29

Holly really, really wished the homestead wasn’t on fire.

He’d called her ‘his girl’.

She dropped the stick back into drive and lurched into motion again.

‘There’s another waterhole up there,’ said Kaydon. He pointed to a track that led through some trees. The ground was black and smoking on either side. It was near where she and Jake had stopped to eat blackberries the other day. Sticking out of the ground was that strange pipe thing and beyond that was the concrete slab.

‘What is that thing?’ Holly asked, as Kaydon swung off the back of the ute and started hauling the hose out to the waterhole.

‘It’s an oil wellhead,’ he said. ‘Mining companies looked for oil around here in the sixties but not much came of it. They’re all capped off now. Just big empty reservoirs under the ground.’ He stopped and stared a while and Holly saw the same dot-joining look on his face as he’d had last night at the ball. ‘I didn’t know there were any on this property,’ he said, looking decidedly troubled.

He got the hose pumping and then walked over to the oil wellhead and squatted next to it. He ran a hand over the stamped letters on the pipe. ‘BAUHALA 6,’ he said. ‘Same as on Dan’s place. Same as Rockleigh.’

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Holly.

‘I’m not sure,’ said Kaydon. A frown hovered on his face. He was quiet while the tank filled with water.

Eva played with the two-way radio. ‘Hi, Daddy.’ Click.

‘Hi, Eva.’ Click.

‘Have you got Mummy yet?’

‘Yep. She’s right here beside me and we’re driving home as fast as we can.’

The pump stopped chugging and Kaydon rolled up the hose and jumped on the back of the ute. As Holly drove across the charred rocky hillside towards the homestead, she saw that some of the black boulders on the ground had legs. Kangaroos; black and stiff. Smoke still curled off their pelts. She put one hand over her mouth to stop herself gagging, and almost came to a stop.

‘Are you okay?’ From the tray of the ute, Kaydon leaned down by the window.

She shook her head. There were five or more of them. ‘Can we stop and check the pouches?’ she asked, fighting back tears. ‘Oh no, one is still kicking.’

‘Yeah, pull over. You’ll have to be quick, though.’

Holly stopped the ute and hurried across the smoking ground, which resembled a warzone. Embers whirled around in the air and smoke lifted off the charred ground.

The dull blast of a gun sounded behind her. Holly spun around and saw Kaydon standing over a motionless carcass with the .303 in his hand. She hurried to the next charred body and dropped to one knee. A long bald tail hung from the pouch. ‘I got a pinky in this one,’ she called to Eva. The joey inside began to wriggle and kick. ‘Kaydon, do you have a knife?’

He pulled one from his back pocket. ‘What for?’

‘It’s small,’ she said as she took it from him and flicked it open. ‘Its mouth will be fused to the teat. I’ll need to cut it.’

‘Here,’ said Kaydon, handing her a woollen jacket. ‘Wrap it in this.’

Holly pulled the joey onto the jacket and got to work cutting the teat away from its mother.

‘Over here!’ Eva called.

Holly passed the squirmy bundle to Kaydon and rushed over.

‘I found another one,’ said Eva. Her voice was high-pitched and excited. She danced around beside another blackened roo. ‘It’s a big one!’

A silvery smooth leg popped out and pulled back in again. He was as much as five months old, she guessed, and very strong. ‘Give me your shirt,’ she said to Kaydon.

Kaydon pulled his shirt over his head. He had a severe singlet tan going on. She had to get this guy to a beach.

She refocused and pulled the bundle of legs from its mother’s pouch, wrapping it to keep it still.

‘Can he be mine?’ asked Eva, hopping from one foot to another. ‘I found him.’

‘Sure,’ said Holly, passing the bundle to her. ‘Quick, let’s go!’

Kaydon was already in the driver’s seat. ‘Hope you don’t mind,’ he said. ‘But that hut’s gonna go up any minute.’ He rammed the ute into gear.

Holly squeezed in next to Eva, who had both baby bundles on her lap, and slammed the door shut as Kaydon floored it.

‘Will I be allowed to keep them?’ Eva asked as they bumped along. ‘They can be friends.’

‘I don’t know. When Mum gets back, we’ll ask her what to do.’ Holly fought back her feelings. Mum seemed so far away right now.

Pat Armstrong’s voice came over the two-way. ‘You copy, Kaydon?’

The mood in the ute changed dramatically. Kaydon’s grip on the wheel tightened and his stare hardened. It was Eva who picked up the handpiece. ‘He’s driving us in the ute. We saved some baby kangaroos.’

‘Oh struth, don’t tell him that.’ Kaydon snatched it from her hand. ‘I’m at Glenvale. We’ve been through two tanks of water, managed to save the main boundary fence.’

