Writer's Block: (Or Antigonish for Travellers)

My ragged face stared back at me from the shop window. My hands were in my pockets to protect me from the cold night air. Why did I come out here? I’d gone for a walk, unable to sleep. A scream had shocked the silence out of the night air. I’d run this way to find its source, but found nothing. Staring at my reflection again, I thought I saw someone else in the window. Eyes playing tricks now, get some rest, man.

The lifeless body of the child before me sent a chill down my spine. The screams of last night echoed in my mind.

“Did you hear or see anything last night?” Asked the town deputy to the businessman standing next to me.

Those screams were real, so maybe what I thought was just a bad dream was real too. I looked at the boy, now as still as the granite statue dedicating the town’s founder. I remembered my own family, I hadn’t seen them in a long time, perhaps too long. How long was it? How long had I been out here, wandering the wilderness of this country trying to find inspiration for my novel?

I walked back to my hire-car, a shining work of art, red convertible Cadillac, in my opinion, the only way to travel the open road. My attention was drawn at once to a man talking to himself and generally sending people to the other side of the footpath. A strange look haunted his bagged eyes as we made brief eye contact, the long unkempt hair suited the clothing ensemble he chose; Floral Acapulco shirt, khaki shorts and what appeared to be footwear he’d cut into makeshift sandals. Do I know him?

From the static gazes of onlookers, he had been in town a little too long. He looked jittery as he moved towards me, nervous, like he was hiding something.

“Hey partner,” the stranger slurred, “can you give me a ride man?”

“Uh, sorry there… friend. I’m heading to the airport.” I lied, “yeah, so I’m heading…” North, from the South no that’s right, the map was upside-down, “South.”

After all the excuses I’d manufactured over the years, that was the best I could manage right now. He leered at me with crooked teeth; threw his tattered old suitcase into the Caddy and started walking towards the service station.

“I’ve got to get some cheese slices and go to the bathroom, shouldn’t be too long.”

What? I was left in awe of this wild man, unable to do anything but wait in the car, avoiding the looks from locals and the law enforcement as they continued their investigation. It was a full hour before he came back to the car and we were able to leave. He didn’t buy anything.

A day later, all fears about my new travelling companion were washed away as we laughed together at jokes that no one else would ever understand. He told me about his countrywide journey to find the perfect poached egg, I told him about my writer’s block, how this trip of mine was a quest for inspiration. I think I had found just that in this man, I could smell a story. Just let me get him drinking, the book will write itself.

“Do you think we’ll have to stay at this place overnight?” He asked, pointing at a sign indicating how far it was till the next town.

“I don’t know, man. Depends on the time, and if we need to sleep… What day is it?”

“I think it’s Thursday?” He mumbled, then promptly fell asleep after taking his medication. He never said what it was for, but he became a lot calmer and easier to deal with when he had taken it.

Fine for you, I reached for my coffee, now cold in its cardboard housing. When did I take the lid off? I took a gulp of the processed beverage; it tasted strange; there was something odd and unnatural about it. How many sugars do I take? Was this taste sugar? Things started to go hazy again; like they did the night I heard the dying screams of a young boy. Then everything began to go dark.

I don’t know how long I was asleep for, but when I awoke my companion was behind the wheel, blasting Hammond Organ music through the radio and singing some shanty he’d clearly invented.

We finally arrived at some small backwater town some hundred kilometres before the border. The main drag of shops was something to behold, what the whole world would look like if the Dutch had any real sway. There were a few small businesses, a local public house and a town hall. My companion rambled something about wanting his hair trimmed.

“I’ve got to have it just right, if I don’t… he’ll get me!”

With that he was away, crashing and screaming into the barbershop, knocking the spinning candy-cane sign to the ground. I ventured forth in search of a restroom; I found a small brick construction hidden away behind the pub. The musty smell and ghosts of dastardly deeds that had taken place here were overpowering. Looking from the relatively safe cubicle to the open trough, my eyes were shocked wide.

