Day 45

There is barely a drop left, the ground is cracking everywhere, and it’s spreading by the minute. Mum is running around frantically calling everyone in the city that we know, trying to find a place to stay. Our neighbours are leaving. The other day, a group of homeless people got rushed to the emergency room for dehydration. Everyone who is still here is helping each other. The first thing we did was get the animals out of here. Dad, Miley and Macey have gone to stay with our grandparents, but Mum and I can't go because they only have one guest bedroom in their house. Nan and Pop live in the city, so dad and the girls took the dogs and cat there with them.

Day 50

There's only one more person left on our street, everyone else has found somewhere to stay. Yesterday, Dad brought down 1000L of water from the city. It's a big tank, and we're saving every drop we can. Mum and I are only having baths because if we have a shower it will take up too much water and we don’t have water to waste. Dad asked me today if I want to go stay with them. He told me I could just sleep on the lounge. I would’ve said yes if mum could come as well, I don’t want to leave mum here even though she said she’s fine. I know she’s lying when she says she’s fine because she calls dad every night and I hear her crying.

Day 60

I am one of the last kids remaining in town, everyone else has sent their children to their parents' place. Dad is begging me to come with him. The other day, he brought down a hundred dollars' worth of water bottles for everyone, and they were so grateful. Someone mentioned recently that it’s unfair for the kids still here that they’re not getting a proper education during the drought. All the remaining kids here were okay with it because we had been so bored. So, the person who came up with the idea created a small school for us, since there is only one school in the area, and we all attend it. The principal gave the woman permission for us to get our books, or at least one book, so we can do our work.

Day 70

I’m tired of living like this. We have to write down every single drink that we have every single shower that we take every single bath that we take every time we wash your hands it’s getting out of control. Dad decided to bring Miley down today, and as soon as she saw the place, she started crying. Mum and Dad walked around and looked at the damage that the drought has caused, and what we need to get fixed when the drought is over. Miley and I went down to where the old Arcade is. We sat out front of there for about an hour just looking around and talking.

Day 75

Mum reckons the drought is going to finish soon there’s only a few kids left now I’ve been going to the makeshift school. Our teacher is Kenzie. She’s not making us call her Mrs Balentino which makes it feel a bit less like school and more like we’re just all hanging out she’s really young and she’s really nice, so she understands us. She started this thing where every day that goes by without rain, we put a tally on the chalkboard since the school started on day 60. She already put down 60 tallies and we’ve been taking it in turns to put down tally each. We’ve put down 15 extra tallies since we started the school.

Day 80

Five days past and still no rain. At school it was my turn to draw the line. I thought maybe it would feel good, but it just made me sad to see how many there are now. Last night the generator cut out for a while and the whole street went dark. I laid in bed listening to the silence. It felt like the town gave up, but I don’t want to give up yet.

Day 90

It finally rained. The drought is over, and everything feels alive again. Today we drew a smiley face on the board Instead of a line. Mum hugged me tight, and relief washed over us.