Above the roar of the creek, Ashley heard a sound and she looked around. Dexter had put his nose to the edge of the cage and was looking right at her. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he’d be saying to her if he could speak. There was no one to help him other than Ashley. If they were going to get out of this, she had to do something.
Ashley took a deep breath. ‘OK, Dexter. Hang on. I’m going to try and get us free.’
She looked up again at the branch. If she could swing the harness, perhaps the movement would shift the blockage. She tightened her grip on the cage and shifted her weight. As she began to rock the harness backwards and forwards, the cable bounced up and down with their weight. The floodwater looked horribly close when they dropped down, and she forced herself again not to look at it, but to keep her eyes fixed on the pulley. She rocked again, and Dexter turned his head from side to side as the cable twanged and bounced.
‘Come on, Dexter. You must be used to this. You’re up in the trees all the time. You must be an old hand. Right?’
That’s the key, Ashley thought. Think like a koala. She figured being high up in a tree in weather like this would feel a bit like swinging on the flying-fox cable — plenty of unexpected movement in all directions. What would a koala do if it got stuck? It would have to wriggle around and free itself, of course.
Ashley lunged again, harder this time, and above her head there was a jolt and a snap. The cage shifted and she clung on to it with all her strength as the flying fox started to slide again. She’d done it — she’d broken the branch and freed them!
It felt like only a few seconds before she was across the floodwater and Brian was reaching up to catch her and slow the flying fox to a halt.
‘Take the cage!’ she cried as she felt it slipping.
‘I’ve got them,’ she heard a woman’s voice say, and then the cage was lifted off her lap.
‘Oh, you brave girl,’ Brian said. ‘Got your feet on the ground yet? I’m going to unclip you, so don’t fall over.’
Magda had put the cage down and was shaking her head in wonder. ‘That was amazing. Even Micky the daredevil would have been scared doing that. You must have inherited her adventurous genes.’
Ashley’s legs were wobbling as she climbed out of the harness and stood up. She looked back across the creek. Micky punched the air in triumph.
‘Let’s get these fellows into the car and get moving,’ Brian said. ‘By the sound of it, there’s no time to lose.’
Chapter 14
Brian and Magda had a normal car — more normal than the Argo anyway. It was a gleaming white four-wheel drive and, as they set off down the dirt road, Ashley settled back into its big, comfortable back seat and heaved a sigh of relief. It felt as though she was heading back to the normal world again, away from Micky’s, where anything could happen. She didn’t reckon she’d mind too much if she couldn’t get back across the creek. Maybe she could call her mother and ask if she could come home. Once her mother heard the things she’d been up to just in the first two days — out looking for koalas in cyclones, helping her aunt with her sprained ankle, avoiding a branch breaking in her bedroom window, crossing a flooded creek in a flying fox, not to mention living with no power at the end of a cut-off road — Ashley was pretty sure she wouldn’t have much trouble convincing her.
‘You OK back there?’ Magda swivelled around to look at her. ‘You’re soaked! There’s a blanket on the seat if you’re as freezing as you look. We’ll put the heater on.’
Ashley wrapped the blanket around her and stopped shivering. The car bumped and splashed through a pothole that would have nearly wiped out the Argo, she reckoned. The windows were magically clear, not fogged up, the wipers cleared the windscreen silently and efficiently, and in moments the car was warm and cosy. It only took a few minutes for Brian to navigate the dirt road and reach the bitumen.
‘How long will it take to get to the hospital?’ she asked.
‘Normally about forty minutes,’ Brian said. ‘But after the storm, it could be much longer. The damage has been pretty bad.’
As he pulled onto the almost-empty highway, Ashley looked around. She’d imagined that the chaos was only at Micky’s house, but the highway was also carpeted with leaves and debris and she could see broken and fallen trees. It looked like the world had ended while she’d been away from it. ‘Wow.’
‘It’s been wild,’ Magda agreed. ‘Half the district’s got no power, and lots of roads are closed from flooding or fallen trees. It’ll take weeks to sort it out.’
