48 Hour Short Story Contest

Desperado?

It was past noon when Danny reached the edge of town. He slumped over the neck of his horse, shirt pasted to his back with sweat. He knew it was impossible, but even the horse’s footsteps sounded despondent.

And why wouldn’t they? The whole trip had been a bust. Three days, and he’d returned with nothing. In those three days, the only wildlife he’d glimpsed was a half-starved wallaby. Even the birds had gone. No shrill cries or atonal squawks filled the bush. There was nothing except the soft scrape of paper-dry leaves brushing against each other.

A few months ago, Danny still looked skyward each morning. Now, after close to two years of drought, he no longer expected or even hoped for rain.

He turned onto main street and saw the first signs of life he’d come across in days. Three horses stamped impatient feet outside the blacksmith’s. Several men, shirtsleeves rolled to reveal muscular forearms, sat on the tavern steps and passed a small flask between them.

Danny tipped his hat as he rode by. He would have liked to stop for an ale himself, but was all too conscious that the few coins in his pockets were all he had to his name. All he had to feed his family. Especially since his hunting trip had been for nothing.

His shoulders slumped again. How could he go home and face Noah? Isaac? How could he tell them he brought nothing? That there was nothing.

A trough of brackish water sat to the side of the road and Danny guided the horse in that direction.

“Might as well, drink, Del,” he said as the mare lowered her head to the trough. “The way things are going, it’s only a matter of time before the well dries up too.”

He slid from the saddle as the horse drank. Ducking into the shade of the verandah, he paced up and down until the pain in his riding muscles dulled. Glancing around, he realized he was outside the bank. The windows were coated in thick red dust, obscuring any view of the inside.

A thought pulsed dully at the back of his mind. Perhaps the bank would give him a loan? He did still have most of his father’s land, useless as it seemed right now. He could borrow against that and repay it if… He paused and corrected himself, when the rain came. Because it would come. It had to.

Before he knew it, he was through the door and marching to the counter where old Joseph Calder sat.

The first Danny knew anything was wrong was when Joseph leapt from his stool and threw his hands in the air.

“Don’t shoot!” he cried with a shrill note of panic. “Please. Don’t shoot.”

Bewildered, Danny turned and searched around him. Who was Joseph talking to? Who had a gun?

Joseph scrambled around behind the counter, gathering up wads of banknotes and shoving them across the shallow ledge toward Danny. “Take it. Take it all. Just please…. Please don’t shoot.”

Still uncertain what was going on, Danny reached out and took first one, then two, then three bundles of money. He shoved them into his pockets and grabbed the rest.

It was only as he turned to leave that the rifle slung across his back shifted and he understood that it was he Joseph was afraid of.

“Oh, god,” he whispered as he pushed through the door and toward the waiting horse. “I am so sorry.”


****

The mare pounded into the yard, stopping just short of the fence when Danny hauled on the reins.

“Noah! Isaac,” he called. “Where are you?” He ran to the low wooden house crouched in the cracked earth of the yard. He threw open the door and burst in, not even removing his hat.

“Noah?” he called again. “Isaac?”

“Danny? You’re home!” Noah ran in the back door to greet him. “Did you get anything?” He looked up at his brother, so much hope in his face that Danny had to glance away.

“Where’s Isaac?” Danny pulled off his hat and ran long fingers through his matted dark hair.

“He’s by the stables.” Noah stepped back, brow wrinkling at his brother’s agitation.

“Fetch him.” Danny walked away. “We need to leave. We need to leave now.”

While Noah scurried off to find Isaac, Danny followed him through the back door to the courtyard and their pump. He cranked the handle rapidly. Surely the well hadn’t dried up yet. Not now. It was only a matter of time, but not today. Not when they needed it so.

Finally, he was rewarded by a thin trickle of water. He ratcheted the handle a couple more times and the flow increased until strong enough to put his head beneath and wash. Something green caught his eye and he was surprised to find a single daisy struggling for purchase in the slightly damp earth surrounding the pump. His heart ached with something that felt almost like…hope?

“What is it?” Isaac appeared by Danny’s side, startling him enough that he jumped and cracked his skull against the pump-head.

“Ow!” Danny rubbed his temple as he moved away and dragged a wooden bucket from beside the house. He pumped a few more times, filling it, and carried it to where the horse stood patiently, swishing her tail at the flies buzzing in lazy circles around her.

“What?” Isaac repeated, he and Noah having trailed Danny across the yard. “Noah said something about leaving? What’s going on?”

Danny looked up, but couldn’t meet their eyes. “I’ve done something foolish.”

“What?” Impatience gave Isaac’s voice a brittle edge.

Danny didn’t answer. He unbuckled the saddle bag draped across Del’s broad back. Reaching in, he pulled out a large pile of banknotes and showed it to the two boys.

“I robbed the bank at Carapooee.” His voice trembled, but not as much as he’d suspected it might. The money seemed to burn in his hands, too bright and too hot to hold onto.

