would go.

Her daughter gave up—surrendered. Ava would not contemplate such a thing.

A hand touched her lap. “Best we get this over with, Ava.”

She looked at her husband and nodded.

Both dressed in long black coats, they walked down the dirt path. A few heads turned towards them and bodies parted to allow them to take up their frontal position.

Ava believed that when the body died, the elements making up a body got absorbed back into the cycle of nature. She looked around the burial site. The trees were covered in a veil of blue morning mist. She stared and waited for her daughter Madeleine to emerge from the mist. The voice of the celebrant dissolved her vision. Madeleine was gone.

They’d chosen a direct funeral service, a small service at the cemetery on the outskirts of greater Melbourne. Not far from home and not far from their business.

She had watched the young people wander in, many with their smartphones held in their hands and different coloured earplugs dangling from their necks. Parents stood in the background, there to support their dear children if it all got too much. She saw that Rose child and looked around for her mother. She was in the background, dressed in a long black overcoat. She looked snug.

Ava returned her attention to the celebrant. He’d been told to keep it simple—there was to be no mention of afterlife or any deity. He understood and said that was common these days. That pleased Ava.

The celebrant said some nice things about Madeleine. There were readings. The Rose girl read a poem. How sweet. Ava watched the coffin being lowered; the final act. Someone turned on soft background music. Her husband had his head bowed. He was struggling. She squeezed his arm. Some offered their condolences, others would do that later. Ava understood these things had to take place but her preference was that they didn’t. Some would say the wrong things.

Ava watched as the mourners left and merged into the blue mist. She saw the Rose girl and her mother walk off, wrapped in long warm coats, so snug and so Christian. Ava nodded. In time, my Madeleine, in time.

3 – Plants and possums

Three years later

LEE-ANN ROSE NEEDED TO DESTROY SOMETHING SHE LOVED.

She drove past the street that led to the abandoned house. The street triggered some brief thoughts of the sad event. They lived in a small community just on the outskirts of Melbourne, not quite a country town but close enough to being one. With the death of her daughter’s friend, many cried together and comforted each other, but the girl’s parents distanced themselves from the grieving process. It had been some years but she still thought about it. The girl’s parents were of a different breed.

She was out in the countryside now, away from the street lights. With no lights and no city haze—light pollution, as some called it—the stars glowed but many were invisible because of the moon. She watched as clouds moved in and obstructed the light of the moon, and darkness ruled again over the paddocks. But she knew that up ahead the darkness would soon be replaced by a soft light.

They would often see the glow of the lamps as they drove past at night. The lamps were perched over rows of plants, artificially interrupting the hours of darkness to speed up the growth cycle, allowing the leaves to sense the light and produce the required hormones for growth. Her husband jokingly referred to the plants as ‘light bulbs’.

She turned into the dirt driveway. It was only a small plantation, and was known as a trial block. She had celebrated when the first shoots appeared from her secret plants, but now she had to do what she had to do.

There was no security. The lamps were automated and the plant parts required for the manufacturing process were harvested during the day. She wore a long jacket and carried a spraying device, its hose dragging on the ground and leaving a snake trail behind her. She paused and put on a disposable dust mask then pumped the cylinder the recommended number of times.

She proceeded to spray the plants. It was like a part of her was dying.

<°)))><

Lee-Ann cried as she drove home. Next she needed to contact the authorities.