Get me out of here, and into nature.

Heart's pumping, arms and legs are shaking, I slam my front door open then lean up against it as I close it, hands grabbing the hair on the top of my head, eyes and mouth wide open then I say "What the hell just happened!" I repeat it over and over again while I pace around my house, as I started to calm down I sat on the couch and tried to figure out how to handle this.

What just happened was, my girlfriend Kiari and I was in some argument over something trivial in the car, then my phone went off, I checked it to see I got a text from someone, Kiari got paranoid and thought it was from another girl and she tried to snatch the phone out of my hand, which created a tug-of-war, I pulled it too hard with my left hand which then made my right hand move the driving wheel and we went off the road and into a tree, Kiari wasn't wearing a seatbelt and went through the windscreen and was killed instantly, when I realised she was dead I got so scared and ran home.

I'm shocked, sad, terrified, worried and dreamy. I'm confused of what to do, if I hand myself into the cops, I'm locked up for life, or I could see how far I could out run the law, I think I'll go with the second idea.

Packing my things I would need, "Crap I just crashed my car, no wait I have a scooter." A scooter I can't take much, so just my backpack to take one warm and one cold outfit, a water bottle and few bits of food like fruit, bread and peanut butter, and off I go.

I had a good feeling to head north, about 15 mins up, I see a woman with blonde hair wearing a red summer dress on the side of the road with a popped tire, so I pulled over to help her.

"Hi, do you need some help?" I asked,

"Oh yes please, you look like a strong man, I'm too weak to loosen the bolts."

"Well sometimes you just got to stomp it down as the legs are much stronger than the arms."

"Good tip."

After I changed her tires she said to me "I'm am so grateful for your help, is there anything I could do to repay you?"

"That depends on what you have to offer."

"Are you apart of the law enforcement or are you a narc at all?"

"No, no way, in fact I'm on the run, if you've noticed I've been trying to look away from the road incase anyone notices me. Oh crap, I probably shouldn't have told you that, I'm just still freaking out a bit"

"No, thats perfect, I know the best way to repay you. I'm a hacker, I can add more numbers to your bank account and make you a fake ID."

"What! No way, that's amazing, could you please do that for me?"

"Yeah of course, follow me to my workplace."

When we got to her office, she made me face away from the computer so I wouldn't know how she does it, which is fair enough.

"How much money would you like?" she asked me,

"Is $20,000 too much?" I asked nervously.

"Nah that sounds perfect. What do you want your new name to be? It works best if it's a common name."

"James Jackson."

"Perfect. Now go stand in front of the wall over there where it's all white and face me, don't smile. Ready, set, snap!" She took a photo of me. "We should probably change the registered name on your scooter too, maybe get you a new phone number too."

About an hour later it was all done, I had a new ID/licence, phone number, $20,000 extra in my bank, and my scooter and old life was cleared from my old name, "Say hello to the new me, and you can call me JJ."

"It was great working with you JJ, thank you for your help."

"Yeah I'm lucky to have met you at the right time, and thank you for changing my life, also I didn't catch your name?"

"Josie. Good luck and stay low."

"I will, cya." I gave her a hug and drove off.

I continued to go up north and drove as far as I could before getting tired, along the way I decided to take the tourist routes to avoid the highways and see new beautiful places, driving through roads with so much nature, driving next to the beach, then through rainforests on windy roads, then suddenly went through paddocks on the country side. The sun's gone down and I'm getting hungry, kept driving until I found a pizza place, when I left the pizza place, I asked a staff member where a hotel was and they said there was one down the road, so I went to it.

While I was in the room of the hotel, I looked up on my phone where I could go, honestly I miss living in the bush as I was once homeless in a tent, so I aimed for a place or space away from civilisation, in nature. I found a few spots I could check out tomorrow, but for now I need sleep.

The next day, I went out to go check a few spots in nature, one was about a 20 minute drive to north-east, it was on quiet road near river, but where I thought I could go turned out to be on someone's property so that was a no go. The next place, was a 10 minute drive out west, there was a paddock I drove down in my scooter, I could see a house on the far right that's on the property, a little further straight was a creek, I kept driving to the creek and just hung out there for a bit, I saw a rundown caravan on the other side of the creek, I thought to myself "maybe I could clean it up and live there?" I was just sitting on a boulder rock that's in the creek in peace with my feet in the water and suddenly I hear someone close say,

"Hello?"

