Emergency!
JANE SMITH
Copyright © Jane Smith
First published 2020
Copyright remains the property of the authors and apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.
All inquiries should be made to the publishers.
Big Sky Publishing Pty Ltd
PO Box 303, Newport, NSW 2106, Australia
Phone:1300 364 611
Fax:(61 2) 9918 2396
Email:[email protected]
Web:www.bigskypublishing.com.au
Cover design and typesetting: Think Productions
Printed by Jilin-GIGO International
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator: Smith, Jane Margaret, author.
Title: Emergency! / Jane Smith.
ISBN: 978-1-922387-38-7 (paperback).
Series: Smith, Jane Margaret. Carly Mills, Pioneer Girl ; bk 2.
Emergency!
JANE SMITH
Contents
Chapter 1
Boarding school
Chapter 2
The lady doctor
Chapter 3
Dr Cooper
Chapter 4
Emergency!
Chapter 5
Fashion
Chapter 6
The fight
Chapter 7
The cruise
Chapter 8
Platform shoes
Chapter 9
Dora
Chapter 10
Speeding
Chapter 11
Hospital
Chapter 12
Ellie!
Chapter 13
Lost
Chapter 14
War
Chapter 15
The trial
Chapter 16
The verdict
Chapter 17
Local heroes
Historical note
Q & A with Lilian Cooper
Quotes from Dr Lilian Cooper
About the Author
Saying ‘goodbye’ to her parents and sister was awful. As Carly stood at the school gates and waved, she couldn’t stop the tears from spurting out of her eyes. She felt very alone.
Carly’s family had driven her all the way from the farm at Apis Creek to Brisbane to begin the year at her new boarding school, Kenny College. She wasn’t used to the city. She’d been to Brisbane only a few times before, and never without her family. She was already missing the dogs and the horses and the fresh air.
She felt something wet nudging her leg. She looked down and saw Ellie, the school corgi, looking up at her with shiny brown eyes. She bent down to pat Ellie’s head. The little dog’s friendliness made her miss the farm even more.
‘Oh, you’re not going to be a crybaby, are you?’ A voice behind her made her jump.
Carly sniffed and turned around. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ve got hay fever. It’s the city smog.’
She saw a girl with a short, choppy haircut that she had clearly spent hours trying to make look messy. She was wearing tight jeans with carefully placed holes in the knees. Her trendy outfit made Carly feel dowdy in her old t-shirt and shorts. The girl was trying to look down her nose at Carly, but it was hard for her because Carly was tall. Even in her platform shoes, the girl had to tip her head right back to manage it.
‘There’s no smog in Brisbane,’ the girl said with a smirk. ‘You must really be from woop-woop.’
Carly shrugged. She didn’t really care what this snooty girl thought of her home. But she was lonely. She had been looking forward to seeing her Sydney friend, Dora, who was supposed to start at this new school with her, but Dora was sick and would not be there for a few days.
She turned to walk away but the girl said, ‘Well, you’d better hurry up, woop-woop. We’re going on an excursion. You don’t want to be late before school’s even started, or you’ll really have something to cry about.’
Carly groaned. The new boarders were going on a river cruise to ‘get to know’ each other. If the other kids were anything like this girl, she wasn’t interested in getting to know them at all. She just wanted to hide in her room until Dora arrived. Ellie the corgi lowered her ears and whined.
‘My name’s not “woop-woop”,’ said Carly. ‘It’s Carly.’
‘No need to bite my head off, woop-woop,’ the girl replied. ‘I’m Simone.’
‘Hi,’ said Carly in a small voice.
A bus took the students to the river. There were about thirty new boarders at Carly’s school, Kenny College. Most looked lost and frightened like Carly, but Simone strutted about as if she was the queen of Brisbane. Carly shrank into her seat. She wasn’t normally shy, but this was all too much. She wished that she could have stayed back in the boarding house with Ellie the corgi. So far, Ellie was the only one who seemed to like her.
They got off at North Quay, where roads wove over the top of each other and buses rumbled and cars snaked along in slow, glittering trails. Everything was shiny and hot and loud. The teacher, Ms Carrigan, directed the students down to the wharf. Carly fell into line with the others and marched onto the ferry. As she stepped onto the deck, her gloom lifted a little and a tiny bit of excitement crept in. She’d never been on a ferry before. The river was sparkling and the kids were in high spirits. It was starting to feel like an adventure.
The ferry slid away from the quay and glided across the river. The other kids huddled shyly in small groups. Carly stood at the railing by herself and watched the opposite river bank getting closer. There was a giant Ferris wheel up ahead; Carly hoped that someday she would ride it. The ferry slowed and drifted up to the terminal.
‘This is South Bank,’ said a voice beside her. She turned and saw a boy. He was slim and neat, with brown skin and a perfectly ironed shirt tucked into new jeans. He had braces on his teeth and brown eyes and hair that was parted in a perfect line. He looked as if his mum had polished him up for his first day at a new school. The effect didn’t quite work because the breeze was starting to mess up his hair.
‘Oh,’ said Carly. ‘What’s South Bank?’
A squeal of laughter pierced her ear drums. ‘What’s South Bank?’ Simone shrieked. ‘You really are a hick, aren’t you, woop-woop?’
Carly blushed. The boy’s mouth opened and closed as if he wanted to speak but
