Free Olivia's Mine by Janine McCaw Page A

alive.
She’s cutting a path down the east slope. Simpson, get Dr. Van den
Broek over here. He’s been at the bar all night, so he’s probably
still there. Get him some coffee and sober him up. I want every
available medically trained person over to the hospital
immediately, and that includes the vet. Christianson, start
knocking on doors and get every available man down here and form
rescue teams. We’re going to need to get up there and get help to
those who need it. You, Clarkson, we’ll need some stretchers from
the hospital and Jeffries, get the stretchers from base camp. The
dead are going to stay dead. Got that? We take care of the injured
first. But we are not going up to the top camp until it is safe to
do so.”
    Lucy, true to her nature, came out from the
hall to take a look despite McMichael’s instructions not to do
so.
    “Get back inside,” McMichael yelled at
her.
    “Oh my God, it’s going towards my house!”
    She froze in horror.
    “I said get back inside Lucy!”
    “My babies!” she cried, and bolted into the
street. “Oh my God…my family…”
    McMichael ran after her and grabbed her
forcefully. “I said get inside.”
    He shook her. “Do you hear me? Lucy!”
    “Yes, of course I hear you…oh my God, my
little girl, she can’t hear the noise…”
    “Leave her alone,” Frank snarled, his hatred
for the man pulsing through his veins. How dare he rough up the
woman. Could he not see the shock draining all but the slightest
colour from her face?
    “Do you really want her to see this
Fitzpatrick?” McMichael asked, turning her head and giving her to
Frank, a fleeting moment of compassion in his voice. “You get in
the hall, and you tell that young wife of yours that you need her
to keep Lucy and the other women who are in a state of shock,
inside the hall. We will get some blankets brought over. Olivia’s
new here. She’ll be able to help them without any pre-conceived
notions or prejudices. I need her to be compassionate. You don’t
need any training for that, but it’s not something all of us have.
From where I’m standing, you and your wife have come out of this
very lucky. So you save that attitude of yours for another time and
place. I have a job to do, and right now, it isn’t very pleasant. I
have to count the dead. I have to decide where to set up a
temporary morgue. Do you really want to be in my position?”
    Frank, somewhat humbled, took Lucy back
inside. There was wisdom in McMichael’s words if not in his
actions.
    The thought of the lives of her loved one’s
ending so abruptly was too much for Lucy to bear. She sobbed
hysterically.
    “Oh my God, Marty!” she wailed. “Marty’s
gone…and Melissa, she just had a little cold. I should have stayed
home with them. I should have brought them to the wedding anyway.
Robbie wanted to come and I said no, I didn’t think there would be
any other children here…”
    “My lord Frank, what is it? What happened?”
Olivia asked.
    “Mountain slide,” he replied, nodding towards
Lucy. “She’s right. They’re gone. There’s no way they could have
survived that. The whole two upper levels of the town…”
    Frank’s voice choked and he could not
continue.
    Olivia remembered her new friend’s
conversation on the boat. How these were the only children she
would ever be able to have.
    “What?” Olivia asked, shocked.
    “I saw it, Liv. I saw the rocks come crushing
down on their home. It pummelled it like it was made of paper.
There’s nothing left. McMichael’s asked if you could stay here,
with her and the other women, in the hall, as there’s going to be
more bad news tonight. I guess he thinks you’ve got a warm heart.
Please, stay with her, and help the others. I need to go back
outside to help.”
    Olivia put her arms around Lucy.
    “Lucy, if there’s anything I can do…”
    Lucy just looked away.
    What can anyone really do when your family
has been taken from you in one swift act of God, Olivia