‘I told you not to go there.’

Holly saw Kaydon inhale and fight for self-control. ‘The sheds are about to go up.’

‘The fireys are on their way.’

‘They won’t get there in time.’ Kaydon slammed the piece back into its cradle on the dash and flicked the switch to turn it off. He dropped the ute into a lower gear and roared up the final hill.

Holly gripped tighter to the panic handle and held on. As they crested the top of the hill, she gasped at what she saw. Flames were eating through the wall of the grain shed and flaring up one side of the roof. Black smoke curled from under the eaves and rolled over the roof, billowing into the sky.

She could see Dan at the wheel of the tractor. Brandon was there, and he and Jake were trying to hook a slasher onto the back of it.

Kaydon accelerated across the hillside and Holly felt the wheels slip and slide on the slope. Grass scratched along the sides of the ute as they drove into the home yard. He braked hard outside the hut and burst out of the vehicle. ‘Where’s a hose?’

‘There’s one at the back of the hut,’ said Holly, tumbling out after him. ‘Near the clothesline!’

‘Block up the gutters and fill them with water,’ said Kaydon. ‘I’ll help the others clear around the buildings.’ He ran to the tractor.

‘What do I do?’ wailed Eva. She sat in the ute, clutching her bundles of baby joeys. ‘I’m scared, Holly!’

‘Leave your babies in the front of the ute and come and help me,’ she said, scrambling for a plan. ‘We need to clear around the house. Make sure the fire doesn’t spread to it.’

Holly ran round the back of the hut to the clothesline and briefly wondered whatever happened to that black snake Jake had caught. She stared up at the gutters. They were rusted and full of holes. No way would they hold water. ‘I’ll clear the plants away from the building,’ she said. ‘Eva, you run inside and get the fire extinguisher from the kitchen.’

She ran to the machinery shed. The boys had the slasher attached to the tractor and the blades were spinning. Across the yard, the fire crackled and snapped. Then, in one big, unholy noise, glass shattered. Flames burst out of the small windows. The roof of the shed collapsed into an inferno of brilliant orange flames and sparks. Timber and tiles smashed onto the dry grass below. Holly grabbed a hoe and began furiously hacking at the fishbone fern that choked the base of the hut. It was hopeless. There was too much to clear. Embers floated through the air all around, glowing like fireflies. Small puffs of smoke came to life in the long grass around her.

She tried the hose. A limp trickle of water came out. She growled in frustration and threw the hose down in disgust. It was only three metres long anyway.

Woollen blankets! She raced inside and pulled every one she could find off the beds, and then ran from small fire to small fire, beating and smothering them.

Across the yard, Dan lowered the chugging slasher to the ground. It clunked and bashed over the rough grass. Rocks spat against the casing and sticks snapped and shattered. Jake attacked the grass along the house fence with a whippersnipper. Brandon took a chainsaw and cut tree limbs away. Eva passed the fire extinguisher to Holly. Where Dan had cleared a break, the fire slowed and she hit it with dry chemical foam.

‘Slashing will only slow it down,’ yelled Kaydon above the roar of the tractor. ‘So will the foam. We need water to put it out.’

Above the roar of the flames and the clunking and bashing of the tractor, Holly heard sirens wailing. A convoy of three fire trucks rolled along the road with dust swelling behind them. She nearly screamed with relief.

At the homestead, men in yellow jackets and big boots spilled out of the trucks. Radios crackled with disjointed firefighting conversations. Pumps whirred and jets of water began shooting across the homestead.

Holly pulled Eva to safety near the trucks. Dan lifted the slasher over a pile of rocks, lowered it and kept slashing.

The grain shed collapsed into a pile of timber, corrugated iron, dancing flames and hissing steam, under criss-crossing arcs of water.

‘My joeys!’ Eva suddenly shrieked. She jumped up and down, screaming and pointing at the ute. ‘My baby joeys!’ A new line of fire was running towards the ute with mind-blowing speed.

‘Wait there,’ Kaydon yelled over his shoulder.

Holly started running. ‘Get the blankets!’ She threw one to Kaydon and began beating the flames with the other.

Kaydon opened the door and swore with pain as the hot metal seared his hand. He kicked the half-open door ajar and held it open for Holly with his boot.

Holly reached in to grab the two wriggling bundles, lifting them carefully and holding them against her chest. Beside her, Kaydon shook his hand. ‘Someone get me some water!’

Marg Kennerley appeared from nowhere. She led a swearing and cursing Kaydon to the back of her car. Holly rushed the joeys back to Eva before running after him.