We heard a car pull up outside. The little boys rushed into the kitchen, huddling into me, watching wide-eyed as Matt hobbled to the front door. He yanked it open and there was Mr Nagel, arms out to hug – which Matt let him do for at least half a second. ‘Good to see you’re fit and well, son,’ his dad said with a crooked grin. ‘Thanks for putting up with him, Lyla.’

‘S’okay.’

Leo, Henry and I stayed at the front door, staring at the two of them. Matt leant on his father and limped across the gluggy road.

‘Is Matt going away?’ Leo asked. Poor kid, he was trembling all over.

I put an arm around him. ‘He wants to stay here with us, but his mother wants him to be with her.’

Henry sniffled. ‘I don’t want Matt to go away.’

‘He should stay,’ Leo said. ‘He doesn’t want to be with his mum. She’s a nutcase.’

I winced, but let it pass. Anyway, Leo possibly heard that from Matt himself.

The phone rang and of course I grabbed it – it could have been Katie or Shona or Dad. But I’d barely got the receiver to my ear before I copped another blast from Mrs Nagel. ‘Put Matthew on, Lyla.’

No please or thank you. I should tell her it was me who rescued her little darling. ‘He’s over at your house with his dad.’

‘Go and get him. At once, if you please. I need to speak to him urgently.’

Wow! She’d never been as rude as this before; she must be seriously bent out of shape. ‘I’ll give him your message when he gets back. Sorry, gotta go now.’ I put the phone down while she was mid-squawk. It rang again straight away.

The boys swivelled their eyes between it and me. I grinned at them and they fell about giggling as we listened to it ring, laughing all the harder when we heard her voice boom from the answering machine. ‘Pick up, Lyla. At once. Do you hear me?’

When the message finished I took the receiver off the hook. Spare me from panicking mothers.

Matt and his dad came back eventually, lugging a box full of semi-frozen food, a water container and a bag of Matt’s clothes.

Leo bounced up to Matt. ‘Your mum’s real mad with Lyla.’

Matt lowered himself onto a chair. ‘Jeez! Why can’t she leave me alone?’

Henry pressed play on the answer phone. Mr Nagel sighed. ‘Give it here, will you, Henry?’

He wiped the message, then dialled his wife. It probably rang for a nano-second before she answered. ‘Matthew! Have you packed? Don’t forget your…’

Mr Nagel said, ‘Cut it out, Liz. Take a deep breath and listen. Matt’s fine here. He’s doing a great job helping out. No – he wants to stay and I’ve said he can. And please stop harassing these good people. No more calls.’

He put the phone down, then turned to me. ‘I’m very grateful to you, Lyla. Thank you for rescuing my son.’

What could I say to that? No worries – he was just lying around? I settled for staring at my feet and muttering something dumb. Mr Nagel reached out and gripped my shoulder, then did the same for Matt – on his unbruised side. ‘Take care, son.’

The boys ran to the window to watch him leave. I looked at Matt. ‘Your mum a bit overprotective?’

‘Whatever gives you that idea?’ He shrugged – then winced. ‘Must remember not to do that for a bit. Dad’s good. Tries to keep her off my back.’

Blake arrived home. I ran to meet him, yelling, ‘Dad’s okay! He was on the telly. He looked fully tired, but he was still working.’ I rattled off the details.

My brother stopped dead, let the news sink in, then grinned at me. ‘Awesome. Best news ever.’

‘You didn’t find a shower then?’ He wouldn’t have got quite so filthy just riding home on his bike.

He waved a newspaper at me. ‘Can you believe it? They published The Press this morning!’

‘Impressive!’ Matt spread it open on the table. I took one look – so many photos, so much destruction and so many deaths. There were sixty-six as of last night, but there would be more by now. This was my city. It was real. This had happened to us. I don’t know if I was finding it too hard to believe or if I just didn’t want to believe it.

I read through the list of worst-hit suburbs. Dallington, Shona’s suburb, was still without power. They’d had bad liquefaction after September, but just being without electricity didn’t sound too serious. I wished she’d get in touch. Surely she would’ve got home safely, and her mother would have been okay too because she worked out at Ilam at the university. Blake had said there was damage there but nothing too dreadful. But I wanted to know for sure and certain that Shona was okay and that Greer had turned up.

‘Blake, Greer hasn’t messaged you, has she?’

‘Greer? No, why should she?’ He glanced at me, and saw some expression on my face that made him add, ‘I’ll tell you if she does.’

Matt stabbed at the page. ‘Jeez, imagine being that guy.’

It was a rescue story. Somebody had watched four people carry a badly hurt man on a slab of plywood to a police car. The plywood was too big to go in the car, so the four of them held him on top of its roof while the cop drove slowly to the hospital over those terrifying roads.

In the central city the ground was like jelly and shaking all the time.

There was some good news. Soldiers, a thousand of them, were in the city helping. USAR crews were on their way from all over the world. The New South Wales team was already here.

I looked for news of my school, but there was nothing.

Matt pushed the paper away. ‘A category 3 state of emergency. Not good, Lyla.’

I didn’t know if it was better to watch TV and listen to the radio, or if it was better not knowing what was happening. Neither seemed good.

Blake said, ‘You dudes know why peeps are heading towards ours lugging barbies and food?’

Leo scrambled up to perch by the window. ‘We told them to, cos it’s fun to have a party.’

The pressure inside me eased. It was good to have people around. There was a collection of four barbecues and all the families from our work crew. Somehow, we’d all get through this. I went out to meet them. It was lucky the evening wasn’t cold because there were too many of us to fit in the house.

Mum came home just as the food was almost ready to eat. I ran out to her. ‘Dad’s okay! We saw him on telly. He’s at the hospital.’

She stopped in mid-stride, her hands flying to her mouth. ‘Truly, Lyla? You’re sure?’

I flung my arms around her. ‘Positive! Matt recorded him.’

She gave me a shaky smile. ‘I just might have to hug Matt.’

I laughed and threaded my arm through hers. ‘Where are the Aussie doctors?’

‘On their way home. They were fantastic yesterday, but we’ve got enough local medical staff now so they figured it was best for them all to get out and not be a burden on the city.’ She sank down on the picnic chair Blake shoved at her. ‘Thanks, kids. This is such a good thing to do.’ She gestured at the crowd standing around on our back lawn. It was like a party, lots of laughing and even some singing. Looking at us, you’d never guess at the horrible stuff we all had to deal with.

I ate my share of pizza, sausages, chips and a cob of corn and tried not to think of the bad stuff. I should have contacted Joanne – told her to bring her family. Come on, brain – kick into gear, why can’t you?

Dad came home just as it was getting dark. He was tired, dead tired, but he was alive and hugged the three of us as if he’d never let us go. Okay by me.