Summer Down Under (19 page)

“You were awesome”

Sam blushed. “My mum’s a nurse. I knew how to
do a bandage before I could walk.”

With Daniel’s help, Sam rolled the man over
into the recovery position and kept a watchful eye on him. Making
sure his chest was still rising and falling of its own accord.

“I think he’s stabilized for now,” she
said.

Mr. Miller ran back to them and explained
that there was not enough open space in the vicinity for the Flying
Doctors to land. Their plane was much larger than his. They would
have to get the injured man back to the homestead in their plane
and the Flying Doctors would meet them there. Daniel and Mr. Miller
proceeded to carry the man towards the plane while Sam kept her ear
close to his mouth so she could feel his breath.

When they arrived with the wounded man, they
all tried to load him in the plane. They couldn’t be sure how badly
injured he was, but the injury to his head didn’t look good. Sam
was worried he would stop breathing again at any minute. She sat in
the back next to him to keep a watchful eye. She prayed he would
not stop breathing in the plane. She wasn’t sure how effective she
could be without being able to lie the man down. Their plane was so
small they had no option than to sit him up on the back seat. The
plane took off, and, shortly after, they were landing back at the
house.

A few minutes after they had landed, Sam
could hear another plane and looked around to see the Flying
Doctors coming into land on the airstrip that effectively made up
the Miller’s front yard. She sat with the man in the plane until
the doctors could get to him, not wanting to cause any more damage
than necessity dictated. The Flying Doctor's plane had hardly even
stopped before two men in blue flight suits jumped out and headed
for Mr. Miller.

“He’s in the back of the plane,” he told
them. “I think he’s pretty bad, but he’s still alive, thanks to
Sam.”

Sam’s eyebrows shot up. Did Mr. Miller just
pay her a compliment?

“Good call.” One of the doctors said as he
leaned into their plane examining the still unconscious man.

“Sam found him,” Mr. Miller continued. “He
stopped breathing and she knew what to do.”

Sam smiled at the doctor as he patted her on
the shoulder. She moved out of their way so they could work on him.
The doctor’s worked quickly. Soon they had the man on a backboard
and loaded onto their plane.

“Well done, miss,” one of the doctors said as
he carried the man away.

They stood and watched as the plane took off
down the airstrip and lifted into the air.

“Good on yer, girlie.” Daniel whispered as
they turned and walked back inside. “You saved that guy’s
life.”

“Thanks.” Sam felt her cheeks warm. She had
to admit to feeling just a tad proud of herself.

The next couple of days dragged by. Mrs.
Miller was not about to let Sam go and work the sheep until the
bruising on her face had gone down to what she considered an
acceptable color. It was taking much longer than Sam was able to
put up with. Why did the human body have to take so long to
heal?

Bored and restless, Sam had taken it upon
herself to do some housework to wile away the hours. This was not
something that came easily to her, which proved the point that she
was even more bored than she first thought. She even kept Arthur
company on occasion while reading a book by the pool. Although, she
had to admit, he wasn’t the best conversationalist she’d ever had
the good fortune to socialize with. Their
conversations
were
very one sided.

Daniel and Mr. Miller weren’t unable to come
back to the house for lunch either, which made matters worse.
Father and son were working sheep on the far side of the property.
They left early in the morning and didn’t get home until the sun
was setting. Sam did get to spend breakfasts with them, but that
was not enough to satisfy her need for human interaction. Mrs.
Miller was always busy doing something or other, so she didn’t have
time to chat. She wasn’t the chatty type, anyway. To be honest, Sam
felt more comfortable talking to Arthur. She had nothing in common
with Mrs. Miller. That’s not to say she had much in common with a
five foot lizard, either.

In the evenings, by the time the lads had
showered, changed, and eaten dinner, Daniel had been dog-tired and
gone to bed early. Sam couldn’t blame him, he did look exhausted,
and because they were one ‘man’ down, he was probably picking up
the slack, which made her feel even more guilty. Sam hadn’t seen
much of him since their encounter by the pool, which now seemed
like a long and distant memory, maybe even a dream.

