Before they found my teeth

The walls came crashing down on that cloudless day in December.

It was nearly the year 2052. Human population, 11.2 billion.

The sky was sunny but the street was still damp from the rain. The smell of old meat was still lingering from the market nearby, buzzing with anxious tourists just yesterday.

But now the world was still. It always was at this time in the morning. Especially after the rain had hit.

Not a bird was chirping. The skinny old Norwegian man that runs laps around the school at this time wasn’t out either. Maybe he had got word of what was about to happen.

The blast hit from the left and took down everyone in a 381 kilometre radius. That’s what was reported on the news three and a half days later when the electricity was back up and running. My friend in Holland watched the footage of the aftermath and a tear dripped down her face because of her close ties with Australia.

As the blast hit the ground, the fire started burning and I instinctively started running. I ran and I ran, the way I had experienced in my deepest nightmares. There was smoke filling the air and I was a little short of breath. Despite my long strides and long legs, I was not a good runner. But this time my legs moved swiftly and elegantly. They didn’t hold me back as they had before. This was real life and it was flashing before my eyes.

Lucy used to pick me up for school with her mum. They would drive to our house which was 2.3 kilometres from their house on Linacre road, and honk twice out the front. The two honks were so my sisters and I would come out the front. She usually got there around 7:44 in the morning. Occasionally she would honk and I was still in bed, stuck in a bad dream. I would have to throw on my clothes and run out the door without even brushing my teeth! That didn’t sit well with me because my teeth needed to be brushed in even numbers throughout the day. Either four or six times. Lucy’s mum worked in the canteen so it was important she was on time. I always kept her waiting because I disregarded other people’s time. That was one of my flaws.

It was 38 years ago when she used to pick me up for school and now that school was on fire. The old dark room where I would sit for hours and develop photos, the swimming pool where I used to swim laps in the morning, the trees that I liked to climb at lunch time. All gone in seconds.

I am moderately happy with my life to date. The green forest that surrounds my home is peaceful and I wake up to the sound of chirping birds when the sun rises each day. Of the 11 or so billion people that inhibit the earth, I have at least 11 close to my heart which is quite a lot in this day and age. I am 65 years old. My teeth are in good condition except for the molar on the top left that had been drilled into a few weeks back. I watched the new Prime Minister sworn in on the ABC TV as the dentist drilled further into my mouth. That’s the 128th Prime Minister I’d seen sworn into the Australian parliament. The side of my face went numb from the anesthetic. I counted to ten and tried to focus.

As the fire burned down the leafy school driveway towards the road, I was quite quickly taken on a journey back in time. Firstly, to that night upstairs in the rumpus room. I was sitting on the couch and Nouna had come in with the news about dad’s heart. Mum was at the hospital. I was crying and there was nothing I could do at that point in time. I didn’t like that. When things around me were out of control but there was nothing I could do to fix it. Lucky he survived with just an enormous scar and some heart medication but I didn’t know that at the time.

The second thing I thought about was that day at work in the Docklands. The text message came through and I called John to confirm. He was gone. He did it with a rope somewhere in North West India. My perception of reality was skewed for 8 months after that. I thought I would wake up from a bad dream but I never did.

The third and final thing that came to my mind were those exotic canary birds. I knew that my sister had forgotten to cover the cage that morning and that the storm was coming in strong but I wanted to teach her a lesson. Teach her to take responsibility. She was only 9 years old. We got home that day and they were all dead and I knew it was my fault. They were born in a cage, and they died in a cage. Never experienced the freedom that the Indian miners, the sparrows and the magpies and even those annoying brown birds that are an introduced species experience.

Just because I was stubborn. That was another flaw.

The fire caught up to me as I reached the top of the driveway, near South Road. I was wearing a brand new tee shirt. 100% cotton with a built in no-pill special agent. It was crisp and new and it had that really good crew neckline that I liked. One inch thick with vertical ribs stitched in. But that really didn’t matter anymore. What did matter was that the school was on fire and that fire was caused by a nuclear bomb that had been catapulted into the air and was about to spread for a 381 kilometre radius. I didn’t know where the bomb had come from but it engulfed everyone and everything in it’s path. Just like that my dead birds and my dead friends didn’t matter anymore.

I heard that when humans burn in a fire, their teeth are the only thing that can identify them.

 Lucky I got that molar fixed the other week. Please tell my 11 friends.