It was just so sweet. After all those years they still did presents. Leeson had to be 90 if a day! She knew siblings that stopped giving presents practically at birth and were more likely to give a kick in the shin or a punch to the guy and that was just at hello!
It was just so cute.
Her heart had gone all gooey at the biggest Awwww it could muster when he’d asked. She thought she might have said that last bit aloud cos he’d got all weird on her practically throwing the present at her and going back to his crotchety old self. But hay, for a second there, he looked almost normal. Whatever the hell that was. But it was just so cool.
Could she still say cool nowadays?
The hell if she knew. She wasn’t exactly up on this generation’s chitter or twitit. Bloody hell, what was all that about anyway? Hashish this hashish that. Who the hell gave a hashish!
All she needed a phone for was to make a call and send a text.
So okay she’d admit, it was a handy camera when she’d needed one and the light had saved the day on more than occasion but damn, it’s a bloody phone not an arm or a leg. All those self-gratification photo’s preening themselves to put out there. She shuddered. Yuk. Will rolled her eyes. Do they have no self-respect?
Cindy, that waitress in the Diner had laughed at her when she’d told her that after catching her taking a ‘selfie’, with her phone. Was that a thing now? Like I need to look crap and take a picture of me in the foreground so you can see just how crap I am with a background? So okay, we’ve established she’s not up on all that ‘stuff’ and it was NOT on her ‘to do’ list these days.
Do other people still have ‘to do’ lists? Or was she now alone in that as well as everything else. Who knew? Who cared?
And what the fuck was a ‘selfie’ all about anyway? Just why? What the hell for? It was all a mystery to her and quite frankly she was happy to leave it there.
She’d finally pulled into Alison’s driveway and she’d practically jumped up and down at seeing her get out her truck with Leeson’s present firming in her hands. Practically clapping with glee. Quite a feat for an elderly woman with a stick.
Clearly a bit younger than Leeson and a child of the 70s with all that hippy dippy look going on but it suited her. Will smiled. In the face of Alison’s happy, the two-hour plus journey to get there, didn’t seem so much after all.
And she’d insisted on biscuits and coffee as a thank you, along with some homemade cake to go. Who was she to say no to cake! It was her favourite word. With a word of warning that Will was happy to oblige, none for Leeson, he was diabetic.
Having seen the cake, with all its frosting and toppings Will thought she might be diabetic after eating it too. But it was kind of her.
The insistent card reading not so much.
Turned out old Alison not only aided in giving heart attacks and making people diabetic with her sugary treats, but she also read Tarot. For years apparently and not a crystal ball in sight. Like, for a living. Did people really do that? Could you make a living and not starve from reading cards to people?
Will wished she’d thought of it. Could have saved her years of paying back college fees for an education that hadn’t got her anywhere. Go Alison!
Humouring the old dear wasn’t a chore. The cookies were really good so what did it take to hold out that hand. Having been to a fair or two, she had some idea of what to expect. Or she thought she did.
So there she’d sat there nibbling on her cookies, making small talk while Alison shuffled the cards, then told her to ‘split’ the deck and asked her if she was ready. Ready? Ready for what exactly? Not that she’d told her that, she’d just nodded politely, and Alison drew off the top cards.
As each one hit the table in between them, Alison hummed thoughtfully at first, then the second hit and her eyebrows crossed, then she hesitated to pull the third and did and she drew in a sharp breath and sat back. Okay so not what she’d been expecting. Was that bad?
It was like she was calculating something and that frown was getting bigger by the second. Will sat there waiting for the ‘you will meet a tall, dark and handsome stranger’ and nearly had a fit of giggles but held it back. Not the time Will.
Alison stilled, blinked, then stood quickly and looked at her. “Time to go. Things to do. You need to go now.” And ushered her to the door faster than Usain Bolt could run the hundred meters.
She’d staggered back down the steps to the driveway more than a bit put out having been practically shuffled out the door. Which was like rude. Cos having got in her story telling mo jo zone in place she now inexplicably really wanted that reading. How weird was that. With Alison then waving like crazy at her, Will had waved back, then Alison seemed to get fed up with that and was signalling like ‘get the fuck off my property’.
Will had jumped back in her car and drove away. Seeing a relieved Alison slumping in her porch chair from her rear-view mirror.
Yeah, she’d decided. Those cookies weren’t that good to be coming back anytime soon. Old Leeson could deliver his own bloody birthday presents from now on.
Not that she really minded the drive. It was a lovely day. They lived in more wilderness than town and that suited her. She wasn’t much of a people person, hated neighbours that decided to ‘drop by’ or even say hello too often.
Nosey more like. Bored with their own lives. Needing someone to talk about to the other gossips in the neighbourhood.
O it came in various forms.
‘Just being neighbourly’ they’d say, ‘are you on your own?’ in other words, are you a threat to my husband. Are you looking for a husband?
Or the, ‘I’d have brought you over a pot roast, but I can see you’re a good cook’. You’re fat.
‘We’re having a BBQ and we’ve some friends we’d like you to meet.’ Single male friends that had been dumped, divorced, or were not in a relationship for a very good reason.
