“Hannie?” he called again, louder this time, more frantic, his heartbeat thudding in his ears and his legs like jelly. He forced them to take him over to the house where he stumbled through the empty space where the wooden front door had been. A half-melted saucepan sat on top of what might have been her kitchen sink. Glass jars had exploded and there were shards everywhere. He couldn’t see that anything was left of her wooden kitchen table or chairs. He walked through to where her workshop had been and it was a broken, shattered mess. Her desk was gone but when he looked down into the grey and white ashes, he half-recognised something. He nudged them with his boot. Her weird jeweller’s glasses. Dylan bent to pick them up. Melted almost beyond recognition, he kept them in his hand.
Why was her car still in the driveway?
Had she run somewhere to try to escape? Dylan looked around the property, from the creek bed to Mandy’s house. He jogged across to the ruin and searched, in case she’d taken refuge there. Did Mandy have a cellar? Had Hannie hidden down there? No, Hannie would know that people suffocated in cellars from the lack of oxygen. He stumbled back out in to Mandy’s yard.
This time he yelled at the top of his lungs, screeching so hard it hurt his throat. “Hannie!”
There was nothing. There was no birdsong.
There was no bark from Ted.
There was no response from Hannie.
Back at the station, Dylan reported in to Tim. “Two homes destroyed. Mandy’s place and Hannie’s cottage. There’s nothing left.”
Tim swore. “And no sign of her?”
The weight of what he needed to say was too heavy. All Dylan could do was shake his head instead.
“Did you check if she made it to the evacuation centre down the road? She might be there, right?”
Dylan met Tim’s worried eyes. “Her car... her car was in the yard. Burnt out.”
Tim’s face fell. “Fuck.”
“You got a thing with Hannie?”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry mate. I really am. But you’d better list her as a missing person.”
Hannie had managed to move slowly and painfully across the oval to the line at the barbecue. She was still in a daze, but thought she’d better eat. Some lovely volunteers had moved from tent to tent offering cans of pet foods to families who had brought their much-loved pets with them, so Ted had a full belly and was asleep. He still wouldn’t put any weight on his back legs and Hannie figured one of the first things she’d have to do when all this was over was get Ted back to the vet.
She had to pull herself up. When this was all over?
At that moment, Hannie felt as if the nightmare would never be over. She had wanted to set up a studio somewhere new, had been working hard to save so she could make that leap, but now it all seemed lost. How long would it take to start again, to find a new place to live, a new studio, a new desk, new tools?
She didn’t even have a change of underwear. That was what a girl needed, right, to start again? A change of underwear and a second pair of shoes. She wiggled her toes inside her steel-capped boots. She was going to get real tired of them real quick.
“Hannie?”
She looked behind her. “Amanda?” Amanda was an old school friend who ran the local supermarket with her husband Peter.
“Oh, Hannie, I’m so sorry. I heard about your place. Mel and Kaz have been helping me with the catering and they filled me in. It’s absolutely devastating.”
“Thanks, Amanda.” Hannie tried not to flinch in pain at the fierceness of Amanda’s embrace. “You and Peter okay?”
“He’s out on one of the trucks. It’s my job to make sure everyone here is fed and watered.”
“That’s just as important,” Hannie said with a sad smile. “For those of us with nothing left, a humble sausage on a slice of white bread with tomato sauce tastes better than the best Wagyu steak.”
Amanda looked around. “Everyone loves a sausage sizzle, that’s for sure. Well, hon, if there’s anything we can do for you, you just ask, okay?”
“Thanks, Amanda.”
Amanda bustled away through the crowd.
Hannie waited patiently in line, glad it wasn’t moving too fast for her back’s sake, and when she’d snaffled herself a couple of sausages, she headed back over to the tent. Which was when Mel came running towards her, her cheeks flushed, a look of absolute fright in her eyes.
“Hannie.” She puffed.
Hannie held out one of her sausages. “I hear you’ve been working hard in the kitchen. Do you want one of these?”
