Chapter 6
CHAPTER
Ben’s hangover was a killer and someone was pounding on his skull with a hammer. He rolled over in bed, groaning. The hammering persisted and, blinking his eyes to try to focus, he finally realised the hammer was hitting his door, not his head.
‘Come on, little brother. Time to get up.’ Justin’s voice from the other side of the door was way too loud for this morning.
‘Go away.’
‘Nope. Time to go to work. Coffee’s on.’ The bedroom door opened a bit and the smell of fresh coffee wafting into the room made Ben push himself to a sitting position.
‘Bacon and eggs?’
‘There will be by the time you get out of the shower.’
Ben grinned. Justin had long ago figured out how to deal with him after a big night out.
After arriving back in Tamworth last night, a few of the firefighters had stopped by a pub to celebrate a successful effort.
The fire was out. No lives had been lost and they had contained the structural losses to a single old wooden shed and the hay stored inside.
There had been some close calls though, which were discussed in detail as the beer vanished.
A hangover seemed a small price to pay for the feeling of work well done.
Slowly, Ben swung his legs over the side of the bed.
When the room stopped spinning, he stood up and headed for the shower.
He was feeling a lot better when, still damp, he walked into the kitchen to see his brother slide a plate of bacon, eggs and baked beans onto the table next to his coffee mug, from which wafted a reassuring puff of steam. ‘Thanks, bro.’
Justin didn’t answer. He carried a second plate of breakfast to the table and sat down.
Ben reached for the coffee. Despite its heat, he downed most of the mug in one go, then refilled it before sitting down to eat.
‘Thanks for driving home last night.’
Justin shrugged. ‘You weren’t driving yourself, that was for sure.’
‘Yeah. I guess I overdid it a bit.’
Justin snorted. ‘A bit?’
‘All right. A lot.’ The food tasted great and Ben could feel his energy returning with each mouthful. He grabbed some toast from the plate in the middle of the table and spooned some of his beans over it.
‘That might be your last chance for a while,’ Justin said seriously. ‘The weather report says it’s continuing hot and dry. With storms.’
They both knew what that meant. The relief from the rain that stopped the last fire was long gone.
In fact, it was only going to make matters worse.
The grass that had sprouted in the wake of that fire was already turning brown, providing more fuel for the next one.
And the fire season had only just started.
Their posting at the Tamworth RFS meant they had a lot of ground to protect, all of it ripe for a lightning strike or a discarded cigarette butt.
As full-time RFS employees, Justin and Ben didn’t wait for the fires to start, they were always busy training new volunteers, cutting firebreaks and starting back burns; helping people secure their homes against the dangers ahead.
There would be fewer late nights playing pool and drinking beer at the pub for the next couple of months.
Ben reached for his phone and started checking the weather forecast and fire alerts as they finished their meal in silence. A few minutes later, wearing identical RFS uniforms, they climbed into the front of Justin’s ute.
‘I’ll go via the pub and you can pick yours up,’ Justin said.
They had only gone a short distance when the phone resting in Justin’s centre console rang. As always when one was driving, the other brother answered.
‘Unknown number,’ said Ben. He tapped the screen. ‘Hello.’
There was no answer.
‘Hello. This is Justin’s phone.’
‘Ben?’ The woman’s voice was soft and sounded a little bit shaky.
‘Yes. This is Ben. Not many people can tell us apart by our voices. Who is this?’
There was a long moment of silence. Ben looked across at Justin, but his brother’s eyes were fixed on the road, his face neutral.
‘Again. Who is this?’
Ben was on the verge of ending the call when the caller finally spoke again.
‘I’ve always been able to tell you apart. Even from just the sound of your voice.’
Ben frowned. He looked at the phone and then back at his brother. As he did, he realised that he recognised the voice on the phone. Without hesitation, he ended the call and dropped the phone back into the console as if it was burning his hand.
‘You gave her your number?’
‘Who?’
‘Don’t play dumb with me, big brother. That was our mother on the phone. Are you saying you didn’t give her the number? When? Have you been seeing her without telling me?’
‘No. I didn’t give her my number. I did leave a card with the Wagtail Ridge vet. Maybe she got it from there.’
‘I can tell when you’re lying. You told the vet to give her your number. Didn’t you?’
Justin simply nodded.
‘Why? She was out of our lives. She never loved us. Not really. She was a bad mother and I, for one, don’t want to see her again.’
