‘Keep filming, I’ll be back in a minute,’ Bo says and runs out of the cottage towards the forest.
‘Solomon!’ she yells at the top of her voice, knowing there are no neighbours around to disturb. She returns to the clearing in front of the bat house, sees him a short way down the hill in the forest, just standing there, looking at something, as though he’s in a trance. His sound bag is on the ground a few feet away from him, his boom mic leaning up against the tree. The fact that he’s not even working tips her over the edge.
‘Solomon!’ she yells, and he finally looks at her. ‘We found a cottage! Someone lives there! Equipment, hurry, move, now!’ She’s not sure if the words she has used make sense or if they’re in the right order, she needs him to move, she needs sound, she needs to capture the story.
But what Bo hears in response is a sound unlike anything she’s heard before.
3
The sound is a like a squawk, from a bird, or something not human, but it comes from a human, from the woman standing at the tree.
Bo runs down into the forest and the blonde woman’s basket goes flying up in the air, its contents fall out on to the forest floor and her eyes are wide in terror.
‘It’s okay,’ Solomon says, hands out wanting to calm her, standing between Bo and the stranger like he’s trying to tame a wild horse. ‘We’re not going to hurt you.’
‘Who is that?’ Bo calls.
‘Just stay there, Bo,’ Solomon says, annoyed, without turning.
Of course she ignores him and comes closer. The young woman makes a sound again, another unusual, kind of chirping sound, if a chirp could ever seem like a bark. It’s directed at Bo.
Bo is gobsmacked, but a smile crawls to her face with fascination.
‘I think she wants you to back off,’ Solomon says to her.
‘Okay, Doctor Doolittle, but I haven’t done anything wrong,’ she says, annoyed at being told what to do. ‘So I’m not leaving.’
‘Well then just don’t come any closer,’ Solomon says.
‘Sol!’ she says, looking at him with shock.
‘Hey, hey, it’s okay!’ he says to the girl, slowly moving a little closer, getting on his hands and knees to pick up the flowers and herbs from the ground. He places them in her basket and holds it out to her. She stops her chirping but is clearly in distress, looking from Solomon to Bo, eyes wide and fearful.
‘My name is Bo Healy. I’m a filmmaker and we’re here with Joe Toolin’s permission,’ she holds out her hand.
The blonde woman looks at her hand and makes a series of more distressed sounds, none of them words.
‘Oh my God,’ Bo looks at Solomon, wide-eyed, taking out her phone and calling Rachel. ‘Rachel, come up to the clearing, quickly. I need the camera.’ She hangs up. ‘Record this,’ she mouths to Solomon, signalling his equipment with her eyes, afraid to move the rest of her body.
The young woman is firing off one bizarre sound after the next and it is the strangest thing Solomon has ever witnessed. It doesn’t sound like it’s coming from her voice box, it’s like a recording. He’s so stunned and fascinated he can’t stop watching her, he looks for wires and there are none. This is real.
He takes a few steps in the direction of his audio bag.
Rachel appears through the trees, rushing with her camera in her hands, closely followed by Joe.
‘What the hell is going on down there?’ Rachel shouts, coming to an abrupt halt as she sees with her own eyes.
The young woman turns to Rachel and starts making the sound of a car alarm. Solomon looks at what’s happening from her perspective, surrounded by three people, strangers in the forest, she must feel completely trapped. He can’t bring himself to record this. It’s not right.
Bo senses his hesitancy and sighs. ‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ she snaps. She does what she should have done at the outset had she thought of it at the time, and films the unfolding scene with her phone.
Joe joins them.
The blonde woman stops making her sounds, for a moment she looks at Joe and she seems relieved.
‘Who are you?’ Joe shouts, half hidden by a tree. The fear is obvious in his voice. ‘What are you doing on my land?’
She panics again, backing away through the trees.
Solomon watches them all. Bo is filming on her phone, Rachel pointing the camera at her, Joe a fierce face on him.
Solomon is exhausted, he needs to eat.
‘Stop!’ he yells and everybody goes silent. ‘You’re frightening her. Everybody step away. Let her go.’
She stares at him.
‘You’re free to go.’
She keeps looking at him. Those green eyes on him.
‘I don’t think she understands,’ Bo says, still filming.
‘Of course she understands,’ Solomon snaps.
‘I don’t think she can speak … words. What’s your name?’ Bo asks.
The young woman ignores the question and continues to look at Solomon.