Mel waved it away. “God, no. I’ve filled up on bacon and egg sandwiches. And I’m supposed to be a vegetarian. Listen”—she paused, catching her breath—“you need to come with me. I’ve just found out you’ve been listed as a missing person.”
Hannie froze. “What?”
“Kevin from down the road came by for a coffee and we were chatting and things, going over whose places had been lost and he asked me if I’ve seen you, and I said, yes, you were sleeping in the tent, and he said that was a relief because you’ve been listed as missing.”
“But I’m right here. How did this happen?”
Mel linked an arm through Hannie’s and walked her slowly towards the police car parked on site. “Things have been a little crazy around here, if you haven’t noticed. It’s what happens when someone can’t be contacted.”
“But no one’s had any mobile reception. I haven’t been able to make a call – or get any – in twenty four hours now.”
Hannie felt her breathing quicken and become shallower with each breath. Her mother. Oh no. Did her mother think she was dead? And what about Alice and Mandy? Had they been trying to get in touch with her to find out what had happened to the property? And to her?
And Dylan. If he’d been at her place, seen the car she’d had to leave behind, he’d probably be thinking...
“Mel. We’ve got to tell the police that I’m not missing. That I’m not dead.”
Mel let out a half laugh, half sob. “I think that’s an excellent idea.”
“Dylan,” Tim called across the room at the Uraidla fire station command. “Come see this.” Tim had just ripped a piece of paper from the printer attached to a laptop on his desk and was waving it around like a flag.
Dylan was searching the map on the wall, studying the red pins that indicted where crews were. He had to bury himself in the work. That was the only way he could not think about Hannie and what might have happened to her. There was a strike crew of five trucks on their way to Maysville and another team heading for Pinky Flat, where an abattoir was under threat of being engulfed. It employed one hundred and twenty local people and the loss of an industry that big in this part of the hills would be devastating. He looked over his shoulder, distracted. “What is it?”
“She’s been found.”
Dylan froze. “Hannie? She’s okay?”
“The cops reckon she’s at Waters Gully evacuation centre. She’s been hurt, although exactly how is a little unclear from this, but this police report says she’s safe.”
Dylan stared at Tim. At that moment, words failed him. For a day and a night, he’d hoped for the best but thought the worst. Plenty of people said plenty of prayers in bushfires and it made no difference. They still died and their families still grieved and broken hearts never mended.
But he didn’t have a broken heart. He hadn’t let himself go there and, now, as it beat like a bass drum in his chest, he had a full heart, full of love for Hannie Reynolds.
“Mate, I need to ...”
Tim chuckled. Dylan could see sheer relief all over his ruddy face. “I didn’t reckon I’d be able to hold you back. Go. I’ve got someone coming in to relieve both of us. And, Knight?”
“Yeah?”
Tim’s eyes welled. “Give her a big hug from me, will you?”
Dylan pulled up at the Waters Gully football oval, a scene of many victories when he played in high school, and bolted towards what now resembl
ed a camping ground. There were rows and rows of tents, in colours of taupe and bright blue and yellow, cars parked everywhere, barbecues sizzling away and ambulances and trucks and some young boys and girls kicking a football from one narrow end of the oval to the other up by the goal posts. There were clusters of adults milling around, some comforting others, some managing to find some humour in the dreadful experience they’d lived through, and others carrying young babies on their hips.
And there was a goat.
He knew instantly it was Zelda. She was tethered by a piece of bright orange cable to one of the tents and before he knew what he was doing, he was running as fast as his legs would carry him to that stupid head-butting goat. Because he knew that where Zelda was, he would find Hannie.
“Hannie?”
He stood outside the tent Zelda was attached to. From inside, there was a bark.
“Ted?”
“Dylan?”
“It’s me.”
“Dylan ...”
He pulled open the tent flap. Hannie was on a blow up mattress lying flat on her back. Ted was at her side, his tail swiping happily. Dylan negotiated around the pile of mattresses on the floor of the tent and knelt at her side.
