He crumpled to his knees, gasping for air.
She knew what he’d been trying to say. She had to get the door shut. She did it but afterwards she never knew how. It felt as if she herself was being sucked out. She fought with the door, fought with everything she had, and finally the great latch Rob had designed with such foresight fell into place.
But still...the smoke... There was no air. She couldn’t breathe.
It took effort, will, concentration to find the latch on the inner door but somehow she did. She tugged and Amina was on the other side. As soon as the latch lifted she had it open.
‘Danny...’ It was a quavering sob.
‘He’s here,’ Rob managed and then slumped sideways into the inner chamber, giving way to the all-consuming black.
* * *
Rob surfaced to water. Cool, wondrous water, washing his face. Someone was letting water run over him. There was water on his head. The wool cap was nowhere. There was just water.
He shifted a little and tasted it, and heard a sob of relief.
‘Rob...’
‘Julie.’ The word didn’t quite come out, though. His mouth felt thick and swollen. He heard a grunt that must have been him but he couldn’t do better.
‘Let me hold you while you drink.’ And she had him. Her arm was supporting his shoulders, and magically there was a bottle of water at his lips. He drank, gloriously grateful for the water, even more grateful that it was Julie who had him. He could see her by the dim light of the torch lamp. Julie...
‘The...the boy...’ Maybe it came out, maybe it didn’t, but she seemed to understand what he said.
‘Danny’s safe; not even burned. His mother has him. They’re pouring water over Luka’s pads. His pads look like your face. You both look scorched, but okay. It’s okay, Rob.’ Her voice broke. ‘You’ll live. We’ll all live, thanks to you.’
HOW LONG DID they stay in the shelter? Afterwards they tried to figure it out, but at the time they had no clue. Time simply stopped.
The roar from outside built to a crescendo, a sound where nothing could be said, nothing heard. Maybe they should have been terrified, but for Julie and for Amina too, they’d gone past terror. Terror was when the people they loved were outside, missing. Now they were all present and accounted for, and if hell itself broke loose, if their shelter disintegrated, somehow it didn’t matter because they were there.
Rob was there.
He roused himself after a while and pushed himself back against the wall. Julie wasn’t sure where the black soot ended and burns began. None of his clothes were burned. His eyes seemed swollen and bloodshot, but maybe hers did too. There were no mirrors here.
Amina was cuddling Danny, but she was also cuddling the dog.
The dog had almost cost her son his life, Julie thought wonderingly, but as Amina poured water over Luca’s paws and his tail gave a feeble wag of thanks, she thought: this dog is part of their family.
No wonder Danny ran after him. He was loved.
Love...
It was a weird concept. Four years ago, love had died. It had shrivelled inside her, leaving her a dried out husk. She’d thought she could never feel pain again.
But when she’d thought she’d lost Rob... The pain was still with her. It was like she’d been under anaesthetic for years, and now the drug had worn off. Leaving her exposed...
The noise...
She was sitting beside the dirt wall, next to Rob.
His hand came out and took hers, and held. Taking comfort?
Her heart twisted, and the remembered pain came flooding back. Family...
She didn’t have family. Her family was dead.
But Rob was holding her hand and she couldn’t pull away.
She stirred at some stage, found cartons of juice, packets of crackers and tinned tuna. The others didn’t speak while she prepared a sort of lunch.
Danny was the first to eat, accepting her offering with pleasure.
‘We didn’t have breakfast,’ he told her. ‘Mama was too scared. She was trying to pack the car; trying to ring Papa. I wanted toast but Mama said when we got away from the fire.’
‘We’re away from the fire now,’ she told him, glancing sideways at Rob. She wasn’t sure if his throat was burned. She wasn’t sure...of anything. But he cautiously sipped the juice and then tucked into the crackers like there was no tomorrow.
The food did them all good. It settled them. Nothing like a good cup of tea—Julie’s Gran used to say that, and she grinned. There was no way she could attempt to boil water. Juice would have to do as a substitute, but it seemed to be working just as well.
The roaring had muted. She was scarcely daring to hope, but maybe the front had passed.
‘It’s still too loud and too hot,’ Rob croaked. ‘We can’t open the door yet.’
‘My Henry will be looking for us,’ Amina said. ‘He’ll be frantic.’
‘He won’t have been allowed through,’ Rob told her. ‘I came up last night and they were closing the road blocks then.’
‘You were an idiot for coming,’ Julie said.
‘Yep.’ But he didn’t sound like he thought he was an idiot. ‘How long have you lived here?’ he asked Amina, and Julie thought he was trying hard to sound like things were normal. Like this was just a brief couple of hours of enforced stay and then they’d get on with their lives.
Maybe she would, she thought. After all, what had changed for her? Maybe their house had burned, but she didn’t live here anyway.
Maybe more traces of their past were gone, but they’d been doomed to vanish one day. Things were just...things.
‘Nearly four years,’ Amina said. ‘We came just after Danny was born. But this place...it’s always been empty. The guy who mows the lawns said there was a tragedy. Kids...’ And then her hand flew to her mouth. ‘Your kids,’ she whispered in horror. ‘You’re the parents of the twins who died.’
‘It was a long time ago,’ Rob said quietly. ‘It’s been a very long time since we were parents.’
‘But you’re together?’ She seemed almost frantic, overwhelmed by past tragedy when recent tragedy had just been avoided.
‘For now we are,’ Rob told her.
‘But you don’t live here.’
‘Too
