Chapter Seventeen Ashley #2
As I get closer to town, it’s all sunshine and blue sky, but I don’t like the look of that thin plume of smoke rising from the valley behind Heatherbrae. And I jam my foot down that little bit harder on the accelerator and then push Chase’s name on my truck screen to call him.
“Hey, buddy, how far away are you? Did you miss the storm?” Chase asks.
“I’m about ten minutes, but we’ve got a problem. I can see smoke over the back of Peace Falls in Riversdale Gully. Tell Gran to call the Wildlands firefighters. I think we might have a lightning strike that has sparked a fire.”
As I’m talking to Chase, the stream of gray smoke gets thicker and higher into the sky.
“Shit, hang on the line.” Chase relays the orders to Declan, and I can hear them both moving.
“Fuck, can you remember any of the woods around here burning since Gramps and Gran bought Heatherbrae?” Chase is back talking to me, and I know we’re both fearing the same thing.
“No, and that’s what scares me. There will be so much dry undergrowth that if a fire takes hold, Abbey Falls is in trouble. I’ve got to go. I need to call Ash and tell her to get home to Windemere.” My gut sinks at the thought of losing both farms if we can’t stop this fire in its tracks.
“Let me do it. You and I both know there’s not a chance in hell that she’ll pick up the phone to you right now.”
Chase’s words hit me hard because it’s the truth, and I smack my hand onto the steering wheel in frustration.
“Then tell her that we will help her. There are enough of us to prepare both the farms as best we can. And don’t take no for an answer. She’s as stubborn as I am,” I grumble to Chase as I drive through town and squeal onto the back road leading to Heatherbrae.
“Oh, two stubborn-ass people in a relationship? That always ends well.”
“Fuck you, asshole. Look at Gramps and Gran. Two of the most stubborn people I’ve ever met. Go. Call her!” I feel myself becoming more frantic the closer I get to home, and as I roll down my window, I can smell the woods burning.
“Sorry, Rosie. But don’t worry, we’ll make sure you are safe.
I just need you to do your job and keep Gran safe too.
Got it?” It’s not lost on me that I’ve gone from being a man who couldn’t even bring himself to go near an animal to now talking to Rosie like she’s a human.
“Yeah, don’t look at me like that. I admit when I’m wrong.
You’ve won me over.” I reach over and give her a few pats on her head and down onto her back, which she loves.
The moment I throw the truck in Park, I’m out of the driver’s door, the smoke thick in the air now. I race around to the passenger side where Rosie’s sitting, open the door and clip her leash on her. She jumps down from the truck, and we run up to the house.
“Gran!” I yell as I clatter through the door, still wearing my boots.
“Here!” she yells from the living room where she’s stacking boxes of family photo albums. “Leave her with me. Go help Ashley. The boys are prepping the property.” She’s in full evacuation-plan mode, grabbing the things she can’t bear to lose.
“You sure?” I check with her, although my feet are already walking back toward the door.
“Go, go, go. And don’t agitate her any more than you did before you left. You boys are as stupid as your gramps sometimes.” She’s now talking to herself as much as me as she keeps pulling things from cupboards.
“That’s the plan.” I close the front door behind me to make sure Rosie doesn’t get spooked and take off.
Running toward the barn, I can see Chase and Declan moving logs from the woodpile into the building so there’s no chance of an ember landing on them and bringing a fire quicker to us than we are prepared for.
“You good?” I yell as I get closer. “Wet down the house before the barn. I can rebuild this, but losing that house would kill Gran.”
“Got it,” Declan hollers back before disappearing inside with his arms full of wood as Chase passes him on his way back for more. “Wildlands firefighters are on their way into the gully. Go, get out of here. Ashley was almost to Windemere when I got hold of her.”
Without another word, I’m running across the pasture toward Windemere. The breeze is coming at me from the direction of Riversdale Gully, which is the worst thing that could happen right now. It’s just going to push the flames toward us faster.
As I come through the gate in the fence, I can see Ash running around in the pasture by the barn, chasing all the animals. Adrenaline pushes me harder, and I call out as I get closer.
“Ash!” She can’t hear me over the noise of Herb, Daisy, and Gerald, who are all running in different directions. “Ash!” I scream as I get to the fence and climb over with ease and land on the other side.
