The scenery was exquisite, the sky lush and blue, herds of sheep chewing on grass in paddocks. I woulda thought this would be a prime place to retire and write poetry underneath an oak tree. But in that moment all I had on my mind was the deranged lunatic that was hot on our heels as we galloped through along the gravel road.
I ran until It felt like my lungs were about to blow out, until my brain thumped so loudly in my head that I could barely muster a thought. Only then did I find the courage to look over my shoulder and check for the machete welder.
And only then did I realise that the lunatic was nowhere in sight. Michael and I stopped to catch our breath, then we carried on walking. We walked and walked, we walked so far I could feel blisters cutting from my boots.
I had no inkling as to what had become of Wesley, but I guess it would be safe to say that Charlie would have to find another trinket salesman.
As for Jasper, it seems that he had vanished without a trace. Even the maniac that we had been running from seemed to have disappeared into nothing.
I stopped running and caught my breath, Mike stood by my side as I began to throw up onto the tarseal road.
“We gotta keep going, he could catch up!” Mike wailed, watching behind us carefully.
“Where are the keys?” I huffed.
“I think Jasper has them.” said Mike, grabbing my elbow “Come on.”
I started walking along, “We need to find Jasper.”
“Those guys are gonna kill us just as quickly as the thief, there’s no way.” Mike replied.
“What if we find Jasper, smack him around a bit, and take the keys from him.” I offered, catching my breath.
“I think we just need to get the fuck outta here. Like now.” Mike answered, watching over behind us.
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“We can’t keep running Mike. We need our truck.” I insisted.
“No point in killing ourselves over a truck man. We’ll get another.” said Mike.
“But the contract, we need the contract!”
“Do you have any idea how fruitful the trade landscape is right now? We’ll be fine.” said Mike.
“Then what the fuck was the point of all this? All this agony, for nothing?” I hurled.
“Not for nothing. I’ve read your god awful poetry, maybe all this will give you something to write about.” said Mike.
“Thanks for the suggestion but I think that I’d like to scrub this whole ordeal from my mind.”
An engine began to hum in the background. Gaining upon us with eager intensity.
Certain that the car thief had hacked apart Jasper and stolen the keys, we thought that he had finally found his way behind the wheel and was set to track us down as well.
But instead a Ute rounded the corner, a farm dog barking out at us as a grizzly looking farmer drove behind the wheel.
He pulled his Ute beside us and asked, “You guys all good?”
“Quite the opposite actually, can we get a ride as far away from here as possible?” I said in utter sincerity.
The farmer grinned and examined both Mike and I, “You two look like you’ve had a hard day, must be time for a beer aye?”
Beer, I hadn’t tasted a sip of cold beer in what felt like forever. Even though it had only been the night before. I wondered if I wanted a beer, but then I thought about all the trouble it had caused me throughout the past night leading upto today and wondered if it was worth reliving this chaos again.
“A ride into town will be enough for me, what about you Mike?”
“I’ll second that, the ride's just fine,” said Mike.
“No worries, hop on.” said the farmer, looking out into the lush green fields as the sunset gave way to twilight.
I hopped on the back of the Ute while Mike hopped in the passenger seat. I soaked up the last of the sun rays, as they set upon the horizon.
Then my attention was drawn to the snarling canine at my side, who was showing his teeth and curling his nose.
I offered my hand slowly, and the old boy sniffed it. Then he snapped me on my hand, so I yanked it away, and the canine barked at me for the remainder of our trip.