Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
The first time I wanted to run was not the first time i tried to. After hearing that wail I knew rationally that i had to get out of there but i couldn’t leave the people in the room as I had to know what happened next. “Theres been snake bite, his dad’s down”
Snake bite. Ticking over in my mind I had to think of what I knew. Don’t move , don’t move- I had to run and tell him cos he might not know that , not being from here.. The aboriginal people of Australia have a saying that if you get bit by a snake, you should wait to see two sunrises and two sunsets then it was fine; you could get up and walk away. Medically speaking the snake venom hits you in the lymphatic system and by slow process can remove the poison eventually itself. But this takes so long. I looked around a stared at at an orange ribbon on the floor that had fallen from my girl’s hair and that had twirled around the table leg somehow. Get outside. A small cup sat atop this table and teetered on its edge. Get outside. I ran over the uneven floor and jumped over the mussed carpet out to the path. “Where where?” “Near the lawnmower”.
Huh huh huh, puffing, feeling the slow pace of the fastest strides , i made my way across the lawn. A change in course could meant I get there faster so I cut through the laundry out house and saw a maroon shirt distinctly in the green area next to the sandpit, not far from the lawnmower.” Stay still stay still, stay calm”- and James’ dad is one of the calmest people you could ever meet ( much like me, actually, but I can’t meet myself) and I puffed to him: “Remember, the thing I told you about the lying still…” and the next minute, to my fascination, he started a big slow breath that lasted longer than could actually be real. Was this a thing about the lungs and poison shifting gear? What did the guy on the course say? Couldn’t bloody remember.
I heard “Whats that smell?” It was my girl who had crept up behind me lifting her shoe and looking at a dog poo from that manic beast that ran about.
When was the ambulance is coming?There was only a landline here and John had been holding the reciever down at the hall.
I looked at James’ dad.The sunlight was disappearing down behind the hills and though his face was darkening, it was seemingly more pale. And down from the front road I could hear the the sound of the ambulance turning up the hill. This was our summer, this was hell, this will be OK.