‘Haven’t seen you at church’. You’re godless and need him in your life. Ummm well…. That was soooo much fun and a BIG pass.
There was only so much a woman could take when what you really wanted was solitude. In the words of the great Greta Garbo ‘I want to be alone’!
So okay that was probably all a bit harsh and a bit bitchy but it wasn’t untrue. There were genuinely ‘nice’ people out there and some she genuinely did like. Trouble was, they all came as one big package. Take the good with the bad and no, no thanks.
She liked her solitude. It worked for her. So when she’d seen that house on the market, not even looking for it, something told her it was for her. So she’d up and sold, packed and gone within week two weeks. What you could get in the sticks for the same money was simply amazing. And it was perfect.
It had belonged to a ‘Prepper’ who’d passed on. Apparently, they were into preparing for the end of days. The Zombie apocalypse. The atomic bomb being dropped you name it he was ready for it. His family not so much. They preferred the bucks instead cos they were big on ‘living for the now’ instead of living with hundreds of tinned, jars, packets of food and all manner of other stuff she’d found on buying it and the house and secure land. Go figure.
She’d got an excellent price for it too because they didn’t want the hassle of cleaning it out. Will had taken one look at the pantry and extended secure storeroom behind it and knew exactly why they didn’t want to do it. It would take months
She didn’t mind though. She had time. And six months later, she was still going strong.
Leeson had come by to say ‘howdy’ that first week. Told her he was her nearest neighbour, 3 miles thataway and pointed off in a vague direction telling her he’d been friends with Billy, whose house it had been for years before he’d passed.
Then got down to brass tacs before she could even get the words ‘would you like a drink’ out. He came out with did she want any help to get rid of all that food?
Leeson clearly knew a good thing when he saw it. She did need help and he was rubbing his ha
nds together and walking right on in.
And he’d come by each week, taking a bit more and a bit more, like she’d become his own personal store. She’d found him routing through piles of rice, pasta, tins, packets, bottles of water, loo rolls, jars and god knows what else, like he was looking for gold.
Not that she thought there was any actual gold in there. Billy had clearly spent it all. And not that she minded. She liked Leeson’s short and to the point attitude. He’d shop and be gone. She thought turning up with his own trolley was a bit much but hay ho. Each to his own.
And the more he took, the less she had to deal with and apart from a couple of no holds barred arguments over owner’s keepers of jar’s of peaches and apples, cos man they were sooooo good, it had worked well.
Exchanging phone numbers in case of emergency seemed like a good idea and that’s how she ended up kinda being friends and delivering Alison’s birthday present. So….. maybe not.
The woodland tree lined road was pretty spectacular as the leaves turn to autumn and for a moment, she thought about taking a picture with her phone. Then cringed. Rocky road. It’s a phone Will, she reminded herself. It just happens to have a camera. Big difference. Whatever. What would she do with the pic anyway? It would sit on her phone until it came off somehow and go to that magical place where things float in a ‘cloud’ somewhere never to be seen again.
I mean really! Who thought up that shit? A cloud? Like anyone believed electronic stuff was being held in a ‘cloud’. So okay she knew it was a name for a hub. So why not just bloody say that. What’s with all the terminology? It was just annoying.
“Everyone can have their own personal cloud,” the salesman had told her eagerly when she’d bought her top of the range laptop that was probably already three years out of date by the time she’d bought it. Because come on, no one in that industry who makes that stuff is going to sell on their good stuff to the gen public.
No, they were keeping that shit under wraps in case of their own Zombie apocalypse.
She wasn’t stupid but she didn’t need it either. So it was all good. They could keep that mystical cloud. She had real life all around her.
Will breathed in the cool air. She liked to drive with the windows open a fraction, take in some real air not the regurgitated air in the truck. Sometimes it affected the aero dynamics of the truck, but she didn’t care. AC just didn’t do it for her. This was her happy place right here.
He groaned in pain. He’d be blacking out soon. A car. No…. a truck. He could hear it in the distance coming his way. He needed to keep going. It would give him a chance. If they found him before he could heal……
Something staggered at the tree line up ahead catching her attention. It sort of rolled down the embankment like large log then stopped at the roadside. A moment later, she realised it was a person not a log and they were trying to stand and not doing a great job of it. It was a man. The closer she got the more he staggered out into the road. Right into her oncoming truck, he kinda waved his arm, but the other one didn’t look like it was working. She slowed taking in that he looked a mess and was clearly in pain.
Will slowed more, he was barely on his feet, weaving from side to side, coming towards her dragging one leg and holding one arm, he looked hobbled as he dragged that leg towards her. He looked like the Zombie Billy had been waiting for.
Holy shit! His body looked broken. His clothes were torn, and he was covered in blood. His face was a mass of bruises and cuts. One eye was so dark and swollen, she couldn’t see the eye at all. She choked sob hit her throat. He’d been through hell she had no idea how he was standing. She stopped the car just in front of him.
What the hell happened to him? “Jesus,” she whispered. “Hay,” she shouted at him. “Did you have an accident?” she waved him to her as she called out through the windscreen looking for a car or cars, or other people, something to explain his condition. “Should I call 911?” she asked as he staggered to the bonnet and leaned on it. Then slowly around to the passenger door.
