The Long Way Home

by Phillip Overton

  ****

  It was a beautiful Sunday morning as Doug and his brother Barry stood in the Hotel car park, leaning against Doug’s car while sipping hot coffee from a thermos in tiny, orange plastic cups. It was 7.30 in the morning, the sun was up and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was going to be another fantastic Central Coast summer’s day.

  “Remind me again why we are doing this?” Barry asked.

  “Because we’re going to get Dad a Christmas present.” Doug replied.

  “But why so early in the morning?”

  Doug laughed aloud. “Cause the early bird catches the worm.”

  “I don’t need any worms, I need more sleep.”

  Doug turned to look at him, his brother had been out late again last night. Typical, he thought. In the eight months he had been living with his younger brother, it was the only regular pattern that had emerged in Barry’s life. Get paid on Friday afternoon; spend it all at the pub on Saturday night.

  At least he didn’t have a strange woman in bed with him when Doug woke him this morning. It was always awkward in the mornings when some strange bimbo would saunter into the kitchen in just a shirt and knickers while Doug sat at the table eating his corn flakes. Barry following behind her would explain that his older brother was going through a divorce and was just staying here for a while. Some women would say ‘Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.’ Some would also introduce themselves and shake his hand. Some would even give him a hug and say ‘You’re so lucky to have a brother like Barry.’ Some though would get embarrassed and run back into the room to put some clothes on. It was always a case of a different woman, a different reaction, and Barry coming across as the knight in shining armour.

  Barry was 29 years old, medium build and like his brother stood just less than six foot tall. His light brown hair had begun to recede on his forehead giving others the impression that he was actually older than Doug. He worked in a cold storage warehouse on the other side of town. Between spending all his money on clothes, records and booze, he had never got around as such to buying himself a car. He still rode the same bicycle to and from work and lived in the same apartment that he rented since the day he moved to Gosford. So with his older brother now living with him, and owning a car, getting out of bed before seven o’clock was a small sacrifice that he was prepared to make in order to get out of the house more often.

  “Well, we’d better make our way over to where the others are gathering.” Doug said once he had thrown back the last of his coffee. “The sale should be starting soon.”

  “How do you find out about these things? I mean, going to a pub at eight o’clock on a Sunday morning for a ‘back of the truck sale’, now there’s a whole new idea!”

  “Finished your coffee?” Doug laughed.

  “Yeah, thanks for that.” Barry replied as he handed him the empty plastic cup.

  Doug put the thermos and the empty cups on the floor inside the car and closed the door.

  “C’mon,” he said as he locked the car. “I’ve never been late for one of Joe’s sales before, let’s go.”

  “You mean you’ve done this before? Man, you need to get a girlfriend.”

  “I had one remember?” Doug said as the two of them walked across the car park towards the crowd that was now gathering around a white truck that had parked beside the hotel. “I married her and the rest turned out to be a disaster. We’d do stuff like this together, whenever Joe’s famous back of the truck sales came through town. Of course that’s never more than a couple of times a year. So when I heard he was going to be here this morning….”

  “I know, you thought you’d hook me in to coming with you to get something for Dad. What exactly are we getting him again?”

  “It just so happens that I have a list.” Doug said pulling a sheet of paper from the back pocket of his shorts.

  “You’ve got a list, how much stuff are we getting him?”

  “No, it’s a list of some of the things he’s selling. You’ll find there’s only a few of each item with some of the good stuff, so it’s first in best dressed. Here’s your copy. I’ve already been through and circled in red pen the stuff we’re interested in.”

  “Wow, some of this stuff is really cheap!” Barry said as he glanced over the list.

  “Well it is a back of a truck sale. Are you ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  Doug and Barry made their way into the middle of the crowd just as Joe climbed onto the back of his truck and started setting up his microphone and small portable amplifier. The truck was a medium sized body truck, loaded to the roof with cardboard boxes. Inside, two other men were busy organising cartons closer to the rear of the truck, cutting some boxes open and laying some of the smaller packages on the floor. It was clear that Joe was eager to get the sale underway from the minute he raised the microphone to his mouth.

  “G’day ladies and gentleman,” his voice boomed through the early morning air. “Thanks for coming out this morning. Of course, it took me a while to find the place because Dave wrote down that we were looking for the Cucumber Hotel instead of the Kincumber Hotel, so I was driving around looking for something that resembled a big green pickle. Folks I haven’t got any vegetables to sell today but what I have for you is a truck load of bargains, prices so low they’re literally falling off the back of a truck.”

  Within a minute, he had the undivided attention of the crowd of about 200 locals who had turned out. The hotel itself was one of those new, sprawling outer suburban designs. A huge single story brick building of chocolate brown with a contrasting white tiled roof. The type of hotel that was fast springing up near new housing estates, being promoted as a community venue, a place where locals can meet and eat or simply drop by for a quiet drink. Doug had sold two houses out this way in the past three months, it was shaping up as a boom area.

  “What do I hear on these quality blank cassettes? Check your flier, you’ll see them listed at five for a dollar,” Joe continued to boom over the microphone. “I’m gonna give you five more for free! That’s right, you heard me 10 high quality, superb sound, 60 minute blank cassettes for only one crazy dollar! Hold your money high and Dave will come around and take it off you. Folks at this price I can only give 10 away per customer.”

  Barry found himself reaching into his wallet and pulling out a one dollar note. Smiling at his brother, he stuck his hand in the air and simply said, “That’s cheap.”

  “Glad you come now are you?”

  “Yeah, we never do stuff like this together anymore.”

  “What do you say after this we go to the beach for a swim? I’ll shout lunch.”

  “Okay,” Barry replied. “On one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Next Saturday you’ll let me shout you a night out, here.” He said pointing to the hotel behind him. “I’ve never been here before and it’ll be good for you to get out and meet some women for a change.”

  “I don’t know Barry, I’m not ready for that scene.”

  “C’mon Doug, a few drinks with your brother then. You’ll have the car, so if you’ve had enough you can nick off home and I’ll get a cab back by myself later. Unless of course I’ve got company, then I’ll get a cab back with her.”

  “I’ll see, about the drink that is.”

  “That’s it Doug, time to get back in the game.” His brother patted him on the back.

  Doug just shook his head. Barry hadn’t grown a day older since turning 18. Life for him was all about partying on Saturday nights. Doug on the other hand felt his life was becoming too mind-numbing and sterile. He loved his job but apart from that, all he had was his Saturday out with Simon. In divorcing Rowena, he had also lost his circle of friends. He decided he would go out for a drink with his brother, but that was all.

  “Now our next item is a little beauty,” boomed Joe over the microphone. “It’s not just a shower caddy, it’s also a stereo am/fm clock radio and is completely waterproof so now you don’t
have to sing in the shower, you can have somebody else do it for you. I’m going to practically give them away today folks for only nine bucks each!”

  Somewhere in life there was a balance, Doug thought. Now all he had to do was find it.