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by Ron Elliott

  ‘No hospitals.’

  ‘He’s in a pretty bad way.’

  ‘You go to a hospital, you’ll end up back inside. Ned, you don’t want to go back to prison, do you?’

  ‘Okay,’ mumbled Ned.

  Ellis lifted the .22 and rested the barrel on the back of Simon’s seat so the tip nuzzled Simon’s left ear. ‘Head for the Gnangara pine plantation.’

  ‘You’re a taxi driver?’ gasped the girl.

  Ellis said, ‘Yep. Simon’s my taxi driver. Say “You got it”.’ Ellis tapped the back of Simon’s head gently with the end of the barrel.

  ‘You got it.’

  She started sobbing then, in tremulous big breaths that broke in her throat like burst bubbles of hope.

  Ellis smiled at the sound and moved forward a little in his seat to see her tears. They glistened every now and then in the passing streetlights. Ellis saw that she was more than good-looking. She was beautiful like all the unreal ones that you only ever see in films or Hustler. And here she was, and she was sobbing. He looked at her chest. Her breasts quivered below her blouse like whimpering puppies.

  Ellis kicked her leg. ‘Cheer up, girlie. At least he died like a man. More’n ol’ Simon here.’

  ‘No he didn’t. He just sat there.’

  ‘The fat guy! You were with the fat guy?’

  She stopped crying, went distant. ‘They both died because of me.’

  ‘No, they died because of me,’ said Ellis. ‘Me.’ When she didn’t look at him, he kicked her leg again and said, ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Grace.’

  ‘Like what you say when you’re about to eat at the convent, huh?’ Ellis actually licked his lips looking at her. He wanted to hear her sob again, to be touching her when she did it.

  Simon said, ‘How you doing, Ned?’

  Ned didn’t say anything.

  ‘He’s okay,’ said Ellis.

  ‘I can just pull off here by the river. Let me bandage him up.’

  Ellis yelled, ‘Ned, ya cockhead.’

  Ned said, ‘Ellis,’ like he was calling from under water.

  Ellis punched the back of Ned’s seat, but not very hard. ‘Okay. Pull over.’ He looked over at Grace, nodding at the idea of her too. Then he suddenly looked up to find Simon watching him with his two different eyes in the rear-view mirror. Ellis raised the rifle barrel into the mirror line, aiming at the grey one. ‘You going to mount a rescue are you, Simon?’

  ‘Just going to bandage up Ned.’

  Simon, the taxi driver, pulled off the highway. Ned was the big guy. Ellis was the psycho.

  Ellis said, ‘Ol’ Simon here likes to try to rescue folks. He don’t say much – just flashes his lights.’

  Grace remembered the taxi doing something with its headlights outside Lisa’s. It had made her move off the road and go slow.

  ‘Only he’s no good at it. Can’t rescue shit. Not the jockey. Not even himself. I think the only one who can rescue you is me.’ Ellis changed hands on the rifle and put his free right hand high on Grace’s left thigh.

  She made herself sit still.

  ‘I’ll just turn in here, Ellis.’

  Ellis gave her thigh a twist through her skirt, hurting.

  She bit the inside of her lip, determined not to cry out.

  Simon drove down a hard mud track to a cleared area near a jetty.

  Ellis took up one of the pistols and pointed it at her.

  The taxi pulled up on some grass and the engine went off.

  Ellis said, ‘I notice you still have your headlights on, Simon.’

  Simon turned them off. There were lights across the river. It looked like some kind of factory. A lone light on the end of the jetty had a halo like a Van Gogh painting. It put a wash of faint blue over the taxi.

  ‘I also noticed you keep interrupting me every time it starts getting interesting back here. Aren’t I paying you enough attention now we got the pretty girl?’

  Grace watched Simon sit, doing nothing in a way that was like he was pretending not to be there, but somehow not rude either, just waiting for Ellis.

  ‘I noticed you slipped out the door back at the motel too, Simon. And I noticed you yelled “Watch out” when we were going in.’

  ‘How do you know I wasn’t yelling “Watch out” to you and Ned?’

  It stopped Ellis a moment. He seemed to struggle with the idea before he said, ‘I know that’s not what.’

  Grace watched a little war go on inside Ellis. She wondered about it.

