by Karen Wood
‘Come in.’
Kaydon’s pulse clicked up a gear as he twisted the doorhandle slowly and pushed the door open. His dad started on him.
‘You totally humiliated your mother and me in front of our new partners last night!’
‘Dad, I didn’t mean to.’
‘I’ve got the property mortgaged to the hilt with this guy and you spend the evening insulting him and sneaking around with the builder’s daughter?’ He snatched up a pile of mauve fabric and threw it at Kaydon’s feet. ‘You’ve put the entire place at risk! And your friend Dan made things even worse with his stupid punch-up.’
Kaydon knew better than to argue.
‘I put a small amount of faith in you, hoping you’ll man up, and you totally blow it. You’re still a boy, Kaydon. A stupid, immature boy!’
Pat lifted his fist and Kaydon flinched, but the blow didn’t come. His father seemed satisfied with intimidating him. ‘No horses. No polocrosse. You’re to have nothing to do with Dan any more. You work on the farm for the rest of the holidays. And don’t you dare go anywhere near Glenvale or that girl.’
The door slammed as his father left the room.
Kaydon stepped outside, feeling shaken.
‘You need to show your old man that he’s wrong about you.’ The voice was kind: Jerry.
‘Leave me alone.’
‘You need to stand up to him. Demand his respect. It’s the only language he speaks.’
Kaydon turned away from him and made his way back towards the front door.
‘Pat!’ His mother’s voice sounded panicked as she ran into the home yard. ‘Marg just rang. Aaron rolled his car. It’s on fire!’
Kaydon’s father appeared in the doorway of the tractor shed. ‘Where is he?’
‘Glenn Road. Marg got him out, but he’s hurt. The fire’s spreading!’
Pat ran for the LandCruiser and pulled the door open.
‘There’s an ambulance coming,’ said Bron as she climbed in the other side.
Kaydon raced after her and pulled at the doorhandle. It was locked. ‘Dad!’ he yelled, banging his fist on the car window. ‘Dad! Open up! I want to come too!’
The car roared away from him, leaving him choking on a cloud of dust. It tore out of the driveway and headed for the road.
Kaydon could have cried. Could have burst into huge angry sobs and punched and kicked everything in his path. Instead, he ran along the verandah and let himself into the kitchen where he could listen on the two-way, hurriedly flicking the thing on and tuning it to a local frequency.
He heard Marg’s voice crackle through the speaker. ‘We’re about six Ks down the road, Bron.’ Click.
‘Is he conscious?’ Click.
‘Yeah, he’s awake, but he’s got burns. He’s not a happy camper.’
‘Where’s Stacey?’
‘She’s with him. She’s not hurt.’
His father’s voice boomed through the speaker, distorted by the airwaves. ‘How big is the fire, Marg?’
‘It’s covering a few hectares, Pat, headed straight for Glenvale.’
Glenvale. The place was one huge pile of kindling. There was no fire-fighting equipment out there, and bugger-all water in the tanks; nothing but sheds full of diesel, fields of dry grass and overgrown scrub, rambling and choking all the way up to the buildings. The place hadn’t been slashed or grazed for years.
He raced out of the kitchen, grabbed his woollen jacket off the pegs by the front door, leaped off the verandah and sprinted for the cattle yards, where the ute and the water tank were. Bugger not going to Glenvale.
The keys were still in the old ute. Kaydon took the pulley, hurriedly lowered the thousand-litre water tank onto the tray and hooked up the pump. It seemed to take forever to fill with water. Meanwhile he scanned the horizon for smoke. Rolling clouds of grey swirled above the ridge of small hills between Rockleigh and Glenvale.
While the tank filled, he started the engine and tuned in the two-way. ‘Dad, I got the tank on the ute. I’m going out to Glenvale.’ Click.
He waited, but the only sound was the pump churning and spluttering and the slosh of water into the tank.
‘Dad, do you copy?’
‘Hello?’ Click. It was a girl’s voice.
‘Who’s that?’
‘It’s Stacey.’
‘This is Kaydon. Is Aaron okay?’
‘The ambulance is here.’ She was bawling. It couldn’t be good.
‘How bad is he?’
