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Keri
I led the horses and Lily far enough away, and hopefully out of danger. On the farm track I found a cattle trough full of water beside the farm fence. I looped the horse’s reins onto the fence post and stood Lily by the trough on the other side of the fence.
“Lily,” I said. “If the fire comes this way, jump in the trough. If the horses try to run away, just let them go. They don’t like fire.”
“But it’s dirty and yucky!” Lily complained.
“Too bad. Better to be dirty and wet than burned. Okay?”
Lily nodded.
“I’m going up to help the others. If you see the fire spreading past us, yell as loud as you can. Someone will be here soon to help us.”
Lily nodded again. I hated to leave her. It was against all my principles to leave her there, but I had little choice. I grabbed a towel from the horse I had been riding and tore off across the dunes to where Jess and Chloe were still bashing the little fires. But they hadn’t realised that the fires were gradually surrounding them.
“JESS! CHLOE! GET BACK! YOU’LL GET TRAPPED!” I screamed as loud as I could over the crackle of the flames, the upcoming wind and the crash of the waves on the beach.
Jess looked up suddenly and, grabbing Chloe by the arm, she dragged her out of the ring of fire that was developing around them. Their faces were black and smudged from the ash. As I reached them, they turned back to attack a new line of fire.
But the wind and the dry scrub were making the job harder and harder. We beat and beat at the flames, but as soon as one was out another popped up.
“Come on, Mereana, where are you?” I muttered to myself. I couldn’t see the older kids who had been here first. The smoke was getting thicker and more choking. My arms were tired and my lungs felt full of smoke.
From behind me I heard Lily’s high-pitched voice. I turned to look. She was standing on the rim of the trough, pointing along the farm track. A crowd of people were running towards us, and from the other direction came a thunderous roar as an army of motorbikes turned off from the carpark to the track. We couldn’t wait for them to get there and get organised, so we kept bashing the flames as hard as we could. It felt like an age until a hand on my shoulder stopped me.
“Okay, love, we’ll take over here. Have a break. Auntie has some drinks for you.”
Uncle Mohi and all the whānau had come prepared with more towels and buckets. They formed a chain down to the beach and passed buckets of water from hand to hand to drench the flames, while the bikers beat out any sparks that escaped.
Jess, Chloe and I made our exhausted way back to the farm track, where Mereana gave us cups of juice. Lily was helping out with the drinks and looking important.
“Any burns?” Mereana asked.
“Oh,” I said in surprise. I hadn’t felt anything but now she mentioned it, I had a few stinging areas on my legs and arms. She took us over to where another auntie had set up a first-aid table.
“This is Angie,” Mereana said. “Any burns or anything?” she asked Chloe.
Chloe nodded and pointed to her foot, where a nasty blister was forming.
“Holy heck, Chloe!” Jess exclaimed. “That’s terrible!”
Chloe shrugged.
A large bucket of water appeared from somewhere and Angie sat Chloe down and dunked her foot into the water.
“Leave it in there for at least fifteen minutes,” Angie told Chloe. “Then I’ll wrap some gauze and a bandage around it for you.”
Jess and I had a few small burns, which Angie checked over and put bandaids on.
“Where did all those bikers come from?” I asked Mereana.
Mereana laughed. “You’ll never guess! They were heading up north and came through town to see who was around. Walter, who was coming back with Chloe’s dad, heard them and said he wanted to go with them. He’s going to be trouble, I reckon. Anyway, they said no, but just then someone said about the fire, so they put him up on someone’s bike and came over here to help out. Walter thinks he’s Christmas! Again!” She pointed over to where the bikes were parked, and we could see Walter lovingly stroking them, and making revving up actions and sounds.
“You’re right, he will be trouble.”
We sat on the ground beside Chloe. I was suddenly so tired. My head was throbbing. Behind us, the thwack and thud of towels hitting the ground continued. I looked around and it was clear that the flames were being subdued.
Before long, the people started to make their way back for drinks and a rest. The biker gang brought out a crate of beer from the back of one of the bikes and stood around in their leathers drinking the beer, looking hot, dirty and pleased with themselves. Walter, Hemi and Wiremu looked adoringly at the bikes and the men.
Chloe’s mum and dad appeared from the chain of bucket passers. I hadn’t realised they were there. I don’t think the others did either. They came over to us with Lily dancing around.
“I wanted to put out the fire but they wouldn’t let me!” she complained.
“Yes, that’s right,” her mum said. “You are too small.”
“I had to stand by a smelly pond!”
“That was very clever of Keri to think of that. I think you should say thank you to her for protecting you from the fire.”
Lily had lost interest since her mum wasn’t on her side.
“Can we go home and do singing now?” she said, changing the subject.
“Singing?” asked Mereana.
“Yes, we’ve got a karaoke machine at home. The girls love to sing.”
“I love karaoke!” Mereana said.
“Come over tomorrow then,” Mrs Hemana said. “There are quite a few modern songs on it, and we can always download more songs.”
“That would be cool! I’ll be there. How about after lunch? We’re helping Nanny with groceries in the morning.”
“That’ll work. Anyway, let’s get home. I think there will be a lot of tired people tonight.”
“Does anyone know how it started, the fire?” I asked.
“Those young people were smoking in amongst the lupins. They were smoking something they didn’t ought to. They thought it might be funny to heat up some lupin pods and see what happened. What happened was that it got hot, they dropped it and next thing the dry grass caught,” Mrs Hemana said.
“And the moral of that story is ...?” Jess said.
“Don’t smoke what you didn’t ought!” Mereana and I both said together.
“Snap!” I said.
Mr Hemana dropped us off at Nanny’s house. Nanny was just coming out the door as we got out of the car. She seemed agitated.
“I’m going to make a phone call. I’ll be back soon. Your dinner is in the oven. I’ll be back ...” and she shot off down the road and around the corner before we could say anything.
We had dinner together, sitting in the setting sun on the back porch. I didn’t feel like talking and the other two just made small talk about what had happened. We did the dishes and put them away, then sat out on the front steps, watching the people going past along the road. Kids mostly, but a few family groups out for an evening stroll.
Nanny came home about an hour later, and whatever it was disturbing her, she didn’t want to share it with us. She went to bed early, and we sat around a while longer then went to bed ourselves. It was that kind of a place. Certainly no night life.