“You did?” Noah’s eyes were like a possum’s, enormous and round.

“I did.” Danny nodded. “I… I didn’t mean to. It just…happened.”

“Right.” Isaac’s narrow face twisted into a sneer. “It just happened.”

“It did!” Danny’s anger boiled inside him, mixing with the copper-tasting panic that had filled his throat all the way back from town. “We have to get away from here. We have to leave now. They know me in town. They know where we live!”

“Where are we going?” Hectic excitement burned in Noah’s face.

“Away.” Danny’s mind raced as he catalogued all the things they’d need — food, clothing, water and lots of it. “It won’t take them long to come from town. Just take what you need. Nothing extra. I’m already packed, so I’ll round up the horses.” He threw Del an apologetic glance. Poor thing deserved a rest.

“Hurry!” Danny urged the boys toward the house as he sprinted to the stable.

****

It took two days to reach the river, if you could call it that. The three boys were exhausted and filthy, hot and hungry. Isaac hadn’t spoken in hours and when Danny glanced back at him, he found his brother sitting ramrod straight, glowering at Danny with eyes that could have burned holes through his shirt. A little behind him, Noah dozed over his horse’s neck, tilting dangerously in the saddle.

“Noah!” Danny turned Del and, skirting Isaac, drew up next to the younger boy. “Wake up, Noah.”

Noah jerked awake and blinked uncertainly at Danny.

“We’ve reached the river.” Danny pointed toward the stream that was all that remained of the river he remembered as being wide and raucous, treacherous with rapids.

“That’s it?” Noah’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “I thought it was big.”

“It was…” Danny remembered the way the water had pounded against the banks, tearing away anything in its path. Then it had seemed wild, angry, relentless. Now the river had been tamed.

“We should rest the horses.” Danny slid from the saddle and led Del to the river’s edge. The other boys followed, watching their mounts drink while sprawling in the scant shade of a struggling tree. Danny stretched out on his back and stared up at the cloudless sky through the patchy, dry leaves. Surely, it had to rain eventually. He’d lived through dry spells before, but none so long and relentless as this one.

Danny realized he’d dozed off when Noah knelt and shook him.

“What?” Danny sat up, heart pounding as he searched for danger.

“I found something.” Noah tugged at Danny’s arm. “Come.”

Yawning and rubbing at his eyes, Danny climbed to his feet. A few yards away, Isaac lay snoring while the horses nosed through the dust in search of something, anything, to eat.

Noah dragged Danny along the riverbank, practically running in his excitement to show off his discovery.

“Look,” he cried as they came around a hairpin bend.

Danny looked. In the river, tied to a tree with a short, fraying rope, a canoe bobbed. Excitement bubbled into his chest. It wasn’t big, but certainly big enough for the three of them. And how much quicker could they make it to the city if they could travel on the water instead of whacking their way through the bush beside it?

Danny squeezed Noah’s shoulder. “This will save us days.”

Noah beamed with pride. “I just went for a walk. And there it was.”

“Let’s go fetch Isaac.” Danny turned and returned to where Isaac still slept.

“What about the horses?” Noah rubbed at first his own mare’s nose, then Isaac’s gelding.

“We can’t take them on the water. We’ll have to set them free. We’re not so far from a village that someone won’t find them and take them in.” Danny hoped he was right. After several years together, he and Del had a strong bond and leaving her behind felt almost as wrong as leaving one of his brothers. Or a limb.

But this was not the time for sentimentality. By now half the state’s police were probably after him. His best chance was to get to the city as quickly as possible. With so many new immigrants arriving on every ship, it would be easy for he and his brothers to disappear there, to start again, build a new life using the stolen money.

He winced at the thought.

He was not proud to have done it, but, as he rationalized with himself, he hadn’t actually done anything. It was Joseph who panicked and pushed the money on him. Sure, he could have refused to take it, but at the time, he hadn’t had the faculties to understand what was happening. And by the time he did, it was too late and he’d already been labeled a criminal.

“Isaac.” Danny shook off the guilt threatening to overwhelm him. “Isaac, wake up. It’s time to go.”

As if he hadn’t been snoring seconds before, Isaac rolled to his feet and moved away from his brothers.

“I found a boat,” Noah said proudly. “We’re going on the river.”

At the river bank, they stowed their belongings in the canoe, hoping it wouldn’t sink beneath the weight.

“Isaac, I want you at the front,” Danny directed. “Noah, in the middle.”

They clambered aboard, Danny taking the paddle and unknotting the rope as he stepped into the very back. He hadn’t even sat down before the river began carrying them away from the shore, slowly at first, but picking up speed as the canoe drifted toward the center of the river.

“Is it deep enough?” Isaac peered over the side.

Danny didn’t know. “I hope so.”

The others fell silent, only opening their mouths to alert Danny to rocks or other debris directly in their path.

