Power to Burn (17 page)

We were singing and crying, there in the room, all three of us. No boundaries existed any more, my skin was theirs, their fingers were mine, and the joy of the power was so fierce that it stung us like fire.

The rumbling had stopped. I could see it happen, there on the eastern slope. The new wall of ice was subsiding, sinking back into the snow, and we pulled it down, weighting it with our minds, willing it back into the earth. There was a sighing, and then stillness, like the beginning of a day. I opened my eyes.

‘
Bravi!
' cried Nonno. He was hopping around the room, crying and coughing and trying to hug Lucrezia and Angelica and me all together.

Lucrezia was looking out the window, but I saw her smile. ‘We'd better get you down the mountain,' she said, turning to Nonno, ‘into the warmth.'

Strange how things can change, all in one night. At least, that's how it seemed, the world turning in one miraculous evening.

I stood there, looking at my family: Nonno's hand stroking the long dark hair of my sister, Lucrezia's pale profile turned toward them. If we were in one of my fairy tales, we'd all go back down the mountain and be happy forever more. Angelica and I could fly away home now, like Hansel and Gretel, and we'd wake our parents up. Surprise, surprise, we're back from the forest! We could hold up our little emblems from the journey – the ivory comb I still have in my bag, the perfume. Look, look, we were really there, and we've broken the spell!

But somehow, I just can't imagine Mum and Dad being any different. Even after tonight. And thinking of Mum now, my blood boils. It reminds me of that meteor crashing on Jupiter. Even years later, after the explosion, there'll still be the dust. Mum and I won't be able to see each other for the dust.

They never talk about the dust in fairy tales.

Maybe one day I'll be able to forgive her. Buried, deep down there, is the love. The time when we were safe and warm.

But looking at Lucrezia makes me think that I'm not going to wait for Mum to change. Or Nonno, or Dad. Even if you are just one small bead, you can still move on.

And I have the power inside me.

I heard a slow steady sound then, like water dripping. I looked out through the window and saw the chestnut tree, shining in the dawn light spreading up over the hill. The ice was melting, running in long thin strands from the branches, flowing down the trunk.

Angelica tugged at my hand. We looked together out into the white dripping world. I felt the power in my sister's hand merge with my own. And I knew we would never be silent again. Looking into her eyes, that familiar face, I felt a rush of gladness that I knew her, and that she knew me. It was good to be awake. Wide awake. Secrets are for the birds.

A
nna Fienberg gets her ideas from her own dreams, people she meets, snatches of overheard conversation. She always carries a notebook with her in case she hears something interesting.

Anna likes to live in books as well as real life. She was once Editor of School Magazine, where she read over a thousand books a year. She wrote plays and stories for the magazine and then began writing her own books. She has written picture books, short stories, junior novels and fiction for teenagers and young adults.

Anna's first novel,
Pirate Trouble for Wiggy and Boa
, was shortlisted for the 1989 Australian Children's Book of the Year awards,
The Magnificent Nose and Other Marvels
was the winner of the 1992 Australian Children's Book of the Year Award for younger readers, and
Tashi
was shortlisted for the same award in 1996.
Ariel, Zed and the Secret of Life
was the winner of the 1993 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, and
Borrowed Light
was given the ACT Top YA Read Award in 1999.