‘Hey, that happens,’ Malu whispered. ‘Like me ’n Pearl. Never a better thing, though. So, your Josh. He was happy about it?’
‘I’m not sure,’ she whispered. ‘He told me he was. But there’s one thing Josh is good at, and that’s hiding his emotions. All I knew was that he seemed happy about the baby, and he said he loved me. So we married. He still felt a bit...distant but I thought...maybe...’
‘So what happened to the baby? What broke you up?’
‘Knowledge,’ she said bleakly. ‘Learning Josh knows how to care, but not to share. Do you really want to listen to this?’
‘Pearl says I’m a gossip,’ Malu whispered, and grabbed her hand and held on. A link in the darkness. ‘Tell me.’ And then, as she hesitated, his grip tightened. ‘I know it’s not my business, but honest, Maddie, I’m scared. You could tell me it’s all going to be fine but we both know that’s not true. Distract me. Anything that’s said in the mine stays in the mine.’
She almost smiled. ‘That seems a really good arm twist to give you more gossip.’
She sensed a half smile in return. She was friends with his wife, but she barely knew Malu. Though maybe that was no longer true, she decided. There was nothing like hurling you down a mine and locking you in, with the threat of rockfalls real and constant, to make you know someone really fast.
And what harm to talk about Josh now? she asked herself. Somewhere he was out there, worrying. Caring. Caring was what he was good at, she thought.
Caring wasn’t enough.
Tell Malu? She might as well. He needed distraction and she...well, so did she.
‘They say troubles come in threes,’ she said finally into the dark. ‘So did ours. Mum had her stroke. We got married, which was the good bit, but there were two more tragedies waiting in the wings. We lost the baby—Mikey was born prematurely—and then Josh’s little sister died.’
‘Oh, Maddie.’ What sort of doctor–patient relationship was this? she asked herself. It was Malu doing the comforting.
As Josh had comforted.
‘You know, if it had been my sister and only my baby, like it was my mum, I’m guessing Josh would have coped brilliantly,’ she said, and now she was almost speaking to herself. Sorting it out in her mind. ‘But it was Josh’s pain and he didn’t know how to cope with it. It left him gutted and his reaction was to stonewall himself. He just emotionally disappeared.’
‘How can you do that?’
‘Normal people can’t,’ Maddie said slowly. ‘But Josh had one hell of a childhood. He never talks about it but when I met him his sister was doing brilliantly, at uni herself, happy and bubbly. She told me how bad it had been but Josh never did. He used to have nightmares but when I woke him he’d never tell me what they were about. Sometimes I’d wake and hear him pacing in the night and I knew there were demons. And then came baby Mikey, too small to live. And Holly. One drunk driver, a car mounting the footpath. So after all that, Josh’s care came to nothing and he went so far into himself I couldn’t reach him. He finally explained to me, quite calmly, that he couldn’t handle himself. He didn’t know how to be a husband to me any more. He had to leave.’
She shook her head, trying to shake off the memory of the night Josh had finally declared their marriage was over.
There was a long silence, for which she was grateful. And then she thought...
These are cramps. Stomach cramps.
Back cramps?
And that thought brought a stab of fear so deep it terrified her.
She was lying on a rock floor, supporting Malu’s legs. Of course she had cramps.
Of course?
Please...
‘I can top up the morphine now if you like,’ she managed at last, and at least this was an excuse to turn on the torch. She needed the phone app torch, too, to clean the dust away and inject the morphine. She held the phone for a bit too long after.
The light was a comfort.
The phone would be better.
No word. No texting.
Cramps.
Josh...
Malu’s grip on her hand gradually lessened. She thought he was drifting into sleep, but maybe the rocks were too hard. The morphine didn’t cut it.
‘So your Josh abandoned you and joined Cairns Air Sea Rescue?’ he whispered at last.
Oh, her back hurt. She wouldn’t mind some of that morphine herself...
Talk, she told herself. Don’t think of anything but distracting Malu.
‘I think that other people’s trauma, other people’s pain, are things he can deal with,’ she managed, struggling to find the right words. Struggling to find the right answer. ‘But losing our baby... It hurt him to look at me hurting, and when Holly died, he didn’t know where to put himself. He couldn’t comfort me and he thought showing me his pain would make mine worse. He couldn’t help me, so he left.’
‘Oh, girl...’
‘I’m fine,’ she whispered, and Malu coughed again and then gripped tighter.
‘I dunno much,’ he wheezed. ‘But I do know I’m very sure you’re not.’
‘Not what?’
‘Fine. You’re hurting and it’s not just the memory of some low-life husband walking out on you.’
‘I’m okay.’
‘I can tell pain when I hear it.’
‘I got hit by a few rocks. We both have bruises all over.’
‘There’s room on my pillow to share.’
‘It’s not exactly professional—to share my patient’s bed.’
‘I’m just sharing the pillow,’ Malu told her with an attempt at laughter. ‘You have to provide your own rock base.’
She tried to smile. Her phone pinged and she’d never read a text message faster.
Hey, you. Quick update? Tell us you’re okay. Josh.