A couple more days passed and Mrs. Miller
finally gave Sam a clean bill of health allowing her to go back to
work. She was feeling much better. The bruise on her face
diminishing as the days went by. Now it just resembled a dirty
smudge along her jaw line. Sam was in the kitchen helping Mrs.
Miller prepare dinner one evening when Mr. Miller walked in.

“Right, then,” he announced looking at Sam.
“Do you feel up to a ride on the four-wheeler, young lady?”

“Am I ever?” Sam’s face lit up with
excitement, and she put down the kitchen towel without a second of
hesitation. She would have gone back to work after just a day’s
rest, if Mrs. Miller hadn’t vetoed it. “What are we doing?”

“You and Daniel need to go and round up a few
stragglers for us to lamb mark tomorrow, then we are done with
Gidgee Paddock
. He knows roughly where they are, so it
shouldn’t take you too long to find them.”

Sam didn’t care if it took all night. She
would, at long last, be on her own with Daniel once more. She could
hardly contain her excitement as she headed towards the kitchen
door.

“I’ll go get my boots on.” Sam said, rushing
past Mr. Miller with a huge smile across her face. He furrowed his
brow as she passed.

“What’s she so happy about?” he asked his
wife.

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it.” Sam
heard Mrs. Miller reply as she ran down the hall to her room.

Sam threw on her boots, grabbed her coat and
rushed out the back door of her bedroom, which led to the front
entrance of the house. Daniel was fueling up the four-wheeler as
she approached. He looked up when he heard her and a big smile
crept across his face.

“I’m back,” Sam announced. “Your mum signed
my bill of health to go back to work.”

“Well, it’s about bloody time,” he said with
a grin. “Your chariot awaits, my lady.” He gestured with a sweeping
motion of his hand over the seat of the four-wheeler and followed
it up with a bow. Sam doffed him on the arm.

They took off around the poultry runs and
headed for the paddock. Sam felt good chasing across the fields
again. Although, the light was fading quickly and it was getting
harder to see by the minute. Daniel suggested they split up and go
around, then meet each other halfway, hopefully sweeping up the
stragglers as they did. Sam rode off in one direction and Daniel in
the other.

Within about half an hour, the light had
almost completely gone and Sam was beginning to think that this was
not such a good idea, after all. She could no longer see or hear
Daniel. She didn’t think she had moved out that far. She hadn’t
come across a fence line or any sheep yet, either. All of a sudden,
Sam started to feel very uneasy. She stopped her four-wheeler and
turned off the engine to see if she could hear Daniel’s bike. She
couldn’t.

All she could hear were the crickets singing
their nightly chorus. Then it dawned on her that she didn’t have a
clue where she was, how far from the house she was, or anything
that would give her some bearing as to how she could get back to
where she started. She heard a rustle and remembered what Daniel
had told her about wild boar being on the property. A wave of panic
washed over her. Her breathing started to quicken, her eyes darted
in all directions. All to no avail. It was pitch black and she
couldn’t see a thing outside of the small strip of land illuminated
by the headlight on her four-wheeler.

Sam tried to calm her nerves and avoid the
all-out panic attack that was bubbling just below the surface. She
remembered what Mr. Miller had taught her to do if she were ever to
get lost out in the bush.

“What the heck was that?” Sam muttered to
herself. “‘Cooee’, that’s it. I need to call out ‘cooee’ at the top
of my voice.” Daniel’s dad had told her it was the one sound that
could carry for miles, and it wouldn’t make your throat hoarse. In
theory, you could keep it up for hours. She was hoping she wouldn’t
have to test out that theory.

Sam started calling at the top of her voice
“Cooooooooee! Coooooooee!”

She kept calling for about ten minutes,
pausing every now and then to see if she could hear anything, like,
say, Daniel’s motorbike engine flying across the field to come to
her rescue. But she could hear nothing. She was starting to feel
hopeless and very alone. Tears of fear pricked behind Sam’s eyes.
She bit them back in defiance.

