Ashley’s stomach felt like it had leapt into her chest. She grabbed the armrest. Around her, the other passengers gasped and some made ‘ooh’ noises. Even the flight attendant staggered in the aisle at the sudden jolt.
The plane bounced again, sending the weird feeling in Ashley’s belly the other way. The seatbelt light pinged on as the loudspeaker blared into life.
‘Fasten your seatbelts, folks, we’ve hit some turbulence. All electronic devices off. Flight attendants, take your seats, please.’ The captain’s voice sounded tinny and strange.
Ashley’s belt was already done up, but the man and woman sitting next to her, who both looked a bit shaken, quickly reached for their buckles. The plane dipped again and Ashley couldn’t help gasping: the fall lasted several seconds.
‘You OK, love?’ the woman asked.
Ashley nodded, though in fact she was starting to get really scared. She looked out the window. The view was just the grey inside of the clouds and small drops of water streaked across the outside of the window. It had gone very quiet as the cabin shook around them.
The loudspeaker came back on. ‘No need to worry, folks, we’re just running into a bit of a weather pattern,’ the captain said cheerfully. ‘Hopefully we can land at the Gold Coast as planned. Sit tight and keep those seatbelts on.’
Ashley jiggled her knee. Her mother had only given her the phone back just as she was boarding the plane — and the battery was completely flat. She wished it was working so she could play a game, anything to take her mind off the way the plane was tossing around, and from thinking about Puppy. She knew if she thought about him for long, she’d start crying again.
‘If you feel sick, lovey, there’s a bag in the seat pocket,’ the woman said. ‘You’ve gone a bit pale.’
Ashley wished she wouldn’t talk about it. It was true, her tummy was feeling a bit queasy and she was swallowing a lot.
‘Let’s have a chat,’ the woman said, and gave her a kind smile. ‘Where are you from?’
‘Five Dock,’ Ashley said, through clenched teeth.
‘And what brings you up to the Gold Coast? Are you on holidays?’
Ashley nodded. ‘I’m going to visit my aunt.’
‘That sounds lovely,’ the woman said encouragingly. ‘In the Gold Coast, is she? Well, there’s plenty to do there. Shopping, surfing, theme parks … Once this weather clears up, you’ll have a great time.’
‘She’s not on the Gold Coast,’ Ashley said. ‘She lives in some place near Byron Bay.’
The woman leaned over to the man on the other side of her. ‘Hear that, Ralph? Byron. You’ve been there, haven’t you?’
He looked up from his newspaper and grunted. ‘Mm. Hippies, the lot of them.’
‘Don’t take any notice of him,’ the woman said. ‘I’m sure it’s a nice place. I just hope you don’t get cut off.’
‘Cut off?’ Ashley stared at her.
‘There’s been a lot of rain down that way. They’re saying this tropical cyclone’s heading south, and bringing even more. Lots of that area is flooded.’
‘Leave the poor kid alone,’ the man said. ‘Cripes, Nancy.’
The plane seemed to have smoothed out, but Ashley still had a weird feeling in her belly and she knew it wasn’t only from the turbulence. What if they had to move somewhere that she wasn’t allowed to have a dog at all? Not only would she miss out on owning Puppy, but she might never have a dog. They might even be in another suburb altogether. Maybe she’d have to go to a new school! She and Emma had only been at Burwood Girls High for three terms. She didn’t want to leave it already — she’d only just got settled in.
The loudspeaker came back on. ‘Captain speaking. It’s going to be a bumpy landing, folks, and the visibility is low. We’ll be approaching the runway, but if we don’t get a good-enough view, we will need to lift off again.’
Well, if anything happens to me, my parents will be really sorry, Ashley thought. It served them right for sending her away when she didn’t want to go. She could see driving rain outside her window, and the cloud was still so dense she couldn’t see through it. The plane was descending, but the gloom outside was so heavy that it felt like it was getting dark, rather than just being lunchtime.
The engines screamed; the plane lowered and lowered; the rain hitting the windows got even thicker. Ashley clung to her armrests with both hands and shut her eyes. As usual, she thought about Puppy. By this time Emma should have arrived home with Bella, and the thought of it brought a lump to her throat.
The plane bumped, fell a little and then suddenly bounced on the runway, throwing them around in their seats. A cheer rose up and Ashley opened her eyes. She’d arrived.
At the bottom of the plane’s steps they had to run through the rain. Ashley was wet by the time they got into the terminal. Her hair was dripping in her eyes, and the crowd of people waiting to get on the plane were all standing in the way, so she had to weave around them. She glanced around for her aunt, but couldn’t see anyone who looked even vaguely familiar. So she followed the stream of passengers out to the baggage area.
‘Is someone coming to pick you up?’ the woman from the plane asked.
‘Yes,’ Ashley said uncertainly, looking around. ‘My aunt is meant to be here.’
‘What does she look like?’
Ashley realised she had no idea what Micky looked like. She just had to hope that she would recognise her. Her bag appeared on the carousel and she swooped on it.
‘Do you want us to wait with you?’ Nancy asked.
Ashley hesitated. Nancy was a complete stranger, but, to tell the truth, she felt a bit scared by herself in the airport. What if Micky didn’t turn up? Her phone had no charge on it. She didn’t know what she’d do. She was just old enough that the airline left her to her own devices, but for a moment she really wished she’d been travelling as an ‘unaccompanied minor’ — then someone from the airline would’ve had to stay with her until her aunt arrived.