“Oh, god, Hannie. Are you okay?”
She didn’t lift her head from the makeshift pillow of old towels which was jammed under her neck. “It’s all gone.”
He stroked her cheek, smoothed her hair away from her forehead. “I know. I went there looking for you.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “How bad is it?” And then she gripped his hand. “Tell me the truth, Knight. I’ve already imagined the worst.”
She was strong. She could handle this. “It’s all gone, Hannie. I looked around to see if I could salvage anything precious. I found your jeweller’s glasses. They’re in my car. There’s not much of them left.”
Her lips wobbled. This brave woman was trying so hard to hold it all together. “And your place?”
He felt a pang of guilt. He paused and she knew why straight away.
“Tell me, Dylan? Your place? Is it okay?”
“It’s fine. Yeah, it’s fine. Fuck, Hannie. I thought you were... I was there and your car was parked out the front but I couldn’t find you.”
“Are you the one who told the police I was missing?” she whispered.
“I went looking for you. You weren’t at home. You weren’t at Uraidla. I thought...”
Her voice broke. “I was about to leave but Ted got out and I found him at the bottom of the creek bed. He’s hurt his legs and he couldn’t walk. So I tried to carry him up from the gully and that’s when Mel and Kaz came and found me. That’s when I hurt myself. They dragged Ted up to the car and me too. I was in no state to drive. That’s why my car was still there. The ambos think I’ve slipped a disc.”
It all made sense to Dylan now. He made a mental note to find a way to thank Mel and Kaz. If it wasn’t for them... but he couldn’t go down that rabbit hole again. Hannie was alive. She’d lost everything but she was alive. And he hadn’t lost her.
A wave of emotion rose up in him and he didn’t want to ignore it.
“I don’t know what I would have done if...”
“Don’t,” she said abruptly, squeezing his hand. “Don’t even go there. How am I going to tell my mum that I came that close? After all she’s been through?”
“You’re alive. That’s what counts, Hannie. Thank god you’re alive.”
Hannie wiped the tears from her eyes.
He studied her face. “God, I love you.”
Her eyes widened. “I’m pretty doped up on drugs right now, but did you just say you love me?”
He leaned over, pressed his lips to hers. “Yeah, I do.”
“You’re not just saying that to distract me from what’s happened?”
“No. The thought of losing you was... I was out of my mind. That’s got to be love, right?”
She smiled and, thank god, she laughed, which then transformed into a shocked grimace. “Fuck,” she murmured.
“Your back?”
She nodded. “When all this is over, I need to go to hospital.”
He leaned in closer. “You do. I’m a first responder and I think that’s the best course of treatment.”
“But when I’m better, Dylan Knight, in about three months or a year, I’m going to jump your bones.”
He pressed his lips to hers, gentle, sure, certain of his love for her. “I’m very much looking forward to that.”
“Because I love you, too.”
That was all he needed to hear. Carefully, he lay down on the grass next to the air mattress and reached for her hand. He didn’t want to do anything that might bounce her around. She was in enough pain as it was.
“I have to get Ted to the vet, too.”
“A dog needs to be able to walk.”
“It could be his other knee. The vet did warn me that when one knee goes, the other isn’t usually far behind.”
“Poor, crippled up Ted,” Dylan said. Ted licked his face. Dylan sucked it up. He figured Ted came with the package.
“And I’ll have to find a new studio.”
“Not too far away from Reynolds Ridge, I hope.”
“I won’t be going far.”
“You can start again, right? Your skill is in your eye and what you see when you look at an old piece, in imagining what it can become.”
“I managed to save some things. My smaller tools and all my stones. They’re in the car. And the piece I made for my friend Beck, a few others.”
Dylan squeezed her hand. “You’re a smart woman.”
“And I’ll have to find somewhere to live. I’ve been lying here going over and over that particularly urgent dilemma.”
