Bella's Run (4 page)

Bella snapped to attention, tearing her eyes away from the gorgeous features of the man she had run off the road. She needed to drive. And fast.

Patty called out to her brother as she pulled herself upright, ‘Make yourselves useful, boys. Get in behind us.’

And with that, Bella took off in a hail of stones and fury. Again.

‘Well,’ said Macca when the air cleared, ‘better do what the sweet lady asked and
make yourself
useful, bro
.’ The toothpick poking from the corner of Macca’s mouth lifted as he smirked at his best mate.

‘Yeah well, I suppose so,’ replied Will. ‘There’s bound to be something worth seeing.’ He spun the steering wheel, bumped the ute back onto the track and set off in the direction of the flying dust.

Bella and Patty could hear the commotion even before they saw the stationary ute. Wendy, standing in the middle of the road, was screaming at Knackers, who was trying to calm her down, his arms waving in futile placatory gestures.

‘You selfish bastard!’ Wendy slammed Knackers in the chest with her hands. ‘How could you let this happen?’

Smack!

‘How
could
you? He’s not even five years old.’

Smack!

‘It’s your fault. ALL YOUR FAULT!’

Smack!

‘I wanted to leave this God-forsaken place. Head home to civilisation. Bring the kids up proper. But no, you had to stay. You and your cattle. This bloody station miles from flaming nowhere. Our kids are ferals, Arthur, FERALS!’

The last came out as a wail as Wendy slid to the ground face-first.

Bella, who’d brought their vehicle to a halt, watched through the windscreen, transfixed by the scene of a marriage shattering before her eyes. And Knackers’ real name was
Arthur?

Out on the track, Knackers dropped to his knees and threw his arms around his wife, who’d curled herself almost into the foetal position. The man’s expressions flitted from bewilderment to misery. Then desolation. The couple huddled in the dirt while their son fought for life on the back of the ute.

Patty whacked Bella’s arm. ‘Come on.’

Grabbing their hats, the girls jumped out of the ute. Patty raced towards Sheila and Rodney, who were up with Max.

‘The cannula from the case, swabs . . . and gloves. Quickly!’ Sheila yelled to Bella, who was still distracted by Knackers and Wendy.

Bella moved to the first-aid case, flung it open and grabbed what she guessed to be an IV cannula from its resting place snug against the lid. She snagged a few sterile swabs, stuffed rubber gloves into her pocket and then ran over to the group on the ute tray. Handing over her supplies to Patty, Bella saw first-hand the shocking deterioration of Max’s condition. The child was turning blue, his breathing shallow and extraordinarily fast.

Patty slapped the cannula into Sheila’s outstretched, shaking palm and then grabbed the boy’s wrist. ‘His pulse is weak and rapid, Sheila.’

‘He’s got a deviation of his trachea to the right side, so he’s punctured his left lung. If we don’t relieve the pressure he’s going to die.’ Sheila spoke quickly, hands moving to the middle of the boy’s left clavicle and then down two intercostal spaces. She tapped a spot in between the second and third rib and held the cannula ready to insert. ‘We need to pray like hell we hit the pleural cavity we need. And miss the heart.’ She took a deep breath and pushed the cannula into the boy’s side.

A small spurt of blood then air gushed from the needle end. ‘We need a valve of some sort,’ said Sheila, panicking.

Patty hesitated a moment, then grabbed her multi-purpose pocket knife from a pouch on her ringer’s belt. She thumbed the scissors-release button, snatched up a rubber glove and cut off a finger. Snipping off the tip, Patty made a rubber sheath, which she then slipped over the end of the cannula. The rubber acted like a valve, air blowing out but not back in. The women looked at each other and then at the child. His colour was improving dramatically. Patty felt for his pulse. It was slowing, but the boy wasn’t showing any signs of regaining consciousness.

Patty and Sheila were doing what they could. Realising things were going pear-shaped, Bella moved out of their way to let them work, and headed back towards her ute. Rodney had jumped off the tray and was watching helplessly.

She swung her attention to the couple in the middle of the road. Knackers lay curled over his wife, shielding her, whispering into her ear. It was the first time Bella had ever seen them touch. Initially there appeared to be no response from Wendy, but then she heard a thin voice murmuring back.

They seemed to be communicating at least. Bella wondered why it took a disaster like this to get a couple talking, touching, loving. Things couldn’t ever get that bad, could they? Would the Andersons be able to get through this, a couple who’d weathered fifteen years and borne four sons? Surely?

Surely.

There was movement in the dust, as Knackers picked Wendy up and turned her around. He lifted his wife’s chin and stared into her eyes. And it was then that Bella saw it. She’d been looking in all the wrong places for evidence of the love Knackers had for his woman.

It was in his eyes.

They blazed down on his wife with such love and compassion, it moved Bella to tears. With sudden clarity she realised there was another language in life far beyond what she’d ever known. And she couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever be lucky enough to experience it; to be looked upon as if she were the epicentre of the universe, to have all that love from a man, so pure and devout.

Bella heard the roar of double exhaust stacks and quickly wiped away the tears. Will and Macca pulled in behind her and came from their vehicle at a run.

‘What’s going on, Isabella?’ Will asked, grabbing her elbow to catch her attention. His touch seemed to blast an electrical shock through her veins. Bella jerked her arm away, stung. Will looked discomforted, annoyed even.

Her skin tingled and her elbow burned where Will’s fingers had touched. She looked up past the brim of her hat to where he was looking down at her and she suddenly forgot how to breathe.

He was totally gorgeous.

A loud curse came from the girls on the back of the ute.

