BUaDS – Chapter 9 – Getting unstuck only to get stuck again
Rosa Jardine huddled with her sleeping son Theo, wrapped together under the brown blanket and sitting on the ground, leaning against one of the tires of the stranded silver car. Theo’s dog, Arfie, sat on the dust road next to them, guarding them in the brightening desert. Rosa squinted at the reddening horizon, the rough blanket rubbing her tear stained cheeks. Her brown eyes looked tired and defeated, and her long black hair spilled out around her head, tangled and dull. As the dawn spread across the desert valley floor, she could see the dried stream bed that the Datsun 280Z was stuck in more clearly, and followed it with her stinging eyes along with the unpaved road to the low hills on the horizon.
Theo stirred under the blanket and resisted her tight hug, stretching out and yawning. Arfie glanced back at them, his blue eyes looking into Rosa’s, his white and grey furry back still turned to them. The Husky suddenly stood up and looked down the road, staring at the highway at the end of the dirt road. Rosa followed Arfie’s gaze and saw that a pair of headlights was coming down the empty highway about half a mile away. She let go of Theo and let the blanket drop from her shoulders. She stood up and went to the back of the car, to see how badly it was stuck after it had been backed into the stream bed from the attempted escape earlier.
“C’mon Theo, dear. We have to get out of here. A car’s coming, but I don’t think they’ll see us,” Rosa said, nodding her head to the boulder and bushes they had hid behind earlier, and walking towards the road.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for anyone to find us, Mom,” Theo called out to her. “I think we’re in big trouble.” He pulled out the map Leanna had given him, and looked at it in the brightening morning light. Rosa turned around and came back to the car, followed by Arfie. The car on the highway continued past their location and disappeared down the deserted highway. Rosa walked around to the back of the car, looking more closely at the rear wheels, jammed against the raised edge of the stream bed. Theo came to look too, and pointed to the map, saying, “I think if we follow this dirt road away from the highway towards those hills, we’ll find Kenji Nobu.”
“Hmmm. I think maybe if we drive the car backwards, we can then drive forward down to where it meets up with the road again,” Rosa mused. She got into the driver’s side of the car and turned the ignition, which still had the keys in it. The car started up and Theo let Arfie into the back seat before he sat in the passenger’s seat. “Fasten your seat belt! Let’s hope this works!” Rosa put the car in reverse and the rear tires spun a bit before digging into the stones and sand of the stream bed and pulling the front of the vehicle over the edge with a jolt. She put the car into first gear and pulled forward, the car jostling over the uneven ground. She drove carefully forward and soon found where the stream bed sloped gently upwards onto the dirt road. They were soon on the road again, and speeding away towards the hills.
“Yeah! You did it, Mom!” Theo whooped, smiling at his mother.
“We were lucky… so how much further do you think?” Rosa smiled back, sounding more hopeful.
“A few miles… just keep following this road,” Theo said looking back at the map.
They continued driving as the sun rose over the mountain range, bringing bright yellow light to the valley. Rosa pressed down on the accelerator, gripping the steering wheel and focussing ahead intently on the winding road, avoiding the large boulders and clumps of bushes. The low hills they were heading towards didn’t seem to get much bigger as they sped forward. Rosa eased off the accelerator as the edges of the road seemed to disappear into the rock strewn sand and slowed to a stop when the road disappeared altogether.
“Now what, dear?” Rosa asked Theo, “The road is gone…”
Theo frowned at the map in his hand and looked up at the wilderness in front of them. “I don’t know. I can’t tell exactly where we are any more.”
“Let’s stop and get our bearings. We need to take a break anyway,” Rosa sighed, dispirited. “Where’s that iced tea? Do we have any sandwiches left?”
While Theo looked around for the thermos and lunch bag, Arfie jumped out of the car to join Rosa, as she walked around to the front of the car. “It’s getting warm already,” she said, removing her yellow hoodie and stood under the blue sky in her white and blue shorts and her white t-shirt. She found an elastic in the pocket of her hoodie, and pulled her long black hair back to tie it back into a pony tail. She closed her eyes and let her face feel the warmth of the sun against it. The desert was silent, other than the whispering of a gentle breeze that cooled the bare skin of her legs and arms.
Artie was sniffing around some bushes, when he stopped and started growling and barking softly under his breath. Rosa opened here eyes and looked at the Husky, and soon heard the whining sound of dune buggies and the roaring of a pick-up truck. She twisted around, scanning the desert horizon to find the sources of the noise. She soon saw a cloud of dust approaching them from the low hills they were heading towards, along with three black dots weaving around the boulders and bushes in front of the dust cloud.
Rosa threw the yellow hoodie into the car, and commanded Theo, “Stay in the car and stay low! Find the blanket and hide under it until I say the coast is clear!” Theo did as he was told, and Rosa moved back to the front of the car to meet the vehicles bearing down on them. She grabbed Arfie’s blue and silver collar, and held tight onto the white Husky, holding him near. She could feel the heavy silver rose pendant jangling with his tags against her legs.
Rosa could soon make out the vehicles rushing towards them were two black dune buggies and an all-black pick-up truck. She stiffened when she saw that the pick-up truck was flying a large flag, revealing as it flapped around over it a large white star on red and blue stripes. “Proud Americans Brigade,” she murmured under her breath, “Our luck has just run out.”
*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***