‘Plus lots of koalas in trouble,’ Brian added. ‘The vet who normally looks at them is in Lismore, but the Lismore road is cut. You can go around, but it adds another couple of hours. So quite a few have gone up to Currumbin already. They’ll be busy! But we’ve called and told them we’re on the way with an urgent case.’
Brian began heading north, weaving around the worst of the debris on the road. It was still raining — it was feeling like it would never stop — and he drove slowly and carefully.
Ashley heard a sound from the back, where the cage was stowed. She swung around and looked over the top of the seat.
Dexter looked back up at her. Yip yip yip.
‘That’s a good sign,’ Brian said. ‘He’s hungry and he’s calling for food. If joeys don’t do that, it’s very hard to get them to eat.’
‘Are you koala carers too?’ Ashley asked.
Magda laughed. ‘Brian was a carer. But after a couple of years, I said it was the koalas or me. The work, Ashley! It’s all right if you have no job and no friends and no family. It’ll fill up your time nicely. Day and night. Plus the washing. You wouldn’t believe how much washing you have to do for joeys.’
Brian shrugged. ‘There are plenty of other ways to help. I’m a leaf collector, and I do rescue pickups like this. And a bit of fundraising, and talks to schools. Keeps me busy.’
‘Ha ha,’ Magda said. ‘When we retired and moved up from Sydney, we thought we’d be having a quiet life in the country, but we’re busier than ever.’
Ashley felt her eyelids closing. It was warm and cosy in the car, and Brian and Magda were reassuringly normal. Dexter and his mother were safe and on the way to hospital. She’d helped save them! It was a good feeling.
‘It’s nearly midday,’ she heard Magda say. ‘We’d better check the road closures.’
The radio crackled on and Ashley heard a serious voice running through a list of road names.
‘… that the Bruxner Highway is now closed in both directions at South Lismore due to flooding. This means there is currently no road link between Sydney and Brisbane due to the closure of the Pacific Highway, Newell Highway and Summerland Way, as well as the New England Highway/Cunningham Highway in Queensland. Motorists should delay travel between Queensland and New South Wales. Additionally Billinudgel Road is flooded and The Pocket is cut off. Main Arm causeways are all underwater and the road is closed. Wilsons Creek Road is underwater and closed. Greys Lane is underwater and closed. The SES urges people to stay at home unless there is an important reason to travel, and warns that motorists should continue to exercise extreme caution. Meanwhile, Essential Energy field crews are working to restore power to nearly twenty thousand customers throughout the North Coast as strong winds and rain continue to batter the area.’
‘Can we get through?’ she heard Magda say to Brian.
‘Sounds like the road is clear to the north,’ he replied. ‘Fingers crossed. Those guys won’t take much more of this.’
Yip yip yip.
Ashley opened her eyes again, feeling a hum of worry in her tummy. Dexter was hungry, but there wasn’t anything she could do while they were in the car. She hoped there wouldn’t be more flooding ahead of them. No road link between Sydney and Brisbane sounded serious.
She saw Brian glance at her in his rear-view mirror. ‘Ashley, try not to worry,’ he said. ‘I’ll do everything I can to get them to the hospital.’
‘Do yo
u visit Micky often?’ Magda asked, in an obvious attempt to change the subject.
Ashley shook her head. ‘First time. I hardly remembered her, actually.’
‘Really?’ Magda sounded surprised. ‘Well, you’re lucky to have her for an aunt. She’s a total legend up here.’
Ashley laughed. ‘Yeah, she’s pretty weird.’
Magda swivelled right around in the seat to look at her. ‘Don’t get the wrong idea about Micky. She puts on the eccentric act very well, but she’s one of the bravest people I’ve ever met. For years she was the one who did all the difficult koala rescues. She’s a qualified tree climber, you know. I’ve seen her go thirty feet or more into a tree to rescue a sick koala and to collect leaf. I’ve seen her catch a terrified koala that’s trying to bite and scratch without hurting it. And she had the best success rate with joeys of anyone in the district. She’s one in a million, Ashley.’
Ashley felt rebuked and she didn’t like it. ‘If Micky was so great at caring for joeys, why did she stop?’