Bella forced her mind back to Will’s question. ‘There was an accident. Motorbike went into a drain with two little boys on it. One’s not too good. The girls are working on him. Those two are the parents. I don’t think there’s much we can do. The ambulance is coming. I didn’t want to get in the way.’

A distant whisper of sound from a screaming siren made them all look in the direction of the station gateway, still miles off to the south.

‘There it is,’ said Will, eyes far-seeing, laughter lines creased with concentration. Dust clouds billowed as the back end of a white-and-red vehicle bumped through a creek wash-out, a flicker of red, blue and a glinting sunlit flash. The muted wail of the siren came again, carried by the slight afternoon breeze.

Bella moved.

Sliding around the ute door, she strode over to Knackers and Wendy slouched in the dirt. Wendy was once again burrowed into the bulldust, her back the only thing Bella could see. She reminded Bella of an echidna trying to dig its way from harm, or maybe a freshwater tortoise seeking refuge inside its shell. Knackers was looking across at the ute where Sheila and Patty were still working over Max. He was trying to force Wendy to get up.

Crouching down beside him, Bella murmured, ‘Knackers, mate, I’ll help you with Wends. You need to get to Max. The ambo’s here. It’s going to be okay.’ She nodded towards the ambulance still in the distance, crossing her toes in her boots for the second time that day.

Knackers grunted and jumped to his feet. Together they lifted his wife. Wendy had lost use of her lower limbs and was keening to herself. Staggering under the woman’s weight, Bella heaved her into her husband’s embrace and Wendy buried her face into Knackers’ wide chest. Holding his wife under one arm, Knackers turned and half-carried her towards their son.

He leaned over the ute’s tailgate, tears pouring from his eyes as he grasped hold of Max’s grubby little hand and squeezed it murmuring, ‘Hang on, you little bastard, hang on, me boy . . . Christ, I love you, you little villain.’ He snorted back tears and phlegm.

The big man’s arms around his wife were shaking. Bella put her hand on Knackers’ shoulder and gave a squeeze, trying to force into the gesture all the comfort she could.

‘The ambulance is coming, girls,’ she called.

‘Thank God!’ Sheila was puffing with exertion and stress, sweat dripping off her face. ‘His heart’s still beating and he’s breathing a lot better now, but we need to get his right side up a bit. We don’t want him to obstruct, and we have to look after his head injury.’

‘What head injury?’ Knackers’ voice was hoarse.

‘He’s still unconscious. We think he may have a serious head injury. Possibly a fractured skull,’ said Sheila before glancing at her hands, checking the cannula.

‘Sheila, would you like me to take over?’ Bella asked, shocked at the older woman’s state.

‘No, the ambulance will be here in a minute, they can have him. Don’t want to hand over now. Silly too.’

Bella threw a quick glance at Patty, who was shifting the child slightly onto his side. Patty gave a small shake of her head. So Bella just stood with her hand on Knackers’ shaking shoulder, and watched.

She became aware of quiet murmuring behind her; the sound of a few backslaps and subdued male voices. Before she could turn and see what was going on, the siren wasn’t a whisper on the breeze anymore; the bright lights weren’t glints of the sun. Clad in its white-and-red armour, the ambulance was right on top of them and Bella thanked almighty God.

Chapter 4

The ambulance drove off slowly. The paramedics had stabilised Max, sedated Wendy and loaded Knackers on board along with a woebegone Rohan, who’d been hiding in the back seat of the ute. Standing in the middle of the track, the two girls and Sheila watched the vehicle until the swirling ochre dust obscured it.

‘I hope he can hang on until they reach the hospital,’ said Sheila, slumping forward with exhaustion. She stood back up, stretching.

Bella threw her arms around the older woman, giving her a hug. ‘You did good, Sheila. Without you and Patty, he wouldn’t have lasted this long.’ Bella drew Patty into the little circle for a group hug.

Sheila was the first to break away. ‘One of us best follow them in the HiLux and be there for Knackers and Wendy.’

Patty put her arm around her. ‘How about I go, Sheila? You’re exhausted, and if you head home you can help Bella sort out the other boys.’

Sheila nodded, too tired and wrung out to disagree.

Macca appeared from behind, where the boys had been quietly talking. Chewing on his toothpick, he threw an arm around Patty’s shoulders. ‘I’ll go with you, Patty, make sure you behave yourself with those dashing doctors at the hospital.’

Patty whacked Macca across the chest and flashed a tired grin. ‘Didn’t recognise you for a minute back there on the track, Macca. It’s that ten-gallon hat you’re wearing. Obviously when you cross the Victorian border you toss your Cattleman Akubra in the Murray River and buy a Queensland Bronco instead. It suits your ugly mug, you big boofhead.’

Macca smiled, his big face lighting up. ‘You like it?’ He doffed his hat and sketched a bow.

‘You behave yourself with those nurses, Macca – and with Patty. We all know what you’re like with the ladies, ay.’ Rodney sounded cynical.

The familiarity of his tone caught Bella’s attention. ‘You lot know each other?’ Six degrees of separation was alive and well in the outback. Someone always knew someone else – everywhere.

Rodney was shuffling his feet. ‘Yeah, me, Macca and Willy boy here studied together at ag college in Geelong.’

‘Mmm. Right. I reckon there’d be more partying than studying with you lot,’ said Bella with a wry smile. ‘We’d best get moving. Sheila looks all done in.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘I’ll jump in with you, Will. Rodney, can you give Sheila a lift home?’

As everyone started to move in the direction of their ride, Bella gave Patty a quick hug. ‘You take care, okay? Macca, you’d better drive, and make sure she has a rest on the way into town. I reckon she’s going to need it so she can deal with what’s going to be waiting at that hospital.’