Kiss On The Bridge (10 page)

“It’s okay. If this helps in any way; you
have an inner strength which enables you to be strong when the need
arises.”

“How did you sum me up so easily?”

“I’m a lawyer. I’ve taught myself to find out
how innocent the person is by the slightest inkling of a twitch
which might be out of place.”

Anneli pouted. “The instinct will be
priceless to learn. What am I thinking?”

“I have decided to put my ability aside only
for you. I feel it’s my duty.”

Anneli fell quiet. She looked outside at the
wind, a distant look in her eyes. Eventually she peeled her gaze
from the storm to focus on Wade. “You’re right, what I’ve been
thinking has to be told.”

Wade stood his ground waiting to listen to
every word.

“I want to reveal you’ve pegged me correctly.
I’ll also tell you I’m no weakling. I will not tolerate you or any
man taking advantage or ordering me to do anything against what I
believe. I walk a narrow path. I will not wander away from it,
either in thought or actions. I’d love to take our relationship
further. If you can’t accept who or what I am, the moment this
storm’s over we’ll part and never see each other again.”

“I’m happy you made your thoughts perfectly
clear,” advised Wade. “Seeing how I know your ideas on the future,
I think it’s only fair I should lay out mine.”

Anneli looked sheepish at what he might say.
An idea entered her mind she came on too strong and actually scared
the man away. Did she say her thoughts in a too harsh a tone? She
wanted to kick herself for being so blunt. Could Meredith have been
right all along; ‘give in and let the current take you on a
ride.’

“I also want to take our relationship to the
next level. I will never order you around. I love the fact you are
a strong individual. I expect it to stay exactly the same. Your
strength attracted me to you in the first place,” confessed
Wade.

“How, I didn’t do anything?”

“It’s not what you said it was the way you
looked at me the night we met on the bridge. Your body language
spoke directly at me.”

“Interesting theory,” hinted Anneli.

Four lightning flashes, four thunder claps in
the space of a few seconds interrupted the conversation. Another
round of rumbles soon followed. Water poured over the mouth of the
cave. The hill above them trembled violently. Wade and Anneli ran
towards the back of the cave. A dirt avalanche slid down the hill.
Mud covered rocks covered the mouth of the cave. Wade forced Anneli
onto the ground, grabbed hold of the cabinet pulling it over on top
of them.

When the trembling above their heads
eventually subsided, Wade slid out from under the cabinet.
Squatting in the dark he righted the frame.

“I can’t see a thing,” stammered Anneli. “The
cave mouth must be completely blocked.”

“Don’t move. I’ll have light on in a
minute.”

Wade opened the cabinet door. His hands swept
the inside cavity. His fingers touched what he started to search
for. Swiping up the narrow tube, Wade moved the switch on the torch
to the on position.

The area remained the colour of ink after
they heard a click.

“Let me guess what’s happened. The batteries
are flat,” reported Anneli.

“Hold your thoughts. The last time I came
here I placed one of the batteries in the slot the wrong way
around. I didn’t want them to go flat. Hopefully they’ll still be
good to use.”

Wade fumbled in the dark turning the first
battery so they were connected in series. They heard a click. The
beam of light highlighted Anneli’s torso.

“Are you okay? No broken bones?”

“I’m fine on both questions. What about
you?”

“I’m okay,” reported Wade.

Anneli glanced towards the mouth of the cave.
“I reckon this storm might form into a destructive cyclone. The
only thing we can do now is start digging our way out.” She looked
at Wade’s smiling face. “Don’t tell me there’s a back door to this
place.”

“To tell you the truth, there is. Let’s make
a move. It’ll take a while to get there.”

After picking up the long rigid bag, Wade led
the way.

“What about the motorbike,” Anneli
quizzed.

“It’ll be fine. When the area has dried we
can return to dig it out.”

A wave of warm emotion swept through Anneli.
The epicenter of the feeling came from her heart. She loved the
term, ‘WE’. For the first time in her life she felt like she
belonged to something important.

The rear of the cave abruptly stopped at the
entrance to a long narrow tunnel. The air smelt stale.

Several steps along the tunnel Wade stopped
to look over his shoulder. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’ve
been this way a couple of times.”

