The Rescuers by Laura Greaves

Author:Laura Greaves
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760143824
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

September 5, 2015, was a typical spring Saturday for the Kenney-Brockbank clan. Lisa was enjoying a day out with girlfriends not far from the couple’s home, while David took Alanah, then four, and two-year-old Alexander to his friend Jason Cluff’s house for a casual get-together. Leala, of course, went along as well.

Alanah and Alex were among ‘a whole heap of kids’ tearing around the Cluffs’ property as the afternoon stretched into evening. Leala was eleven or maybe even twelve by then, but she could more than hold her own in the company of a pack of rowdy youngsters. ‘She did slow down in later life – she was always a bit of a lazy bum, definitely a lounge lizard – but she’d get excited about a few things, like little kids with a ball or on a trampoline,’ Lisa says.

It was one of those idyllic days that was reminiscent of a simpler time when children and their four-legged friends could go out to play in the morning and wander home, exhausted, when the street lights came on. The kids and the dogs all looked out for each other that afternoon, though of course the parents at the gathering kept a close eye on their offspring, too. Lisa, who works in change management and frequently travels internationally for her job, could have pursued her career in any major city, but knowing her children had the space to play and the freedom to explore was one of the things she and David liked best about raising their family on the north coast of Australia.

Suddenly, Leala appeared by David’s side, panting, barking and carrying on. At first glance, there didn’t seem to be any immediate reason to worry – she was his little shadow, after all, and she was probably just worked up after running around with the children.

But then he noticed that Leala was dripping wet.

‘She enjoyed playing in rivers and stuff, but only if we went in with her – especially cold water,’ says Lisa. ‘There are waterways everywhere where we live, but she’d never hop in by herself.’

If Leala was wet, it meant someone else had been in the water, too. And nobody, as far as he knew, was supposed to be swimming that day. ‘David just looked at her and went, Oh, shit. He went bolting down towards the dam,’ Lisa says.

David was met with a truly horrific sight. Tiny Alexander was floating face down in the dam.

David plunged into the icy water and retrieved his unconscious son. He couldn’t wrap his head around how the little boy had made his way to the dam. David had seen Alex playing with Leala only minutes earlier; he must have scurried away in the blink of an eye.

He dragged Alex to the bank and – along with Jason Cluff and his son, Josh, who had recently completed a CPR course – immediately began life-saving measures. Another friend called the emergency services. The men continued CPR for the twenty-seven long minutes it took for a squadron of ambulances and police cars to reach the rural property.

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