Message Hero HQ and say hello, hero

Cpt. JT Peg takes a diary down from the Hero HQ shelf, and this one belongs to Pvt. Nurse Nicky, Camp Medic of Recharge Camp.

Hero HQ sends her to the Australian Outback with a box of little wellbeing guides for a cattle station near Alice Springs, a farm so big you cannot see across it. She visits the Alice Springs School of the Air, the biggest classroom in the world, learns to make damper in the coals of a campfire, and finds out what it means to boil the billy.

Then the fire burns low and the dark arrives. Not city dark. Outback dark, with not one electric light for hundreds of kilometres. The Squad's calmest pair of hands stands completely still, frightened, and tells a little girl she is fine when she is not. That is her stumble. What happens next is the medicine: name it, three slow breaths, one small brave look up. And up is full of more stars than she has ever seen, because there are no lights to wash them out.

Auntie Ellie keeps the part worth keeping: the bravest sentence in the whole Outback was not "I am fine."

Pvt. Ace brings the Ace Mode version. Same mission. Your way.

Your mission tonight: ages 4 to 6, do Nurse Nicky's check with your grown-up when the lights go out. Ages 7 and up, that, plus teach your family one true thing from the Outback at the table.

Mission done? Tick Wednesday's box on your Squad Mission Chart and tick Pvt. Nurse Nicky on your Squad Roster, both free at scrubbingsquadpodcast.com