Anneli hesitantly entered the tunnel. She
caught him up, grabbing hold of his arm. “The dark tunnel looks
extremely inhospitable,” she groaned choking on her words.

“Trust me, it’ll be okay.”

Anneli nodded when Wade took hold of her
hand.

They walked along the tunnel at a tediously
slow pace. Anneli studied the walls closing in on them. In a few
extra narrow sections they needed to sidestep their way through.
Not once did Wade let go of Anneli’s hand. She felt reassured by
his touch. In the future years when she looked back on this moment
in time, holding Wade’s hand and realizing she never wanted to let
it go, she felt positive it will always place an unshakable smile
on her face.

“Wade, are we nearly there?” whispered
Anneli.

“Yes it isn’t too far now.”

“If you didn’t insist on bringing the long
canvas bag we might have been at the back door sooner. Why did you
bring it anyway?”

“We’ll need it.”

“At the moment the only thing I can tell is
it’s hindering our progress.”

“You’ll see soon enough.” Using the fading
torch beam, Wade checked his watch. “It’s 9:45am,” he reported.

“Almost mid morning,” answered Anneli,
sucking her breath in to squeeze past yet another extra narrow
section. “It’s getting harder to breath.”

“Yes it is and I don’t know why,” replied
Wade. “I’m sure the back door isn’t more than thirty steps ahead.”
He stopped, reached for the box of matches in his back pocket and
struck one of the magnesium covered match heads against the side of
the box. A yellow flame flickered to life. Wade held the match
perfectly still to see if the flame moved sideways in the direction
they were going.

“The flame is supposed to move in the
direction of the airflow,” explained Anneli, recalling the exact
trick from the science room at school.

“Yes it is. I have no idea why it’s not,”
stated Wade. “The only thing we can do is press on.”

The narrow tunnel broke into a small cave no
wider than a single lane road. Wade walked to the wall directly in
front of him.

“This has to be a fresh wall, probably from a
collapse due to the storm.”

“Breaking free should be an easy thing to
do,” announced Anneli. She stepped up to the wall and started
digging.

“Hold it, before you injure yourself let’s
take a look in my pockets for anything useful.”

In the fading torch light Anneli called out
the items Wade placed onto the ground. “There’s a wallet and a box
of matches.”

“One torch,” added Wade. He stepped over to
the wall and dug the butt end of the torch into the soft mud. A
small quantity of dirt fell away.

“It’s too blunt,” Anneli jeered. Glancing at
the long canvas bag containing the five poles, she wondered why
he’d been so careful in handling it. “What if you used one of the
poles in the bag for a battering ram? If the wall isn’t too deep
the tip of the pole might make a hole.”

A wave of hurt moved across Wade’s face.

Anneli easily picked up on the emotion.
“Surely a pole isn’t too delicate or a priceless artifact which
should be overlooked in our quest to find something to help in our
escape.”

Wade lifted his hand to gently cup Anneli’s
face. “I love the idea.”

He handed Anneli the torch and picked out a
long pole from the bag. Wade gently pushed the pole into the dirt,
swiveling his end around in circles. Almost immediately the wall
started to crumble away.

The more times Wade pushed the pole into the
soft mud and pulled it back the louder the wind sounded.

In a few minutes a hole formed in the wall.
It appeared to be the same size as a lady’s hat she wore to the
Melbourne cup.

The rain started pouring through the hole.
Wade kept up his hacking. The mud slide measured four feet at its
thickest part. Once the hole looked wide enough to scramble
through, Wade stepped back to view the outside. Both he and Anneli
watched the sky in amazement.

“This is one massive storm,” grumbled
Anneli.

“I’d say she’s definitely a cyclone. I heard
a few weeks back the bureau of meteorology decided the next cyclone
was going to be named; Tracy.”

“The way the wind’s picking up, Tracy might
have enough strength to destroy Darwin.”

“You could be right on the money. I have a
feeling when Tracy has blown herself out there won’t be much left
standing,” quoted Wade.

“This is just a random thought. When the
experts name a cyclone they never use a man’s name.”