What if Daniel couldn’t find her? She’d have
to stay out there all night until sun up before she could find her
way back. That thought terrified her even more. She didn’t fancy
becoming boar bait. They could tear a human to pieces. It was the
reason Daniel carried a hand gun with him when they went out on
their bikes. She balanced on the seat and brought her knees up to
her chest and scanned the darkness in front of her before dropping
her head to her knees. What was she going to do? Not give up,
that’s what.

She lifted her head and called a few more
times. This time the words were tinged with panic. Then she heard a
sound that made her heart leap into her throat.

“Cooooee!” It was Daniel!

Sam called again and Daniel returned it with
another call. A few minutes passed and she could hear the faint
sound of his motorbike. It got closer and closer until she was
illuminated in its headlight. Sam heaved a sigh of relief as Daniel
pulled up alongside her.

“What are you doing all the way over here?”
he asked, sounding like a mother who had just found a lost
child.

Sam shrugged her shoulders and lowered her
knees, all panic departing her tense muscles.

“Taking the scenic route?” she said, adding
a sheepish smile for good measure.

“Come on, you. Follow me. I’ve got the sheep
over there, we can muster them the rest of the way together.”

He leaned over and gave Sam’s arm a squeeze.
Sam thought there must have been a hint of panic left on her
features. She smiled a ‘thank you’ at him and he nodded a ‘you’re
welcome’ back. Sam started her engine and followed Daniel’s lead
back to where the sheep were waiting.

Altogether, thanks to her taking ‘the scenic
route’, it took a couple of hours to get the job done, but,
eventually, they got the sheep to the holding pen, ready to be
worked on the following day.

“Thank you for finding me.” Sam said as they
wandered back to the house.

“You did the right thing,” Daniel said.
“Remembering to call that way. I was really getting worried. All of
a sudden, you weren’t in sight anymore, and I couldn’t hear your
engine, either. I forgot how easy it is to get disoriented out here
at night. I’m sorry, Sam, I shouldn’t have told us to split up.
That was stupid.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. No harm done.”

“No, but it could have been. I bet you were
scared. I’m sorry. I’m not doing a very good job at keeping you
safe, am I?” Daniel hung his head.

“Hey, now. Don’t say things like that. It’s
not your job to keep me safe. I’m a big girl, I can look after
myself… most of the time.”

Sam smiled at him, trying to make him feel
better. She was not about to let on how absolutely terrified she’d
been when she thought she was lost in the dark out in the middle of
nowhere.

***

The time flew by quickly once Sam got back
into the swing of things again. The days merged into weeks. Before
she knew it, nearly a month had gone by. Daniel didn’t attempt
anything but friendship with her since that time at the pool. Sam
thought he sensed her comfort level was incredibly low on that
score, and probably decided being friends was the best option. Sam
did feel very comfortable with his friendship and wasn’t sure she
had the courage to take it any further, anyway. The way things were
going seemed to be working well for the both of them. Daniel made
her laugh a lot with stories of what he got up to in college and
some of the things that happened to him on the sheep station over
the years.

She was also learning a lot about handling
and working with the sheep. She was much more confident around them
now. When she looked in the mirror every morning as she brushed her
teeth, the reflection staring back was of a confident country girl
who knew just what she was doing, and at that point, where she was
headed. Working there was preparing her for the rest of her travels
to see the remainder of Australia, which she planned to continue in
just a couple of months after the shearing was finished.

The team of three had lamb marked and sprayed
thousands of sheep over the past few weeks. They only had one
paddock left to do. On their way back to the house, Mr. Miller
wanted them to detour past a drying creek, just to check if any
sheep had gotten stuck in the mud that would be developing now the
water was drying up.

They thought they were going to be lucky as
they had ridden for a mile or so and not seen any distressed sheep.
As they were going to head for home, Sam noticed a white blob a
little further up the creek bed ahead of them.

“I think there’s one down there,” Sam shouted
over to Daniel and his dad.