Free Red Hot by Cheryl Alldis, Leonie Alldis Page A

it, but nevertheless she couldn’t help thinking that this could well be the last Christmas with her father. His health was certainly deteriorating.
    Towser came bounding up to her. He flopped himself beside her, snorted once, and went to sleep. She sat there thinking about the past weeks and everything that had happened.
    Suddenly, Towser lifted his head. His nose twitched as he sniffed the air. Abruptly, he sat up.
    ‘What is it, fella?’ Win whispered. Towser edged his way forward, a low growl rumbling in his throat. Winnie nervously leant forward in her chair.
    ‘What’s wrong, fella? What can you see? Is it a possum?’
    Towser didn’t move from his spot at the edge of the veranda, but he remained alert and watchful, every now and then wagging his tail. A prickle of fear ran down Win’s spine
    Win stared out into the inky blackness of the yard, concentrating her gaze. She strongly sensed that someone was out there.
    ‘Good boy, Towser,’ she whispered, patting him on his head. Instinct told her
to get Dig and Karl fast. Her heart raced. She left Towser where he was and quietly hurried inside. If she could get the men up quickly, they might catch whoever it was. She was certain someone was out there!
    Karl and Digger raced outside. They checked around the area near the house and sheds, but there was not a sign of anyone. All the sheds were shut and, after checking inside each one, they found nothing disturbed. Shining the torches around, they couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
    ‘Well, coulda been a possum,’ Digger said.
    ‘Yeah, everythin’ looks alright to me,’ Karl replied. ‘C’mon, better get back to bed. We’ve both got early starts.’
    They went back to the house and reassured a worried Win that everything was fine.
    ‘I felt sure someone was out there. I suppose Towser would’ve barked if it was a person,’ she said. ‘I sensed something though, I know I did.’
    ‘It’s alright, love.’ Digger put an arm around her. ‘We took a good look around and no-one’s there. C’mon, we better hit the hay. A man’s gotta get some bloody shut eye!’
    ***
    Meryl Nixon was on her way home after finishing her shift as a barmaid at the local pub. She drove up Centaur Road and, when she came over the small hill just before Kia-Ora, what confronted her almost caused her to run her car off the road. There was a
huge
fire at Kia-Ora!
As she pulled off the road and sped up the long driveway, she could see it was one of the sheds.
    Skidding to a halt, she jumped out, leaving the car door swinging open. She ran to the front door
.
Banging her fists onto the front door, she shouted, desperate to make as much racket as she could!
    It took only a few minutes, but to her it seemed like an eternity until a bleary eyed Karl opened the door.
    She could barely get the words out. ‘Fire Karl! Fire… Your shed…’ she shouted.
    Karl couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Not wasting time changing out of his pyjamas, he raced to the back of the house, pointing to the phone as he went, yelling at her to ring the fire brigade.
    The commotion had woken everyone else, and Digger, also in his pyjamas, was close on Karl’s tail as he raced outside to try and save the shed.
    It was pointless. The shed was well and truly alight, burning fiercely end to end. The heat radiating from it was intense. There was absolutely no hope of saving anything in it.
    It was a wall of fire!
    ‘The rotary hoe… hell, the bloody thing’ll be burnt.’ Karl shot over to the burning shed, disregarding the heat from the inferno and grabbing the rotary hoe which was beside the shed, trying desperately to drag it away from the fire. Digger rushed after him, and, between the two of them, they struggled to move the red-hot heavy machine. Pain seared through their hands, burning their skin. They ripped off their pyjama shirts, wrapped them around the handles of the machine and heaved and tugged until they finally managed to get the