"WOAH!" I said shockingly as I turned around to see an older man standing near the creek "Hi."

"Sorry, I was just wandering what you were doing on my land?"

"Sorry, ahhh long story short, I need to find a place to live and was hoping to find something in nature and I looked on the maps to find this beautiful spot, but I didn't see your house till I got to the creek here, and I saw the caravan over there, was wondering if maybe I could clean it up and live in it off the grid, if that's okay with you?" I could see that he was thinking about it, looking at his facial reactions it could go either way.

"Ok, but on one condition."

"Anything."

"Would you mind helping me with a few things around the land, there's a lot I can't do anymore as I age."

"Yeah of course!"

"Well, off you go, go get settled in, I'll let you setup and clean the caravan first, then you can start helping me after you're done."

"Thank you, hey I was wondering if I could have a dog here too? Feeling like I need that companionship again."

"Yeah sure, just make sure he's not a loud dog."

"Will do, thank you."

When I got to the caravan, there was luckily no overgrown grass, it was just a little muddy and rocky on the ground, there was a fireplace with a few old chairs, when I went inside, it was just dusty, and there was a bit of mould everywhere including the mattress that was in it. I googled where an op shop was to get cheap sheets and cleaning gear, a shopping centre for food, and the pound. I got out my little black notebook to write a list of what I need.

I first went to the op shop, it was closed so I went to the dumpsters out back and it had all the bedding and cleaning gear I needed. Next I went to the shopping centre for food, bought a bunch of tin food, bread, and other little things I needed. I stopped by the bank to get as much cash out as I could for the "off the grid" life, no connections to the government, just cash, I managed to get all of the $20,000 out by the end of the week. Took all the stuff back to the caravan to clean and set up nicely.

Day 2, I went to the pound and got a 4 year old Border Collie called Bronze, we connected straight away, he was gentle, intelligent, and because I was driving around on a scooter, I had to drive back slowly and have him run next to me while I held him by the leash.

When I got back, my second mission was to build a drop toilet, I built one about 50m away from the caravan to avoid the smell, right under a jasmine tree to help keep it smelling nice. Third mission was to build a little bridge so I didn't have to keep walking through the creek water, I built it out of a bunch of bamboo sticks as there was a cluster about 100m away from the caravan.

Day 3, time to start helping the old man. I go over to his house and knock on the door, an old lady answers the door and says,

"You must be the man who moved into the caravan, hi I'm Caroline." She said politely,

"Nice to meet you Caroline, you can call me JJ, and this is Bronze. Where's your husband, he said I should help him once I was done settling in."

"I'll just go get him, honey! That man from the caravan is here." She says as she's walking to her husband in the other room,

"Ok dear, thank you." I can see him walking closer to the front door. "Hey mate, how's moving in going?"

"Great, I think I've finished everything I need to do, would you like me to help you with anything today?"

"Oh yeah, do you know how to fix a lawn mower?"

"Not really but I could try."

"Ok great, the lawn mower is in the shed and there's over hundred tools in there too, if you figure out how to fix it, could you please mow the yard?"

"Yeah ok."

"Thank you. If you need anything, feel free to ask me."

"Will do."

After about an hour of trying to fix the lawn mower, I finally fixed it, luckily it's one you can sit in, right before I get on, Caroline comes outside to hand me a beer.

"This is for fixing the mower."

"Thank you."

While I'm mowing Bronze keeps running around the lawn mower like as if he's trying to round up cows. I think to myself, "This is it. This is my new life, helping old people, living off the grid in a caravan with my dog, in peaceful nature. Yep, this is the life."

Now that it's so peaceful, I can't stop thinking of Kiari, the only reason I would want to go back is so I can pay my respects, but I don't need to go there for that, I can do it here in my heart, thank her for the love and memories, forgive myself for her death, every night from now on, I will light a candle for her, my love, you may be gone, but not from my heart. I yell "I love you Kiari" with a tear running down my face.