‘Is that telling us the bulldozers are coming?’ Malu demanded, and the threadiness of his voice had her switching on the torch again. ‘Hey, it’s okay,’ he managed. ‘You tell them...tell them to tell Pearl I’m okay. But I wouldn’t mind a bulldozer.’
‘I wouldn’t mind a piece of foam,’ she told him, and tried to think of what to say to Josh. Apart from the fact that she was scared. No, make that terrified. She hated the dark and she was starting to panic and the dust in her lungs made it hard to breathe and the cramps...
Get a grip. Hysterics were no use to anyone.
She shouldn’t have come in in the first place, she told herself.
Yeah, and then Malu would be dead.
Josh wanted facts. He couldn’t cope with emotion.
Yeah, Josh, we’re fine.
CHAPTER THREE
JOSH WASN’T ON Wildfire to dig into a mine and pull people out. Not even Maddie. Josh was there to assess medical need, perform triage, arrange evacuation where possible and then get his hands dirty dealing with injuries needing on-the-ground treatment.
And there was a need. The locals were doing all they could, but the medical team here consisted of one doctor and two nurses. It had apparently taken the doctor—an islander called Keanu—time to get there, and the guy who had been injured first was taking up his attention. A fractured leg followed by a cardiac arrest left room for little else.
But there was more medical need. Apparently, before Keanu had arrived, the miners had fought their way back into mine, frantically trying to reach their injured mates. It hadn’t worked. There’d been a further cave-in. Further casualties. Keanu barely had time to acknowledge Josh and Beth’s arrival.
There was still a sense of chaos. Keanu had ordered everyone back from the mine mouth but no one seemed to be in charge of rescue efforts.
‘Where’s the mine manager?’ Josh snapped as he surveyed the scene before him. A group of filthy miners were huddled at the mouth o
f the mine, with pretty much matching expressions of shock and loss. Keanu had organised the casualties a little way away, under the shade of palm trees. He and the nurses were working frantically over the guy with the injured leg, but he shook his head as Josh approached.
‘We have everything we need here. It’s touch and go for this guy and there’s others needing help. The guy with the arm first.’ He motioned across to where a miner was on the ground, his mate beside him.
‘No breathing problems?’
‘They’ve all had a lungful of rock—we could use a tank of oxygen—but...’
‘I’ll get Beth to do a respiratory assessment. Beth?’
‘Onto it.’ She was already heading for the truck, for oxygen canisters. ‘Okay, guys,’ she called. ‘Anyone want a face wipe and a whiff of something that’ll do you good? Line up here.’
‘What’s happening down the mine?’ Josh asked.
‘Hettie’s called the mining authorities in Cairns. We need expertise. They’re sending engineers and equipment now.’
From Cairns. It’d take hours.
Maddie was down there.
Keanu was adjusting a drip, watching the guy’s breathing like an eagle watched a mouse. A tiny thing, the rise and fall of a chest, but so important. ‘So you’re the ex-husband,’ he managed.
‘Yeah.’
‘Yeah, well, we all love Maddie, but she’s in there now and it’s up to the experts to get her out. Meanwhile, sorry, mate, but there’s more work here than we can handle. We’re still trying to stabilise. We have a suspected ruptured spleen, a guy with an arm so crushed he might lose it, a fractured leg with shock and breathing problems and more. Could you look at the spleen for me?’
And somehow Josh had to stop thinking of Maddie underground, Maddie trapped, Maddie deep in a mine where there’d already been two major rockfalls. He needed to focus on the here and now.
Triage...
He headed across to the guy with the suspected ruptured spleen. As long as he wasn’t going into shock—which he could be if the rupture was significant—then the arm was the first priority. If he could save it.
Four underground. Including Maddie.
‘Who’s the mine manager?’ he snapped, asking it not of Keanu, who was committed to the patient under his hands, but of the miners in general.
‘Ian Lockhart,’ one of the men ventured. ‘At least, he’s supposed to be in charge but he lit out when the debt collectors started sniffing around.’
‘Was he in charge of day-to-day running of the mine?’
‘That used to be Pete Blake. Max Lockhart owns the island but he’s never here. He put Pete in charge but Ian reckoned he knew it all. He sacked Pete last year and took over the day-to-day stuff himself. Reuben Alaki’s acting supervisor now but...’ He hesitated and his voice cracked. ‘Reuben’s one of the guys stuck down there.’
‘Is Pete still on the island?’
‘He’ll probably be out fishing.’
‘Get him,’ Josh snapped. ‘Use one of the island choppers to bring him here—do an air drop.’
‘What, pluck him off his boat and drop him here?’
‘Exactly,’ Josh snapped. ‘We need expertise now.’ He bent over the guy with the fractured arm. Compound. Messy. ‘Okay, mate, let’s get you assessed and see if we can do something for the pain. Meanwhile let’s get things moving to get your mates out from underground.’
And then a nose wedged its way under his arm and he almost froze with shock. It was a great, bounding golden retriever.
Bugsy.
