The next morning Eddie opened her eyes, and as consciousness slowly returned, it took a few seconds for her brain to compute that she wasn’t in her little cottage at Glenview. She was at Aimee’s in Grace’s single bed. It took less time for the memories to crowd in. The fire. The accident. The rescue. The reality of all she’d lost flooded in so painfully it hurt to breathe. Everything had changed.
She reached for her phone to check the time and was surprised to see it was almost midday. Then again, it had been nearly 4 am when she’d fallen into bed. She checked her phone again and disappointment surged. Harry hadn’t called or responded to any of her messages. A shudder ripped through her. Surely he didn’t blame her for his mum’s death?
There was a light tap at the door and she looked over to see it open a crack, then Aimee’s head appeared. ‘Hey, sleepy head.’
Eddie sat up and rubbed her eyes. The door opened further and Aimee entered the room, exhaustion lining her pale face.
‘Did you sleep okay?’ she asked with a gentle smile.
‘Better than I thought I would.’
Aimee perched on the side of the bed, her expression contemplative. ‘The phone’s been ringing hot this morning. Christine Jennings called in and dropped off a bag of stuff for you after she’d heard you lost everything.’
Eddie frowned. ‘What sort of stuff?’
‘Toiletries mostly.’
Tears welled in Eddie’s eyes. ‘That’s so thoughtful of her.’
Aimee passed her a box of tissues.
‘I need to call her to say thanks.’
‘It can wait until you’ve gotten dressed and had something to eat.’ She rose and looked down at Eddie. ‘Are you hungry?’
‘Starving.’
‘Go and have another shower and I’ll make you something to eat.’
Eddie swung her legs out from under the doona. She plucked at Gus’s shirt. ‘What am I supposed to wear?’
Aimee smiled. ‘All sorted.’ She held up a large plastic shopping bag emblazoned with the familiar Target logo.
‘What’s this?’
‘A little something from us.’
Eddie opened the oversized bag. It was filled with clothes.
‘I was okay with you wearing my hubby’s shirt to bed, but I don’t think it’s right that you borrow his jocks.’
Eddie laughed for what felt like the first time in ages. She hugged her friend. ‘Oh, Aimz, this is so kind of you guys. Thank you.’
She smiled. ‘No big deal.’
‘When did you have time to do this?’
‘I didn’t. Gus took the kids into Wangaratta this morning with a list. I asked him to pick up the basics for you. Jeans, shorts, T-shirts, a few jumpers. Shoes.’
‘You are one in a million.’
Aimee offered another sad smile. ‘You’d do the same for me.’
‘I hope I never have to.’
After eating, they dug through more bags that had been dropped off by kind locals, left at Gus and Aimee’s front door. Clearly some people had used the fire as an excuse to get rid of their unwanted clothes, but it helped Eddie laugh. She was homeless, but if she needed to play lawn bowls she’d have all the gear, or if it started snowing she’d have a jacket.
The doorbell rang and Aimee answered it. It was Mick. He gave Eddie a tight fatherly hug that conveyed more than words could. Over his years in the CFA he’d comforted too many people to count after they’d lost everything in a fire. His hug said he understood.
As he was leaving, he handed her an envelope. ‘I made a few calls, and there’s some cash and gift certificates so you can buy what you need. It’s not much, but it will help. If you need anything else, you just ask.’
She hugged him again, more grateful than she could find the words to express. ‘Thank you, Mick. Everything will help.’
*
After lunch, Eddie and Aimee set off in the car and wound their way through the blackened hills to Glenview. Staring up at the charred hill, Eddie’s stomach tightened. Was she ready for this? On either side of the car were the burned skeletons of once-gorgeous gum trees. Closer to the house, she spotted a patch of grass that had somehow stayed miraculously untouched in the inferno.
Aimee turned in the driveway and pulled up beside the concrete water tank – the only structure still standing apart from the red brick chimneys. Eddie climbed slowly from the car, her eyes roaming slowly around at the devastation, taking it all in but not really comprehending what she was seeing. She looked over at what had been her cottage. It was as though it had exploded, or a bomb had been detonated right on top of it. Or both. There was nothing but the brick foundations buried in white ash and rubble, piles of melted glass and unidentifiable debris, and metal twisted into odd shapes by the heat. Nothing that resembled a house. Her house.
Miraculously, an ancient gum tree in the back yard was unscathed, but Nan’s prized garden was nothing but blackened dirt, the jacaranda bare of its colourful foliage. Around the perimeter of the house, once green bushes were a mass of dry, crunchy, russet red and black leaves. Everywhere was evidence of the tremendous heat and force of nature.
Eddie’s feet felt like they had lead weights attached to them as she crunched across the scorched soil and headed around to the back of what had once been her home. She stood in front of the still smouldering ruins with an empty heart. She resisted the urge to cry but it was pointless. The tears flowed anyway. She brushed them away. It was deathly quiet. No wind in the trees. No birds. Nothing.
‘Have Nan and Grandad seen this yet?’ she asked Aimee.
‘No. I had a call from one of their new neighbours at the retirement village. They’re trying to keep Frank and Daisy occupied.’
Eddie sniffed and tried to smile. ‘Good luck to them. I can’t see Nan doing Sudoku right now.’
‘Neither can I. Can you picture your grandad doing a jigsaw puzzle?’
‘Knowing them, they’re already planning another charity fundraiser for next year.’
‘Probably.’
Eddie walked over to what was once the garden shed. Sheets of iron roofing lay on the ground, covering more twisted metal that had once been a lawnmower and other garden equipment. ‘I’m glad I wasn’t here. I wouldn’t have stood a chance.’
‘You were right where you were meant to be. If you hadn’t been doing your job, other lives might have been lost.’
She sighed heavily. ‘I guess like they say, it’s just a house, isn’t it?’