Wade placed his arm around Anneli’s waist so
he could give her a quick reassuring kiss. For fifteen minutes he
cradled her in his arms waiting for cyclone Tracy to move off.

The moment the wind dropped to zero knots,
the sun came out.

The two crawled out of the tunnel. Standing
at the entrance they took in the view. The warm sun shone on the
sides of the hill. The trees were again standing straight. There
wasn’t a tell-tale sign the storm might have been any stronger than
a heavy band of rain.

“This must be the eye of the storm,” Anneli
reported.

Wade slowly nodded. He certainly didn’t want
to be anywhere near the man made entrance to the cave when the wind
restarted. He looked into the distance at the turbulent sea and
where Darwin should have been. He could plainly see the central
business district. He could also see numerous small fires erupting.
Where complete buildings and houses were built, he couldn’t count
how many were missing walls or roofs. Rubble littered every street.
Cars looked like they’d been parked haphazardly. Some were even
sitting precariously on house roofs. The fact the whole of Darwin
looked graveyard quiet burned in his mind.

Turning his back on the outside world Wade
heard the wind returning. Grabbing Anneli by the hand he pulled her
towards the tunnel. They dived through the hole in the nick of
time. In seconds the wind returned. The noise started howling
through the entrance, threatening to suck them out and upwards
towards the heavens. Anneli gripped onto Wade’s shoulders to stop
from being airborne.

Wade spied a metal ring embedded into the
wall. He untied his belt, threading it through the ring. He just
managed to re-clip it before the wind returned to gale force,
sweeping Anneli and Wade off their feet. He clutched Anneli around
the waist helping her to hang on.

“The wind must be moving close to one hundred
and fifty miles an hour,” stammered Anneli planting her feet into
the mud.

“It might be even two hundred,” replied Wade,
forcing his feet back onto the ground. He dropped to his knees,
pulling Anneli down under his arm.

Wade and Anneli heard the noise before they
felt it.

The whole side of the hill started sliding,
collapsing the small entrance to the cave. Their safe haven quickly
disappeared due to the fact the entrance kept collapsing. As it did
so the mouth of the cave closed in on Wade and Anneli. Halfway
through the second part of the storm, Wade estimated the cave mouth
to be wider than a single lane road. In minutes the length of the
cave shortened considerably. At first Wade didn’t concern himself.
In less than a minute the walls where they were standing started to
crack, making him change his mind Deep fissures soon followed. The
avalanche quickly picked up speed turning the dirt into mud; soft,
suffocating mud.

The hill directly in front of the cave
dwellers started to be torn away. One minute they were ten feet
from the entrance, the next they were down to a few feet. There
didn’t seem to be any letup. Wade unclipped his belt from the ring
to move Anneli further into the cave. He wanted to be ready for a
hastily retreat. He unearthed the cloth covered poles, clutching it
in his left hand.

“Wade, we can’t go any further,” Anneli
screamed. The tone in her voice sounded full of despair.

He turned to face the entrance they stepped
out of. “The tunnel has collapsed. We’re trapped in this cave till
the storm’s gone.”

“If the edge of the avalanche comes too much
closer we’ll be surfing back to Darwin,” hinted Anneli
nervously.

Wade pushed her back to the rear of the
tunnel. He watched the cracks in the walls spread towards the metal
ring. They were less than two feet away when he decided they needed
a back up plan. He turned to Anneli, saying over the wind. “I’m
fresh out of ideas of what to do. Any input will be gratefully
accepted.”

Anneli stood shaking her head. “The only
thing I can think of is to pray.”

Wade gave an agreeing nod.

“God, if you can hear me over this wind I ask
you save us from this storm. Thank you.”

Wade estimated the crack in the wall closed
the gap between them by a further two feet in as many minutes. He
tested his theory by pulling on the metal ring. It felt loose. The
brightening sky evaporated his worried look. Wade noticed the wind
abating, dropping to a stiff breeze. “The storm’s gone,” he
reported confidently. “Stay where you are, I’ll take a look.” He
took a few tentative steps towards the edge of the cliff. “The
ground feels firm almost to the edge before the mud starts to give
way,” he reported. Standing at the entrance of the short cave he
looked over his shoulder. “Anneli, come over here, you need to have
a look at this.”