Another voice came over the airwaves. ‘Kaydon, it’s Mum. Aaron has second-degree burns on his back and his arm. Stacey’s going in the ambulance with him. Your dad and I will follow behind. We’ll meet Bev and Maurie at the hospital.’
Kaydon muttered a few curses under his breath. ‘Is anyone else hurt?’
‘No.’
‘Okay, tell Dad I’ve got a water tank on the ute, I’m going out to Glenvale.’
‘Your father told you not to go out there. The fireys are on the way.’
Screw Dad. The fireys would take way too long to get there. Kaydon slammed the receiver back on the hook. The tank was full. He switched the pump off, jumped back in the driver’s seat and took off across the paddocks. At a side gate he let himself onto the road and sped towards Glenvale.
Holly’s big brother stood in the home yard, wearing nothing but a pair of workboots and a pair of quick-dry surf shorts. He heaved an old couch out into the yard and the muscles on his back and shoulders rippled with the effort. He was an ox. Not someone Kaydon had the inclination to argue with. On the ground near him were several bags and suitcases. They were packing up to leave.
‘Is Holly around?’ Kaydon asked, leaning one elbow out the window. He couldn’t remember this guy’s name.
‘What do you want from Holly?’ the brother said without looking at him. He reached for more bags on the front steps and carried them out to the pile.
‘Brandon, isn’t it?’ he said, suddenly remembering. ‘There’s a fire coming. Just wanted to check she was okay.’
‘What do you care?’
‘Be good to know where she is if there’s a fire coming.’ His eyes flicked up the hill. ‘They move pretty quick around here.’
Brandon dumped the bags and then he came closer.
‘My sister has had enough heartache in the past six months to last her a lifetime. My whole family has. We haul our lives out here to a building job that doesn’t exist and now we’re told to leave. Holly doesn’t need any more stuffing around. She doesn’t need you to go rescue her.’
He had a fair point. And if Kaydon hadn’t noticed an alarming red glow behind that nearby hillside, he probably would have stuck around and negotiated. ‘See that? Better be sure she isn’t anywhere near it,’ he said, shoving the ute into gear and revving the engine.
Brandon’s eyes followed his and reality must have registered, because he swore. Loudly. ‘Eva went chasing after Holly. Holly went looking for Jake.’ His eyes started frantically scanning the horizon.
‘So they’re all out there?’
‘Ah, yeah.’
‘Jump in,’ said Kaydon.
Brandon squeezed into the front of the ute and pointed up the hill. He smelled of coconut and pineapple. Kaydon tried not to grimace as he shoved the ute into low range.
At the top of the hill, he looked out over the valley and saw the fire racing across the flat country. It was still half a kilometre away, but it was moving fast.
Then his heart nearly stopped. Penny trotted across the hillside, whinnying frantically, with her reins dangling around her front feet. ‘Eva!’
He drove along an old fenceline, calling for the old mare. She pricked her ears and cantered towards the ute. The grass was nearly shoulder-height in some places and he prayed there were no barbed wire fences lurking beneath.
He hopped out and caught her. ‘Can you ride?’ he asked Brandon.
‘Not like Holly,’ he said. ‘But, yeah, kind of.’
‘
I’ll go hose the fire, try and slow it down a bit. You jump on Penny and go look for your family.’
Brandon surprised him by vaulting onto the horse the way a jockey would. He cantered off across the hillside bare-chested, looking like Fabio. Kaydon shook his head and jumped back in the ute.
Kaydon set off across the vast, flat paddock, headed for the fire. With the pump chugging, he held the hose out the window as he drove, waving jets of water over the edge of the fire, putting out one patch and then racing to another further away. The tank was dry. He would have to get to the dam and refill before he could do any more. He launched the ute into a higher gear and lurched across the bumpy land towards the triangle dam.
That’s when he saw Eva in the branch of a tree waving madly. The tree was growing out of a mound of rocks, too rough for the ute to drive over. He stopped and got out.
‘The pigs chased me,’ Eva sobbed. ‘They had big tusks and they wanted to eat me!’
‘It’s okay, Eva. I got you,’ he called out, hopping over the rocks to the base of the tree. He looked up. The trunk was broad and the lowest branches were well off the ground. ‘How did you even get up there?’ he marvelled.