Aimee drew alongside her. ‘It was your home, Eddie. You don’t have to be so stoic. It’s okay to cry about losing that.’
Eddie shrugged. ‘It’s just stuff. Clothes, furniture . . . I can buy all that again. Although thanks to you, the clothing situation is partially sorted already.’
Everyone had told Eddie she’d be amazed at the things she’d find after the fire had gone through, but looking at the incinerated mess she doubted she’d find anything, especially not the one thing she was looking for. She spied one of her journals but when she bent to pick it up, it literally turned to dust in her hands. Only the wire binding remained, blackened and twisted by the heat like everything else.
Aimee stood next to her, a silent, solemn, yet comforting presence.
‘I don’t think I’m going to find it,’ Eddie said, her voice thick with emotion. She’d been holding back tears all day.
Their only goal was to find the jewellery box that held her mother’s necklace and a few dress rings. In her rush to leave, she’d remembered the silver-framed photograph but had totally forgotten about the necklace. Eddie wasn’t especially sentimental and didn’t really care about the rings, but her mum had always worn the necklace – a gold medallion that looked like a tiny shield hung from the chain. It was an antique Maggie had found after her grandmother Ivy – Eddie’s great-grandmother – passed away. Maggie always said it wasn’t anything special, a prize for being a junior sports champion, but she’d always loved it. She’d polished it up, put it on a chain and never took it off. As a child Eddie would clutch the medallion in her puffy little hand whenever she sat on her mother’s lap. It was one of her strongest memories.
She shuffled over to where she thought her bedroom had been and kicked at the ash. Hope ebbed away. It was going to be impossible.
‘Don’t give up before we’ve even started,’ Aimee urged, handing Eddie a pair of heavy-duty leather gardening gloves. ‘Gold shouldn’t melt.’
For the next two hours they sifted through the debris with exquisite patience. Eddie was just about to give up when Aimee squealed. She rushed over and Aimee was holding a small brass hinge between gloved fingers. ‘I reckon this is the hinge from your jewellery box.’
Both women dropped to their knees and began painstakingly examining every piece of dirt like they were on an archaeological dig. Eddie spotted it a second before Aimee. The chain had disintegrated but the gold medallion was intact. She clutched it to her chest and burst into heart-wrenching, uncontrollable sobs.
Eddie pulled herself together at the sound of a car coming up the driveway. She squinted into the sun, shaded her eyes and watched as a once-white four-wheel drive rolled slowly down the driveway. It pulled up in front of her and she saw the worried face of her grandad in the front seat beside Steve.
Steve opened his door and jumped down, his boots causing a plume of ashy-dust to detonate into the air. ‘Ed. Aimee.’ He greeted them with a quick nod. ‘Sorry,’ he said as he pointed behind him, ‘I had to bring them out here. If I didn’t, I reckon they would have tried to walk.’
Eddie strode over to the car. ‘You didn’t have to bring them,’ she said. ‘They could have driven here on their own.’
Steve chuckled. ‘No they couldn’t. Someone at the village confiscated their keys so they wouldn’t come up here earlier.’
Aimee grimaced. ‘They’d have hated that.’
‘You’re not wrong.’ Eddie yanked the passenger door open. ‘Hey, Grandad.’
‘Hello, possum. Give me a hand, would you? It’s a long way up here.’
She helped Frank clamber down from the cab, then opened the back door and assisted her nan. Silently the three of them stood and hugged, clutching each other in support.
‘We’re all okay,’ Nan soothed, rubbing her back. ‘We’ve still got each other. We’re all okay.’
Eddie felt anything but okay.
After a while, Steve approached them, pulling off his sunglasses and tucking them into the top pocket of his flannel shirt. ‘I’ll be off then, if that’s all right,’ he said. ‘Aimee said she’s happy to drive you back into town when you’re ready.’
Eddie released her grandparents and hugged Steve. ‘Thanks for everything, Steve.’
‘Thank you, Ed. Without you, I don’t reckon we would have survived.’
She looked her friend dead in the eye. The question that had been needling at her required an answer. ‘Did I do the right thing, Steve? Should I have left Jim Baxter and helped Ben save Jenny?’
‘You did the right thing. You followed protocol. One of the other guys should have checked the back seat of the car earlier. It wasn’t your responsibility. You did the right thing,’ he repeated emphatically. ‘You saved Jim’s life.’
She sighed. ‘Seems almost a shame.’
He frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘He’s got MND. Motor Neurone Disease. He’s dying anyway.’
Steve removed his cap and ran his hand through his hair. ‘Bugger. That’s too bad.’ His phone rang and he pulled it from his back pocket and glanced at the screen. ‘Sorry, Eddie, I have to take this. It’s Lise. She’s probably expecting me home.’
‘Go. Give her my love,’ Eddie said as he took the call.
She walked over to where her grandparents and Aimee stood at the remnants of the back fence. The view remained, but instead of the usual bushy green vista, black tree spikes dotted the skyline.
‘What are we going to do?’ Frank asked, turning to Eddie.
She lifted her hands and let them fall to her side. ‘I don’t know, Grandad. It’s up to you and Nan. It’s your place.’
He scratched at his jaw. ‘I guess we could rebuild,’ he mused. It sounded like the last thing he wanted to do.
‘Maybe you were right, Grandad. Maybe this is the universe telling me it’s time to move on,’ Eddie said, hoping she’d managed to inflect enough enthusiasm into her voice to appease him.
A dark cloud momentarily covered the sun and the scent of rain infused the air. A distant rumble of thunder sounded and Eddie glanced at the cloudy sky as a lone raindrop fell on the ground with a splat.
‘You’re a day late,’ she said, before turning and walking to Aimee’s car. ‘Let’s go.’