Fuck he looked at death’s door. He was so damaged. How he was standing she’d no idea.
“Thank….. you. Thank you…. for stopping.” He was sweating and out of breath but that was the least of his worries. “I … need help. Off this road. They’re coming. I can’t fight them off again. Not much time.” He grimaced and held onto the door. “Please, we need to go. If they see you, they’ll kill you for stopping.”
Will took one look at him, her gut told her it was genuine, his fear was real. Whoever they were, if they were responsible for this, he needed to be gone.
She popped the locks and leaned over opening the passenger door. He was so relieved, she thought she saw tears, then the emotion was gone. He hardened himself, got a hold of handle and yanked. He hadn’t thought he’d live, she realised. She checked the road, how bad was this?
He took his damaged T off gingerly and with the good arm of a professional footballer threw it into the trees to the side of the truck, then climbed in awkwardly barely half on the seat and half laying down. God he was a mess. How he was seeing out of that eye she had no idea. She went to get out to help him but he told her ‘no’ and pulled the door quietly behind him, telling her to go.
“Go, don’t stop no matter what. That might give us a few minutes head start. They’ll be coming.” He grimaced and moaned.
Fuck. She didn’t need telling twice. Will stamped her foot down and looked around her. She didn’t see anything, then looked back at her passenger. Was this a case of Deliverance where the hero hadn’t come out so well?
She eyed him again as he moaned louder. This was no movie. “Can you handle a shot gun?”
He panted. “Normally… yes, right now, no.”
Bloody hell, what had they done to him?
Even sweaty and damaged, the guy was a stunner, she could see that. His face couldn’t hide the pain he was in. From the discolouration that eye socket and cheek looked broken, but she could still see that he’d won the DNA lottery when it came to looks. Both his arm and leg looked like they needed plaster, his torso looked like it needed emergency surgery. It had so many holes in it she was scared he’d die on her seat.
“You’ve been through hell, you need a hospital,” she told him gripping the steering wheel.
“Faster, they could catch us.”
Will put her foot down harder. “I think we’re ok I can’t see another car. Who’s they?”
“No….. hospital. Too risky. They don’t need a car. Do …you have …phone?”
He tried to hold back the pain. He was failing. His organs were shutting down.
They’d been repeatedly smashing a baseball bat at his face. He knew bones were broken. His eyes were watery, and he had no vision in one eye. He was a mess. He didn’t know how he’d carried on walking for as long as he had. The bone in his leg was broken from their last round of ‘talks’. Fucking assholes. Someone would die for this…. They’d bled him consistently to keep him weak. No food or water to stop him reviving. They were good, but he’d been better. He’d only needed that one slip and he was out.
He looked up at the female. He hadn’t wanted to put another person in danger but he’d no choice. His system was crashing, he couldn’t let them take him again. He’d had to take the chance and hope the human could help. It was a risk. He was putting her in danger just by being in the truck. If they caught them…. They’d kill her or worse, take them both.
She passed him her phone turning it on for him. “Can you dial?” she asked. He nodded making quick work of dialling who he needed.
“It’s me. Yeah. Not so good. Four of them. Need pick up. Track phone location.” He seemed to wait a moment. She guessed someone was looking for him. “Good. Hurry.” He disconnected the call and passed it back to her. “Thank you. My…. friends will find me.”
Leaning behind her, she grabbed a water bottle and a blanket giving them to him.
“Here.” She always kept water bottles, granola ba
rs and a blanket in the car. You never knew when you might need them. In the back woods you could get caught out all year round with one thing or another and the nearest tow truck was half a day away. He grasped the water, ripped off the lid and drank it down.
“You might want to go easy on that. Too much if you’ve not had any for a while could make you sick.”
He ignored her and finished the bottle. She passed him another one and several granola bars. He inhaled the granola and opened the second bottle taking it easier.
“Okay then, if not the hospital where too? The hospital is five hours away. I could call out the paramedics?” It was the only downside to living in the sticks. If you were badly injuried, a helicopter was your only hope. She had plenty of medical supplies…... Billy had stored those too.
“No hospital too far and wouldn’t…. be safe.” He grimaced. “Need somewhere nearer. My people aren’t far …. they were looking for me.”
The nearest place she knew of was….. hers. Glancing at the guy sitting on her bench seat she wasn’t sure. He wasn’t a threat that was for sure. The call was real, she’d checked taking the phone back. He was clearly in some deep shit. Opening the glove box, she took out her first aid kit and handed it to him.
“Put pressure on those wounds, it will help to stop the bleeding.”
He took it breathing hard. “Just… don’t stop.”
She wasn’t going to. She couldn’t stop looking at him. He had all that bad boy image going on. Floppy burnt golden hair, or that could have been sweat and blood but there was no mistaking the muscle bulk on display he clearly worked out, had good build and height from what she could tell. The size of his thighs and biceps told their own story. That probably saved him from even worse injuries, she thought. Helped to cope with the pain. He had to be in hell.
Dillon: Bad Boys Series High School Hot Love Hate Relationship Page 17