Is that “a shoe?” It was. A sneaker, sitting in the trough like a neon warning sign. Strange things must happen here.

I saw my reflection in the bathroom mirror as I rinsed my face, for a second I thought I saw someone else in the room. I spun around to face them, when I did there was no one there. The decision to flee came suddenly.

I found my companion looking through the window of a small family home; inside was a family sitting down to a roast dinner.

“Must be Sunday,” he said as he turned towards me, tears in his eyes. His eyes look… new.

“Come on sonny boy, we’ve got to get your medicine. You should have taken it already.

“Medicine?” He asked, seemingly unaware of what I was talking about.

I was able to entice him back to the car with some jelly babies I found in my jacket pocket. I also found a small paring knife coated in dried blood. Is this mine? I finally got him to the car, where he seemed to remember who I was and what we were doing. We need to get out of here now.

We travelled all night not daring to stop, panic taking over us as we drank gazpacho soup straight from polystyrene cups. There it is again, that same odd taste my coffee had had the day before. I looked at the dashboard clock, 6 a.m… where did the time go? I turned towards my companion… Is he stealing time? He looked directly at me; a wicked grin spanned his face.

“Man, if you accuse me of that, I’ll tear your spine out,” he said as he took the next dose of his strange medicine.

No point getting on bad terms now, I thought.

When I thought we were far enough away from town I slowed down to a more human speed and turned the radio on, it crackled to life.

“…and the search is on for the suspect, who was last seen leaving the service station near the crime scene in a red convert-“

Grinning at me while turning off the radio, my companion offered me some of his medicine. That smells familiar.

“No thanks, I need to be driving. Pass me one of those colas.”

He reached over the back seat and opened the bottle for me; I grabbed it from him and drank half the bottle in one go. That taste again? Is there something wrong with me? It was that same taste, yet somehow it was different… stronger. Things began to go blurry again, yet somehow stayed in focus. I felt like my brain was boiling, yet at the same time frozen.

We cruised past the border, heading south. So close now, escape was near. I could taste its sweet embrace-

BLAM!

An explosion rocked my ears, there was a white haze forming around the car immediately. I could barely see through the smoke. It’s over-

“Holy hell! I’ve been shot!” Cried my companion. They found us…

“Calm down man, I’m sure it’s not fatal-” Hang on… that wasn’t a gunshot.

The caddy’s engine had blown. All in one terrible moment it went from being a sleek beautiful machine of crafted engineering to a steamy hunk of metal and sadness cluttering the landscape.

I didn’t even recognise the landscape, mounds of rocks all around. They seemed to have familiar faces, the child’s face!

It was a long hot wait on that scorching desolate road. Waiting… I hate waiting...

Somehow my travelling partner had disturbed a snake’s nest and a whole gang of the slippery mongrels came for us. I looked in the back seat of the broken down caddy for something to defend myself with.

There! I ripped the antennae off the front of the caddy and used it as a makeshift sword, breaking the end off to make it sharper.

“’Come on, you devils!” I cried, “You’ll never take us alive!”

I impaled one of the snakes and flung it into the backseat of the caddy. The rest were taken care of in time, we had a good little collection. At least we don’t have to find any food.

“But we will need to find a boot maker.”

So there we were, stranded in some god-forsaken stretch of land. I don’t understand this country sometimes, there’s so much empty space, places that seem purpose built for breaking down and dying alone.

We spent the night cold and miserable in the middle of nowhere. Dawn’s first light brought with it, rescue… salvation, shimmering with beauty as it sailed down the long road towards us. I could sense my companion would not be at ease for much longer out here.

“What’s this?” He bellowed from inside a shrub.

I was unsure if what we saw was real or another vision brought about by the heat of the sun. What in Noah’s name? They came to a stop next to the caddy, two cyclists riding tandems. Not the best of transport. But who were we to argue? We bartered passage with the snake skins, and they took us to the local hotel; where the special was whole lobster. It didn’t feel right. There wasn’t water for miles. But who was I to contest their knowledge? After all, they weren’t the ones stuck on the side of a highway.