‘She probably got sick of the washing,’ Magda said.
Brian swerved the car to one side to avoid a branch and Magda turned to face the front again. Phew. Whatever Magda thought, Micky was seriously weird, living in that strange house all by herself, except for whatever koalas she was looking after.
And it was Ashley who’d been determined to save Dexter and his mother, not Micky. Micky had given up on them almost straight away. She didn’t really care.
‘Oh no,’ Magda said.
Ashley sat up. Ahead of them, the road was covered in water. A police car was sitting in front of the water, its lights flashing. The police officer waved them over to a halt.
Brian lowered the window. ‘Yes, constable?’
‘There’s water over the road,’ the officer said.
‘This is urgent,’ Brian said. ‘We’ve got two sick koalas and we’re on our way to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Hospital. The car has very good clearance and a snorkel, and I’m experienced in water crossings. They’ll die if we don’t get there soon. Is the road actually closed?’
The police officer shook his head. ‘Not yet. Four-wheel drives are getting through. But there’ll be no one to pull you out if you get stranded. The SES is flat out, and they can’t be chasing people who choose to go into danger.’
Brian nodded. ‘Understood.’
Ashley’s heart was pounding. Surely Brian wasn’t going to put them at risk? She was just a kid! She was about to tap him on the shoulder and ask him, when she heard Dexter again.
Yip yip yip.
She took a deep breath. If they turned back now, he might die. She would just have to be brave. Again.
He can feel movement again, a gentle shaking and a swishing sound, but he can’t see what’s making the noise. He’s hungry and he can’t understand why his mother won’t answer him. He’s calling her and calling her, but she doesn’t reply.
His world sways and skews, and he bounces against the hardness of the bars. He is alone, and it’s terrifying. He clings to the blanket, the only bit of warmth and softness.
A sudden roar of sound comes from the creatures nearby and makes him flinch.
‘We made it!’
He doesn’t understand what the sounds mean, but the movement around him becomes smooth again. He’s tired as well as hungry. His eyelids droop.
Chapter 15
Pete, the vet at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Hospital, looked stressed. He’d had dozens of calls about wildlife injured in the storms, he told Ashley, Brian and Magda, and lots of birds and animals were being brought in to the hospital. He took them through to the examination room, where Brian and Magda placed the cage on the floor.
‘Micky gave me some of the history on the phone, but the line was bad. Who can give me more detail?’ he asked, crouching down to look inside the cage.
‘Ashley’s your girl,’ Magda said. ‘She was with Micky when the koalas were found, and she brought them across the floodwater in a flying fox so that you could see them.’
The vet looked at her with respect, Ashley thought. Although she’d warmed up in the car, she was still pretty damp from the rain, with wet hair and muddy feet from the creekside. She stood up taller. ‘What do you want to know?’
Pete gave her an anxious smile and Ashley could see he was trying to be nice, in spite of his stress. ‘The more history we have when a koala is brought in, the better we can assess the animal,’ he said. ‘Especially if it’s been injured. So tell me how you found them and what’s happened since then.’
Ashley remembered all the things that Micky had told her were important to report to the vet. ‘Their tree fell over, probably during the night in the storm. We found them on the ground in the fallen tree about eight o’clock this morning. The joey doesn’t seem to be hurt. Micky says he is, um, back-young and maybe about a year old. He’s able to move around and he was captured without trauma by me putting a towel over him. The mother has bad conjunct … conjunctiv …’
‘Conjunctivitis,’ the vet prompted. ‘That’s caused by one of the two strains of chlamydia.’
‘Yes. Plus there is blood on one of her arms, so she probably has another injury. Micky thought it might be a dog attack. She wasn’t … responsive? We don’t know if she’s even conscious. We had to get them over the river, so that might have scared them both.’
The vet nodded. ‘Thanks, Ashley. Great case history. Sounds like you know a lot about koalas.’
Ashley shook her head. ‘I’m totally new at this.’
‘You’ve done well. The next thing we do is get them out of the cage and observe them for a few minutes. You can tell a lot just by doing that. We’ll start with the joey. Have you named him?’
