Ashley felt scared as Brian pushed open the door of the surgery and nodded for her to enter. She was scrubbed and disinfected, and wearing a pair of latex gloves. It had taken a while to clean her up and her heart had raced the whole time. Would Dexter be OK?
He was stretched out on his back on the operating table, fast asleep. A tube poked out of his mouth and another was taped to his arm, just as if he was a human. He looked terribly small and vulnerable.
‘You two can stand over there,’ Pete said shortly, his eyes not leaving Dexter as he rubbed a fat ultrasound wand over the joey’s belly.
Ashley and Brian backed into the corner of the room. ‘What’s the tube in his mouth for?’ she whispered.
‘Pete always uses tubes in the windpipe. Sometimes koalas stop breathing under anaesthetic for no reason,’ Brian whispered back. ‘He’s done the physical examination by the look of it. That involves feeling every part of the animal and taking blood samples. Now he’s doing an ultrasound to check there aren’t any internal injuries. If that’s all OK, then he’ll test Dexter for disease. Especially as his mother had conjunctivitis — he is probably infected too. But that’s treatable.’
Ashley nodded, not taking her eyes from the joey.
‘You OK?’ Brian asked. ‘You’re not queasy or anything?’
It hadn’t occurred to Ashley to feel queasy. In fact, she was fascinated by what Pete was doing with Dexter. He was working so quickly that it was quite hard to follow each step, but he obviously had a routine and was very good at it.
‘No apparent injuries,’ he said, hanging up the ultrasound wand. ‘Now for the swabs.’
‘He’s testing for chlamydia,’ Brian explained. ‘That’s what causes the conjunctivitis. He’ll take swabs for testing so he knows if Dexter needs treatment.’
When the swabs were done, Pete relaxed for a moment. ‘Right, folks. Given that Dexter’s mother was infected, he’ll almost certainly need antibiotics, plus he has a touch of pneumonia. He’s a bit dehydrated so I’ll run some subcutaneous fluids into him and then we’ll wake him up and you can take him to a carer.’
‘Is he going to live?’ Ashley asked.
Pete smiled at her, but she could see it was a sad kind of smile. ‘We just have to hope for the best, Ashley, but there are no guarantees. Koalas are the hardest marsupials to raise by hand and most don’t make it. But some do, and every success is worthwhile. Especially for the coastal koalas in Byron Shire. There are so few of them left. We do our best to keep them going.’
As Brian led her out of the surgery, Ashley took one last look back at Dexter. He was an orphan now, and he could die. She hadn’t been able to save his mother and he needed her help more than ever.
She followed Brian out to the waiting area and slumped down in one of the chairs. Magda put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. It was nice of her, but Ashley wished she hadn’t. She just felt even worse.
Although Micky had told her, over and over, that lots of rescued koalas died, Ashley hadn’t really believed it. She’d been sure that if Dexter and his mother just reached the vet, they’d be fine. But although she’d done everything possible to get them there, Dexter’s mother had died anyway.
Ashley felt her lip wobbling. She wanted to burst into tears. She wanted to go home.
‘Can I borrow your mobile to call my mum?’ she asked Magda.
‘Of course, sweetie,’ Magda said, and pulled it out. ‘There you go.’
Ashley got up and went out on the verandah before she dialled. The rain was drumming on the roof, making it hard to hear. Her mother picked up on the third ring.
‘Mum, it’s me.’
‘Oh, Ash! Thank goodness! I’ve been so worried. Where are you?’
Ashley choked on her words. ‘I’m at the wildlife hospital. In Currumbin.’
‘What a relief you’re all right. I’ve been calling and calling. I finally got through to Micky a little while ago, but I couldn’t understand what she was telling me. Who are you with? What are you doing?’
‘I’m with Brian and Magda. They’re nice. But the mother koala that we rescued died.’ As she said the words, Ashley started to cry.
‘It’s OK, darling,’ her mother said. ‘Now listen to me. I’m going to get you on a flight and you’re coming straight home, OK? It all sounds much too dangerous up there. We’ll find something else for you to do for the holidays.’
Ashley felt a wave of relief. ‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘I’m going to hang up now and find a flight. I’ll call you back on this number in a few minutes, all right? And those people can take you straight to the airport. I don’t want you going back to Micky’s. It sounds like she’s as crazy as ever. I should never have sent you up there.’
Ashley could see Magda waving at her through the window and pointing to the phone. ‘I’ve got to go.’
‘I’ll call you back soon. I love you, Ash.’
‘I love you too. Bye, Mum.’
Ashley pushed open the door and went back into the waiting room. She could see the front-desk volunteer talking on the phone. She looked really stressed.
‘Sorry, Ashley, we need the phone to look up some numbers,’ Magda said. ‘We’re having trouble finding a carer for Dexter.’
Brian took the phone, flicked a few screens and started to make a call.
‘Why can’t Dexter stay here in hospital?’ Ashley asked Magda.
‘Caring for joeys is around-the-clock work,’ she replied. ‘The hospital can’t manage it. You need to know a huge amount about them to do it successfully. And then lots of them die anyway, no matter how good you are. You can see why there aren’t many joey carers around. Did you talk to your mum?’
Ashley nodded. ‘She wants me to fly home. She’s going to call back in a few minutes with a flight.’
Magda smiled and squeezed her shoulders again. ‘Ashley, love, that probably won’t happen. The Gold Coast airport is closed. All the flights are cancelled.’
Ashley started to cry again. This was turning into the worst holiday she’d ever had. She just wanted to get out of there.
Brian’s phone rang and he answered it hopefully. ‘Yes?’ Then his face fell. ‘I’ll just get her,’ he said, and handed the phone to Ashley.
‘Ash, there aren’t any flights from the Gold Coast, but you can go to Brisbane and fly home from there,’ her mother said. ‘I’ve booked you on a flight tonight. I think it was the last seat! Do you think those people could take you up to the airport? Can you put me onto them?’
Ashley looked around the room — at the busy receptionist, and at the worried looks on the faces of Brian and Magda.
‘I’ll call you back in a minute, Mum,’ she said, and hung up. She handed the phone back to Brian and turned to stare out the window at the falling rain.
She’d thought that all she had to do was get Dexter and his mother to the vet, and then she’d have done what was needed. But it hadn’t been enough. Much as she desperately wanted to go home, Ashley knew she couldn’t just abandon the joey. She’d been the one who wanted to get him to the hospital and now he still needed her. In fact, he needed her more than ever.
She swung around. ‘Micky and I can look after Dexter.’
Brian shook his head. ‘Micky hasn’t looked after joeys for ages, and she doesn’t want to do it any more. Anyway, we can’t even get you back across the creek, let alone Dexter. He needs peace and quiet now, not more drama.’
Ashley felt a wave of determination. She wasn’t going to give up. She wasn’t going to leave Dexter alone. And she wasn’t going to fly home either.
‘Can I have the phone, please? I’m going to call Micky and talk to her.’
Magda and Brian looked at each other. ‘We don’t exactly have a lot of options,’ Magda said. ‘Give her the phone.’