Outrun Stories #14

This is it, I’ve decided and there’s a smile in there somewhere, for everything that she put me through, I know I have to go back. What’s it been, three years? Every day for three years she’s been in my head, I’ve denied it for so long. Make the change, right, change is good?

“Howdy, stranger. Fine evening for it?” He says, walking over, Stetson tilted, cowboy boots clicking on the wet tarmac of the gas station’s forecourt.

“Come again?” I ask, letting go of the pump and smiling.

“Come again? Well, what would you know, I’ve only just arrived,” he smiles through the neon light of the forecourt, eyes hidden by the shadow of his hat until he takes it off and pats it on his Levi’s and laughs. “You know, you look like a lady that’s had a weight lifted off her shoulders.”

“I guess I am, in a way,” I say, smiling at the memory for a moment, at the decision to go back.

“Ha, I knew it, I just knew it,” he takes another step forwards. “Peculiar thing isn’t it, the weight of the world, so easy for it to gather up on you. You know, if you just listen, real hard, deep down you’ll know what the right thing is to do.”

“I’m not so sure,” I smile. “The gut can be dangerous sometimes too.”

“Ah, a wiser person than I, I’d say,” he turns to the desert beyond the edge of the forecourt and crouches. “Funny this rain, all the way out here, don’t you think?”

“You know, I’m ever so sorry, but I really have to be going,” I gesture back to the pump.

“Yes, of course, sorry ma’am. I guess you’ve made that decision and are going to stick with it?”

“I don’t see any other—wait, how do—

He laughs and stands back up, turning to me. “Ah you know, just a hunch.” He pauses for a long time, before finally raising his hat and arranging it back on his head. “You can tell with some people, you know, they wear themselves on the outside. Not everyone is like that, most aren’t in fact. Thing is, I’ve always been able to see the ones that do, and you most certainly do.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s no bad thing, it just means you’re perhaps,” he lets out a deep sigh. “A little more susceptible to certain things, to certain people, than others. It means you have to watch out for yourself, you know, and it means you have to think about things, deeply. Seems to me you’ve got that covered. Just watch out for yourself, ya here?” He turns and starts walking away.

I stutter out a sound before I notice the pump is overflowing and I jump back to the car. Turning to the empty forecourt, the neon light reflecting off the wet concrete, he’s gone and I think again. Back to her? Maybe a little more time…?