It was so long since he’d seen the dog it was all he could do not to shed a few tears into his shaggy coat. The big dog recognised him. That was amazing all by itself.
He’d given Bugsy to Maddie after their honeymoon, just before he’d gone back to work. His job was search and rescue. He spent days at a time in remote places, coping with emergencies like this one.
He’d been aware just how alone Maddie had been—that was one of the reasons he’d married her. Puppy Bugsy had been a great idea. He’d been their one constant when things had fallen apart, but when things had really fallen apart it had been logical that Maddie take him.
That he was here... On the island...
He couldn’t focus on the dog, though. The fracture was severe. On first assessment he thought enough blood was getting through to keep the hand viable, but suddenly...it wasn’t.
And behind him Keanu had the CPR unit set up on the guy with the fractured leg.
‘Go find Maddie,’ he said to Bugsy, pushing the great head away with a wrench that almost physically hurt. ‘I can’t go to her but maybe... Go fetch Maddie. Go!’
* * *
The cramping was hurting. Really hurting.
It’s only my back, she told herself. It has to be only my back. I must have wrenched it when I fell.
The cramps were fifteen minutes apart...
Or more like ten.
Uh-oh.
* * *
‘Josh, I need you here.’
Keanu wouldn’t be calling if the need wasn’t beyond urgent. He elevated the arm he’d been treating and called for Beth to hold it steady, as straight as possible. Please, let enough blood get through to keep it viable until he got back. The man needed two of him.
At least it stopped him thinking about Maddie.
* * *
‘So tell me how you met Pearl?’
Malu might be her patient, Maddie thought, but the distinction between doctor and patient was getting blurred. The blackness was closing in, and her only link to reality seemed to be Malu’s hand. But it was she who was doing the comforting, she told herself. Of course it was.
She’d asked the question to distract him from pain and fear. And she needed him to answer, because she needed to be distracted from pain and fear right back.
So she listened as, in a faltering voice that sometimes paused for long enough to make her worry, Malu told of growing up on the island, of diving, of fishing, of learning to show off to the girls.
Of being in sixth grade and kicking a ball between the desks with his mates. Of being punished by being made to sit next to a girl.
Of watching Pearl write a story about watching the boys dive, then listening to the teacher praise it and saying, ‘You boys might dive any time you can, but by writing it down, Pearl keeps it forever.’
Of deciding right there and then that she was his woman.
Of it taking ten years before she finally agreed.
Then babies. Domestic drama. Love...
Maddie was blinking as Malu’s voice finally trailed off and she realised he’d drifted into sleep.
Love, she thought. You didn’t realise how rare it was until you lost it.
She’d lost her baby. Born so prematurely... Mikey. He’d lived for two hours.
And she’d lost Josh.
Actually, she hadn’t lost him, she told herself harshly. She’d never had him. And now she had a baby to love on her own.
She’d brought her baby into a collapsed mine. How could she have done something so stupid? Even to save Malu... To risk her baby...
Josh was out there, she told herself, and, as if on cue, her phone rang.
It rang, didn’t ping for an incoming message, and when she answered, miraculously it was Josh!
‘Hi!’
Do not cry, she told herself. You will not.
‘Maddie?’
She took a couple of deep breaths—or as deep as she could manage—and tried to talk.
‘J-Josh.’
‘Hey...’
‘No. Sorry. I’m scaring you.’ She was fighting to get a grip, immensely grateful that Malu was sleeping. ‘There’s nothing to scare you for. Malu’s settling. His blood p
ressure’s rising. I think we can manage without the third bag of saline.’ No need to mention why she wanted to hold it in reserve. ‘Raising his legs seems to have helped. I’ve given him an additional five milligrams of morphine. He’s... We’re as good as we can be.’ And then she cracked, just a little. ‘Any idea when we might expect help?’
‘We’re working on it. Pete Blake’s just been choppered in. He was out on the reef, fishing. He knows the old seams backwards.’
‘P-Pete’s good.’ He was, too. She—and the rest of the islanders—had been appalled when he’d been sacked. ‘But...’
‘But he can’t get you out on his own,’ Josh told her. ‘There needs to be careful appraisal before we do anything. I think you need to face staying where you are overnight.’
Overnight. Right. At least that was better than Keanu’s two days.
‘How will we know it’s bedtime?’ she managed, striving for lightness.
‘The time will be on your phone, Maddie, but I’ll ring you and tell you anyway. If you like, I’ll even sing you a lullaby.’
‘You!’
‘My voice is improving with age,’ he said, sounding wounded. ‘You want to hear?’
‘No!’
‘No taste,’ he said mournfully. ‘I don’t know why I married you.’
‘I don’t know, either,’ she said, and suddenly it was serious again. The past was flooding back—but also the present. ‘Josh?’
‘Mmm?’
‘What’s happening out there?’
‘We’ve just saved a hand.’
She drew in her breath. ‘Whose?’
‘Max Stubbs.’
‘Oh!’ She thought back, remembering the stream of miners emerging from the mine mouth. Max had been there, staggering but on his feet. ‘His blood supply was compromised? I missed it.’
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