Wisps of Cloud (13 page)

"Ryan," she almost screamed as he undid her jeans and her panties, down.

He moved forward between her legs and almost violent held and suckled her nipples as he penetrated in massive thrusts while she just held on. Finally, she wriggled off the table and playfully slapped him on the shoulder.

"Don't do that again
!" she hissed.

She jumped in fright when she heard car tyres crunching on the gravel outside and saw a blue car out the side window.

"Ryan, someone's here! Oh my God…" She frantically pulled her jeans up, redid her bra and re-buttoned her blouse just before there was a knock on the door.

Ryan cheeks were flushed bright red as he also redressed and ran a hand through his hair. He picked up the tablecloth that was in a pile on the floor and swung it over the table before grinning at her.

Karla glowered and opened the door. Sharon Gosnell and her children stood there.

"Oh, hi Sharon," Karla gulped and hoped her own burning cheeks weren't as obvious as they felt.

"Lorena insisted I come and everyone's texting, calling or commenting about you."

"Me?" Karla gasped and thought back to the passionate lovemaking of mere moments before. "Why, what have I done?"

Sharon grinned. "You certainly look as if you've had a busy day.

"Yeah, busy," Karla gave Ryan an estranged look. If he said a word…

But of course he didn't and was a perfect gentleman as he invited the family in, offered the children an orange drink and Sharon a coffee.

"Only if you're having one," she replied.

"Oh yes, I need a coffee," Karla again gave Ryan another intense stare. "But what is it, Sharon?"

"It's your day at school. How did you manage to get the children to do so much? Also, those exercise books. Wow, not even Lorena has ever produced such good work."

"It's because she cares Mum," Lorena interjected. She glanced at Karla. "Mum saw our chart we're doing, too."

"Thank you but I only did my job, you know. It's the children who put in the wonderful effort."

Sharon stayed another half an hour and chatted away over the coffee about the accolades going around the plateau and onto a little about what she should do on Friday, the day she released Karla from classroom teaching to do administration work. She finally rounded the children up and grinned at Ryan.

"Thanks for twisting her arm to come here, Ryan. You're one lucky man."

"I think so," Ryan whispered and stood behind her with his hands on her hips.

They watched as the family drove away before he swung her around. "Now what were we doing?" he chuckled.

"You know very well but don't think you can… oh Ryan what turned you on like a rampant bull anyway?"

"It's been a strange day and I just needed you. I love you Karla. Can we get married?"

She stared at him. "Whoa there! What happened that brought all this on?"

She sat at the table and listened as he told her about the marijuana crop and the druggies. "It just made me want to protect you, that's all. Perhaps I even felt guilty about persuading you to come here...I realised that you were more than just a friend. So will you?"

"No!" Karla said.

Ryan's face dropped. "But why not?"

"We have everything we need at the moment without that bit of paper. What happens a year from now when the excitement diminishes?" She glanced away. "Perhaps I don't want to be like my own parents who just stayed together because they thought it was what society expected. They eventually separated after twenty-five years and four children."

"So your Dad had affairs?

"Dad, no. He was the loyal one. He stuck by my mother even though she had other men. Even now I think that Gary, my youngest brother is really only my half-brother."

"But you aren't your mother!"

"No, I'm not and neither are you your parents. We are both adults from supposedly middle-class families who can see what our parents did wrong. It is easy to stand back and criticise the earlier generation but will we do any better ourselves?"

"Okay," Ryan muttered. "But will you think about it?"

Karla tucked her arms around him and kissed him firmly on the lips. "Ask me again this time next year but not before. Okay?"

Ryan grinned. "Okay. That's fair enough. What now?"

"We cook up a good meal. I'm hungry!"

"All done," Ryan laughed and opened the oven. Out puffed a cloud of delicious smelling steam. Cooked and all ready to be served was a roast meal. "I wanted to celebrate your first day."

"Yeah you did," Karla replied. "In more ways than one."

*

"So what we do about those druggies?" Ryan asked over breakfast the following morning.

Karla frowned. "Perhaps Clive is right and we should just ignore them. It's not worth the risk of having fences wrecked or animals shot. Didn't you say the plants weren't on your property anyway?"

"True."

"So," Karla said. "Take Clive's advice and just leave it"

Ryan shrugged. "Okay, but I'll keep my ears to the ground."

"Meaning?"

"Farmers are notorious gossips. There's a stock sale in town next week. What's the bet that if anybody else has seen that helicopter around someone will know who operates it?

Karla nodded but with a meal to prepare and more schoolwork to plan, she pushed the item to the back of her mind. It didn't really affect her or Ryan and the Top Plateau Station, if it came to that. There were more pressing things on her mind, a Board Of Trustees meeting tomorrow evening and a report that had to be written for it.

*

Three weeks slipped by. By now Karla had the school humming along. She had met almost all the parents and with the end of the year close, the last big item on the school calendar was the school breakup and Christmas party. This was a local tradition where the children put on items and all received a gift from under a Christmas tree with Father Christmas, a local grandfather who had been doing this job for years, attending. At school they had to practise a repertoire of songs and Christmas carols. As well, there was a short school play that everyone participated in and individual items. Lorena, for example would play a piece on the piano while some of the other girls would perform a dance routine. Background scenes would need to be painted and the Top Plateau Hall just up the road decorated with streamers and a small pine tree brought in by another farmer, decorated with coloured lights and children's craft. She was given an allocation of money by the Board to buy a book for every child and decided to support a bookshop in Masterton rather than just sending away an order to a national outlet, that Ted always did.

