‘Pull back. We’ve lost it. Everyone pull back.’
If his mother recognised Ben’s voice, distorted by the radio, she gave no sign.
‘Come on. We’ve got to go.’ Justin almost pushed her towards her car. They stumbled through the thick smoke, flames all around them.
Coughing badly, they reached the car. Justin’s mother tried to open the wagon’s tailgate but couldn’t manage it while still holding the injured koala. Cursing under his breath, Justin reached for the handle. There was a large, blanket-lined box inside the station wagon. Without asking, he took the injured animal from his mother’s arms and placed it in the box, but before he could slam the tailgate down, his mother was reaching inside for a water bottle, which she poured over the koala’s fur, which was still smouldering.
Justin cursed. ‘There’s no time.’
The flames had jumped the road behind them and were on both sides of them now. The other firefighters were climbing aboard a big red and yellow truck parked a few yards ahead of the flames.
‘Go. Get out of here.’ Justin almost threw his mother into the driver’s seat.
She started the engine and looked back over her shoulder at him. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but he shook his head.
‘Drive.’
This time the urgency in his voice seemed to strike home and she threw the car into gear. All the other vehicles had vanished. Her car was lost in the smoke in seconds.
Justin stood looking after her for what seemed an eternity until the blast of a horn caused him to jump back to reality. The truck was behind him.
‘Justin. Come on.’ The words were drowned out by a huge crash as a tree fell somewhere behind the vehicle. The passenger door swung open and Justin leaped inside as the truck began moving. It gained speed quickly. He looked out the window. All he could see was the shifting smoke and the glow of the flames. His mother’s car was safely away.
‘We’re needed up the Jack’s Creek Road. The wind is shifting,’ the man next to him said. ‘We’ll meet the others there.’
Justin nodded, his mind racing. How many years was it since he had last seen his mother? Fourteen? Fifteen? Something like that. He and Ben had left that old wooden cottage in Tamworth and not looked back. In the first couple of years, he had called her once or twice, without telling Ben. Christmas usually. Never birthdays. That subject was too sensitive to risk. But as the months and eventually years passed, he stopped. When he’d last tried, her phone had been disconnected. That was years ago. Nothing since. If asked yesterday, he would have said he didn’t know where his mother was. Or even if she was still alive, although he had always assumed she was. There was no need to assume any more.
Somewhere ahead of their fast-moving truck, his twin brother was also preparing to fight this monster of a fire on its new front. There was no way Justin could casually say that he’d seen their mother. Not after all these years and all the hurt. That could wait until the beast was beaten. Then he’d tell Ben. And after that …?
He had no idea.
CHAPTER
2
Anna heard the car pull up outside the vet clinic and glanced out the window. She recognised it immediately; Carol Turner’s rescue operations had prompted the building of the small native wildlife clinic adjacent to the veterinary practice she owned. Anna had seen news about the bushfire burning a bit further up the valley towards Tamworth so Carol’s appearance was not unexpected. When fires burned, there were always victims for Anna to treat.
Anna stroked the cat she was about to vaccinate and smiled, feeling the skin on the left side of her face pull across the scar as it always did. She had been out in the sun yesterday, checking an alpaca herd, and the skin was tighter than it usually was. She would put something on it this evening, but she would still feel it every time she smiled or frowned or even spoke. No amount of face creams or oils would make the scar less than it was. Anna had come to terms with that.
‘This really won’t hurt her at all,’ she told the little girl who was closely watching every move Anna—or the cat—made.
The cat gave a small plaintive mew as Anna eased the needle into her skin. Then the job was done and the cat was back cradled in the arms of her young mistress. Anna filled out the animal’s vaccination card, and left the cat, girl and her mother in the care of her receptionist, Liz. Reception was empty of further patients, so Anna went outside to meet Carol.
‘What have you got?’ Anna asked as she crossed the driveway towards the car.
‘Koala. It has burns.’ Carol removed a cardboard box from the back of her car.
Anna opened the wildlife hospital and waited for Carol to bring in her new patient. When Anna looked into the box, a pair of unfocused eyes blinked up at her from a face ringed with singed fur.
‘You poor thing,’ Anna said as she carefully lifted the koala out of the box and unwrapped the sooty and bloodstained blanket. She reached behind her to get a bottle, which she filled with water, pressing a soft lid on it. She squeezed gently and water spurted through a hole in the lid. She handed the bottle to Carol, who knew exactly what to do with it, holding the bottle near the injured animal’s nose to let water drip onto its face. Within seconds, the koala was lapping up the drops as fast as they fell.
Anna examined the koala. Her ears had been burned, but her thick fur had protected most of her body from the fire. She looked at her paws. The pads were burned and it was likely she’d lose some of her claws.
‘No tree climbing for you for a little while, my girl.’
There was some burned skin on the koala’s back legs, and it was bleeding in places where the skin had split. Anna checked the animal’s pouch, but there was no sign of a joey. That was probably a good thing. The koala would need all her strength to heal.
‘She’ll recover,’ Anna said.