After his initial anxiety, Danny found he enjoyed piloting the small boat. The water moved with enough speed he barely needed to row and used the paddle solely to navigate around rocks and submerged tree stumps, and to guide the small craft around bends. He even took time to enjoy the scenery as it eased by.

They stayed on the water until dusk made it impossible to see more than a few inches ahead. Danny guided the craft to the riverbank and they tied it to a tree, dragging out their belongings and making a rudimentary camp on the shore. There was nothing to eat except a few hunks of stale bread, which they washed down with water from their canteens.

“We leave at dawn,” Danny said as he stretched out on the smoothest patch of ground he could find. “We should reach Melbourne by tomorrow evening.”

*****

The next day’s travel was more difficult. The river was too shallow in places and the boys were forced to carry the canoe, wading until they reached a point where it grew deep enough again. Noah slipped on a moss-coated rock and turned his ankle. He didn’t complain though. Just pulled himself up and limped on, breeches dripping swampy water.

The noonday sun beat down on them, making them squint. The river widened, and a few scattered buildings appeared along the riverbank. The water was deeper here and hurried across the riverbed as if it had somewhere it needed to be.

“I think we’re close,” Danny said as the number of buildings intensified. On one side a waterwheel churned; on another a line of fishermen sat on a low wall, poles dipped toward the water. They waved as the boys cruised past.

Noah’s head turned this way and that. While Danny and Isaac had been into Ballarat with their father, the largest town Noah had seen was Paradise, and that was little more than an outpost. There were more buildings visible on the two slices of riverbank than he’d seen in his whole life.

They swept around a bend and suddenly the full extent of the city was revealed. Rows of buildings, some as many as five stories high. Churches with steeples pointing heavenward. Streets weaving between all of this like some elaborate web. And beyond all that, an endless stretch of blue.

“Is that the sea?” Noah started to stand, to see better, only for Danny to push him back down before he overturned the vessel.

“Aye. I think so.” Born and bred inland, Danny had never laid eyes on the ocean himself. He’d never imagined anything could be so large.

It grew larger as the river swept them toward it. The river widened again, became bumpy and choppy. Danny struggled to keep control. He wanted to get closer to one of the banks, but the river had other ideas and kept drawing the tiny craft toward the middle. They bounced around on what Danny could only call waves that swept toward them, jostling the canoe until it almost spun broadside at times.

“Hold on,” Danny shouted, his own fingers white-knuckled around the edge of the canoe.

They held on, shifting their weight from side to side as they tried to keep steady. Danny caught a glimpse of golden sand, then they were no longer floating between two reliable strips of land, but out in the ocean, nothing but water on every side, the shore becoming more and more distant with every passing second.

“We’re a long way out,” Noah squeaked, peering over his shoulder.

Danny’s heart pounded. He needed to guide the canoe out of the current that carried them further out to sea. He let go of the canoe’s side and gripped the paddle with both hands, digging the blade into the ocean. At first he though it was in vain, but little by little, the canoe turned, easing into calmer water and slowing it’s rush toward the horizon.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Danny turned the vessel, pointing it toward the thin line of yellow that marked the shore.

Everything was going swimmingly until they were so close they could hear the pounding of surf on the sand. As they moved into the area where waves formed, swelling until they crested and crashed down on the shore, the canoe foundered. Water slapped against the sides and spun it this way and that. Isaac was thrown from his seat and only managed to stay aboard by grasping the bow with both hands. He’d just managed to get back into position when another wave hit, this one catching the flimsy craft on its side and flipping it over into the roiling surf.

Danny opened his eyes underwater, ignoring the burn of salt water as he searched for his brothers. Were they still trapped in the capsized canoe? He looked up, seeing the shadow of the battered vessel floating like a shadow above him. Swimming out from under it, he kicked upward and broke the water, gasping for air.

Waves battered him as he struggled to stay on the surface, head turning this way and that. Finally he caught sight of Noah, just a few yards away, swimming toward the shore. Relieved, he began swimming in that direction himself. Isaac was the strongest swimmer of the three. He would no doubt be nearby too.

Battling the waves was exhausting and Danny breathed heavily as he dragged himself from the water and onto the warm, golden sand. He sank down beside Isaac who was sprawled on his back breathing heavily. A moment later, Noah joined them, staggering from the sea and falling to his knees.

“We made it,” Danny said when he’d gathered enough breath to speak. “We’re safe.”

“Perhaps.” Isaac pulled himself up into a sitting position. “Although without your stolen money, are we in any better position than we were before?”

The three boys stared out to sea, watching the powerful waves beat the canoe until it was little more than kindling.

Somewhere out there, beneath the blue, salty waves, three saddle bags settled on the seabed, their fortune tucked away in one of them.

2998 words

Desperado?  (13+) A desperate man makes a foolish mistake - the first of many #2340893 by Vampyr14

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