The hotel lobster tasted strange to me, however my companion devoured three of the clawed creatures, eyes and all. As I laid into bed, a fever started working its way from my neck to my knees. This is not going to be a restful night.

I awoke the next morning to discover the hotel room we booked was completely destroyed. The window was broken in multiple places, glass scattered across the ground. I maneuvered my way towards the bathroom, receiving a hint at the terror that we had inflicted on this small town. The flat tyre lying in the bathtub I could comprehend, but the burgers strewn about the place and vanilla milkshake filling the toilet bowl was something I would never understand.

There was a sudden crash through the front door. “Quick, get down!” I cried, “They’ve spotted us!”

It was my travelling partner; he really was a strange man, the type that most would steer clear of, and I felt like maybe it was time to part ways with him myself. Yet there he was wearing nothing but a hula skirt and holding an artist’s easel, scorched at the edges.

“I found this in the park,” he murmured through tired lips.

“We’ve got to go!” I screamed, “Or we’ll be lynched for sure this time!”

I quickly packed my few belongings that weren’t covered in some sort of fast food and ran out to the car park. I found a car that had been left unlocked and hot-wired it; he locked the hotel door behind him and jumped in the family sedan. Will definitely have to find a better ride soon.

It tore away like a wild beast, dust spouting into the air behind us, disguising our getaway. A CD of kids movie themes started playing through the car’s stereo, I couldn’t cope with it. Every time I heard or saw anything to do with children lately, all I could think about was that small boy, when I first met my companion. The boy! He was screaming...

Just before we zoomed past the town limit in our newly acquired transport, I saw a sign advertising peas at the local store.

FARM FRESH PEAS - 1 KG FROZEN BAG - $4.99 $2.99!!

Good deal, I thought as I threw the hotel key out of the car. Onward we went… towards freedom, obscurity. Towards whatever town we would unleash our hellish fury upon next on our quest to escape our past.

“Hey did you forget our dog?” He asked me, fear in his voice.

“Dog? We don’t have a dog, man.”

Then I saw it, through the rear-view mirror. Tied to the back of the car… a dog’s lead, connected to a collar. But nothing connected to the collar. Not anymore. That’ll be hard to clean.

“It’s okay, we’ll just say some wild dingo-“ Uh? Where did he find a poncho?

After a full nine hours of driving later it finally dawned on me. What this hitchhiker was and what he did. I knew it wouldn’t be long now before the police found us, even if we made it to the airport. There was no way I could prove I was innocent, because even I wasn’t sure anymore.

“Hey man, you want a drink or something?” I asked the hitcher as we approached a rest stop.

“I know what you’re doing.” He hissed at me.

“Just relax man, take your medicine,” I said, pointing at his supply, “I’ll be right back once I get some tea.”

I made sure he had begun to take the medicine before I went to the rest centre and ordered my tea. I noticed a collection for a local child in the hospital. I emptied all the cash into it. I don’t need it anyway.

“Thank you so much,” said the woman behind the counter.

I reached the car, took a deep breath and sat back in the driver’s seat. I sipped my tea as I looked at this intruder who had ruined my life. Then I watched as his eyes started to slowly close, I felt my own eyes getting heavy.

I looked at my hands; in the right was my still steaming tea. In my left hand was the medicine bottle, the corner of the label peeled away to reveal different writing- POISON: Do not ingest. I turned to see an empty seat. Smiling as my eyes closed for the last time.

No more writer’s block...

It all came flooding back in my mind, so clear now. I was out walking through town; I heard the scream and ran towards it, arriving as the hitchhiker cut the boy’s neck. As I ran to get help, I passed a shop front, catching my reflection in the glass. The only person I could see was the hitchhiker. The reflection’s hand moved in unison with my own. Still clenching the bloodied-knife.