The Lost Valley

Chapter 19-1

Chapter 19

Tom was larking about one Monday morning, trying to steal one of Stu’s breakfast sausages, when a senior came into the mess hall and held up an envelope. ‘Telegram for Air Cadet Abbott.’

The distraction allowed him to snatch the snag.

‘Oy.’

Tom ducked away, laughing, and went to fetch his telegram. On opening it the laughter died away and the sausage stuck in his throat. It was from Grandma Bertha.

I regret to say that your grandmother Mrs Isabelle Buchanan has died from a heart complaint stop Funeral ten o’clock St Paul’s Church Hills End this Wed stop Deepest sympathies stop Mrs Bertha Cunningham.

Nana dead? Tom reread the telegram in disbelief. He’d received a letter from her just last week. She’d told him about the seeds she was raising in the greenhouse, the ones he’d collected for her last year. She’d told him about her quoll and the dogs and how sixty-seven-year-old George had become besotted with a widow in town. She’d sounded happy and upbeat, with no hint that she was unwell. Still, it was her way. She never wanted anybody to fuss, and he hadn’t been home since January to see for himself. A lot could happen in six months. A lot had happened. His extraordinary, unique, most dearly loved Nana was dead. It seemed impossible.

Tom ran to his barracks as a kaleidoscope of memories ran through his head. That first day at Binburra, when she’d saved a shy, broken boy from his grief. A thousand fragments of a happy childhood lived in the light of her love and protection. That last magical trip to Tiger Pass, when Nana told him the secrets of his past, and bestowed upon him the guardianship of a lost valley.

He flung himself down on his bed as emptiness closed in. There was so much he wanted - no, needed - to share with Nana. He wasn’t finished yet, nowhere near. She had to see him fly a plane. She had to see him graduate as a pilot. She had to be part of his future, a future that suddenly looked blank. His hands clenched weakly. Why the hell hadn’t Nana told him how sick she was? Careless of his mates’ curious looks, Tom sobbed into his pillow like a child. It was like losing his mother all over again.