As he looked for a handhold, an angry grunting noise sent a rush of adrenaline through his veins. From the corner of his eye, he saw an enormous sow with a business-like set of tusks rushing towards him. ‘Holy pork chops!’ Kaydon leapt onto the trunk of the tree, clamping his arms and legs around it. The sow butted the base and dragged her tusks over it with an irate squeal. Above him, Eva screamed.
Kaydon shimmied up to the nearest branch, swearing and cursing the whole way up. Eva made room for him before clutching him tightly.
‘I just wanted to play with the babies,’ said Eva. ‘They were so little and cute. I was going to keep one as a pet.’
Kaydon looked down at the sow, which was still grunting angrily. ‘I don’t think she was okay with that.’ Then he saw two boars, attracted by the commotion, in the long grass. ‘Great, now how are we gonna get down from here?’
The ute was a good thirty metres away. Across the valley, Kaydon could see many more animals racing ahead of the fire. Kangaroos and scrub cattle all made their way up the hillside. A wild dog slunk through the grass and birds circled overhead, swooping down into the fire-front and coming back up with mice in their claws.
Then something caught the corner of his eye.
‘Holly!’ Eva yelled.
She was completely covered in mud. If it weren’t for her blonde plait flapping down her back as she ran, he wouldn’t have even recognised her. ‘Holly!’ He madly waved his arms.
‘Watch out for the pigs,’ Eva screamed.
Holly looked up. ‘Eva! What are you doing up there?’
‘The pigs!’ Kaydon yelled. He pointed. ‘Go to the ute!’
Holly stopped and cupped her ear. She gave them a puzzled look. Kaydon and Eva both made crazy pig gestures and Holly’s face twisted with confusion. Then she saw one and her eyes widened in horror. She bolted to the ute.
27
Holly rolled onto the back of the ute, just as a pig’s tusk scraped against her leg. She sat against a huge yellow tank, heaving for breath while the feral pig screeched and trotted in circles. Great, now she was stuck with a wild boar about to attack.
She looked to where Kaydon sat in the tree with Eva clinging around his neck like a baby orang-utan. Three more wild pigs were snorting and scraping at the trunk. ‘What are you doing up there?’ she yelled.
‘The pigs chased us up here,’ Eva called back.
‘She was trying to take a baby,’ Kaydon added in an annoyed tone.
‘How do you plan on getting down from there?’ she yelled. ‘The fire’s coming straight at us!’
‘Get the .303 out of the front,’ answered Kaydon.
‘The what?’
‘The gun! It’s on the front seat.’
‘I can’t use a gun!’ she said in horror. ‘I’m morally opposed to them.’
‘And I’m morally opposed to getting barbecued!’ he yelled back.
‘Holly, get the gun!’ screamed Eva.
Holly checked for pigs and then quickly hopped to the ground and opened the door to the cabin. Lying across the bench seat was a sleek weapon of pig destruction, all gleaming metal and smooth wood – an object so foreign, she barely knew how to pick it up. With the pointy end facing away from her, she guessed. She turned back to Kaydon.
‘You’ll have to load it,’ he called out. ‘There’s ammo in the glovebox.’
‘Load it?’ Holly’s voice reached a whole new pitch.
‘You need to shoot a pig.’
‘I’m not shooting anything!’
‘Holly, the fire’s coming!’ Eva screamed as she clung to the tree. ‘Shoot the pigs!’
‘I’m a vegetarian,’ she screamed back.
‘They’re feral animals. Just put the round in the chamber!’ Kaydon yelled.
‘What’s a chamber?’ She stared at the gun in her hands. Just holding it felt . . . murderous.
‘That hole in the side of it. Pull the bolt back and slide one in.’
Holly flipped the glovebox open and found a small cardboard box. She sat it on the seat and pulled a pointy-ended metal thing out with shaky hands. ‘Oh my lord, is this even legal? I don’t have a licence to do this.’
‘Hurry up,’ Eva screamed in panic.
‘Okay, okay!’ She glanced over her shoulder and was horrified to see a line of flames only a few hundred metres away. Holly picked the gun up gingerly and slipped a bullet into the chamber with trembling fingers. The gun was cold and heavy in her hands.
‘Now what?’ she called.
