AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You in the dog house, Mr. North?” Perry asked in that reedy voice. Chuck had been in here countless times over the years. Less so recently, though. Takis had taken much better care of supplies than his dad ever had.
“Something like that,” Chuck grunted back.
“Wasn’t aware that you had a sweetheart.” Perry’s grin was warm, but he was obviously fishing for more information. The locals had always been interested in the comings and goings at the ranch, but since Takis had taken over, they were more curious than ever.
“I don’t,” Chuck said back.
He looked at the card. Couldn’t help but feel as though this was dumb. He didn’t know what else to do, though. Apologizing wasn’t exactly his area of expertise.
He paid a couple bucks for the card and wrote the message out right there in the store. Chuck wasn’t exactly one for grand, romantic gestures, so he kept the text simple.
Millie,
I’m sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong. Hope you can forgive me.
Chuck
After he was done licking the seal of the envelope, he headed back out into the street. His dad’s old car — a beat-up Ford F150 from the nineties — was waiting for him. He turned the key and heard the familiar rattle of the engine.
Most men, as they get older, start to feel as though they’re becoming their dads. Chuck though didn’t feel like that at all. His dad had been brave, headstrong, and full of ambition. Chuck spent all his time living in his father’s footsteps, driving his car, and maintaining his ranch. But somehow, he couldn’t connect to his dad’s essence, no matter how closely he tried.
The ride back to the ranch was a lonely one. He kept the radio off, and at times, it almost felt as though he might float away as the truck rumbled over the uneven, cracked road. By the time he got back to the ranch, the sun was already beginning to set, and the beauty of the Montana night was starting to draw in.
He parked up and walked straight to Millie’s door. He was overcome with nerves. He knocked and waited.
No response.
Chuck knocked again, and when there was no reply, he said, “Millie? You in there? It’s Chuck.”
She didn’t reply. Maybe she was at dinner? Or with Bunny, playing somewhere? He was about to turn and leave when he had this strange feeling. A terrible feeling.
Expecting to find the door locked, he twisted the handle. It swung open.
The room was a mess — a bag lay on the bed, that looked as though it was half-packed. Clothes and other personal items were strewn next to it, as though Millie had lost interest in whatever she had been doing.
And right there in the middle of the floor was something that really upset Chuck: a large bottle of Jack Daniels, a quarter drunk.
Then, for the first time that day, he knew exactly what he had to do.
*
She deserved this.
Deserved to be lost, at night time, miles from home.
As the sun dipped behind the horizon, she knew she was in trouble. Thing is, with half a bottle of whiskey inside her tummy, she just didn’t care.
“I’m a bad girl,” she mumbled to herself, almost tripping over something in the evening murk.
Say what you want about the landscape in England, but at least there weren’t massive, spiky towers of cacti that would prickle you to death if you accidentally fell into them.
Sure, there were stinging nettles. And thistles. And giant hogweed.
“That’s not the point,” said Millie, her words slurring. “The point is that carcasses… cactcuses… cacti… are spiky and mean and nasty and that’s all I deserve.”
She looked up — the moon was climbing up its star ladder into the middle of the night sky. Millie had been drunk so many times before, but never in a place like this. It almost felt like some kind of vision quest — out in the desert, all alone, searching for meaning in all the shitty stuff she’d done in her life.
Except it wasn’t a vision quest. There was no mystical journey going on here. Just a stupid girl, deciding to run away from everything on a drunken whim.