“Go home, I don’t need you, Jake!” Yeah, she’s still pissed and has every right to be, but that can wait until later. “I can do this on my own!”
“Hate me later, but don’t be so damn stubborn. Let me help.” Running around behind Gerald, I try herding her toward the barn door.
“Ugghhh. Fine!” she growls at me, as she’s trying to put a lead around Herb’s neck. “You get Gerald inside.” Which, if things weren’t so serious, would be laughable because neither of us can control any of these animals. They are completely spooked and uncontrollable.
Finally, Ash gets Herb inside the barn, but Gerald and Daisy are making me look useless as they keep running from me. But I’m determined to win because they are too important to Ash to let anything happen to them.
Seeing her running back toward me, I know we need to split up.
“Go hose down the house and the barn. I’ll get these two in.” The wind that is in front of the fire is getting stronger, and it’s bringing tiny embers with it.
“No! They are my responsibility; I don’t care about anything but the animals.”
And I’m not stupid enough to spend valuable time standing around arguing with her.
“Fine, I’ll do it, but be careful.” I look at her one last time before I take off toward the house, and I hate what I see in her eyes.
She’s scared as hell, but it’s anger that overrides her fear when she looks at me.
I know the animals are her priority, but I don’t want her without a house either.
She has fought so hard for her home. I’m not about to let her lose it.
I can hear sirens in the distance, and I know they will be fighting hard, but that’s rough terrain over the back of the mountain. Even with the fire trails, it’s still full of steep hills and rocky ground.
In the back of my mind, I can hear the discussion we had about installing fire safety systems at Heatherbrae, and I’m furious at myself for not doing it straight away, but I know that it wouldn’t have helped here on Windemere.
Ash doesn’t have the money to buy that type of equipment, and my fucked-up situation meant I couldn’t have sorted it out for her either.
The hose is no more than a garden hose, and the pressure coming from the pump on the tank is not strong enough for the water to reach the roof of the barn. But I know that’s where she would want me to start.
The ash and embers falling around us are getting bigger, and the air is getting thicker with smoke. But the thing that is freaking me out the most is the sound of fire—the crack of timber and the roar that people talk about in forest fires as it races up the mountain.
My phone in my pocket has been vibrating constantly, but I don’t have time to check the messages.
I’ve tried my best to wet down the barn and have now turned my attention to the house. The water is making it onto the roof, but I’m not sure it’s going to be enough by the time the fire peeks over the top of the ridge and starts racing down toward both properties.
It feels like we are fighting it blind because of the mountain behind us, and with the speed it will come over the top, it will be on us before we know it. The truth is, we won’t know it’s too close to us until it’s actually too late and we’ve run out of time to evacuate.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Gran’s car speeding up Ash’s driveway with Chase driving, Gran in the passenger seat, and Declan and Rosie in the rear. The back of the SUV is jammed full of boxes.
As the car screeches to a stop, Declan jumps out and runs over to me.
“Get the girls out of here. The emergency alerts say it’s time to leave. Did you get them on your phone?” Declan is yelling, as the noise of the fire gets louder with every minute. He grabs the hose out of my hand and throws it to the ground.
“Ash will never leave.” We both run toward her where she’s still struggling with that stupid cow.
“Then you need to make her!” Declan jumps the fence and tries to cut off Gerald, but she scatters again, running and darting all over the place.
And instead of trying to help Declan, I rush to Ash and grab her around the waist as she tries to follow Gerald for the millionth time.
I lift her off the ground with her feet still in motion.
Ash’s clenched fists start beating on my arms.
“Let me go, Jake!” she screams at me, and yet it’s still hard to hear her over the noise around us.
“It’s time to go, Ash. They have issued a level-two warning. We need to evacuate.” I’m still holding her tightly because I know if I let her go, there’s a chance she’ll take off again.
“I don’t care!” she bellows at me.
“Ash, listen to me!” I scream as I spin her in my arms so that she’s facing me while I lower her feet onto the ground. I use all my strength to hold her in my arms while she continues to fight me.
“You need to get in the car with Gran and get out of here. We are running out of time.” She stops fighting as hard and starts listening.
“You take Gran to safety. Get her out of here.” I know she’ll be as worried as I am about an old lady breathing in all this smoke that is starting to settle in all our lungs.