Billy

Chapter 4: The Trial

Billy decided to get back to work with her project again, that was until the divers and scientists came. Today was the day, she thought, that Billy Mason would save the Great Barrier Reef and she was excited. She started researching the history of the reef and how long the bleaching had been going on for. She had spent about an hour on her laptop before she realised someone was talking in the kitchen. She walked out to see her mum talking to a tall man that looked like a scientist. He turned and smiled at Billy. "Hello, you must be Billy, I'm Dr. Callen, I've bought a team of 10 people to help us. I'm one of the scientist that helped make your antidote syrup. We tested it on some coral from the reef. It seemed to work but we won't know until we try." Billy smiled "Is it safe for the coral, it can't hurt them?" "No, it can't hurt them. The worst it's gonna do, is just slow down the bleaching process and not completely stop it." Billy sighed in relief. Dr. Callen looked down at his watch. "It's just about time we go out now Billy." She squealed with excitement, then she stopped. The last time she went out on a boat, half her family got eaten. "Okay..." she gulped. "What's wrong sweetie?" Her mother looked at her with concern. "Last time I went out on a boat..." her mother interrupted her, "This boat is a lot bigger that your little dinghy sweet heart, it's gonna take a lot more to knock it over." Billy looked at her, she took a deep breath, and nodded, trying to be brave, but still showing fear flowing through her. She went with the doctor and met the team that was going to help her. She put on her wetsuit and diving gear, walked out to the jetty were the boat was and looked at her self. There was something in her brain telling her that if she went out, she would die. She yelled, "I'm not scared of you!" then jumped into the boat. As soon as she was on the boat, the captain started the boat up and drove Billy and the team out to the reef. Billy was so excited that she forgot what had happened last time. Dr. Callen handed her a huge brown needle. It was the antidote/immune system builder syrup. She looked at Dr. Callen. "What do I do with this?" He explained the whole process to her. She sat on the edge of the boat with the team. Dr. Callen counted down. "3...2...1...go!" She fell backward and a stab of cold went down her body. She was in the water. She cleared the diving mask and looked at the others. Dr. Callen grabbed her arm and guided her down to some coral. He signalled her to put the needle in. She drained the needle contents into the coral and took the needle out. She did it! She was so happy she forgot about the need she was holding. It fell out of her hand and Dr. Callen went down to get it. She watched in amazement as he dove and swam like a seal. They both came up and put the needle on the boat and grabbed a different coloured needle. They headed towards the coloured coral. There were so many different colours and shapes. Within seconds they were surrounded by marine life. Sea horses, fish, seals... there were so many. Billy loved it, she put the needle contents into a coloured coral and then swam up. She was getting cold, so she hopped out and watched the divers busily swim around, helping all the individual coral plants. When they were done they drove back into shore and sat on the beach. Leia had made lunch for them all and they sat on the grass above the beach and ate the food. They celebrated Billy's achievement and the scientists achievement and Leia's achievement, being that she made enough food to sink a battle ship. They laughed and talked for hours before it was time to go.

The scientist decided to stay the night. Leia and Dr. Callen talked out side for a while and the team watched a movie with Billy and Roofus. "Your Billy is definitely a special little girl." He looked at Leia. "Thank you Dr. Callen." She blushed and smiled. "Call me Matt." He smiled. "Oh, thank you Matt. She is quite a special girl." She looked at him. "May I ask what happened to Billy?" Leia cleared her throat. "She went fishing with her father and brother, and they were knocked off the boat by a bull shark and Billy was the only one that survived. She had a few scratches as you can see but she survived." She started to cry. "I'm so sorry Leia, I shouldn't have brought it up." She dried her eyes. "No, your alright. You see that necklace that she wears?" He looked at Billy. "The shark tooth?" She nodded "That was her brothers. That was the only thing left of Luke." "That's your son, right?" She smiled. "Yes, my husband's name was Daniel." She smiled and started to cry again. Matt put his arm around her. "I know I'll see him again someday." Matt looked at her. "Your a Christian?" "Yes, why?" She looked at him. "I never found a faithful partner." They looked at each other. "So your a Christian too." He nodded. "I grew up in a Christian family. I've been a Christian since I was 13, that was when I got baptised." "Oh I see, do you go to church?" He looked at her. "Yes, every Sunday night." "Oh, Billy and I go every Sunday morning." They smiled at each other, then looked at Billy. "She's a miracle from god Leia" Matt smiled. "She is." They looked at Billy for a little while and as then sun went down, so did Billy. "Looks like my little miracle is getting tired." She looked at Matt, hinting him to take the scientists to the vans. "Yes, she had a big day today." He smiled. "Thank you, for everything Leia." "The pleasure was all mine." They laughed, then hugged each other goodnight and went to bed. "Come on Billy, up to your room." She ran down the hall way and jumped on her bed. "Good night my little miracle." Billy looked up at her mum. "Oh, Matt was just saying, what a little miracle you are." She smiled and put her head down, "Good night mummy." "Good night Billy." Billy was out cold before you could say sleep. Leia lie awake for a minute thinking about Billy. Then she too fell asleep.

Billy tossed and turned all night, dreaming about the coral, what if the antidote was actually poisonous to the coral? What if all the coral died? She couldn't be responsible for killing the coral. She woke with a fright, she screamed and fell on the floor. Leia ran in to see that she was crying on the floor. She picked her up and sat on the bed with Billy in her arms. "What's wrong hunny, what happened?" I had a really scary dream, mummy. I killed the coral, it was my fault." She started to cry again. "Billy, sweet heart, you did an amazing thing today." Billy sniffed. "It was yesterday." She pointed at the clock on her bed side table, it flashed 2:35. Leia laughed. Billy snickered a little too. "Anyway, what you did yesterday," she said with emphasis, "was an amazing thing Billy. You saved the reef sweetie." Billy sniffed again, she nodded. "Now try and get some more sleep." She put her back into bed, and went into her room. Leia couldn't get back to sleep, so instead, she went for a swim with Roofus, and had some coffee. Roofus had Vegemite on toast. All she wanted to do was talk to her husband. She wanted to experience his touch, like she used to. She missed Daniel so much it burned and she longed for her son as well. Luke was her eldest child and she missed him, she re-lived the pain of them being taken away everyday and she wished that it would just go away. All of it, all the pain, all the grief, everything.