Dylan pointed at the ceiling of the tent. “You might have to buy this thing. I’m sure you’ll get a good price now that it’s been used.”
That was when they heard it. The sound of rain on the nylon fabric of the tent.
“Is that—” Hannie asked with a gasp.
“Yeah.” Dylan propped himself up on an elbow. “It’s raining.” He kissed Hannie again.
“Ouch,” she said. “Oh, there’s one more thing. Zelda is going to need somewhere to live too.”
Dylan ruminated on that one. “Okay, here’s the deal. I’ll only take Zelda if you come too. A package deal.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“But we haven’t even had a first date yet. And you’re saying I can come stay with you?”
“Yeah. I’m that crazy about you, Reynolds.”
She sighed and closed her eyes and Dylan watched her fall asleep, before he put his head on the rolled up towel next to hers and slept, too.
Chapter Eighteen
Hannie Reynolds and Dylan Knight’s first date was a visit to the hospital emergency room.
The day after the fires were extinguished by soaking rains, he drove her into the city and she had a cortisone injection in her back to relieve the pressure on her disc. She hobbled in and hobbled slightly less on her way out.
Their second date was later that afternoon. They drove back up into the hills and to Reynolds Ridge to Dylan’s place to pick up Ted to take him to the vet, where Hannie was told that, yes, Ted had torn the anterior cruciate ligament on his other knee and would need the same surgery. The vet kept him in overnight so she could do the surgery the next morning.
“A special favour,” she’d told Hannie.
Hannie knew immediately what she meant. It was a special favour for someone who had just lost everything they owned in the bushfire.
Their third date was a trip to a suburban shopping centre so Hannie could buy knickers and shoes.
Their fourth date was a cold beer on Dylan’s deck that night. In the fading evening light, they looked across the gully to the ruins of Mandy’s property. It was strange to see the place in darkness.
Dylan checked his watch. “They should be here any minute.”
&nbs
p; Hannie nodded. Alice had called earlier, asking if they could come up and speak to Hannie. Of course she’d agreed, but suggested they head to Dylan’s instead for their family meeting. Hannie hadn’t been able to walk among the ruins of the cottage. She didn’t think Mandy would be ready, either.
They heard Alice’s car pull into the driveway and they put down their beers and walked around the back to the drive. Alice was helping Mandy out of the front passenger seat. When Mandy looked up, she beckoned Hannie over to her, and Hannie held out her arms and hugged her aunt. Only they knew what they’d shared on that property, and what they had lost.
“Hi, Hannie,” Alice said stiffly. “Hello, Dylan.”
“Come around onto the deck for a drink.”
When they were all seated, Alice perhaps less comfortably than the others, she cleared her throat. “I don’t think we need to beat around the bush.”
Hannie looked at Dylan.
“No,” Hannie said. She clenched her jaw, waiting for the onslaught. The difference, this time, was that she was prepared.
“Firstly,” Alice said primly, “I just want to say, thank you Hannie for all you did to protect Mum’s place.”
“I did everything I could. I promise you.”
“I know that, Hannie.” Mandy looked up from her lap.
Hannie was shocked to see the difference in her aunt since she’d been away with Alice in the city, since her second fall. She seemed shrunken and little.
“I’m so sorry, Mandy. I had the sprinklers on. I’d checked the generators. Everything was cleared, even the gutters. I don’t know what happened.”
Dylan stretched an arm around Hannie’s shoulders. “A bushfire happened. That’s why the house and the cottage were destroyed.”
“I don’t blame you, Hannie. Don’t forget, I grew up here too. I know what bushfires can do.”
“I couldn’t save the girls, Aunt Mandy. We didn’t have room in the car for twenty chickens. But we rescued Zelda.”
At the mention of her goat’s name, Mandy broke into a smile. “Bloody Zelda.”
“You’re damn right about that,” Dylan laughed. “She bleats all bloody night.”
Long Hot Summer Page 14