They had reached the pub car park. Justin pulled up next to Ben’s car. ‘Look, Ben. I think … Well, it’s been a long time. What is it … fifteen years? Maybe you should—’
‘Why? Think of all the times she left us alone to go rescue some animal. All the times we sat in the car and waited for her. And let’s not forget that she lied to me for seventeen years. That’s more than half my life. In another seventeen years, I will still feel the same.’
‘It sounds like you’re making me choose between you and her. Don’t do that.’
‘I thought you made that choice seventeen years ago. I thought you chose me. Was I wrong? Thanks for the lift. I’ll see you at work.’
Ben opened the car door and got out, slamming it behind him.
He hated arguing with Justin. His brother was the one person in this world he loved.
And the only person who loved him—unconditionally.
As a child, all the love he’d known had come from his twin.
He’d almost convinced himself that was all he needed, until that night, when he’d discovered that their mother had lied to him his whole life.
That was the final straw. He thought of all those times she’d smiled at him and Justin as they cut their birthday cake.
And every time it was a lie. Some people might think it was a small, unimportant thing she had lied about.
That wasn’t the point. The fact of the lie was the point.
Their mother had cared more about her rescued animals than her sons. Why would he want her back in their life? She meant nothing to him now.
***
When he arrived at work, Justin went straight into the building without waiting for his brother.
Like brothers everywhere, Justin and Ben had the occasional fight.
The closeness that came with being identical twins didn’t preclude arguments, disagreements and, on a couple of memorable occasions when they were in their late teens, actual fist fights.
But such events passed quickly. Justin hoped this would be no different.
He had felt much the same way as Ben years ago, but now?
No. Fifteen years is a long time and heated feelings cool.
Maybe he’d grown up, but in some ways Ben remained that angry teenager.
He’d get over it in time … probably. Until then, Justin was on his little brother’s side, as he always had been.
A uniformed figure was waiting for him in the shared rec space. ‘Turner. My office. Where’s your brother? I want him too.’
‘I’m here.’ Ben appeared in the doorway. He avoided looking at Justin as the two of them filed into the commander’s office.
‘Latest updates from Sydney say we can expect a hell of a fire season,’ Ted Carter said.
Justin and Ben nodded; this was hardly news.
‘So we’re getting out there now. We need to prepare some of the smaller communities for what they could face.
We’ll be sending men to the smallest towns all over the state.
Recruitment. Education. Preparation. Those are the words the communications team are pushing. ’
‘That makes sense,’ Justin said. ‘But we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin. When we’re needed—’
‘You’ll go where you’re needed, as you always have. But hopefully this year, people will be a bit more prepared. And if we have new volunteers as well, then we’ll be even better off.’
Justin nodded. ‘So you’re sending me …?’
‘Sending both of you. To Wagtail Ridge for a week or two. That town is pretty vulnerable and, after that last fire, there’s bound to be more.
There’s a small station there. It’s not much more than a shed really, but it’ll do as a base.
And they have a small tanker unit—all paid for by local fundraising—so there’s a beginning there that hopefully the two of you can build on.
There’s living quarters with a bunk room and a kitchen.
That’s why I’m sending the two of you—I imagine you’ll cope with living in cramped quarters just fine. ’
Beside him, Justin heard Ben mumble something under his breath.
‘Is there a problem?’ Carter asked.
‘No, sir. No problem,’ Ben replied.
‘Good. Okay. Get yourselves organised. I want you to head down there tomorrow.’
‘Yes, sir.’
As they left the commander’s office, it occurred to Justin that Wagtail Ridge was exactly the place to be if he wanted to track down his mother.
One glance at Ben’s face told him the same thought had occurred to him, but he wasn’t happy about it.
The more he thought about it, the more Justin liked the idea of this assignment.
It was well past time their small family worked out its issues.
And there was Anna. The thought of seeing her again was …
exciting. He’d never felt so strongly attracted to a woman based on one short meeting.
It wasn’t simply that she was beautiful, there was courage in the way she looked at the world.
Courage and kindness. She was smart and he would have bet money that she would be funny, given a chance.
And he so very much wanted to give her that chance.
Give himself a chance to get to know her.
Yes, he was curious about the scar on her face; he did want to know what had happened.
But only if she wanted to tell him. Apart from that curiosity, the scar mattered not at all.
It wasn’t who she really was. And who she really was interested him a great deal.
He was looking forward to his assignment in Wagtail Ridge.