Karla still continued a formal morning programme but the afternoon became a wonderful fun session of preparing for the breakup. She discarded the musty old streamers and Christmas tree decorations that Old Ted hauled out of the back shed every year but did keep the pile of coloured lights. 'Pile' was an apt description for the wires were tangled up and it took Justin most of one afternoon to untangle everything and get the lights working. Karla suspected he purposely went slowly to avoid singing practise but decided not to say anything. His attitude was usually good and his work during the morning had improved considerably. He didn't like singing but his input on the art and craft side reflected a natural talented.

*

With an hour of school left on this Tuesday afternoon the classroom was a hive of activity with the desks placed along one wall and all the children helping paint a background scene on a massive roll of cardboard that would be hung along the back of the hall stage for the breakup.

A screech of car brakes made Karla glance up. She noticed the fleeting image of a white car swinging around with the tyres smoking. There was a whoosh followed by a bang. After a second of silence one of the children screamed. Everyone stood up and more children began to cry out, sob or run to her. Something had exploded in the porch!

Luckily, the interior door to the porch was closed but like the rest of the century-old building it was wooden and bone dry, Smoke, dirty black stuff that stunk of cordite hissed through the gap under the door. It was less than a minute but already Karla could feel the room heat up and hear a cracking sound. Children began to cough.

It was up to her!

"Come to me." She forced her voice to be calm." Justin, Lorena. Remember the drill we had. Get your children, take them out the back door and across to the woodshed exactly as we practised."

Justine's face was white but he acted first. Each of the two senior pupils had five younger ones to look after. He rushed forward, literally lifted two little ones up in his arms, gathered up the other three and like a shepherd with a flock of sheep, headed for the rear door.

"Lorena!" he screamed. "Do what Karla said. Get your kids!"

The girl who had stood there frozen for a second now burst into action. She grabbed the hands of two eight year olds and desperately looked around for three more.

Smoke poured through the door and rose to the ceiling. The interior door burst into flames from the bottom up and the whole side wall sort of bulged out. In seconds it would collapse in on them.

"I've got two of them, Lorena," Karla gasped. "Follow Justin."

But one child was missing! Karla stared in horror as Tina the five-year-old ran towards but not away from the now flaming wall.

"Tina!" Karla shouted, handed the children holding her hands onto Lorena who glanced at Karla, wiped her blinking tear-stained eyes and headed to where Justin was waiting by the door with one hand out.

"Bobby!" howled little Tina. As Karla grabbed her in a tight hug, the little girl screamed, hit out and kicked. Bobby was her teddy bear that she always brought to school with her.

"I'll take Tina!" Lorena was beside her.

Karla nodded, handed the little girl over and saw the teddy bear a few metres away. She rushed forward just as the entire left hand wall exploded in a sheet of flames. Acid smoke and searing heat engulfed her. She staggered, eyes streamed with tears and she could smell burning hair. Her hair!

What was she there for?

Yes, Tina's teddy. She saw it though the smoke, coughed, gasped for breath but managed to grab the soft toy before she turned around. She saw Lorena and Tina heading out the opened back door.  Flames were everywhere, the cardboard on the floor was alight and pottles of paint bubbled and hissed like miniature fireworks before bursting into flames.

She staggered forward but had to shut her eyes for the smoke was stinging them. Her left sleeve of the painting jacket she had put on for the art session was smouldering

Oh my God! Her clothes had started to burn!

She staggered forward, felt rather than saw the door ahead and lost her footing. She fell forward, hit a side panel and would have crashed to her knees if a hand didn't reach out and seize her. She was hauled forward and realised it was Justin who had grabbed her.

"The other children?" she gasped between coughing spasms.

"Lorena's got them at the woodshed, Karla." Apart from smudgy soot across his face Justin looked no different. "I stayed here to help."

They raced forward! Behind, the door they had just come out of burst into a sheet of flames. Two seconds earlier and... Karla felt dizzy but swallowed and stared out of her stinging eyes. Before her, sitting cross-legged in front of the woodshed were the eight younger children. Lorena stood beside them with a sobbing Tina still in her arms.

Karla gave Justin a hug. "Thank you," she said. "I am so proud of you two seniors."

"I put it out, Karla," Justin was almost in tears and held up his two hands that were raw and red. "Your sleeve was on fire. I put it out!"

"Did you?' Karla gulped. "Thank you. Now I want you to go out to the back tank and hold your hands under the tap there for at least five minutes. Understand?"

"If you want me to," he muttered in reply.

"Yes, Justin. It is the best treatment for burns."

"And you?"

"Oh Justin," Karla sighed. "Please do it."

The boy looked at her intensely, shrugged and ambled across to the tank. She saw him do what she had asked and switched her attention back to the other children. The teddy bear was still in her hand so she went across to Tina. "Bobby's safe too," she whispered and handed it to her.

Tina looked up and smiled through her tears as she cuddled in close to Lorena "Thank you, Karla. Bobby's naughty."

"No he isn't. He just got a fright like the rest of us."

Karla reached in her pocket. Yes, her mobile was still there! She scrolled down to the number wanted and the call was immediately answered. "Ryan, the schools been fire bombed. Get up here!"

Only then did she turn to face the building.  It was a sheet of flames that poured up the walls while smoke poured out horizontally from under the roof. The whole structure shivered, there was another gigantic retort and several pieces of roofing iron exploded straight up in the air through black smoke before crashing down only twenty metres from them. The heat was intense and most of the children were crying but thankfully, none panicked and they still sat cross-legged on the ground.