Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER.
Once upon a time there was a man who lived in a small little hut at the end of a long windy road in a rainforest. The hut had some very basic amenities: a single bed, a light hanging from the ceiling, small kitchen and a small table.
The man kept to himself mainly. He grew his own vegetables in a little garden out the back, he was completely self sufficient for food and so rarely needed to leave his property. The man was generally very happy, although sometimes the sadness would come for his dog that had recently passed away and when that happened he couldn’t remember ever being happy.
One dark and stormy night a strong wind blew through the trees. The man was sitting inside the hut on his bed listening to the sounds. It was a little scary being alone in the middle of a rainforest listening to the wind. If Molly was alive she would be in the bed with him whimpering, keeping him company and he would be telling her not to be silly, that it was just a little storm. Part of nature.
Suddenly the light went out. The power was gone. It was pitch black and there was no light from the moon because the clouds were so thick. It started to rain and the wind started to howl. It was an unnatural sounding noise even if it was part of nature.
The man lay down in his bed and curled up into a ball with tears in his eyes thinking of Molly. It was a long restless night full of bangs and crashes and once the front door to the hut even opened and smashed against the outside of the house scaring the man terribly.
Eventually the storm passed, the rain stopped and man was able to go to sleep.
Every day when this man woke up he took himself down to the nearest creek for a wash. And today was no different. When he opened the door to his hut however he was not prepared for what he was seeing. The terrible mess left by the storm – it was a much bigger storm than he thought possible. There were plant pots broken, the fence had been pushed over, the trees were either bent, broken or on their back and his vegetable garden was in complete disarray. Even the nearby power lines were in twisted and hanging. The man knew this was going to be a problem because the power lines near his house powered the nearby village. Without this power the village would be in trouble.
One day a few weeks ago the man had been down to the village to find a coffin for Molly, he wanted to build a nice grave for her at the other side of his vegetable garden so he could visit her and give her flowers. On his way to town he noticed that there was a new hospital wing that had been built for children since the last time he had come – which was a while ago he must admit, perhaps even longer than he originally thought. The man walked past the hospital on his way to the pet store and he noticed all these new fangled electronics lighting up, beeping and pulsing through one of the open windows. Technology. He watched the kids wired up to these machines. Some with shaved heads. Some asleep.
Because of that visit to town he knew that electricity was important. Important for the kids, for the parents and probably important for many other reasons too. He was worried about it and so he was very grateful when a ute from the local power company turned up with two men in it with hard hats on. They were going to fix the power lines. He waved good morning to them and sat down to watch what they did from the ratty old armchair that was sitting at the front corner of his tiny porch at the front of his little hut.
The other men waved back and then put on their protective gear and placed a large ladder up against the electricity pole. They slowly climbed the ladder and then attached themselves to the pole using thick long leather belts that were clipped to their respective harnesses. These two men were very fit and obviously experienced in power poles because they were able to climb to the top of the pole in no time.
Perhaps they were a little too arrogant. Perhaps they weren’t used to people watching them do their job. Perhaps they looked at the man from the hut and wanted to show them how good they were at what they did. Was he jealous of their fitness? Maybe. But whatever it was the man sitting at the front of his hut thought they were showing off a bit too much, they were being a bit too cocky.
And because of that, maybe, these men forgot to do something very important. They forgot to check the neighbouring power pole to see if there was any immediate danger – if they were to but look they would have see a dangerous loose cable dangling precariously.
The two men didn’t notice when another strong gust came and blew this dangerous cable towards them where it snapped and bit and cracked and somehow hit one of the men, even though the man at the front of the hut didn’t see exactly what happened, he knew it was serious. One of the men dropped immediately unconscious hanging loosely in the air – his leather belts and harnesses the only thing holding him up ten metres in the air. The other man stopped with his eyes wide open looking for any danger for himself, he now saw the loose cable but must have decided that he wasn’t in any immediate danger. The unconscious mans head was swinging slowly just above him so he climbed up and steadied him, feeling for a pulse. There was none. He immediately grabbed his workmates upside down mouth with his own to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation. The tears were coming. He yelled at the unconscious man, slapped his face, reached up and banged on his chest with his fists and continued trying to resuscitate him. It was all from the worst possible angle but he tried anyway for a long time. Nothing changed. He kept trying and trying. His eyes were blurry with tears.
Until finally, he gave up. The electrocuted man lay with his back against the pole and his friend was crumpled against him with his arms around his chest, tears streaming down his face.
By this time the man in the hut was underneath them calling out asking how he could help. The man on the pole screamed for him to call an ambulance but the man from the hut couldn’t do that. He didn’t have a phone. So the man on the pole screamed with frustration and snot and tears and saliva all mixed together spraying the man from the hut underneath him. The man on the pole awkwardly pulled out a mobile phone from deep in his pocket hoping and praying that there would be reception this far out of town.
One bar of reception showed on the screen – but one bar was enough. He called an ambulance and spoke to the operator about what he could do to bring the other man back to life. She told him to try to bring the man down to the ground but it was impossible just by himself. The unconscious man was too heavy. Tears continued to roll down his face. It was taking too long. He knew it was too long.
The man from the hut had climbed up the ladder and did his best to help the other man bring his body down from the pole. Then the ambulance arrived from nowhere and for a few minutes it was very busy. A rush of people to get the dying man into the vehicle. Which was gone as quickly as it came.
And then there was no one but the man from the hut. Left standing alone out the front of his home.
Sad and alone and still missing his dog Molly.