What summer?

I'm finished!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Goodbye, school. See you after the summer break.

Summer here I come!

Summer at the beachhouse is always fun. We leave tomorrow, yay!

Everything is done.

Mum and Dad are always organised, and my grandparents' holiday cottage is waiting for us, all we need is our food, our fun, oops, yes and our clothes.

“Mum, what time do we leave tomorrow?”

“Well, hello to you, too. “

“Don’t let the screen door slam. “

“ Sorry ”

“What time do we leave?”

“We aren't leaving till next week.”

“Why? We always leave the day after school finishes.”

“Not this year, kiddo”.

“This year, we wait til next week. Your dad has a job to finish up, so you have plenty of time to clean your room and get organised for our holiday.”

“Arrrgh, why do we have to wait? It will take soooo loooong”

“Don’t stomp the stairs on the way up, and it's only 3 extra days.”

“But that’s sooo long”

“What am I going to do til Tuesday?”

“Mum, it's Sunday. What am I going to do today? It's boring”

“What do you do any other Sunday “

“But this isn't any other Sunday. This is the Sunday we are supposed to be on holiday.”

“The more you focus on what isn’t, the longer the days will seem.”

“But don’t you want to be on holiday, Mum”

“Yes, I do, but I know I can wait a few more days.”

“Kiddo, what are you looking forward to the most? Swimming, beachwalking, riding your bike? “

“I'm looking forward to reading, doing art and taking lots of photos, and your dad is looking forward to swimming and relaxing without work interruptions.”

“I want to have fun doing everything.”

“Okay, don’t forget you need to rest and sleep too. “

“I'm too excited to sleep. I want to go”

“Hey, kiddo, guess what? Hey sleepyhead, are you having a catnap in the sun? Wake up. Dad's on his way home. He finished early today, so if we are ready, we can go

Wh what! “

“Come on, sleepy, get up, get our bags out the front and have snacks ready.”

“Summer holidays yay”.

The sun was dipping close to the horizon when we arrived.

Why did that take soooooo long, and why is it cloudy and cold?

“It's not cold, and it only took us 3 hrs “

“Though it does feel like rain, kiddo, hopefully it won't last long, but you know, these southerly beachside towns can have sun, rain and cold all in one day.”

I shuddered, stepping onto the front deck as our familiar holiday home glinted shades of gloom off the windows.

“Remember, the door sticks give it some extra incentive”

“ Eew, what's that smell?”

“Nothing to worry about, nothing is dead, it's been closed up for a few months while your grandparents are away.”

Heading to my room, I threw my stuff in. The low hum of my parents talking carried me back to the porch.

Suddenly, the house shook with the first clap of a storm

“This is going to be boring if it rains. What am I supposed to do then?”

Fat drops began exploding on the drive as we settled onto the swinging chairs on the covered front deck.

Shivering a little as the thunderheads began their symphony over us. The house seemed to vibrate in unison with every clap and roll, with each new chorus, the sky darkened even more.

“What's that?”

“It looks like a window of light.”

“Inside! “

“Now”

“Quickly downstairs”

“Move!”

I don’t know why I felt chilled and scared listening to mum's voice, but my insides wanted to shrink away from whatever was happening.

“What's happening ?”

“Mum, what's Happening ?”

“Your scaring me”

“Quickly now, under the wooden benches.”

“Mum! “

“Shhhh”

“Listen!”

“I don’t hear anything “

“What's that noise? “ “There's no train close to us”

The house shuddered, or was it the ground?

My body was shaking and my bones felt like they were humming

“What's going on?”

“It’s a squall”

“A what ?”

“A squall, it's like a storm on steroids”

“A cyclone?”

“No! It's just a storm, but with lots of forceful watery wind and thunderstorms.”

“It won't last long; they never do, but the destruction they can create often erodes the beaches away.”

“Now shhh, if you stop and listen, you may hear the storm speaking to you. When I was a young girl, these storms used to tell me tales, stories of their anger or pain.”

“That’s just weird”

“Yes, it is, but it's true”

“We had one summer when I was about your age, the summer that never was. I spent almost every day down here for an hour or so we had so many squalls then to finish it off the last squall turned into a very large storm front that drove all of us out of here and home before all the roads were cut off the beach didn’t exist the water was right on the tree line and the roots of the the trees creates so many tangles we couldt even get down to the water. “

“Fish were being washed up, boats ripped from the banks, and smashed further down the coast against rocks and other boats. Trees fell into the water, and the creeks that fed into the ocean was overflowing with brackish water.”

“What did you do?”

“ Nooooooo! I don’t want that summer.”

“Did you cry and yell?”

“No, but I did listen to the storms as they howled and rained on us.”

“I didn’t want to be here; I wanted to go home, but your granddad insisted we stay, that it would pass.”

“Silly Grandad!”

“I learned that year that any season can change and become something else”.

“We don’t choose the weather; Mother Nature does. No matter how much we wish for it to be perfect for swimming, fishing, biking or anything else, we aren’t in control.”

“Mother Nature has her way of doing things, and her voice is clear if you listen.”

“Mum, what is the storm saying?”

“It is time to prepare things; this is another summer that never was. “

“So what do you think we should do?”

“Can we stay for the week and see how things go? I don’t want to leave.”

“Hmmm, that sounds like a good choice. The storm is stopping if you two ladies would like to come and see what damage has been done.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

Salt tinged the air as my hair flew in all directions, standing on the sodden ground, we were surrounded by an eerie silence.

“This is exactly as I remember it being.”

Screeching sirens shattered the air just as the phones buzzed, warning us that if we were within 5 km of the shoreline, to leave or at least get to higher ground. The tsunami would reach the coast within 12 hours, and damaging winds and the intense rain of more squalls would batter us over the next 5 hrs. Flooding would also occur as the next high tide is a king tide.

“Kiddo, looks like we are in for some rough weather, let's go and find the radio.”

“Dad, I don’t want to leave”

“Okay, let's stay and see what happens tonight. It's getting late, so let's settle down and find something to watch.”

“Oh, oh, no power I hope the old generator has fuel and still works.”

“Kiddo, find the old battery radio and see if you can get anything on it ?”

“Mum, have we got batteries?”

“Right here.”

In the pre dark light, the next howling storm began, we sat huddled downstairs under the wooden benches, listening to it all night. This was more than a squall; this was an intensified rain system, and we knew we had to leave as soon as the rooms began to lighten.

Dripping sounds woke me; the birds were chattering, “it’s morning, it's morning.”

Rattling and bumping greeted us as we headed upstairs. Be careful, we don’t know if…..

Light so much light, where was it coming from?

We had no front deck; it was gone.

“Quickly grab your things, we have to go, hurry.”

“My love, turn everything off, and I will grab our things and meet you at the car”.

“We need to go out the back and around to the car, don’t chance trying to get out the front “

The road ahead of us was bumpy and washed away in places. We encountered some slow going because so many cars were leaving, but we got out safely and headed home.

That summer was no summer, even at home. The thunder shook us through our bones, the rain lashed us daily many places were cut off or flooded.

It sucks when you're a kid to have no summer, but I learned that it sucks just as much when you're a parent and you don’t get the holiday you have planned for all year.

Let's hope we don’t have too many more Summers that never were.