Page 65 of Into the Tempest

“I gotta open the door to get in.” He climbed through and sat down on the very wet seat. “Christ, did you park it in the sea?”

Tully started the engine. “We were in a fucking cyclone, Ellis.”

I lifted the box carefully and took my seat in the front. Tully and Ellis were still bickering, and their mother was giving Rowan instructions about using the BBQ to feed people, while their dad was showing Shane and Lindsey to his car.

When he got to the top of the crest, Tully stopped the Jeep so we could see the view over Darwin.

It was hard to put into words. We could see where the cyclone had touched down, its trail of destruction like jagged wounds gouged open.

Ellis’ jaw dropped, his eyes wide and teary.

When Tully saw his brother’s face in the rear-vision mirror, he began the drive down. Slower this time. We drove past Tully’s street, just able to see that his house looked intact. We wouldn’t know for sure until we went inside, but there was no debris and it all looked decidedly calm.

Unlike just a few streets over.

There were more people out on the street now, clearly in shock and distraught, and Tully slowed the Jeep to a crawl as he drove into Ellis’ street.

These were once huge luxury houses. Like Tully’s, like his parents’ house.

Now they looked like they’d been through a woodchipper.

Tully pulled up to one particular pile, getting off the street the best he could. The road was a minefield as it was, but the sound of sirens was getting louder and louder, and there was a good chance emergency vehicles would be arriving soon.

We got out, and Tully pulled his seat forward for Ellis.

He was pale and dismayed, and as he stood there looking at where his house once stood, his chin wobbled, and his hand shook as he ran it through his hair.

Tully put his arm around his shoulders, and for a while, no one spoke.

Then Ellis turned around to look at his neighbours’ houses. “The Bakshis were in Perth, I think. Mrs Mahoney left to be with her daughter. John and Rayna went south.” He pointed to a house down the road. “But the Lims were staying. God, so were the Wards...”

He began walking down there. Then he began to run.

“Ellis, wait,” Tully said, running after him.

I began to follow too, but as Ellis got to the next house down, an older man came out with his arm around a woman, and Ellis stopped running. “Mr Lim! Winnie, are you okay?”

I stopped as well and let them talk in private.

I was glad they were okay, but my god... this whole street... I wanted to do something. I wanted to help. But I didn’t know where to start. I was so tired and saddened, and I was so sorry that this had happened.

It wasn’t my fault, I knew that. But still, there was a shadow of responsibility that hung over me.

There was no way to predict which street exactly would get wiped off the map, but any of these waterfront homes were a risk. Sure, we knew the warmer air over land would affect the trajectory of the cyclone, coming from the cooler air over water. We knew the science behind it.

But Mother Nature was an unpredictable beast.

There were always likelihoods and probables.

Behind Ellis’ house was a nature reserve, by the looks of it, that fronted the bay. The cyclone hit land right here. Not a few streets over, not Tully’s house. Not a few streets over from that. Not his parents’ house where they’d all sheltered.

Thank god.

Having them all seek shelter in one place had been frightening, and in hindsight, probably foolish. If it had been their home that was hit, if they didn’t have a cyclone-proof cellar, Tully could have lost his entire family in one fell swoop. Every single one of them.

Does he know how close he came?

How would one salvage the wreckage from that?

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