‘Hey, kid!’ A loud voice echoed over the baggage area. ‘Ashley?’
Ashley spun around. A tall woman was standing in the centre of the area, also looking for someone. She was dressed in a bright orange shirt and lime-green pants, and wearing a hat with an orange band around it over her short black hair. She cupped her hands around her mouth. ‘Are you here, Ashley?’
People were staring and some were laughing. Nancy gave her a little shove. ‘That’s her, isn’t it? Bye-bye, love. Have a great holiday.’
Ashley took hold of her wheelie bag and started trundling it towards the orange-clad woman. She halted in front of her.
‘Oh, it’s you, is it?’ The woman grinned. She had blue eyes, just like Ashley and her mother did. ‘Thought that’d get you out of the woodwork. Haven’t seen you since you were knee-high to a grasshopper.’
‘Um. Hi,’ Ashley muttered, embarrassed. People were watching them and she just wanted to get out of there. ‘I’m ready.’
‘Good-oh,’ Micky said. ‘Let’s hop to it. The chariot awaits. The steeds are restless. Time waits for no man. Or woman.’
Her aunt swung on her heel and started striding towards the exit, and Ashley grabbed the bag again and hurried after her, blinking. Micky looked like Ashley’s mother, but acted nothing like her. Ashley hadn’t expected her aunt to be quite so — embarrassing.
They headed out into the rain. Micky hardly seemed to notice that it was pouring, though at least she paused so Ashley could catch up with her.
‘You’re in for some fun and games,’ she said. ‘BOM says there’s a cyclone heading our way. It won’t be a cyclone by the time it gets here, but we’ll have a good old blow, that’s for sure. And it usually means plenty of drop bears to keep us busy. At least it’ll be easier to get leaf.’
Ashley had no idea what Micky was talking about. Bomb? Drop bears? Leaf? But it was raining too heavily for her to ask. Water was running down the back of her neck and she was already soaking wet.
Her aunt was striding ahead again. ‘We have to get a wriggle on,’ Micky said. ‘Creek’s rising. Step on it, kid.’
They reached the car. Ashley had never seen anything like it. It was a van with a peace symbol on the front, and covered with a painted mural of birds and animals, breaking waves, the sun and moon, and a few fish thrown in.
Micky jiggled with the handle on the back door while Ashley stood in the rain getting even wetter. Her aunt hoisted the suitcase into the back, shoved the sliding door shut again and ran around to the driver’s side. She opened the passenger door from the inside and Ashley hopped in, relieved to be out of the rain.
Micky rubbed her sleeve on the windscreen, which was fogged. ‘The old girl looks a bit out of place here, eh?’ She peered at the other cars, which were nearly all either silver or white, and almost indistinguishable. ‘Meet the Argo. She comes from the days when cars had character. You could tell a lot about a person from her car.’
She pushed in the clutch and turned the key. The engine clicked a few times and was silent. ‘Mm,’ Micky said. ‘Colourful, but somewhat unpredictable.’
She tried again, and this time, to Ashley’s relief, the engine roared into life. There was no doubt it was running. In fact, it was the loudest car engine Ashley had ever heard.
‘But ultimately she comes good,’ Micky said, manoeuvring the long gear stick into reverse. ‘We’re off!’
They joined the queue of cars leaving the carpark. Ashley pulled her phone out of her pocket. She couldn’t believe her mother had let her go with a flat battery. She couldn’t even text Emma and find out if she was home with Bella.
Micky glanced over at her. ‘Won’t have much fun with that at my place. Reception’s rubbish. Mine doesn’t work most of the time.’
As they rolled forwards and her aunt paid for the parking, Ashley wondered what she was going to do for the next fortnight. No phone, plenty of rain, and drop bears, whatever they were. She stared gloomily at the drops of water trickling down the glass.
The rain runs down his back, making a cold line through his fur and dripping off his bottom. He shivers and hunches into a tighter ball, tucking his ears down and holding his arms in close. The water still beats on him; he can’t get away from it. His mother hasn’t taken them to The Dry, where the leaves shelter them from the worst of the downpour.
She hunches on the branch above him. He has tried three times to climb into her lap and each time she’s swatted him away irritably. He curls below her for shelter and tries to sleep, as they normally do when the Bright comes. But the rain is keeping him awake.
I’m hungry.
His mother doesn’t answer, but his belly is rumbling and they are far down The Hungry now, a long way from the soft leaves that he likes. The only thing for him is her milk.
Please.
There’s no answer, but he climbs towards her anyway and this time she allows him into her lap. It’s warm there and, because she’s been curled into a ball to let the rain run off her back, it’s dry, and he sighs with relief as he cuddles into her, turns himself around and finds the teat. She tucks an arm around him as he suckles.
A gust of wind blows more rain onto them and he feels her shiver. She hasn’t moved from the fork in the tree for a long time, and she hasn’t eaten either.
He glances over at the tree beside them, The Hidden. It has new, pinkish shoots. Perhaps his mother would eat them?
He lets go of the teat and nudges her. The Hidden has new leaves. Can we go there?
She turns her head, moves it from side to side. I can’t see.
He looks up. Her eyes are swollen completely closed, huge bulges of pink skin with slits in the centre. She can’t even blink.
We’ll just stay here till it stops raining.
He doesn’t know what to do. He nuzzles her fur and she puts both her arms around him and squeezes. They stay like that, holding each other, as the rain comes down harder around them. He feels himself falling asleep. Perhaps when they wake up and the Bright is gone, she will be better.