The Firefighter

Chapter 19 - The Return

Charlotte and Oliver touched down at the airport after their return from the Fijian honeymoon trip. After many years of wanting to be together, they had finally tied the knot and remained together as they drove back to the sheep farm. The sheep farm was green, and everything had started to grow again as if there was a new beginning and a new life was starting. Charlotte wanted to have children with Oliver, but she had been through menopause and was too old to conceive. They decided to adopt a baby from New Zealand and name their Maori child Anahera, which means "Angel" in English. When they found out that this baby had an elder sister named Aihe, which means "Dolphin" in English, they decided to adopt her as well. Charlotte loved these children as if she had given birth to them herself. Although she had three of her own children from a prior marriage and Oliver had Jane from a prior marriage, generally they got on with each other with rare conflicts happening, as they do in large families. The new children fitted in well at the sheep farm and helped out with the long list of farming chores.

Charlotte made sure that Jimmy took Anahera and Aihe to school, when he dropped off his twins. The farm was alive with animals and people all living in harmony. Charlotte had never felt happier in her life.

Oliver also felt a deep sense of contentment, as he had retired and put his energy into bringing up the children and working around the farm, so that they could all support each other. The thought of fires and firefighting was far from his mind unless he had a few drinks with his mates that were still firefighters and they told him about more recent fires and the new methods they employed when fighting them. In extreme cases, the military would be called in to help put out the flames. The soldiers were very fit and healthy compared to some of the volunteer firefighters and they had already received training in how to put out bush fires. The military, when deployed, were the fastest to put out the fires and prevent more natural disasters, so they saved homes. There were less homeowners camping on beaches and staying on boats with their pets, to avoid the fires in Nowra, then watching the shore as their houses burnt before their eyes. To avoid or prevent this happening, they had developed better monitoring systems to detect fires early and to put them out.

Charlotte and Oliver were celebrating the new year with their family and never let off any fireworks, as there was a total fire ban, when Charlotte smelt smoke and looked up at the green hills around the farm and saw a thin column of smoke rising. Not another fire!