  Simon said, ‘I’m going to get out of the car, Ellis, and go around and open Ned’s door and bandage him up.’

  ‘Go right ahead, Simon. Me and her can get to know each other better.’

  ‘What about Ned?’

  ‘He can watch. He likes to watch.’

  ‘I meant I could use Grace’s help with Ned.’

  ‘Who gives a fucking shit what you want? Every bloody time I fucking start to think, you’re in the fucking way, pushing into my head. Shut the fuck up, Simon, you hear me?’

  Ellis looked at Simon, half turned but with his head down, waiting. Ellis had screamed it, he knew. He looked at the girl and caught a trace of fear before she tried to hide it. Ellis wanted to bite her. He wanted to bite out a big hunk of her flesh and swallow it.

  Simon was still waiting. She had her head down waiting too. Ned was just sitting there. It was all on Ellis to keep it together and get it going again.

  He felt the guns. He felt the pistol’s weight and aimed it at her cheek. He tapped the barrel of the rifle on Simon’s shoulder. He got up a smile bouncing a little to some music – Metallica. He sniffed the cold river air and thought there was some perfume on her. He changed the music in his head; switched it down, kicked it back – The Black Keys. They sat waiting and quiet until Ellis got it back together.

  ‘Simon, stay where you are. Good dog, stay. I’ve got you covered. Got everything covered.’

  Ellis opened his door and backed out a couple of paces with the rifle pointed at them. ‘You, girl. Slide out this way.’

  She slid across the back seat feet first while Ellis watched her legs slithering and squirming around in her skirt as she came towards him. When she tried to stand, Ellis grabbed her shoulder and pushed her face down on the grass. He put his foot on her back with the pistol in his left hand aimed down at her while he kept the rifle aimed at Simon. ‘Okay Simon, come on down.’

  Simon rolled his neck a little, loosening the tightness as he went around the car to Ned’s door and opened it. Ned fell sideways before Simon got him by the shoulder. One of Ned’s thongs was floating in the blood in the foot-well. ‘Cold,’ said Ned.

  Simon said, ‘I need someone to hold him up.’

  Ellis took his foot off Grace.

  She scrambled up and went to Ned, holding him by the shoulder while Simon took off his shirt and wrapped it around Ned’s chest.

  Simon whispered, ‘If you get the chance, run and don’t stop.’

  Grace said, ‘You too.’

  Simon said, ‘What?’

  Grace looked at him. ‘You’ve got David Bowie’s eyes.’

  ‘No talking,’ said Ellis. He grabbed Grace with his pistol hand and pushed her back against the car, forcing the back passenger door shut with her weight. He tried to grab at her blouse, but didn’t have enough empty hands. He tossed the rifle and used his right hand to rip her blouse away.

  Simon stood and Ellis pointed the pistol at him then held out her torn blouse until he took it. Grace tried to cover herself while she glared defiantly at Ellis.

  ‘You’re so great. See with Simon, it’s all way back hidden, so you never know what the fuck he’s thinking. That’s his edge. But you ... everything you think just lights up like some big TV screen at the cricket.’ Ellis grabbed Grace’s arm and turned her to him. ‘A red bra. You got a lacy red bra on.’

  Grace stood tall, pushing her chest out, still glaring, building to something irretrievable perhaps.
r />   Simon said, ‘Ned needs a hospital.’

  Ellis called, ‘Ned, ya dumb sack of shit. Ned.’

  Grace said, ‘He’s dying, you moron. It’s what bullets do.’

  Ellis stood stunned, blinking at the ground between him and Grace.

  He heard Simon say, ‘She didn’t mean it. She’s upset.’

  Ellis jammed the pistol into her cheek and leaned into her anger. Her eyes opened in pain then panic and fear. A surge went through Ellis. He grabbed her shoulders and spun her onto the boot of the taxi and felt for the hem of her skirt to lift it so he could get at her panties and rip them away. He heard a noise.

  Simon was behind him.

  Ellis turned to see Simon bending towards the rifle. He raised his pistol but got pushed from behind as he pulled the trigger, sending the shot somewhere towards the river. Ellis elbowed back, catching her in the guts and dropping her. He stepped back along the car away from her and brought the pistol up to fire at Simon, but Simon was standing with his arms folded like he was waiting for a bus. Ellis relaxed then turned and pointed the pistol at Grace on the ground.

