Black Saturday.
Nature goes her own way, and all that to us seems an exception is really according to order.
GOETHE, Conversations with Goethe
I held the thermometer so as my friends could see the temperature. With my free hand I wiped sweat-drenched hair out of my eyes, watching expectantly as Connie and Brooke leaned inwards across the counter to double-check the mercury.
Brooke swore when she read the temperature.
"That can't be right," said Connie disbelievingly, laying the knife she had used to slice tomatoes onto the bench. "It hasn't been that hot in..." she paused to think, "Well; it's never really gone above... forty-five, has it?"
I shrugged and re-hung the thermometer on the kitchen wall.
"I can believe it," muttered Brooke, moodily wiping sweat off her brow.
When my parents told me they'd been invited to a friend's house for lunch today, my first thought was I could have the whole house to myself... and my five year old brother, of course. I had been too excited about inviting my friends around for a swim, that I hadn't been able to concentrate on the rest of the conversation.
We'd spent all day in the pool escaping the Australian summer, until around 3pm when we started to get hungry. Now, over an hour later, my friends and I were still making sandwiches; and Lachlan was upstairs playing his Xbox, waiting for lunch to be served.
I wiped more sweat off my forehead and swayed slightly to the music drifting in from the lounge room as we continued to assemble the sandwiches in relative silence - bar the occasional complaint about the heat.
"Can you hear that?" Connie asked eventually, watching me finish off the last sandwich.
"Hear what?"
Connie frowned. "It sounds kinda like a plane."
I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head to the side, listening intently for anything out of the ordinary. After a moment, Brooke did the same.
"I don't hear anything," Brooke sighed, pushing a sweaty strand of hazelnut-coloured hair out of her eyes.
I quickly held up a finger instructing her to be silent as I strained to hear something. There was a soft murmur - either a distant plane, or the fridge. "I think I can hear it," I said.
Connie nodded vigorously. "It sounds like a jet engine right?"
I listened harder then nodded in agreement. It was getting louder; so definitely not the fridge.
Brooke frowned between the two of us. "Is this some sort of joke? Because everyone knows no planes fly out this way."
"No, it's not a joke. It definitely sounds like a plane."
Connie frowned and unstuck herself from the chair, crossing the room and poking her head out the nearest window to search the skies for an explanation.
Immediately she staggered away from the window and spun around to face us, her eyes were wide with fear and I felt my stomach tighten nervously.
"Kate," she whispered, barely audible over the increasing noise, "You should probably come see this."
I frowned slightly and walked to the window, wondering what she had seen. I stuck out my head and searched the area for what had frightened my friend. But I didn't have to look too hard.
Towards the front of the house and moving forwards with incredible speed;
Was a giant wall of fire.
