The next thing I remember is waking up, the sun streaming through the windows and Mum and Dad slumped in a couple of chairs at my bedside. I tried not to wake them – they must have been up all night and completely exhausted – but almost as soon as I opened my eyes, Mum opened hers. Maybe being a parent gives you a sort of superpower in things like that. She smiled.

‘Hey, sleeping beauty.’

‘How’s Aiden?’ I said. ‘Can I see him?’

‘He’s undergoing surgery,’ Mum replied. She held up a hand, apparently in reaction to my expression. ‘It’s routine, Ash. He had a bit of a nasty head injury, but it’s all going to be fine.’

Dad stretched and grimaced at some pain in his back.

‘Morning, kiddlypunk,’ he said.

‘Don’t you start,’ I replied. ‘Will I be able to see him when he’s out of theatre?’

‘He’s not in this hospital, Ash,’ said Dad. ‘They took him to his normal clinic. They know his medical history there and he knows all the staff. It’s for the best.’

‘Why isn’t anyone with him?’

‘I’m going now,’ said Mum. ‘I just needed to make sure you were okay before I went. Don’t worry, Ash, I’ll be right there for him when he comes round.’

When Mum left, giving me a cautious hug that brought more tears to my eyes, Dad gave an update on all that had happened at the camp. What had hit me in the river was a mini tornado, a dust devil that had formed in a clearing in the bush close to the bank. He explained how it developed, something to do with hot air hitting a patch of cooler air forming a violent updraft. Once it crossed water it quickly lost power, but not before it had put me through a kind of watery tumble dryer.

‘Mr Meredith said he’d never seen anything like it,’ Dad said. ‘And although your mum and I were thinking initially that the school must be at fault, I think now it was just a freak event. Like so many other freak weather events that have hit Australia for many years now. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

Charlotte and Aiden were ahead of me when the mini tornado struck and it didn’t affect them. But as soon as he saw I was in danger, Aiden dived into the water and followed me until we both slammed into the rocks that formed the rapids. When he was ripped from my grip he was bundled downstream, hitting his head a couple of times on the way. At some point, badly injured and probably barely conscious, he must have dragged himself to the river’s edge and collapsed. The search party found him three kilometres downriver.

‘He saved my life, Dad.’ I could feel the tears starting to form again. ‘He caught me.’

‘Yes,’ said Dad. He didn’t say anything else and I was glad. There wasn’t anything else to say. Dad poured me a glass of water and held it up as I sipped it through a straw.