My Mom, Jeanine van Suffelen—she patiently read every page and made corrections during the initial draft. In the end I think she read the book 6 times before we had it just the way I wanted it. I love you Mom.
Carolyn Utberg-Hood—What a super lady!! She was the final editor of the book and I couldn’t have done this without her input. You’re awesome.
My dear friend Henderson Smith—Not only did he want to be in the novel as himself, but he helped me during the final stages with formatting, publishing, and the book cover. Thanks Carl!!
Sarah Rivers—Such a sweet friend of mine! I asked her if she would read my novel and give her honest opinion. Much to my surprise, she read it in three days. WOW!!! My target audience is Young Adult, so her opinion was very important to me. Thanks Sweety!!
PROLOGUE
Three year old Jackson runs to his Daddy and gives him a great big hug. “Night Daddy.”
“Good night little buddy, sleep well.”
“I will, Daddy.”
Becky and little Jackson disappear into the tent while Thom throws some more logs on the fire. Within a few minutes, Becky comes out of the tent, zips it up, and takes her normal place sitting between Thom’s legs in front of the roaring fire. Tonight will be their last night at Katherine’s Gorge before they return home to Perth after a seven day vacation. The night is perfect and thousands of stars are suspended in the black sky.
“I wish we could stay longer,” Becky says looking up at Thom’s chin.
“Me too, but we need to check on your Mom before I go to work on Monday.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m glad we’ve decided to spend the night with her because I know she gets lonely out there on the sheep station.”
The conversation ends and they remain still cuddled, enjoying the fire and quiet. Little Jackson is a sweetheart, but he can’t be quiet for longer than five seconds. Thom glances at his watch and decides it’s time to turn in. Morning will come soon, and their flight for Perth departs Darwin at noon.
Around 2 a.m., Thom hears something outside the tent. He sits up and grabs his boots while listening to the commotion by the jeep. He unzips the tent and sees a couple of dingoes sniffing around the back of the car. Becky wakes up and sees Thom peering out the tent.
“What is it, Honey?”
“It’s just a couple of dingoes. I’m going to scare them off. Be right back.” He exits the tent and quickly moves toward the dingoes, waving his hands in the air, “Get outta here dogs, shoo!”
The dingoes don’t flee like expected, but look Thom square in the eye and pounce on him. One dingo has Thom’s arm in his mouth, and the other dingo has his teeth buried in Thom’s right thigh. Thom yells, Becky jumps in the tent, looks outside and sees Thom flat on his back with two dingoes viciously biting him. She doesn’t worry about putting on her shoes; she runs outside and starts screaming at the dingoes to leave him alone. Before she has a chance to take another breath for the next wave of verbal threats, a dingo jumps on her from behind and starts biting her back. She lifts her head to look at Thom and he is motionless and covered in blood. The two dingoes are dragging him away from the campsite and there is nothing she can do about it.
The only thing going through her mind right now is her son; he is alone in the tent. She needs to get this dingo off her back, but she can’t get up because the dingoes have ripped her shoulder blade muscles and rendered her arms useless. Out the corner of her eye, she spots the two other dingoes coming toward her. She feels a sharp pain in her neck, her head turns to the side, and she can’t move it at all now. The dingoes have bitten her head almost completely off.
Little Jackson is still fast asleep in the tent when the smallest of the three dingoes goes inside the tent. There is crying and screaming, “Daddy, Daddy.”