‘That didn’t go as
planned.’
Ed ruffled his hair,
looking mischievous and guilty at the same time.
‘So what’s plan B?’ I
asked.
‘Was there ever a plan
B?’ Ed asked, his eyes wide with innocence.
I groaned. ‘Don’t tell
me we’re stuck here.’ I kicked up the sand beside the road. We’d been trying to
get a lift away from the middle of nowhere in Greece for hours. Ed had turned
up the charm when finally a car had stopped beside us, but the sturdy bloke
behind the wheel hadn’t been charmed. It seemed no-one in this outback wanted
to take along two men – perhaps they were making assumptions about our
relationship?
‘Of course we’re not!’
Ed exclaimed. ‘We can always walk.’ He wiggled his sandaled feet to illustrate
his point.
‘Walk to where?’ I
cried. ‘We’re miles away from the nearest town!’
‘Then we’ll be closer
to it when another car comes along, and they’ll be more likely to give us a
ride!’ Ed proclaimed cheerfully.
‘Why do I always fall
for your schemes?’ I moaned when, sunburned and parched, I let myself drop
beside the road. The sun was now setting and we still hadn’t reached the known
world.
‘Something will turn
up, you just wait,’ Ed said. ‘And if it doesn’t… Well, there’s always that
little house over there.’
‘You mean the sheep
shed?’ I asked, too tired to be incredulous.
‘Oh, is that what it
is?’ Ed said airily. ‘Well, the sheep will keep us warm. I’ve always loved
wool…’
I took off a flip-flop
and chucked it at his head. Too tired to dodge it, it hit Ed in the chest.
‘Hey!’ Ed exclaimed.
‘Okay, maybe I deserved that.’
‘I want compensation
for this. Extra compensation if I’m to spend the night with sheep.’
‘When we get back to
civilisation, I’ll talk us into the nicest hotel in town, all right?’
‘Four stars,’ I
pouted.
‘Four stars,’ Ed
repeated with a resigned sigh.
We’d already cosied up
to the sheep when we heard a car approach in the distance. We were out of the
sheep shed in a flash and waved the car down with the last light of our dying
phones.
The car came to an
abrupt halt. The interior lamp came on and revealed a god-ugly man with
blood-shot eyes. He struggled with the door for a while before he managed to
open it.
‘You two lost?’ he
grunted. He took his first good look at us and his eyes narrowed. ‘You’s not
fags, are ya?’ he slurred, evidently blind drunk.
Ed frowned
disapprovingly, but then a smile crept up his lips. He glanced towards me. ‘I’m
driving.’
I nodded and pulled
cable ties from my pocket. The sheep were getting different company tonight.