‘Push the bolt forward and lock it down.’
Holly did as he said. The bolt made a snatching noise in her hands as the round slotted in. ‘It’s just like the movies!’ she marvelled.
‘Struth, point it down, Holly!’
She lowered the gun to the ground.
‘Okay, now get on the back of the ute and rest the muzzle on the cabin.’
Holly carefully placed the gun on the tray of the ute. She slipped a few extra bullets into her pocket and climbed up next to the big yellow water tank. Then she stood and rested the gun on the cabin. Near the base of the tree, one of the hogs circled angrily. Its tusks were huge. Okay, she had to do this. ‘Now what?’ she yelled.
‘Push the bolt down!’
‘I’ve never killed anything before,’ she wailed, doing as she was told.
‘You’re cocked, locked and ready to rock, Holly. Aim for the head, above the eyes.’
‘Will it kill it quickly? Oh dear, I’m so sorry, piggy.’ Holly’s hands trembled around the gun.
‘Shoot him, Holly, shoot him!’ cried Eva hysterically.
Holly cradled the wooden stock in one hand and tried not to look at the pig’s eyes as she closed her finger around the trigger.
‘Make sure you put the butt hard up against your shoulder,’ Kaydon yelled.
Holly nestled the weapon into the crook of her shoulder and tried to breathe. She lost the pig in the scope and waved the gun around trying to find it again. She had to shoot. As soon as the pig came into her cross-hairs, she squeezed the trigger.
Her ears exploded. The punch in her shoulder was so hard it sent her reeling backwards and she found herself flat on her back on the tray of the ute. She cursed as she scrambled to her feet. ‘Did I get it?’
‘No,’ called Kaydon. ‘Reload and try again.’
Holly felt panic rattle over her. Her hands got even shakier. ‘I can’t do this, Kaydon.’
‘Okay, Holly. Stop,’ said Kaydon. ‘Just breathe.’
Holly fought back tears. She sucked in a lungful of air.
‘Listen carefully.’
She nodded.
Kaydon spoke slowly. ‘Pull the bolt up, back, forward and down and reload.’
She breathed deeply while she chambered another round. Everything slotted into place in he
r hands. She placed the gun on the top of the cabin again and aimed it towards the pig.
‘Hold very still, and squeeze the trigger gently,’ Kaydon instructed from the heights of the tree. ‘Hit it anywhere. I’ll finish him off.’
Holly found the black hairy pelt of the boar in the scope again. She braced her feet, pressed her shoulder into the rifle and then squeezed the trigger again.
The pig erupted off the ground and flopped onto its back. Its legs kicked frantically in the air. The other two ran from the tree squealing.
‘We’re coming,’ said Kaydon. ‘Just wait till I get down. Don’t lift the gun again, Holly! Lay it on the tray of the ute.’
A moment later, Kaydon had the gun in his hands. He stood over the pig, reloaded and sent another shot into its head. It instantly stilled. He put the gun into the back of the ute and dived into the driver seat.
‘Come on, Eva,’ called Holly. She hauled her little sister into the passenger side.
‘We’ll go to the dam and fill the tank again,’ Kaydon said, wrestling with the steering wheel as the ute lurched across the paddock. ‘We have to stop the fire before it gets to the buildings.’
Holly’s heart raced. Everything they owned was in that old wooden hut, including her guitar. She held on to the dashboard, willing the ute to go faster up the rocky hillside.
‘Holly, you shot a pig!’ said Eva in her squeaky voice. ‘I can’t believe you shot a pig!’
Kaydon grinned across the front of the ute.
‘I did,’ she said, astonished with herself.
Kaydon held a hand up and she leaned across Eva and high-fived him. His fingers curled into hers and held her grasp.
He flashed a smile at her and she thought she would melt through the floor of the ute. Then he released her hand, took hold of the wheel and fishtailed the ute through the paddock, heading for the dam.
28
‘How long does it take to fill that thing?’ asked Holly. She paced back and forth along the edge of the dam as the pump puttered rhythmically. All around, the air felt thick and stultifying.
‘At least ten minutes,’ said Kaydon, staring across the valley towards the Glenvale homestead. It was so choked with smoke that it was hard to make out anything. ‘I can’t make it pump any faster.’
