Maz is emptying ice into a bowl from her whizz-bang freezer. It’s dark in the house: the blinds and the shutters are closed. Her boys, Ned and Luca, are lying on the wooden living room floor in front of Thomas the Tank Engine.
This is the most successful open house since they arrived – several families have come and gone, cooling themselves in the pool, relaxing in front of the aircon (which was working till 2.00 pm). The last arrivals, now too hot to move, are Tricia Gallagher, her cousin/husband Chook, and their grandchildren: Bradley, six; Kinsey, four; and Brianna, one, who’s in a nappy and asleep on her playmat. Everyone else is awake and in bathers. The four over-threes are wet from jumping in the shower. Bowls of ice have been placed around the room, with fans blowing over them. The humans are struggling. It’s forty-five outside and thirty-two in.
Tricia’s twenty-six-year-old daughter, Emily, has been texting incessantly, and there’s no sign of her letting up. It’s the first time Tricia and Chook have looked after all three grandchildren overnight.
Stop worrying! the young granny messages. Waiting for cool change then heading home.
‘Can we get in the pool again?’ says Ned. 116
‘Soon as the change comes,’ says Ciara.
‘Gotta be soon,’ says Tricia.
‘It’s freezing in Adelaide,’ says Chook.
‘Twenty-three,’ says Tricia. ‘Is that a breeze?’
‘No,’ says Chook.
‘Is that thunder?’ says Tricia.
‘Nah,’ says Chook.
‘All the flavour’s gone!’ Luca’s referring to his frozen bottle of organic raspberry cordial – well it was once raspberry, now it’s a small block of smooth, unsuckable, ungettable ice – which he is using as a very loud musical instrument.
‘Come, I’ll add some of this,’ Maz yells from the kitchen area.
Luca heads to the kitchen. Ned, Brady and Kinsey follow, each holding up their flavourless frozen bottles, into which Maz pours home-made lemon cordial.
In the lounge, Tricia says to Chook: ‘What’s that noise?’ She no longer trusts her senses.
In the kitchen, Maz says to Ciara: ‘That’s the town siren.’
‘You sure?’ Ciara asks.
Maz is sure.
‘Holy shit,’ Ciara whispers.
‘I’ll get rid of them.’ Maz enters the living room and claps. ‘That’s the town siren everyone. No updates online yet but best be safe. Up, up, adventure time, oval time. You and Chook good to get there in your car, Trish?’
‘You sure it’s the emergency siren?’ asks Trish.
She tells Trish she is sure, and that it’s an extended siren, which is scarier than a short one, but even Maz is a doubting Thomas. She presses the shutter button and the northern blinds ascend very slowly; at first all she and the others can see is the edge of the swimming pool, then some of the blue-green 117water before the blinds crunch and stop. Maz presses the button again.
Everyone’s head is pointing down; going slowly up. The Perspex fence comes into view; then some dead grass on the other side of the pool. The shutter is also too hot to move and crunches upwards, millimetre by millimetre.
There is more yellow grass…
There will be sky in a moment, blue probably, white or grey hopefully. Please let there be clouds – Maz, like everyone, is making a wish, and expecting the worst news will be blue.
The sky isn’t blue. It’s black and it’s red and it’s grey. Not sky but fire. The sky is on fire. And it is coming straight for the house.
Maz presses the button over and over, and the shutter begins to descend.
Trish and Chook are already gathering their grandchildren.
‘We’ll follow you,’ Trish says, about to exit the front door.
‘Um, no you go first,’ says Ciara. ‘We’ll be a few minutes. Got to get a few things.’
‘Forget about fuckin’ things!’ says Tricia’s husband, Chook.
‘Don’t swear,’ says Tricia.
‘There’s a fucking fire!’ Chook rushes out to the car. He puts Brianna in the car seat in the back; and buckles Brady and Kinsey in either side.
‘I want to go on the oval adventure!’ Ned is saying.
‘I want to go with Brady and Kinsey!’ Luca is saying.
‘I want to go in the pool,’ Kinsey sobs from the backseat. ‘You promised. I don’t want the oval.’
All five children are now howling.
Maz picks up Ned and Ciara scoops up Luca. Nothing will separate them from the boys. 118
‘Get in the car,’ Chook says to Trish, who is still waiting at the door for her friends to exit, but they are not taking action.
‘We’re not leaving without you. Hurry, please,’ Trish says.
‘Trish, listen – I have to tell you…’
Maz has stopped Ciara from finishing the sentence and dragged her and the boys into the laundry. She shuts the door, puts earphones on Luca’s head and her hands over Ned’s ears. ‘Don’t you dare. We’ve discussed this.’
‘But Kinsey and Brianna! Me for those two, please, I’ll make sure to be safe.’
‘I promised to stop you if this happened, and you promised to stop me,’ Maz says, shutting Ciara and the boys in the laundry, and wedging the door behind her.
Maz heads out to make sure Tricia et al leave. ‘We’ll follow in two secs,’ she says.
Behind her, Ciara is banging on the laundry window and is trying to write something on the dusty glass with her finger.
‘Don’t be crazy and get in the bunker,’ Trish says.
‘Bunker?’ Maz is bad at lying.
‘The one you built before moving in.’
‘Everyone knows about your bunker,’ Chook says, revving the engine, desperate to leave. ‘They’re death traps those things, please come with us.’
‘It’s accredited,’ Maz finds herself saying.
‘Well, good luck.’ Chook gives her a sad look, as if he will never see her again, then takes off down the drive, a cloud of dust following his hatchback towards the safety of the town oval.