  ‘No,’ yelled Simon as he pushed himself between them.

  Ellis pushed the gun at Simon’s chest. The girl yelled, ‘No!’

  Then Ellis saw it, in Simon’s face. Fear. Finally. There it was for Ellis to see –into Simon’s mind.

  Sirens started somewhere. Lights were flashing white somewhere.

  ‘Beg,’ said Ellis, ‘beg for her life.’

  Simon said, ‘Ellis, please don’t kill her.’ He got down on his knees and looked up at Ellis and said, ‘Please, Ellis. I know you have the power to let her live. Don’t do it. Ellis, don’t do it. Please.’

  It was like a perfect echo of the past. Word perfect. Ellis felt a rush and some kind of thing tumbling down around the rush, like fire and vomit coming over a waterfall together. That would have been the time to shoot the girl; shoot her but keep looking into Simon’s eyes – but lights swept them brightly and Ellis recognised the siren sound. He’d heard those sirens during lockdowns. He said, ‘Simon, go and get the rifle for me.’

  Simon went to where the rifle was lying. He said, ‘I don’t know how to use this, so...’

  Ellis knew he was saying it to her. He stepped to the girl and grabbed her hair and dragged her up to standing with the pistol barrel stabbing her cheek again. Her breasts shook like jelly over the red bra.

  Simon picked up the rifle by its barrel and held it out towards Ellis.

  ‘Smart robot. Toss the rifle in the back, Simon. Simon says.’ Ellis patted her cheek. ‘My remote control.’

  Simon pulled open the door and placed it on the back seat.

  Ellis said, ‘Get Ned’s door closed and drive us out of here.’ Ellis finally looked across the river to where searchlights were dancing and sirens were blaring and shadows were moving frantically from when they’d heard the gunshot. Simon had parked them across the river from the women’s prison. Ellis laughed like a backward burp strangled halfway out.

  The Petrified Forest

  Simon drove up onto the road and headed back towards the highway and the grey light of imminent dawn.

  Ellis said, ‘The pine plantation. If you say “You got it”, I’ll dig out one of your eyes with Ned’s knife.’

  The taxi meter showed one thousand and thirty-seven dollars.

  It was cold in the taxi, shirtless with no back window.

  Simon moved his rear-view mirror so he could see her.

  She saw the movement and looked back at him. He nodded to her and she sent out the thought to him that she was ready.

  Simon said, ‘Ellis, Ned is dead.’

  Ellis was quiet. He finally said, ‘Yeah, well we can find a good spot for him in Gnangara. We can bury him like a real citizen.’ He looked over to Grace and added, ‘Then you two and I can play some games in Ned’s honour, now I got you both a little bit trained. Don’t think I don’t know that you two owe me for the shit you tried to pull back there.’

  Simon said, ‘Grace means elegance and beauty.’

  ‘Who gives a fuck?’

  ‘It can also mean the free and unmerited gift of love from God. A divine piece of forgiveness.’

  Grace looked at Simon in the mirror, trying to figure out what he was doing. There was something about him having two different-coloured eyes that was distracting about his meanings.

  ‘Mensa shit. I’m not forgiving anyone,’ said Ellis.

  ‘Maybe she’s here for you and me, Ellis.’

  Grace saw Ellis flickering a moment, his brain computer glitching before getting back on the program.

  ‘She’s here for me,’ said Ellis.

  ‘No, I think you’re here for me, Ellis,’ said Simon.

  Grace found herself able to watch them and watch herself at the same time without the fear, like Simon clearing some space somehow. He was working it, but it was like a different language.

  ‘What?’ asked Ellis.

  ‘I did kill a man. A stranger.’

  ‘See. I knew you knew.’

  ‘He went to sleep on the road. I came round a bend and I ran over him and did squash him flat like a bug.’

  Grace tried not to think of the story, which might be true or might not, but to think about what Simon was trying to do.

  ‘That’s it? That’s not killing.’

  ‘I skidded and ran into a tree afterwards. Smashed up the taxi. That’s why I got the new one, Ellis.’

  ‘An accident, that’s all?’

  ‘Yes. I don’t think there was anything I could have done, except maybe not be on the earth so I wasn’t there at the time to do it. Not my fault, said the judge. And my wife. But then she changed her mind I guess. Anyway she left.’

