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Someone was on the line but I couldn’t hear them or see the name on the screen.
“Hello?” I called, hoarse and spluttering. “Hello, this is Stacey.” I coughed and heaved. Smoke was settling into the creek bed. My eyes watered.
“HELLO!” Liam yelled at the phone. “No one there.”
“Wait, wait!” I rasped. “Stuck in fire. Have Liam Cain with me. Get Dr Harry Cain!” I coughed again. “Fire on Turner’s Creek Road heading away from the national park entrance. We are sheltered in a creek bed. We need help. We need help!”
“HELP HELP!” Liam screamed into the phone. “HARRY! HARRY!”
I briefly heard a muffled voice but couldn’t make out their words. Liam touched the screen and the screen dulled. The call had ended. I sobbed, the cold of despair gripping me.
“Gone, gone.” He threw my mobile away in disgust and it landed with a soft plop into the mud.
A large crack and boom in the distance startled us both. I knew that sound all too well: a tree fall. The fire was claiming dead trees. Embers flew over the creek gully. The roar of the fire increased. The saltiness of my tears wet my lips. I hugged Liam tight as he started singingTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Staragain.
A gust of wind from the opposite direction blew over the creek bed stirring up leaves in eddies.
Cool air. So cold.
I coughed, closing my eyes again, when I heard it. “Liam, stop singing.”
“Liam want sing,” he grumped.
I twisted my head in the direction of the road.
“Liam, did you hear that? A fire engine?”
We lay in silence for several moments but couldn’t hear anything over the roar of the fire.
“Nothing, Liam. We hide now.”
More embers flew over the creek bed like red snowflakes. I squeezed Liam tight.
And now we hope.
I closed my eyes and tried to take deep breaths but couldn’t stop coughing.
I’m so very tired.I feel so … light.
I coughed and coughed.
Like I’m falling.A cold breeze rushed over us and I shivered, my head pounding.I’m falling through the air.
30
STACEY
Ballydoon Community Group:
Elsie posted 9.37 a.m.:
I’ve installed CCTV for my garden. I will catch the thief stealing my gnomes. Evidence will be forwarded to the police and I will prosecute!!
Everything around me was bright white.
My head throbbed with a dull ache.Mud, smoke, flames.
I squeezed my eyes shut, took a deep breath, and then reopened them.