‘Dexter,’ Ashley said.
The vet raised the lid of the cage, gently lifted Dexter up in the bundle of towel, placed the bundle on the floor and drew the towel back, before moving out of the way. ‘Let’s give you some space, Dexter. How’s things?’
Dexter blinked up at them and Ashley couldn’t help smiling when she saw him. He really was the sweetest creature, with his big brown eyes and large fluffy ears. She’d always hated toy koalas when she was younger and now she knew why. They never managed to capture the cuteness of the real animal.
Dexter looked around the room at them all and made his soft yipping sound. He climbed out of the towel and crawled a few steps, before stopping and sitting down. He sniffed and headed back towards the cage, squeaking again.
‘Worried about his mum,’ the vet said. ‘But he’s moving well. His breathing looks regular and he doesn’t seem too traumatised. I agree he’s probably around a year old. That’s all good. Can I listen to your heart, Dexter?’
He approached slowly and knelt by the joey, who didn’t seem to mind when the vet placed the stethoscope on his chest and moved it around, listening to his breathing and heart.
‘Perhaps a touch of pneumonia, but overall not too bad,’ the vet said. ‘Now let’s look at Mum.’
He slowly raised the lid of the cage and carefully drew back the towel. ‘Koalas can be unpredictable if they’ve been attacked by dogs. For a while afterwards they think everyone is a predator. Don’t make the mistake of thinking they can’t hurt you. A koala’s claws are very sharp and they have big teeth. They can give you a very nasty bite or scratch.’
But there was no movement from within the cage and Ashley had the feeling that Dexter’s mother wasn’t going to be biting or scratching anyone.
‘Has she got a name?’
Ashley shook her head, feeling guilty. Then she reminded herself that Dexter’s name had come to her suddenly: it wasn’t as if she’d chosen it. She’d just known it.
The vet lifted out the bundle of towels and then slowly unwrapped Dexter’s mother. He clicked his tongue when he saw the swollen flesh of her eyes. He placed her on the floor, but she lay quite still. Her chest was rising and falling when he placed the stethoscope on it, but that was the only indication s
he was alive.
Dexter hung back, calling but not approaching his mother.
The vet shook his head. ‘I don’t like the look of her. Let’s get her onto the table at once.’ He looked over at Ashley. ‘Can you stay with Dexter while we examine Mum? You can watch us through the glass. Our procedure is to give them a full anaesthetic and a complete examination. It’s nearly impossible to tell if a koala is injured otherwise — they don’t show pain the way most animals do.’
He nodded to Brian and Magda. ‘Get Dexter a teddy, wrap him up again and let him sit on Ashley’s lap. He needs a bit of comfort.’
The vet picked up Dexter’s mother and headed straight into the surgery room. It was next to the examination area and Ashley could see the operating table through the big window. The vet and two assistants laid the mother koala on her back on the table and began connecting all sorts of tubes to her.
Magda picked up Dexter, placing one hand under his bottom and the other on his chest. She put the towel around him and gestured for Ashley to sit in a nearby chair, then put a blanket down before placing him on her lap. She gave Dexter a furry teddy bear and he wrapped his arms around it.
‘Just let him sit there quietly and feel your warmth,’ she said.
Ashley hardly dared to breathe. She was holding Dexter! He looked around anxiously, as if knowing that his mother was in trouble nearby, and again he gave a couple of soft, worried yips.
‘Give him a very light scratch behind the ear and see if he settles,’ Magda said. ‘Stop if he doesn’t like it.’
Ashley slowly extended her fingers until they met Dexter’s fur. It was soft and fuzzy, though tougher than she had imagined. She scratched with one finger and he closed his eyes and leaned in to her touch.
‘Good,’ whispered Magda. ‘He’s settling a bit. He might even sleep if you’re quiet.’
Ashley continued the gentle scratching of Dexter’s neck. His head drooped until he was resting against her. He seemed much happier with the teddy bear — it gave him something to cuddle and Ashley supposed it felt a little bit like his mother.
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