  ‘Why you suddenly talking so much?’

  ‘Only he wasn’t a bug. He was a cabinet maker. Wife and three kids. The youngest is four. A Jack Russell named Scruff.’

  ‘Time to shut up, Simon.’

  ‘Thing was, Grace, I just wished I could have jumped out of the taxi, before that bend coming up, before it all happened.’

  ‘What?’ said Ellis.

  ‘No,’ said Grace.

  Ellis had let the pistol rest loose on his lap. He swung the rifle round to Grace, pushing the barrel at her bra. ‘Put your seatbelt on. No one’s jumping. Just me. Jumping on you pretty soon.’

  Grace put her seatbelt on.

  Ellis swung the rifle back to Simon’s head. Simon already had his seatbelt on. Always.

  ‘Simon, you’re a prick. Now you’re trying to fucking hypnotise me or some shit.’

  Grace said, ‘If you crashed now, I guess we’d all die together.’

  Simon flicked his eyes to Grace’s in the mirror to see whether they were on the same page. She smiled. It was an encouraging smile, but perhaps too serene like Grace Kelly in Rear Window, only this Grace winked.

  Simon reached up and turned the rear-view mirror so he could see Ellis. He looked back, smiling like Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear. ‘Yeah, you watch me, Simon. You better be watching me.’

  The taxi drove past the villas it had driven into only twenty-eight hours before. The tops of pine trees could be seen beyond. The sky was lightening still.

  ‘Nearly there,’ said Simon.

  A truck passed going the other way.

  Grace said, ‘Are you gay, Simon?’

  ‘Huh,’ said Simon looking to find Grace’s face but not.

  ‘The way you keep helping Ellis, like you like it.’

  Ellis wasn’t looking over to her. He was watching Simon.

  ‘It’s like you just keep waiting for Ellis to tell you what to do, like you’re his wife.’

  Simon drove.

  Ellis was holding his breath, his mouth starting to twist slowly, like he was sounding out some difficult word.

  ‘I saw the way you bandaged Ned. How you were trying to look after him. You are very tender, Simon.’

  ‘Ned,’ said Ellis.

 
‘Ned’s dead,’ said Grace.

  Ellis looked towards Ned, his head shuddering on the window.

  Simon nodded once.

  The Gnangara pine plantation was on their right, the tops of the pine trees catching the first rays of the new sun.

  ‘Poor Ned,’ said Simon. ‘I couldn’t save his life. I saved yours, Ellis.’

  ‘I saved yours.’

  Grace said, ‘You never answered me, Simon. Are you a poof?’

  ‘Maybe you’re right. Denial. Maybe that’s why I haven’t found love yet. I’m ready. I want it, but I don’t know the way.’

  Grace looked out at the pine trees as they came over a rise. She looked at the pistol just resting on Ellis’s lap and the rifle pointed at Simon before she went on. ‘It’s just that Ellis keeps telling me how he’s going to hurt me and fuck me. Only I don’t think he knows how to fuck a woman.’

  Ellis was having trouble following. They were jumping around on too many important points.

  A limestone road at the bottom of the hill went off to the right and into the heart of the pine forest.

  Grace felt the taxi slow a little, and hoped Simon was in on her plan, because if he wasn’t she would die. ‘Simon, he’s been keeping you around. Hanging on every word. Watching, listening. I’m the one in the way. I think he wants to fuck you. Ellis wants you so bad Simon, I’m amazed he hasn’t bought you flowers, and dropped down on his knees so he can put you in his mouth and love you till–’

  ‘Aggggggh,’ growled Ellis as he swung the rifle towards Grace.

  Simon braked hard, sending Ellis forward. The rifle went off, putting a hole in the roof and filling the car with noise.

  The taxi veered right across some dirt towards the limestone track. It clipped a tree stump, went up on two wheels, sending Ellis crashing into the rear passenger window. The taxi held there a moment, up on two wheels, driving along the pine plantation road, with Ned and Ellis down against their windows and Grace and Simon hanging against their seatbelts.

  The taxi tipped all the way over onto its roof, squashing the plastic taxi sign. Windows exploded. Ellis screamed.

  The taxi slid along the road of the pine plantation in a constant scrape of crumpling, tearing metal roof. Simon sat, upside down, grimly holding the useless steering wheel.